interiors

What are the odds of hubby, adam, imran, nanny and I being walked through 3 chinese houses to admire the décor in one week? Ok lah since its the chinese new year week, the odds would be pretty good lah.

So the first house we visited would be ben's house. Ben is our neighbour in our terrace house. Ben loves to clean house and wash down his porch. Whenever he does that he loves to park his cars in our house. He figures its not a problem bec we havent moved in yet - and we honestly don’t mind. The first time he did that hubby and I nearly drove right by our own house bec it looked like other people lived there! :D That was when Ben ran out of his house full of apologies and made friends with us.

Last weekend was a repeat of the above. Ben and his fiance were cleaning house for a Chinese New Year party (Ben is eurasian - his asian half is chinese). Adam decided he liked Ben's fiance. So he took her hand and walked into Ben's house. There was nothing Ben could do but ask us in for a drink. Nothing we could do but follow our son in as well ! That's the good thing about children. They are wonderful ice breakers! Ben showed us his new alarm system and lighting. He gave us lots of tips (contractors, shops to check out etc) for us to consider when we do up our own house as well. Ben is christian and Jesus is significantly present in the house (pictures here and there). I decided that Ben's house is very tastefully done. Hubby decided that Ben's 'female' side is rather strong. On the way back hubs asked me if I knew that Ben's surname is Dover. I shook my head no. Then he said "Go on, say his full name". I was so blur, I actually said "Ben Dover" before smacking my husband ! Get it? My husband is so bad!

The second house we were walked through was Mr Wong's house. Mr Wong is my GM and we had an office gathering for Chinese New Year there. Mr Wong's house is huge! Its built on 11000 square feet of land. It’s a one storey bungalow with lots of garden space. Wish I had space like that. I grew up in a house with a long lawn in a sleepy little university town and I never knew I had it so good growing up with a garden. Land is getting to be so expensive these days that I doubt Adam and Imran will ever have the opportunity to run in the garden like we did when we were small. I liked Mr Wongs' house because it has that family feel. There is a terrace for the family to sit and lepak (hang out) in the evenings, there is a stone garden table and chairs for picnics …. and there is a huge kitchen with wooden cabinets - big enough to cater for a large family. Mr Wong is buddhist so there is a prayer altar in the living room. Buddha looks different here compared to Buddha in the temples in Burma. In Burma buddha is slim and looks very burmese. In Mr Wong's house he is decidedly chinese and rather chubby.

Mr Wong has a large koi pond where fat koi fish swim gracefully for all to admire. Adam boy adored the koi pond and would have dived right in if the other children didn’t stop him every five minutes. There is also a very old fashioned antique looking fountain with colourful guppies dartiing left and right. Adam attempted to catch a few but they were too fast for him! haha!
Mr Wong's brother lives next door and has a huge dog (Great Dane). All the guests had to take a peek at the Dane at one point. Mr Wong also has four dogs - a labrador and 3 fluffy mixed breeds. Adam had a good time playing with one of them called Venus. Venus was locked in the pantry and would go on her hind legs to have a peek at the kids from a glass window. The kids would stand at the other side and scream - half in excitement and half in fear! Adam screamed the loudest and attempted to open the pantry door a few times. But whenever Venus pranced up to see him, he would run away from the door as fast as his little legs can carry him! For a house with four dogs Mr Wong's house is very very clean. I hope one day when we live in our house proper the boys would be able to have pets. I had so many pets while growing up and these animals were part of the family. Hubby also loves cats. So we would probably have two - one for Adam and one for Imran. Must wait for the boys to outgrow any chance of getting asthma at a young age and be able to appreciate their pets tho - I don’t want them pulling the poor cat's tail.

The last house we went to was my neighbour Jessie's house at our condo. When we got the keys for our condo, this lady from Penang called Jessie rang and rang me asking me to sell my condo. She had bought the unit next door and wanted to expand her unit. At that time baby Imran was so sick in hospital that I was in no fit condition to think a coherent thought about selling anything. Anyways we were coming home from somewhere last weekend when we bumped into Jessie and her husband Sam in the corridor. They were so glad to finally meet us and introduced themselves. They are retirees. Wife is the typical tai tai (rich man's wife) and hubby owns an accounting firm. They live in Penang and had bought the condo as a holiday home because they love to play golf. They wanted to invite us to play golf with them - sadly hubby and I do not know how to play golf lar. Nampak sangat (So obvious) we are not wealthy enough to live in that area! He he! The condo is an investment lah. We are moving out to our house soon where regular people stay and raise their kids.

Jessie showed us their newly decorated condo. She insisted we see the house eventho we werent so keen - shy lah we've never even met them before and they're like our parents age for godssake. Do we call them Sam and Jessie or Aunty Jessie and Uncle Sam? Haha! Everytime I think uncle sam, I think of America and feel like laughing! So we got dragged thru all the rooms and she made us check out the bedrooms and bathrooms and everything lor. We were terrified they were gonna want to come over to our house and inspect our bathrooms as well !! For godssake we have 2 kids and the house is a mess!! Hahahaha! But we 'oohed' and 'ahhhhed' at the right time and she was happy with that. They had hired decorators to do up their house and I must say the interior decorating was very reasonably priced. They had paid RM40,000 for kitchen cabinets, built in cupboards, all the furniture, lighting, curtains, are conditioners, mirrors and a plasma TV. RM40K is more than reasonable for all that.

I decided their house was very nice. Actually they were also very nice. They are at that age where the biz runs itself and kids are at uni and they can take a break and have a happy retirement golfing together. In these times not all marriages last that long for one to have 100% confidence that one's own marriage will stand the test of time. I hope one day when our kids are grown hubby and I can also have a happy retirement like Jessie and Sam.

In conclusion, I must say, I like Chinese houses very much! : )