Just Babbling

I live in 6 floors apartment building, 2 apartments in each floor (I live in the 1st floor, that would be 2nd floor for the almost the rest of the world, I think). So, roughly, at least I have 11 neighbours in this building.

My next door neighbour is a middle-aged woman. I think she lives by herself. I met her face to face twice and see her from the back once. First encounter was about 2 weeks after I moved in. I met her downstair while the mover came to deliver my boxes. She said, 'hi'. And I said, 'hi, nice to meet you'. The second time was when I got locked out of my apartment (I hate the way they set up locks here!). Me and my friend made quite a lot of noises that she went out to she what was going on. It was snowing outside, I was in my pajamas, with no proper shoes and coats, I had to walk to my office to get my spare key. And the last time I saw her was when I was standing by my window and I saw her walking with bag, going for Christmas holiday.

The other neighbour is the man living upstair. I suppose he works in shifts, because there were those mornings when he would woke me up with his heavy shoes (which was quite annoying because my alarm clock was not set to be that early). I so desperately wanted to see his face that once I heard him closed his door and walked down stairs, I ran to my window to see him. Yet I could only see his back. Sometimes I don't hear footsteps in the morning. I suppose he has a family as I sometimes hear little steps running around. It couldn't be his.

There's a young girl living upstairs too.

There's a black tall guy living upstairs too. He said hi to me once. Haven't see him again since.

The Wendeborg downstairs, whom I never seen for months.

There is a couple who lives behind my building. Most of the time I saw the window with the curtain on and off, sometimes within few mins, yet I always missed the person.

Back home in Indonesia, people in your neighbourhood know each other. When I say neighbourhood, it means, an area covering more than 300 houses. You may not everyone's name, but you can be sure that you recognize the face. If you send a letter with incomplete address, it will still get thru, because the postman can just easliy ask anyone in the neighbourhood and someone will tell him right away, which house that he needs to go to.

In Indonesia, housewifes in most of the neighbourhoods, will meet once in a month to have food together and share stories. True, it can be annoying sometimes, esp. when you just want others to mind their own bussiness. Yet, there are those times where minding other people's problems is the best way to get and give help.

I fell like knocking on next door neighbour, just to say hi and give her a box of Irish chocolate I bought in Dublin. She may like it or not. I'll never know where it's going to lead me after. Yet, I suppose I'll just do it.