Whenever we mention a gated guarded housing development, high maintenance always come up in our mind. For those who never live in such housing development, they rarely spent some time to do logical analysis. Most of the time, people think irrationally and strongly influence by their emotion. Since, I have been living in a gated guarded house for the past two and a half months, it is time for me to make the comparison between the two type of housing development.
My previous house is a none gated nor guarded housing development. But it has been in existence for the past twenty years. The area has been expended from merely hundreds of population to become more than five thousand people. When I moved in the house, there were about five blocks of shop office in the area. Now there are almost twenty blocks of shop office in the area. Two more blocks are in the completion process. In addition, there is a shopping complex now known as U-Mall. Initially, the businesses were struggling in the mall. There were many empty spaces. Now, business are prospering and well known brands are around such as miniplex, Mr DIY, First Lady, Giant, and others.
The public enmities are also good today. The mosque can be filled by about one thousand and five hundred people. The mosque is systematically managed especially during important periods such as Ramadhan, and Hari Raya Korban. There is one big public complex in development process next to the mosque. There are two main playgrounds with good facilities. The sidewalks are constantly being upgraded to provide better service to the pedestrian. While the bus service is always available.
But the most important thing why I bought the house is because it is very close to my work place. It took between five to ten minutes to reach my work place. The distance and traffic flow are important to save fuel consumption and travel time.
If the place is so good, why I decided to move in to a new house? I don't feel secured anymore living in the place since 2012. Granted, after two months I moved in the house in 2000, my house was broke in during daylight. My sister in law was robbed. But she was not harmed. The area safety was stabilized a couple of years after that. In 2011, the number of houses break in keep increasing again. The final straw was when a house of ten graduate students were robbed in 2012 while it was still early at night. It was about 10pm. Since that day, I determined to find a better place to live. I decided to find an affordable gated guarded housing development.
I love to plant trees and vegetables. The previous house is an intermediate terrace house. But, there are empty land at the front of the house. I successfully planted a few trees such as Kuini and Rambutan. I wished my to buy a house with a lot of extra land to plant fruit trees, vegetable and most importantly herbs. Since, I already turned into 40's, it is important for me to learn to cultivate herb trees which can treat my previous and foreseeable future illness.
It is harder to be active in sport when you are aging. But, I love to swim. It is good for health without endangering your feet and knees. 10 minutes swim is like 30 minutes jogging. It is very good for the lungs. I also wish to teach my children to swim. It is for basic survival needs. These are the reasons I always opt for hotels with a swimming pool.
Those were my wish list regardless whether I can afford it or not at the time. Looking back at my income at the time, I definitely cannot afford it since my mindset at the time regarding a gated guarded housing development was almost the same like other people. But, you cannot achieve anything without any dream. Like Martin Luther King said, I have a dream.... where now almost all his dreams were realized by his next generations. I also have my dream house. Whether I can achieve it or how to achieve it are different issues.
We must always dreams for a better life and work for them!
