Neighbours. Everybody needs good neighbours. I heard that somewhere.
We have some lovely neighbours. We have some not so lovely neighbours. And we have everything in between. The good, the bad and the thoughtless. The complete cast, soap-opera ready.
Would you like to meet them?
The Good
We live beside a little old lady, her daughter and her granddaughter. We hardly see the daughter, but when we do, she stops for a chat. She tells us about her mum, her daughter, and anything that might be interesting.
We often see her mother. She speaks with a strong Italian accent, peppering her speech with endearments. Hello, dear. Nice to see you, love. You look beautiful, Ashleigh sweetie. Like a real princess, dear.
She bakes cookies and brings them over. She brings our rubbish bins in once the truck comes past in the morning. After years of hearing renovation noise from our place, she came over one day to warn us that there would be some men with chainsaws in her backyard one day, and to apologise in advance for the noise that may wake Mitchell.
A section of the fence we share with them has been down for more than a year so we can build a garage. Construction has not yet started on it. They’ve not complained about the lack of fence once.
They are better neighbours than we deserve. We try to make up for it by mowing their nature strip when we mow ours (and that of the neighbour the next house over). Once or twice I’ve even managed to beat them to the bins after the truck has been.
Once or twice in almost eight years.
The Bad
On the other side live a rotating cast of characters. The only casting requirement for filling the role of ‘neighbour on the other side’ is that the applicant must love noise, with a preference for those trying to make it as musicians.
I love music. I love listening to it. I love creating it. But not all noise is music. Two hours of ‘Smoke on the Water’ riff practice is not music. Three hours of attempted singing that sounds like strangled cat impersonations is not music.
No noise of any description is music at 3.00 in the morning. 4.00 in the morning.
The swearing that is directed at me when I dare to knock on the door at said times to ask them to keep it down? Definitely not musical. Nor were the comments directed me as I waddled past the house on walks with Ashleigh in the later stages of my pregnancy with Mitchell. (Common decency is clearly not a casting requirement.)
They are worse neighbours than we deserve. We’ve called the police dozens of times, and complained to the council six times. They have been sent a list of noise restrictions and a half-hearted warning.
That’ll learn ’em!
The Thoughtless
We live opposite a family hell-bent on security. Their car has an alarm. Their house. For all I know, their every possession is linked to a security system of some sort.
Their house alarm goes off about five times a day. That probably sounds like an exaggeration. But, if anything, I’m underestimating. It’s ridiculous. And it’s loud.
Their car alarm goes off less frequently. Or possibly not – since it doesn’t spend most of its time at the house, and I seem to hear it at least once a day, it possibly goes off at regular intervals wherever it spends the majority of its time. Presumably at the owner’s place of employment.
I have asked the neighbours if they might possibly consider perhaps just maybe not setting the house alarm. Surely the false alarms are a waste of time? And money, if there is a security company involved?
“Sure,” was the response. “But I’d rather eighty false alarms and catch the bad guys the eighty-first time, than miss them altogether.”
Right. Clearly, that neighbour has something very valuable in their possession. I’m guessing it’s not a copy of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’.
But hey. It probably evens out the renovation noise we’ve been spreading about the neighbourhood for the last four years.
These are the neighbours we probably most deserve. Because, while we like to think we’re lovely neighbours, when it comes down to it, we’re probably just as thoughtless.
What are your neighbours like? And what are you like as a neighbour?
Linking this post with The Lounge, being hosted this week by the lovely Tegan at Musings of the Misguided.
The best neighbors are the ones you smile at and say “How’s it going?” Too friendly can end up being a problem so you have to take it slow. Your “Musicians” are bad, and there is not much you can do about it…that sucks.
The little old lady baking cookies…Priceless!
She is most definitely priceless. We hit the jackpot there.
I wondered where our music playing former neighbours went to!
Haha, PLEASE take them back!
