Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Be Good to Thy Neighbour

Next to my house is a local family. Not only are they local nationality, the man of the house is also the brother of my landlord. So sangat-sangat VVIP.

Anyway we didnt get to a very good start. When we parked very near to his house border, he sort of told my lover off. And sometimes when we try to make eye contact, we as in my lover and the man while me with the wife of course, you don't find the arab men to talk to women neighbours like we do in Malaysia. Anyway when we try to make eye contact, they avoided us. What more, the wife upon reaching home from work, drove by the driver, will wait for the car door to be opened, the gate opened and the nain door opened, then she will walk straight into the house.

Anyway we basically ignored each other. But one day I was listening to a lecture which advised to be good to neighbours. It was the first 10 Dzulhijjah, to do something extra to gain ajr. As usual the mu'alimah suggested exchange (or maybe just one sided pun tak apa) of food or anything. So I said to myself, what the heck, why not. No harm done insya Allah.

I know they have kids - 3 young boys in their primary school age - thus I bought a dozen of personally selected Krispy Kreme Donut.

When I ding dong their house, the helper spoke to me through the intercom with the voice that sounded panic and bewildered, "Yes. What do you want?", she asked. I had to explain that I am their immediate neighbour and I have something to give her. When she opened the gate, her face still panic-looking, her master was at the main door equally looking surprised but all of their expression changed when I passed them the Krispy Kreme box, "For the boys" I said. Then the helper went cheerful and thanked me on behalf of her master.

I didnt speak to the master.

I felt... good doing it. It doesn't really matter now whether we never talked, really what do you expect with the locals here, nor do we have eye contact or anything. I am just glad I did it.

Wovened BasketOne fine day, here was a ding dong at my house. It was the maid next door, and she practically screamed at the intercom, 'I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU MADAAAAAAAM". I opened the door and laughed. In her hand was a huge wovened basket of assortments.

Wow! I told my lover. This must be expensive, judging by the the quality of the confectionaries. Hmmm could this pose some form of dillema. I mean I would love to exchange food once in a while but I really do not want to make it into a competition. Surely I can't afford expensive confectionery like this. Well we agreed that we give when we want to give and what we want to give and will Insya Allah try our best to do it for Allah. The last bit is the hardest.

Cokelat berhiasAfter sometime, I went to buy a cake for them.

A few days ago, they gave me this fancy decorated chocolate ala ala hantaran kahwin. Seriously nak makan pun sayang tau. There is candy floss in small cases too. Macam make up pulak.

Arabs really love this fancy confectionery. And that is why chocolate shops like patchi and godiva and many other confectionery shops are thriving. All these fancy decorated sweet shops are really good business here.

I wonder if I make something homemade would it be good enough to give them? Ataupun we will stick to a safe one, cakes and sweets of the sort. Yeah maybe we'll do the latter.

6 comments:

Dills said...

I ada bagi my neighbour homemade kuih raya almond london & cornflakes cookies. Siap deco reben,letak lam bakul mengkuang lagi mcm nak bg hantaran. They love it. Sejak tu baru senyum kalo tak depa buat tak tau jek.. Lepas tu jemput dtg umah siap tour satu umah dia. TUnjuk bilik sampai la bilik air..Which i tak tau la mmg cam ni ke? Org egypt.

Lollies said...

LOL! Cuba hantar satu kat rumah i pulak. Nanti i bawak you tunjuk bilik air rumah i gak.

an0nymous-ign0ranus said...

cuba try bagi dodol and kuah rojak. mesti best! heh heh.

Mulan said...

masyaAllah... hebatnya silaturrahim...

kalo dekat, nak i ngendeng rasa secubit cokelats tu.. hehee...

zan said...

Wow gorges laa itu chocs.. Kalau I errr akan makan sikit2 hahaha..tapi samala mcm my situation, my Chinese jiran suka bagi barang2 yg gorges jugak but usually I don't balas as expensive as what they give. Try to give within my budget n practicality..but I think she knows I buat ikhlas lah kan heheh...

elisataufik said...

My neighbour Suzy&Eric yang mat salleh tu, masa first day they moved in, I gave them a chcolate cake beli kat ParkNShop. Wah they were so happy. Lepas tu selalu tukar2 food. Diorang kasi homemade banafe pie lah, cupcakes lah. Masa Christmas, I got some turkey and stuffing. They've been to malaysia, so they love it when I send them nasi lemak or meehoon goreng. Dengan Farah (neighbour i yg mek klate tu), toksah cerita lah. Almost hari2 masa bulan ramadhan kita tukar2 kuih/makanan berbuka. Tapi neighbour I yg sebelah satu lagi, batang hidung pun I tak pernah nampak.. camner nak tukar2 food?
Kat sini we all tukar2 fruits. Musim buah haritu we gave rambutans and manggis from our kebun, and masa musim durian they bought us durians ;)
Maybe next time you balik from cuti2 malaysia you can give them something malaysian?