from paraskavedekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia. Back in April when the 13th of the month was also a Friday, I told my colleagues that the first 30 days of April repeat again in July [i.e. if 10 April falls on a Tuesday, 10 July will also be a Tuesday]. Everyone immediately reached out for his/her calendars to check [like I was pulling their leg?!] and looked back at me like I just told them when the end of the world would be. Really, there’s nothing weird about that at all and I know this trivial fact because Mummy’s birthday is on 10 April and Akak’s on 10 July and their birthdays always fall on the same day. Just a bit of observation on my part, that’s all.~~~~~~~~
Just found out that there are quite a few bloggers who also celebrate their birthdays in July. Cool! For some reason, among my close university friends, my birthday is always the last to be celebrated, despite me being born in July... because the others celebrate theirs in January through to June. And as we normally went back or had other plans for summer hols, by the time July (and my birthday) arrived, we had parted ways temporarily and we only celebrated my birthday when we met again in autumn.
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Also just discovered - I have always suspected it but now it’s confirmed - that my next-door neighbour is a Nosy Parker Peeping Tom. I’m surprised to discover such species still exist in KL and in that neighbourhood too. Before I moved in, I bumped into her and she was practically discouraging me from moving in with her horror stories of how often the water supply got cut and of how bad, irresponsible and noisy the other neighbours were. She made some feeble attempts at communicating since I moved in but generally has gone out of her way to avoid me. Once I saw her crouching so that I wouldn’t see her enter her compound - when I had already seen her. The last time we had a conversation was last August and for a while I thought how great it was to have someone who isn’t a nosy parker as a neighbour. Until I found out she actually is one.
I have a feeling that she is still somehow angry at me for erecting the wall between our porches. Like I asked her to pay for it; in fact she now benefits by not having to build that wall without spending a single cent [heck, when the other neighbour built the wall between our lawns, I was happy, not annoyed]. Besides, it’s not as if the wall is anything like the Berlin Wall! And if she views it as such, well, my side of the wall is most definitely West Germany/Berlin and hers is East Germany/Berlin.
At Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, May Day 2007. The gate belonged to East Germany when the Berlin Wall was built and now symbolises freedom and the unity of Berlin when the Wall fell in 1989.
Anyway, before I built die mauer, she used to hang all sorts of things on the barely standing fence – from car mats to door mats to rags etc. She still does that annoying thing albeit it has lessened a bit. I don’t think it’s proper especially since her house is a corner unit. My intermediate micasa is sandwiched in between houses and yet I don’t hang anything on either side of the porch wall.
And she had the gall to ask my dad to convey to me - when he came earlier in the week – to leave the back lights on. And she complained about her scratched car [like I did that? I have better things to do!] and God knows what else.
I wish sometimes I can just go and shake her by the shoulders. Seriously. There have been times when I imagine her as a witch – but that would mean she has powers to cast evil spell on me and yes, I’m evil too for having this thought – hence it’s kind of fitting to include her under this posting title.
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