I live in what could be described as a "complex" consisting of about 20 town houses and a block of flats thrown in for good measure. It is set back from the road and surrounded by trees making it quite private. Due to this, everyone around here knows everyone elses business because they have nothing better to do than nosey.
Three weeks ago, I returned to my house in England after an almost four month absence which I spend in Ireland and the US due to illness. Few things had changed. There were some new cars, the old lady to the right of me had lost her husband to cancer and the serial escort caller to my left had moved out. I seen lots of activity from within the house of my new neighbours for the first few days but they never seemed to leave. A week later, I was outside working on my motorbike when they pulled up in their car, sat in it for what must have been 20 minutes before (what I now reckon to be) realising that I was going nowhere. When they did get out they walked swiftly to the front door doing their best to ignore me.
I walked right up to the wall and give them a big beaming "Hi! Nice to meet you! I'm Blain."
I might as well have been talking to the wall. They fixed their gaze for their front door and completely blanked me. Every one of them. Mother, father and the ~10 year old girl.
They are an Indian family so my initial thought was that maybe they didn't speak English and felt embarassed to interact or plainly just didn't want to.
I thought nothing of this until a few days ago. The little girl seems to be quite the artist and regularly hangs things up around the garden. Drawings, photographs, pine cones, knives. Yes, knives. I thought this was a bit odd but never really gave it any further thought than that.
Until today. As I sauntered out of the house to go pick up a venti drip from Starbucks, I'm greeted to a swathe of swastikas plastering the neighbours garden. Big red and black swastikas. Everywhere. There was even one under my windscreen wiper - kind of like some attempt to advertise.
I see the little girl sitting in the doorway, drawing these things and I shout over stumbling on my words, "Um... nice drawings?"
She doesn't even flinch. She's on a mission. It's like she's been "activated".
So. There you have it. Thank god I'm moving out in a few weeks.
Three weeks ago, I returned to my house in England after an almost four month absence which I spend in Ireland and the US due to illness. Few things had changed. There were some new cars, the old lady to the right of me had lost her husband to cancer and the serial escort caller to my left had moved out. I seen lots of activity from within the house of my new neighbours for the first few days but they never seemed to leave. A week later, I was outside working on my motorbike when they pulled up in their car, sat in it for what must have been 20 minutes before (what I now reckon to be) realising that I was going nowhere. When they did get out they walked swiftly to the front door doing their best to ignore me.
I walked right up to the wall and give them a big beaming "Hi! Nice to meet you! I'm Blain."
I might as well have been talking to the wall. They fixed their gaze for their front door and completely blanked me. Every one of them. Mother, father and the ~10 year old girl.
They are an Indian family so my initial thought was that maybe they didn't speak English and felt embarassed to interact or plainly just didn't want to.
I thought nothing of this until a few days ago. The little girl seems to be quite the artist and regularly hangs things up around the garden. Drawings, photographs, pine cones, knives. Yes, knives. I thought this was a bit odd but never really gave it any further thought than that.
Until today. As I sauntered out of the house to go pick up a venti drip from Starbucks, I'm greeted to a swathe of swastikas plastering the neighbours garden. Big red and black swastikas. Everywhere. There was even one under my windscreen wiper - kind of like some attempt to advertise.
I see the little girl sitting in the doorway, drawing these things and I shout over stumbling on my words, "Um... nice drawings?"
She doesn't even flinch. She's on a mission. It's like she's been "activated".
So. There you have it. Thank god I'm moving out in a few weeks.
