This is gonna be a long entry, sharing with you about our day with our neighbours.
Its so sweet of Karen & Mike (our neighbours) to invite us over for lunch on Sunday (9 Sep ’07). Their 2 kids, Bella & Danielle, just couldn’t sit down with us in the front garden to enjoy lunch with us. In fact, they were running around & stepping all over their food! It was such a bright and sunny day to enjoy lunch outside the house and at the same time, absorb some free Vitamin D from nature’s source!
Few weeks back, Karen & Mike even gave us 6 eggs that their hens hatched. They also gave us some self-grown South American chillis too (see picture). They grew their own vegetables e.g. lettuce, papaya, chillis in their front & backyard. Well, we will also be giving them some lemons, plums & peach from the trees in our garden when the fruits are ready. This reminds me of a RPG game “Animal Crossing’ in game cube where neighbours exchanged fruits & vegetables with one another.
Karen was very happy when we showed her around our house, as she always wanted to adopt a no-shoes policy in their house but to no avail. Well, little Bella seemed to agree with her and was rolling side-to-side on our carpet! Although it’s the norm for most Asian families to not wear shoes in the house, most western families do not have this practice.
Mike showed us their backyard that is huge enough to contain 2 swings and a 2-storey colourful playhouse for the kids. We are also surprised that Mike actually keeps bees and knows how to harvest the honey. No wonder we have a few of his bee friends that got lost inside our house. Well, Karen said the bees would be relocating to the farm behind where Mike will demonstrate to the visitors on how he harvests the bees’ honey. Besides, it’s also for the safety of his kids, especially Danielle, who is often ‘caught’ poking sticks inside the homes of the bees!
Located behind our houses is a farm…hmm… more of a pet farm or zoo. Karen & Mike have fixed a secret passage door in their backyard so they can have unlimited & easy access to the farm area. We took a walk in the farm and it was full of rowdy visitors on the ‘busy’ Sunday.
Karen mentioned that she is constantly involved in some residential committee work. She is also involved in the upcoming local Funfare that is organised by the council & the farm. Well, I thought if we stayed in this area long enough, we might also join in such volunteer work for the fun of it. It’s also good to know that in Victoria, wherever you stay, there is always a “Mothers Group” which organise activites for mothers & their kids. Think I should talk to her more on maternity matters. She even gave us a baby car seat that her kids have outgrown! In Australia, all children must be properly restrained in a car. In fact, parents cannot bring their babies home from the hospital if their infants are not properly restrained in the car. HB has been trying to bid for a car seat from ebay every night for the past week. Now that we have a free car seat, he has to forgo the one that he just managed to bid from ebay a few hours ago!
We are so lucky to have such friendly & caring neighbours. Will miss them if we move.
Its so sweet of Karen & Mike (our neighbours) to invite us over for lunch on Sunday (9 Sep ’07). Their 2 kids, Bella & Danielle, just couldn’t sit down with us in the front garden to enjoy lunch with us. In fact, they were running around & stepping all over their food! It was such a bright and sunny day to enjoy lunch outside the house and at the same time, absorb some free Vitamin D from nature’s source!
Few weeks back, Karen & Mike even gave us 6 eggs that their hens hatched. They also gave us some self-grown South American chillis too (see picture). They grew their own vegetables e.g. lettuce, papaya, chillis in their front & backyard. Well, we will also be giving them some lemons, plums & peach from the trees in our garden when the fruits are ready. This reminds me of a RPG game “Animal Crossing’ in game cube where neighbours exchanged fruits & vegetables with one another.
Karen was very happy when we showed her around our house, as she always wanted to adopt a no-shoes policy in their house but to no avail. Well, little Bella seemed to agree with her and was rolling side-to-side on our carpet! Although it’s the norm for most Asian families to not wear shoes in the house, most western families do not have this practice.
Mike showed us their backyard that is huge enough to contain 2 swings and a 2-storey colourful playhouse for the kids. We are also surprised that Mike actually keeps bees and knows how to harvest the honey. No wonder we have a few of his bee friends that got lost inside our house. Well, Karen said the bees would be relocating to the farm behind where Mike will demonstrate to the visitors on how he harvests the bees’ honey. Besides, it’s also for the safety of his kids, especially Danielle, who is often ‘caught’ poking sticks inside the homes of the bees!
Located behind our houses is a farm…hmm… more of a pet farm or zoo. Karen & Mike have fixed a secret passage door in their backyard so they can have unlimited & easy access to the farm area. We took a walk in the farm and it was full of rowdy visitors on the ‘busy’ Sunday.
Karen mentioned that she is constantly involved in some residential committee work. She is also involved in the upcoming local Funfare that is organised by the council & the farm. Well, I thought if we stayed in this area long enough, we might also join in such volunteer work for the fun of it. It’s also good to know that in Victoria, wherever you stay, there is always a “Mothers Group” which organise activites for mothers & their kids. Think I should talk to her more on maternity matters. She even gave us a baby car seat that her kids have outgrown! In Australia, all children must be properly restrained in a car. In fact, parents cannot bring their babies home from the hospital if their infants are not properly restrained in the car. HB has been trying to bid for a car seat from ebay every night for the past week. Now that we have a free car seat, he has to forgo the one that he just managed to bid from ebay a few hours ago!
We are so lucky to have such friendly & caring neighbours. Will miss them if we move.
P.S.: Some background info: Mike is an IT staff at a nearby college while Karen is a part-time administrator in town. Bella (5) & Danielle (3) are so innocent-looking with their red cheeks. They also have a very fat grey cat & a beige puppy, which surprisingly, seem to get along quite well… at least in front of us! Karen mentioned that her cat loves to sit on her belly when she was pregnant and before she finished her sentence, the cat was already climbing onto the bench & trying to sit on my belly! What an intelligent cat! She was also not the least shy! :P
1 comment:
Neighbours will exchange words with neighbours one. I assume whatever you do, others might roughly get an idea of what you doing. Yeah, animal crossing really reflects real life. I miss that game. (Sally big bro)
Post a Comment