Love Thy Neighbour

If I were to name one thing that I like staying here in Bangkok, it will be my neighbour. Yep, the same one who wonders why I have loads of undies on a wet morning.

She was selling beef noodles across the road and we were one of the regulars. But for unknown reasons, she had to close down the stall. Maybe she did tell me the reasons, and as usual, I thought she was accusing me of wearing too many undies on one day. :P

Rest assured she is the kindest people I have ever met. On many occasions when I was on the way to kaikai, she has told me to leave my laundry out, instead of pulling them into the porch. "Mai pen rai, " she says. Never mind, she will pull them in if it rains. Yeah.. I live in an area, where we can leave gates unlocked.

Because my gate is unlocked, she saunters in and turns off the porch lights when I forget to do so. And because her gate is also not locked, Gooly and I amble over to feed her rabbit, as often as we want.



After she closed down her beef noodles stall, she started selling fish-ball noodles right in front of her porch. Talk about convenience. We just cross over for sen mee, sen lik and watnots whenever Mahmee is too lazy to cook we feel hungry.


Gooly savaging the noodles.Slurp slurp!






This is Mahmee's Special Tomyum. Got karliew one... It could be my imagination, but it seems like we get extra service when-ever we 'pongchan' her. There are always extra fish balls for Gooly, extra noodles for Papah, and extra liew for me. And she will bring out the electric fan and plunk it in front of Gooly while saying, "Poor boy.. so hot.. here here..wind is blowing."

Not to forget the few times she saved my ass when I had visitors, and I just didn't know what to cook to feed them. So I'd asked her help, and she cooked up a feast with a minimal fee, while I pretended that I was the reigning chef.

Though she hardly understands what Gooly tells her, she always looks interested in what he has to say. She smiles, and nods and apologizes that she cannot understand. Sometimes she says words in Thai slowly so that Gooly will learn.

"Plaaaa - feet," she attempted. What she meant to say was, 'fish'. But mai pen rai. Never mind, her gestures and kindness have captured my heart.

When you have neighbours like mine, it's not hard to love them.