tzlee.com/blog

Tag: Neighbour

  • Where have the peaceful HDB estates gone?

    I haven’t been blogging for a while, so this really means something I feel strongly about to have me start writing again.

    Wifey was down with high fever over the long Hari Raya/National Day weekend. Her fever persisted for four days. It went as high as 39.5 deg C.

    Earlier this morning her fever was up again at 38.2 deg C even after a half-dosage of Panadol. Fearing it was dengue or some avian-flu thing, we drove to NUH A&E at 4am to have her X-ray and blood tests done.

    As usual it took several hours to have tests done. By the time we returned home it’s already 7am; dengue tested negative, thankfully.

    Wifey took her meds and laid down to rest while I headed downstairs for breakfast.

    Just as I got home from breakfast all ready to do some work, lo and behold, all the pounding from neighbouring renovation works started. Adding on to the pain I still have my stomping neighbour upstairs randomly banging shit around the house at night — especially over this long weekend.

    In short, I have practically no peace at any time of the day. It does not matter if I’m trying to do some work or trying to sleep after taking meds.

    This is not the first time.

    A headache was brewing from all the noise. My skull felt like a cracked egg.

    I even made a recording with my phone. Playing it back appalled me. (Question: How can I share it?)

    Where have the peaceful HDB estates gone? I don’t remember hearing neighbours stomping, renovations for weeks on end, pounding/chopping boards from housewives or noises from bamboo poles hitting against (stupid HDB design) metal railings. These are all noises I hear only after I moved to my new flat.

    I was rarely woken by external noises at my parent’s flat. The loudest thing would be my mum yelling at me to wake up, the kranguni man or the hum from the vacuum cleaner. Occasionally there would be renovation works, but not once every two months!

    Right now I can hear (if you have some faith in a musician’s trained ear) three concurrent pounding/drilling works going on.

    What is wrong with our houses? Why do people have to tear them apart and put them together over and over again. Why are people moving houses again and again? Not tired meh? Not expensive meh?

    With 20 to 30 storey HDBs built in closer and closer proximity to each other I foresee these noise issues to be even worse in newer estates.

    All these made me wonder if I should just suck on it and save up to buy a landed property with my parents or simply leave this country because of the ridiculous property and car prices.

    What good is life with no peace? Can’t work without peace, can’t sleep without peace. Heck, tell me if you can make out with your neighbours drilling. Baby bonus my ass.

    The government needs to recognise that noise pollution is a major issue in densely built up areas. Our kampung era policies don’t work anymore. If they don’t work on doing something about this and leaving it all to “community mediation” we’re going to have neighbours burn each others houses down soon.

  • A note for the Blind Followers

    OK, I’ve had enough of people blindly saying good things about the men in white and that the oppositions suck. We have to discount the opposition because they haven’t been on the job yet – how would I expect you to know how to fix my problems if I haven’t even hired you?

    Yes, due respect for LKY. He’s a great man, but things have changed. This country is no longer 3rd world and cannot be managed like the way it was before.

    I quote a note shared by a friend on Facebook:

    I fear the Singaporean who says “I think the opposition candidate in my constituency is crap, but I will vote him anyway because I think the PAP is arrogant.” I cannot agree with that.

    Cannot agree with what? Arrogance? Arrogance diminishes wisdom my friend.

    No doubt there are really good and smart people amongst the men in white, such as GY, TCH, GCT but I’ve had enough of them especially the MP in my area (now contesting in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC). Let me relate my experience.

    I have a neighbour noise problem. And trust me I’m not the only person in Singapore with this issue. Google it and you will find it. Some people have it worse than me and this affects people’s lives.

    Yes, I’m a musician and I’m sensitive to noise, but I am not unreasonable. I’ve been living in HDB flats since young and haven’t heard such noises at my parent’s flat. Worse even, these noises occur at night right above my bedroom. I can’t sleep in peace or spend a weekend at home without going crazy. HDB flats nowadays are built cheaply with paper thin walls that I can hear every noise my neighbour makes. I’ve tried to talk to my neighbour, called the police, visited my MP and even written in to HDB.

