Our landlady was very much an ardent
story-teller. Lots of juicy gossips and grandfather’s stories waiting to be
told each day, although certain times, they were kind of repetitive.
Nevertheless, she did some narration on her background and family. She moved in
to NZ with her family a few years back and became a PR after two years running
a not-so-profitable restaurant. After shutting down the restaurant, they
survived by working as seasonal workers in packhouses, for they were English
illiterate. But alas, her husband just passed away a few months ago and sadly
to say, she had to take over the role as a sole breadwinner in the house,
despite the fact that she had two sons. Her eldest son is slightly
feeble-minded and very much dependent on her to look after him. After the
termination of thinning job in the orchard, all he did was lie on the couch,
staring at the idiot box, eat, sleep and these goes on every day. Her youngest
son went back to China to get married, went for honeymoon and squandered away
thousands of her hard-earned money. Now,
she was temporary out of job as there were no more vacancies available and therefore
depended heavily on our rental fees and funds from social welfare to sustain
these days, which also explain why she can be so frugal at times! But I do have
some respect for her as she managed to put up with the unforeseen circumstances
and remained optimistic and stoic despite the harsh times she had to endure.
Err……..That was then.
Many things had changed since she broke
her right index and middle fingers while using the lawnmower and need to
undergo surgery to have them reattached. We unwittingly became her “maid”,
helping her to do some household chores and cooked for her. Well, we really
didn’t ask for anything in return, but her eldest son is living in the house
too, remember? Just a simple act of vacuuming the floor also he cannot perform.
In the end, we, the tenants have to do all those stuffs for them. Does this
really make any sense? She got paid by us and we still had to do the
housework!! Phwaaaar………….Better than maid lahhhhh!! Her second son will be back
from honeymoon, and we thought that things will turn out right when the
newly-weds take over the jobs. However, we got a big shock of our lives when we
first met the couple. The “wife” is like a little kiddo trapped inside a
woman’s body, simply childish. In just a few days, the whole house had turned
upside down and the place was in a mess. It was very annoying especially when
she screamed and guffawed nonsensically with her piercing and flirtatious voice
during morning hours when people are still sleeping away. Hello, we are working
night shift okay? We finally managed to tell her off and she immediately
silenced down thereafter till now. It works! It actually works! Haha… We
thought that every cloud has a silver lining. Who would have guessed that when
the cat has been tamed, there is still a wild tiger waiting to pounce on you?
This is now.
My respect for the landlady a.k.a.
the tiger had since subsided and had turned into hatred as she began to show
her true colour of using people in times of need, and disposing them off when
not in use. Whenever she required your help, mostly in terms of transport and
communication purposes, she would treat you nicely, smiled at you, and talked to
you in a very cordial and well-mannered way. After achieving her main goals,
she would just chuck you away like an old piece of junk, not even a slightest
bit of gratitude or acknowledgement. If you rejected her requests, she wouldn’t
speak even a word or greet you. Sometimes, she would tell you a story and the
very next time, she would tell a complete different version of the story. Talk
about a two-faced hypocrite, she deserves this “title” more than anyone we
knew! Ten years in NZ, she cannot even speak a word of English! The same goes
to her sons. Is getting a PR in NZ so damn lenient that it doesn’t require the
migrant to be equipped with at least Standard English proficiency? Can someone
really survive in a native Angmoh speaking country without knowing Angmoh? How
the hell she did it? You guess it - Thick-skin and selfishness. She never felt
ashamed for bugging around asking for assistance and causing trouble to other
people. She was fortunate because her friends (and tenants) are sincere enough
to lend a hand. I really hoped she wouldn’t treat her friends as a “tool” as
they are earnest in helping her out.
She is a Christian. Can you believe
it? But her main purpose of going to the church is not for prayer. Remember that
I mentioned she brought us to collect some free bread in the church? Well, we
only took the amount that is sufficient for us. On the other hand, she took
more than what she can eat and stored the rest in the freezer. To our horror,
the whole freezer was packed with bread; some might have even been kept for
several months!! Her greedy character also made her stocked up lots of
vegetables which in the end will rot and be thrown away. I couldn’t figure out
what kind of mentality is that but it is surely a disgusting act for wastage of
the food when there are people who are still starving in this world. Just a
word of advice: If you
have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily. Another thing was that she kept asking us to
bring back kiwifruits for her. Boxes after boxes we have brought back, but she
insisted for more even though there are tons of it still left intact in the
garage. She would sort out the good fruits and keep for herself, while the bad
ones will be “donated” back to us or to the church. How “noble” that is!! She
thought she had done a good deed but that will only demoralized herself.
That wasn’t the worst. Then and
again, she loves to enter our rooms while we are away to work just to open the
windows. We had to endure the chillness lingering in our rooms when we came
back from work in the dusk. The weather is turning cold, yet she still refuse
to start the fireplace. Fine, we told her off and she stopped opening the
windows, yet she still keeps entering our rooms while we are gone. For whaaaaat????
Is that legal??? She could actually be sued for trespassing!! We paid the rent
and reserved the right to have our own privacy. Finally, we discovered that she
had been scouting around our kiwifruits and actually stole them while we were
away. Phwaaaar……………Damn ridiculous right? Stealing kiwifruits!! You’ll laugh
until you roll down from your bed onto the floor, and then keep rolling some more.
The moment you’ll stop laughing is only when you bang your head onto the wall. She
thought we are fools who hailed from Timbuktu and would never discover the
truth is it? But the fact is you don’t need a genius to catch a rat! Behaving
like a thief in her own house is really condemning and humiliating. I thought I
would take pity on her for having pampered, useless sons that can’t even manage
the humblest thing on earth – taking care of the family. But right now, that’s
a complete different story.
I shunned to contemplate of what
more else will happen in this very house, with a stingy, greedy and selfish
landlady, who never had a sense of appreciation for all that we have done for
her! We trusted her but she chose to betray our trust. This is a wicked realm
full of sly people ready to swoop you up the moment you let your guards down.
You just have to be shrewd enough but at the same time, keep your conscience
clear. She’s doing it all the wrong way, probably nobody taught her to
differentiate between right and wrong. It is such a pity. However, I’ve learnt
a few good lessons. Experience is always a hard teacher because she gives the
test first, the lesson afterwards. Luckily, we just lost some kiwifruits.
Hahahahaha…..Who the hell on earth would be so interested in stealing fruits??
Oh yea…………you’ve got one here. LOL! Hopefully, we could just hang on for
another month’s time, then it will be all for good, again.
How despicable!! Period.
