Living Safe

It has been a while since I last posted something here.

Right now, I feel that I am needing less and less reason for a public outlet for my thoughts as I am still going through a phase of detachment from whatever is happening out there that doesn't concern me directly.

Since I don't travel much these days, the horrendous traffic situation no longer bug me.

However, when I do venture out of the house, I find the roads are getting from bad to worse - which is why we may just have to invest in a bigger and more robust car for Yaya.

That little Viva simply cannot withstand the constant bumping it gets from the poor road condition.

My Proton Saga fares better, but not by much.

Trash collection around our neighborhood has improved - we no longer had to deal with week-old uncollected trash and maggots invading our home.

However, the communal trash collection bins in the neighboring flats and shop houses are still pretty bad if not worse than before.

Whenever I was visiting friends in that part of the neighborhood, the smell was overwhelming and you can't avoid it because you can't perpetually hold your breath.

I can't imagine what it is like for families who couldn't afford better living conditions and having to put up with putrid maggoty uncollected trash under their windows.

I lived in a flat in JB too when I was working there - not one of those posh foreigner-filled expensive condos, but one of those regular flats, with regular folks as neighbors in one of the less reputable districts of the city.

It was simply a stark contrast from what we have here - my neighborhood in JB was clean throughout and those who failed to clean up after themselves were warned.

We did get regular fogging because our neighborhood was identified as a dengue red spot, so I can't imagine what the dengue situation is here when I saw how much dirtier it is and hardly any fogging done at all.

My neighbors in JB were a diverse lot.

Some were factory workers, most were employed by the small businesses around the area, and there were a number of shady characters too - I was told they were involved in undefined underground activities.

Some commute on their motorbikes to Singapore, while some were low-ranking government servants and there were also the occasional shop-owners.

Someday I will probably write about them as one of my favorite past times was to sit on a the park bench and just had impromptu conversations with everyone there including the police officers assigned to watch the neighborhood on the sly.

As for now I will just worry about my neighbors who had to live in what I consider as unacceptably dirty surrounding.