Divali and Neighbours

I live in a surburb where the community is large and our houses are "within hearing distance from each other. "Within hearing distance" would be the most accurate way of imagining how close our homes are. If I am in my garden, I actually can smell what the neighours are having for dinner and I am not lying. Once we got the lovely smell of bacon and MartianGirl argues with me, "why can't I have bacon for dinner instead of rice, meat and vegatables which is sooo boring." And if we are truely sticky noses (which we are not), we can actually see what they are eating by peeping over the fence. So it is with much gratitude that I have lovely neighbours on both left and right sides or life would be really misearble.

GismoMan celebrates Deepavali, a festival of lights to remember the victory of good over evil. The festival usually falls in October or November every year. For Divali which we celebrated just 3 weeks ago, my neighbour Jeanny baked us a lovely orange butter cake with lovely peacock icing. The tail of the bird was made to look like a "rangoli," an Indian art made of coloured rice grains or powder drawn at the entrances of homes. She used coloured sugar to make the "rangoli." She even delivered the cake in a beautiful box.

I sent over some Indian sweets and cookies. The kids receive a little money in coloured packets and MartianGirl collected RM 80 this year. She deposited half of the money into her savings account and she will buy some clothes with the remainder.

BASKET OF FLOWERS FROM MY NEIGHBOUR

My neighbour, Jeanny, is fantastic. She enjoys baking and frequently attends classes to improve her skills. This is her work after going for a cake decoration course where they learnt to make roses, pansies, chrysanthenums and many other different types of flowers. This was one of her examination pieces - a flower basket. I think she should graduate with distinction.

She gave us the cake after the grading. I just couldn't cut up the masterpiece so I brought it to work and showed every one in the office. We eventually cut it by evening for tea break and it tasted better than it looked. MartianGirl and GismoMan were really mad with me cos' I did not allow them to cut the cake at home, and to make things worse, there's wasn't any left to bring home for them to eat. They called me "Rampas Queen" - Snatch Queen for snatching the cake from right under their noses and running away with it in the morning.

Living in a township where the houses are just next to each other is tricky. It gets trickier (if they is such a word) when neighbours do not talk to each other. In my previous township where I lived for 10 years, I actually did not know who my neighbours on my right side were cos' they never wanted to be friends. MartianGirl and the front neighbours' kids played in the evenings, I had some good chats from my kitchen with the back neighbour and Mr Goh, my left neighbour came over to pay his respects when my dad passed away. These neighbours came over when a male intruder, high from sniffing glue climbed the gate and entered my compound. In fact, it was my neighbours kids' shouting and screaming at the intruder that alerted me to call the police. The front neighbour even left work and came home when his son rang to inform him that some guy had climed into my house. He came over immediatley to check if everything was OK. I do miss them all.

I moved to this new township only about 1 1/2 years ago. I am good friends with the left and right side neighbours and we have had dinners with each other. However, the ones in front keep to themselves and have not responded to my nice sunny smiles. I think I will actually be rude and start talking!! Living next door to Jeanie has its advantages - imagine having apple pies, cheese cakes, cup cakes, fruit cakes and chocolate cakes delivered through the back gate.

Nigella bites but Jeanie rocks!!