    What pisses me off is my MP being the last resort not giving a hoot about my neighbour problem. When I asked him if there’s any law governing these issues, he said “not really” and there’s nothing much he can do except write a letter to HDB. Yes, he did indeed write a letter to HDB, but I’ve never seen the HDB officer visit my flat to even listen to the kind of noises I have to put up with.

    So what do I need my MP for when he doesn’t even bother? I’m not saying all of PAP is bad, but some shit needs to be fixed.

    And I quote my friend again:

    But I don’t think voting against someone good as a statement against the GRC system is entirely logical…

    So if I vote for the same group, I will get the same guy who will not solve my problem anyway. How about let’s say have you ever done a project with a crappy team mate? Reality of life is that if you have a bad team mate, he/she drags you into the water. If I stand up for such a system, I’m supporting gerrymandering and the GRC bullshit.

    I feel the severe lack of freedom of speech, the lack of the right to even request for something. I’m not taking about Mas Selamat, the floods and the overcrowded MRT and roads. These are civil service issues that are brought about by the policies that were (or not) made.

    Get this fact right – the civil service will only act by the book and these laws are defined by our government. As of now there are no laws protecting us. Read the first few pages of the WP manifesto, it is quite interesting.

    FYI, I had to take things into my own hands and it got really ugly to a stage that my property agent actually went up to my neighbour with some fruits to make peace. But the issue is still not totally resolved. Take it that I’m firing my MP and finding a new one.

  • Noisy Neighbours in Singapore

    If you’re wondering, wow, I’m writing a blog at this hour, well that’s because I’ve been awoken at 6AM+ this morning by my neighbour upstairs.

    I had to resort to hammering the ceiling with my fists last night to get them to shut up. That was 1:30AM. Yes, read carefully, my fists. I stood on a stool and hammered the ceiling. This proves that HDB flats are constructed so badly these days. The ceiling vibrated just as it did with the stomping and running upstairs. My flat’s 8 year old BTW. I don’t think my parent’s flat (closing 30 years now) are like that.

    I’m thinking if calling the cops doesn’t work and (according to many online forums) even going to CMC, MP and even court doesn’t work, what works?

    The government loves to take reactive approaches and maybe I should create something to make it happen. It’s called the “I sabo your neighbours, you sabo my neighbours” portal. I am fully committed to funding this portal as long as it brings me peace. I will start putting a plan to get this done. All comments welcome.

  • Happy Holidays, Welcome 2010

    Welcome back…

    I know you have been faithful readers.

    See? You’re smiling. Stop denying it. You love my blog, don’t you?

    It has been a crazy month. I’m part of a small team of three and two of my colleagues went away – one to Turkey and another to reservist so he could help weed out terrorist. I was, of course, left all alone to take on some good amount of work that, well,  came all at the same time. Screw Murphy. Hate that guy.

    So it’s December and everybody’s in a holiday mood. I wish I was too, but it’s not quite easy with a fucking noisy neighbour living right upstairs. They make so much noise and vibration by dragging furniture, slamming their doors and let their kids run about into the wee hours that even my window grilles rattle at times. After approaching them three times and calling the cops once, I decided to approach them one last time which ended in a yelling session, with the typical remark from these inconsiderate bastards like “this is my house, I’ll do whatever I want” or “go buy a condo“. Things improved a bit after the yelling, but it still happens. When the night’s all quiet, these sudden bumps and squeaks really make you to jump.

    So it seems nothing really changed in 2009 other than my marital status and an empty bank from a property purchase and renovation. It’s time to work out something new in 2010. My public list of items goes like this:

    • Get back on track with some research/dev type projects. I’ll be meeting an NUS professor before 2009 ends, so I’ll post an update here.
    • Learn to cook now that I’ve got a kitchen to myself. I’ve also promised to post some of my successful attempts out of many other unsuccessful ones.
    • Get the wedding banquet done.
    • Build new sources of revenue. I’ll start small, but aim big.
    • Get back to flying R/C occasionally as a hobby. I’ve stopped flying for the entire of 2009 without even realizing it.

    And of course, before 2009 ends, here’s a short to do list.

    • Pack up the study room. It’s in an absolute mess now.
    • Get another two sets of Wii Remote + Nunchuck since the two I ordered from HK over a month ago didn’t arrive at all.
    • Get my old Cello bows rehaired. Already sent and will only be done in January 2010.