- after dark -

currently listening to - Avril Lavigne
mood - sleepy

there are loads of exciting and interesting stuff which can only be done or found after darkness has fallen. like... this... and that... you know. hey, are you thinking about something horny? i'm not talking about that. *tsk tsk tsk*

*bash*

i remember when we lived in our previous terrace house, the family who stayed directly behind us was made up of verbally abusive people. especially the son who was in his last year of kindergarten, as well as the father (judged from his voice. i've never met them in my entire life before.). usually at night or early in the morning, the son would cry and shriek loudly, and when he'd reached his peak, he would start shouting at everyone with foul languages. there was once when he got mad at his maid and bombarded her with words from her native language which meant something vulgar (dad got so upset he shouted back at the impudent kid).

the father, on the other hand, didn't cry or shriek (err, i'll call the police if he'd done that), and he wasn't that frequent as compared to his son, but whenever he became mad, he would throw tantrums around and bellow non-stop (spitting vulgarities as well) till people living at the ends of the road were able to hear him clearly. i wonder if that had any effect on our mental health.

more than a year ago, we shifted to another house located nearer to my sister's school. this time, among the members of the family staying right behind us, it's the mother who's hysterical. almost every night, she would make her children sit at the dining table (which was fairly close to our kitchen) and study. now, i don't disagree that she's a responsible mother (my mom let us live and eat and play and die freely). however... almost every night, she would scream at her children (most of the time, her son) for not being able to solve simple mathematical questions or score full marks for her self-conducted spelling tests. when she's reached her peak, she would start speaking in tongues. yeap, she literally talks gibberish when she's hysterical.

the effects of her squealing at people can be found easily. for instance, when asked to practice piano, her daughter wouldn't bang at the keyboard - instead, she would repeat the same few bars of Fur Elise over and over and over and over and over and over again, slowly and correctly, for a few hours until she's satisfied.

another effect can be seen - or more accurately, "heard" - from my immediate neighbours. they, too, followed the footsteps of the "education mama", snarling and swearing at each other every now and then. coincidentally, these actions are only carried out after sunset. but of course, they haven't reached the nirvana state at which they begin gibbering like squirrels.

there's another after-dark occurrence, but i doubt that this has got anything to do with the abovementioned lady. there's.. this.. dog...... which belongs to someone living next to the very same "education mama" (or maybe she's the one who's keeping it). very often, after nightfall, its owner would keep it near the backyard (which is very near our kitchen. and my room's right above the kitchen.). then. it would start yelping pitifully for hours. till daybreak. it's not that the dog's not used to the surroundings or what. it's been yelping ever since we moved in.

because of these happenings, we're always thankful that our family's been very tame and nice towards each other. i mean, we don't yell at each other that much (no doubt we do argue, sometimes.), and even if we're upset, our anger will die down very quickly. as for me, i've come to realize that being a light-sleeper is sometimes a disadvantage.