THE DANGDUT LOVER

Our neighbour, Rhoma, is a Javanese man who would certainly help us keep things interesting. Rhoma is married, and, God bless, that isn’t the only thing he’s got going on the side. It is a bit of a mystery; he never got the memo that brightly coloured shirts with large blue and green trees on them all point to the 1980s. Rhoma does karaoke every weekend. True story. He has set up an actual stage in his backyard. It has lights and a professional-grade sound system. His voice booms out for thousands of yards. We all know it’s just Rhoma singing along—who knew he had a voice like that? He starts doing the hits. The classical dangdut hits. Unfortunately, because he is so good about it, most of the time many of us end up wandering out to the stage and serving as a rather unplanned audience for him. You've got to love how someone like this would add some humour or entertainment to the very fibres of the neighbourhood.