A New Neighbour

hubby and i (with amir in tow) went to a kenduri doa selamat last thursday night (malam jumaat lah). a good friend of mine was moving into her new house. its funny that she's moving in so close to my house. we kept getting the "dont you people ever live apart?" and "cant you two separate?" comments throughout the night.

N was my very, very good (if not one of my best) friends since Uni. i donno how we clicked. we lived away from the rest of the Malaysian community in UKC. while other m'sians prefer to stay in the self-cooking homes, we stayed in the dorms. i didnt know how to cook, so why bother staying outside the dorm. furthermore, from the way they planned the map, it looked like it was quite a distance between the homes and the classes - i'm a late riser so didnt want to risk not being able to make it to my classes (turns out that didnt make such a big difference cos even though my class was just 2 storeys below my room, i'd still miss them).

coming back from UKC, N worked in an accounting firm, i worked in a bank. our offices were close by, so we'd meet up for lunch. not only that, our houses were not far away either. she stayed about 2 minutes away from my cousin's house - which i consider my second home. her youngest brother & my cousin were in the same class. the boys used to sleep over each other's house and then sleep over mine with N. after i came back from sheffield, after getting my masters degree, N put in my resume at the place she was working in. so we were now colleagues, albeit in different departments. we'd go for lunch together & meet up in the surau for asar. when N got married in 2001, i was given the honour of being her pengapit. i cried so much the day of her akad nikah that her mother had to pull me aside and calm me down (ahhh...malu when i think back). N was one of the first people i told when i got pregnant with amir. N was also one of my driving forces during the black days of 2002, and she had her first baby to handle at that time too. i must have stressed her out!














and now...she's also my neighbour. N's house is amazing. i absolutely love it. its a couple of phases after mine, and its just so beautiful. her house is similar to mine...well, it is in one housing area, so it cant vary so much. but her bathroom is just so wow - the his and hers sinks (omigawd!!). i'm especially glad for her two boys. they've been living in the apartment since they were born and as 3 & 4 year olds they need the space to run around and release their pent-up energy. the few times i've been to her house, the boys never stopped running. they love being in the spacious house and being in the playground nearby.

i'm really grateful that i'll have someone close by in case of an emergency. i know that i can count on N should i ever need her help and i know that she's one of the people i can rely upon to oversee amir as she adores him.

to N, welcome to the neighbourhood. i hope you and the boys will build a wonderful life here.