We are lucky to have good neighbours both sides but across the road in one of the units is they are ratbags. They don’t cause too much trouble but sometimes the swearing and parties get out of hand. Polite friendly neighbours are the best.
Aaargh, swearing. I’m okay with the occasional party or loud night, but all the time is just too much.
How sweet of the lady next door to bake you cookies! I don’t think I could handle the alarms people though. We have people across the road who play country music loud enough that I’m sure they can hear it on the other side of town some days!
Thanks for linking up with us at The Lounge!
The alarm is very alarming. Doesn’t help that the little fella’s room is at the front of the house. He’s the first to hear it when it goes off!
Our neighbour opposite has just invited me to a girls cancer fundraising evening next Friday. We are new to the area and she thought it would be a good opportunity to meet a few neighbours. Looking forward to it. xxx Rae
Enjoy! Sounds like a great way to meet people.
We’re the evil musicians!! Haha only unlike many you can’t hear our music outside the house and we abide by usual local council noise times. One side of me is a quiet elderly lady & her elderly dog. The other side are strange – when they first moved in, they renovated a LOT and it was annoyingly endless & at times that were blatantly wrong – like 5am Sunday for a nailgun! They also have a howling dog & grandchildren who like to tease our dog. Needless to say, I don’t like that side much!
Not evil at all if you stick to the council times! And while I have no doubt that our renovation is annoying, we absolutely only did it when we were allowed to. (I will admit that included starting on the dot of 7.00 in the morning.)
We hardly interact with our neighbours on either side of us – but they’re okay, except when the renters to our left used to have 6 cars parks out front – grrr. Behind us, slightly elevated are dicks, horrible dicks that used to throw beer bottle caps over in to our yard when our house was being built. Still dickheads whose kids are now old enough to climb fence and perve when we’re in our pool – hate ’em xx
Yuck, that doesn’t sound fun at all!
Love the sound of your little old lady neighbour – I had one very similar who, when we first moved in, brought round tea and cake served in bone china cups and saucers and a teapot with a woolly tea cosy – she passed away 2 years ago but in the time we lived near each other we became fast friends – mostly Im lucky with my other neighbours and we live and let live.
Nawwww, china cups and a tea cosy! Lovely. Live and let live. That’s an excellent neighbour motto.
We are stuck between a family with 5 kids with a mother that screams like a banshee (probably understandable with 5 really close together!), they are the good ones…. on the other side an old guy who complains about everything (not that there is much to complain about we are really boring!) and plays music really loud most nights till 12 or 1!! We double glazed our windows to block him out and the traffic. We live in the inner city so we are all really close together…. it makes for interesting times!
Oooh, very interesting! Makes me feel like I shouldn’t complain!
I like to think of myself as a ‘neutral’ neighbour – I’m friendly if they’re friendly, but I don’t push myself onto them and don’t expect them to do the same to me – having said that, I always appreciate courtesy and try to help out my neighbours when I can, e.g take out their bins if they’re going away. I really dislike neighbours who have loud parties or do outdoor cooking that wafts into your house (the price of urbanisation and living in each other’s pockets!) and don’t consider kids or early shift workers.
Neutrality sounds great. I’d like that relationship where I feel comfortable asking my neighbours to take care of the bins and the mail when we’re away.
You could totally make a soap opera out of your neighbours – The Good, The Bad and The Thoughtless.
I love our neighbours next to us. As for the ones right above us? Totally inconsiderate, stupid douchebags.
I should write a soap opera script for NaNoWriMo! Is that allowed? x
I love the title of this post! The alarms used to drive me batty at my old place – so annoying.
Thanks, Robo. They’re grating on my nerves more and more with every passing day.
You’ve got a mixed bag there, Emily! I like Mamagoingsolo’s description of the ‘neutral’ neighbour. I think that’s my absolute preference and what I try to be. Mind you, a ‘good’ neighour is gold. x
A good neighbour is indeed gold. But comes with associated guilt at probably not being one myself!