Juniper
After lunch yesterday, my family and I had a rude shock. Someone had parked right outside my gate. Now we have all experienced inconsiderate double parkers at some time or another but this one takes the cake. Who in their right minds parks in front of anyone’s gate denying access to the occupants. We could only open the gate an inch or so and squeeze out to investigate.
The street was quiet, no sign of anyone rushing back to this car despite us waiting outside for more than half an hour. I suspected it was my immediate neighbour who is a tenant of the house. He’s trapped my beloved cat before and only thought fit to apologise more than a month after the incident. He and his wife run Zhi Bao Enterprise which used to be a shop in Kuchai Lama but they now run the shop from a house. They sell Chinese tea, mushrooms and various other foodstuff. They had customers coming and going even when this country was under lockdown. As a shop cum residence, I hope they followed SOPs such as scanning MySejahtera, taking body temperature, wearing masks, etc.
We called the police who gave us another number to call so that an officer could come over but meanwhile we kept watch over who would come to the car. You might think there is no parking available on my street but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The person could have chosen at least 3 other spots to park including the house he visited. I am amazed that this person never thought that it would inconvenience us by parking at our gate and blocking egress/ingress. For example, I would never park in front of someone’s house to go to the grocery store even if there was no other parking available.
Then a 20-something went to the car and we let him have it. He muttered his apologies but I think an apology is useless when NO ONE should park in front of another’s house unless they know the occupants of that house. This person has no values and whatever education he may have received is lost on him. I have no objection to my neighbour running a business from home. However he should at least inform his visitors not to park in front of neighbours’ gates especially when there is plenty of space in front of his own house.
My neighbour has frequent visitors, whether they are his business partners or customers, I have no idea but I actually think he should have kept his shop if he has that many visitors as a shoplot would have plenty of parking on the street. It’s bad enough that we neighbours have to put up with his cockerels crowing all the time (morning, noon. night) turning this place into some farm but now he has annoying visitors who think they can park wherever they please. Seriously, anyone with even half a brain should realise that parking right in front of someone’s gate is a no-no.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that most people wouldn’t do this sort of thing. I would be mortified if any of my visitors (not that I have any) blocked my neighbour’s gate and I would have gone to that neighbour to apologise but obviously my cockerel loving neighbour doesn’t see fit to apologise. Such is the level of propriety nowadays. You can educate people but unfortunately it is harder to instill good sense in people.
It’s difficult to find anything to like about my neighbour since he thought it was fine to move his noisy cockerels into my neighbourhood. This is NOT a rural area where farm animals are common. Imagine being woken u before 6am every day by the cockerel crowing. Actually, other neighbours have complained to me about the noise & commented that cockerel loving neighbour needs permits from DBKL to keep his farm animals.
This is the problem plaguing society nowadays, that people have NO sense of shame. They can cause you inconvenience and not feel the least sorry about it even if they say “Sorry, sorry” as they go back to their cars blocking your house/car and same goes for people who trap my cat. Cockerel loving neighbour didn’t even apologise for that incident immediately as if trapping my cat who wandered into his compound was the right thing to do. My cat was trapped for 8 hours, what about the distress and trauma inflicted on the poor aninal? Obviously the word “shame” is not in these people’s vocabulary.
Zhi Bao Enterprise is on Shopee Malaysia, consider this free publicity for the wrong reasons. When you run a business from home and have various customers coming and going, you should ensure your neighbours are not inconvenienced by their random parking. You have only rented the house you run your business in, that doesn’t include other neighbours’ space, be it inside or outside.
Updated 30.11.21 _ My neighbour has read this post and apologised on my Facebook page. She claims that her friend thought my house was “an empty house” therefore he parked in front of my gate. I didn’t know my house had the look of “an empty house”. Unlike the house next to mine which has “For Sale/Rent” posters plastered all over the gate, mine has no such adverts. How her friend came to such a conclusion is beyong my understanding and that doesn’t explain why he couldn’t park in front of the house where he was going to. As I said before, their house has plenty of space in front for a vehicle, even more space than at my front gate. My neighbour has assured me that they will make sure none of their visitors parks in front of neighbours’ gates from now on.
