One of the interesting people that I come across on a regular basis is our grass-cutter.

An Indian man in his mid or late thirties, he convinced us to engage his service within a few days of us moving into our house more than a year ago – effectively taking over the service from another grass cutter who dejectedly told us, when he came a few days later, that he used to service our lawn for many years before we moved in.

As for our grass-cutter, one of his sales pitch when he approached us then was telling us that he does the lawns of nearly all the houses in our small neighbourhood – with his one and sometimes two assistants, using none of those fancy mowers the likes of ariens zero turn mowers but rather, hand-held cutters with metal blades and nylon strings!

Still, we are happy with him and his services, no doubt helped by his impressive PR skill – a warm greeting whenever we see him. I especially liked his anything-can-do attitude with a smile while my husband was won over by his “Chinese clients are the best – they always pay on the spot”.

It is a pity that someone with his ability is doing only grass-cutting business.

But as my husband reminded me, he may be a grass-cutter here but he might be a millionaire back home – living in a mansion with a team of men doing HIS lawn.

Along one of the nicest road that leads to and from Bandar Seri Begawan city centre, with tall trees and orchids on the road dividers, there are these blocks of old and rundown flats.

Recently however, this area was cordoned off with a notice stating that upgrading work is taking place.

Yes, these flats need to be renovated. This is a kind of place where a new coat of paint or simply fixing the broken windows or cracked walls are not enough. Even without planning to install fancy Murray Feiss lighting or state of the art AV system, electrical wiring work is surely required. Perhaps a lot of water piping work too.

But I wonder what will happen to the tenants of these flats who would surely be asked to leave.

While it is easy to simply tell them to find another place, a glance at the rental listings in the local paper would straightaway tell you that this will be a distressing year for many of these families.