Tag Archives: Neighbours

All Change

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I live in a row of terraced houses in a suburb of Birmingham with a set of neighbours on each side in the connecting properties. We’ve lived in this particular house for about 3 1/2 years, and while the residents have changed numerous times in the house to the left (which is a rental property like ours), the ones to the right have always been a nice couple that we’ve had a good relationship with.

The biggest problem with terraced housing is that the walls are often paper thin, meaning that even a basic conversation can be heard next door. A year ago I had a little rant about how noisy the new neighbours were – from the evening they moved in the music was cranked up and the parties started, but after having a conversation with one of the tenants he appeared with a bunch of flowers, an apology and his phone number with the instruction to text if they were being too loud. Continue reading →

The Kindness of Neighbours and Arnold, the Pot-Head Rescue Tortoise

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I was too busy telling Arnold how handsome he is to take a picture, but stick a pair of shades on this one and you get the idea…

I live in a street of terraced houses on both sides. The residents are a mixture of home-owners and renters, mainly comprising of young families, professionals and retirees. Generally (aside from my next-door neighbours who appear to be in training to become the next big DJ’s) it’s pretty quiet. We say hello, put the bins out for each other, take in each other’s packages, but aside from that we all pretty much keep ourselves to ourselves.

Today, The Bloke and I heard shouting outside. A man was pacing back and forth and banging on the doors and windows in front of a house across the road, getting more and more agitated when nobody would let him in and eventually he lost his temper. He kicked down a piece of the front wall down and launched it at the door with such force that it flew open, and then he ran away. Continue reading →

Sometimes, People Surprise Me: Noisy Neighbour Update

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Last night I was in a bit of a mess. We had been subjected to excessive noise from our new neighbours, and because of the awful experience we have had in the past I ended up having a full blown anxiety attack.

I decided to bite the bullet and spoke to one of the lads this morning. I timed it so I caught up with him when he was leaving the house for work and asked him (in my most disgustingly nice and polite voice) if he had a few minutes. I explained about what had happened at the previous house and why this still has such an impact on us now. Continue reading →

Just. Shut. Up.

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Three years ago, The Bloke and I were renting a really nice terraced house. It was smaller than the one we’re in now, but it was cosy, with neutral decor and a nice landlord. Unfortunately, the walls were so thin that it was possible to hear someone sneeze next door. The first neighbour we had was a nasty woman, who spent her time screaming at her toddler, who cried all the time. After one particularly bad afternoon during the summer holidays, when I had spent the majority of the day listening to her constant yelling, I screamed at her to shut up through the wall. The shouting stopped immediately, and within the next week she moved out without telling the landlord – she just packed up and left. I don’t think my yelling at her would have been enough to cause that reaction, but I was torn by worry for the child and relief that I didn’t have to hear her voice any more. That was the first time I had ever experienced anything like that – I’d always been lucky to have nice neighbours and while there was occasionally some noise it certainly never bothered me before. Continue reading →

Derek’s Happy Ending

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imageImagine this: It’s Saturday afternoon and you’re at home, minding you’re own business, when you hear a knock at the door. You open it and find a rather a dishevelled looking woman standing on your doorstep, who promptly asks:

“Excuse me, I’m sorry to bother you, but have you lost a chicken?”

My neighbours must have thought I was a little strange yesterday. The Bloke and I were desperately trying to find the owner of the chicken (that I named Derek – despite the fact that I have now been informed that Derek is actually a girl chicken…) that had appeared suddenly in our back garden and the only way we could think to do so would be to go and knock on the neighbours houses and see if they could give us any information.

As luck would have it, the chicken’s owners had posted a note through one of the doors and so we were able to locate them fairly quickly. They were quite relieved – they had intitially  thought that a fox may have eaten it – came round to our house to pick it up and I was actually a little emotional at how delighted Derek (whose real name is actually Amy) was to see them! It is obviously treated very well and ran over, clucking away, which I was really pleased to see…

So, all’s well that ends well – Amy the chicken found it’s home and my neighbours think i’m a weirdo…

Just an average Saturday afternoon in my household!

I Am Not A Stalker…

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Quite a few years ago I was walking down the high street with a friend and he pointed out a man on the other side of the road, explaining that he used to play rugby with him. He was quite distinctive in the fact that he was very tall and well-built, sporting neat dreadlocks and had quite broad facial features. He instantly reminded me of a member of the New Zealand ‘All Blacks’ rugby team.

Since that moment, this man has appeared in my life frequently. He and his partner lived around the corner from our old house and he would leave his property at the same time every morning, so we often drove past him on the way to work. A few years ago he started to leave the house with a small child in tow, and then a little while later a second child followed. Continue reading →

Neighbours From Hell

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This is going to sound a little more of a rant than usual, but after being woken up at four in the morning by my noisy b*tch neighbour on the only potential day I could have had a lie in I’m feeling really angry.

She’s a young single mother and she moved in next door with her little boy about six months ago. I live in a terraced house and the walls are so thin it’s possible to hear everything that goes on, even quiet conversations when she’s on the phone, so we have to turn our TV up to block it out. At first, she was fairly quiet, but recently on Wednesdays and at weekends she’s turned her house into ‘party central’ and it’s beginning to get on my nerves. Last night she turned up with no less than six other people at 4.00am who decided to drunkenly scream and shout until they left at 5.30am. It wouldn’t have been too bad if I hadn’t had to be at work today from 9.30 until 5 for rehearsals for a show that we’re putting on next week, so I am shattered.

Continue reading →