Housewarming Party

Yesterday, at the scene of the break-in, the police officer asked me who was around at home or otherwise during the break-in, and I said that there was no one.

Immediately, he shot back incredulously, "Then why now so many people?!"

It's true. All three neighbours on my floor were there. Most aunts and an uncle were there. Some other neighbours from elsewhere were there.

When I reached home last night, there was an old friend of my mother's and still a couple of aunts around.

Yesterday, my mother had engaged a contractor to fix new windows. They could only get the windows today, so they temporarily boarded up the broken window.

This morning, I found out from my mother that we needed to get a permit from, sigh, Housing Development Board before the contractor can proceed with replacing the corridor windows.

Replacing the windows costs S$600++. We bear full costs, for now. WooHoo! It's a double upgrade!

Next week, we will proceed to highlight the matter to the MP.

Last night, a cousin was around and finally I found someone who shared my sentiments.

Let's see. We've lived here for roughly 13 years only, so I guess it's rather unfortunate that in our 13th year, we encounter a break-in. I suppose 13 is not too lucky a number either, but superstitions aside. But why of all time, during the upgrading works?

Cynical aunts point fingers to the construction workers. Partly because they are mildly racist. I, for one, have no problem with construction workers. In fact, back when they were carrying out works in my flat, I treated them nicely, okay?

But can we just look at the surviving MacBook? Why wouldn't a housebreaker take a luscious gleaming white MacBook that is just lying on the desk? If they went through the store room, which they did, they would have seen the conspicuous white MacBook packaging, wouldn't they?

Purely out of speculation, the burglars are not educated. I'm just curious what a closed MacBook looks like to uneducated people. Does it not look like a machine? Does it not look like something expensive? Does it look like worthless toy? Maybe.

Un-education. Construction. Coincidental?

Anyways, a couple of aunts filed in this afternoon as well. I left in the afternoon, returned home at 6.00PM to find a cousin and one more aunt.

You know, in fact, the break-in, I can't believe I'm saying this, wasn't TOTALLY a bad thing. But I'm not exactly jumping up and down for subsequent break-ins either!

It brought life to the house. First and Second aunts were in our kitchen making dinner, reminiscent of the annual family chalet. There were people TALKING in the house! The house was cleaned up thoroughly, I mean, after all, we have had hoove marks all over... Screw the pigs... So, furniture got moved around a little and the new windows were truly and successfully UPGRADED.

After three sessions of dinner, the aunties all sat down to chat. Three sessions of dinner is because my dining table is full of clutter, allowing only a maximum of 3 people to dine on the table(but still in a cramped state). How much clutter, I hear you ask. Well, the dining table seats 6 in full-fledge function.

The living room was teeming with Hokkien chatter. The aroma of kopi wafted through the house. Just like a family housewarming party. Not a frou-frou party with fancy hats and live bands, but a cosy and homely get together. Because it was such a family thing, we settled to book the family chalet as well. Booking done online by me, credit card payment by my cousin.

My mother and her sisters are people who have no idea what credit cards are. They're the traditional cash-carrying aunties with savings accounts they guard fervently. My cousin, hence gave them a 10-minute crash lecture on the functionings of credit card systems.

At 10.00PM, the party wraps up.