Bad Neighbours


The weather has taken a bit of a turn.
The houses, cottages and bungalows of the village seem to cling the side of Gop Hill as driving rain and gales rush in from the North West and the dogs' midday walk was cut short as all they walked to do was to turn their backs to the wind.
I only saw one person when we were out and she waved briefly as she ran for her car. I wondered if things had settled down for her, for the last time we spoke she told me of a rather unfortunate altercation she had with her neighbour soon after the new year.
The fall out was " something and nothing" over a shared right of way, but the whole thing had been exacerbated by alcohol , as the neighbour had been drinking heavily during the day.
Apparently the police were eventually called to pour oil on the waters.

I understood the difficulty felt, as once, when I was selling raffle tickets on afternoon, I had to deal with a rather unpleasant moment with the neighbour who, obviously relaxed after a couple of wines, felt that she could refuse my polite request with a brusqueness which bordered on rudeness.
Some people a mean drunks, plain and simple.

We once lived for a short time in a cottage which backed onto some social housing. Our then neighbour lived a somewhat chaotic lifestyle, in which alcohol, drugs loud partying and even louder arguments were the norm and I remember very well, that awful pit in the stomach feeling when doors were banged and shouting in the night woke you up.

Our neighbours now couldn't be better. Mandy & Sailor John have often cared for the field when we are away. Trendy Carol's dogs play wonderfully with ours and Old Trevor demands nothing more than the occasional request for me to to some heavy lifting for him ( he is 94! ) so I can understand The Prof's worry of who will eventually reside on the plot of land which has been just put up for sale, right in the centre of our corner of the village.
" Let's hope they are not riff raff!" The Prof commentated the other day

40 comments:

  1. Oh boy, the stories we can tell about neighbors, no ? :)
    In Buenos Aires, we were dismayed to find that the quiet nice couple who lived below us were actually growing to hate each other and only seemed to fight about it at some ungodly hour of the morning. Waking with heart pounding to them fighting then him slamming his way out the door was dreadful.
    I hate to admit to my relief and yes, happiness, when he finally had enough and walked out for good.
    Not that long after, she left and the new tenants were silent.
    I mean, the kind of silent that I was shocked when I found out that they were living right below me !
    I am a good neighbor .. these are the lessons that taught me what not to do. And my cats don't bark :)

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    1. Hahahahahah your cats don't bark but I once had a neighbor who cat sprayed my small garden and front door often. I had no pets and worked all day. Leaving and coming home to that smell was awful.
      His male cat was his and would not be fixed ever ! They looked alike. The smell was beyond horrible.

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  2. Anonymous1:27 pm

    Lived in a tiny flat in Cambridge many years ago, and for a while one of the other flats was occupied by a bloke who was obviously dealing, judging by all the shady characters that kept coming by.
    He also stank so bad that whenever the door was opened, the smell would pervade every nook and cranny of the common areas; it really was foul. Then there was the loud music until the small hours...
    One evening the junkie that was staying with him locked herself out, so she broke a window to get in.
    We called the cops, saying there was a break-in, who turned up mob-handed and dragged her away kicking and screaming. She ended up in a secure institution.
    They must have found plenty of 'evidence' in the flat because 'Mr Whiffy' (as we named him) was gone within a few days.
    It took contractors weeks to clear, defumigate, and do repairs before the place was habitable again.
    Hope we never find ourselves in THAT situation again!

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  3. Yes I am enjoying lovely helpful neighbours after a house move 2 years ago . They are great putting my wheels bin and back in if I am delayed at work , I try and reciprocate when I can .
    The neighbour on one side of our old house was very mercurial.......could totally blank you a week and then I'd notice he had quietly mended our garden gate and was so dismiss of my thanks .......' there's nowt so queer as folks ' as we say in these parts :-)

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  4. I use the Robert Frost approach "Good fences make good neighbors". Actually, for two queer guys in the middle of a very conservative, rural NEPA county, we do quite well. People are friendly. They like what we've done with the house and yard and gardens, but afterall we ARE gay, what were they expecting, runway lights? That'll come next year..bwaahahahahahahahahaha We've more or less adopted next door crazy cat lady's two cats and renamed them Butterball and Malty. Once you feed and name them, they're yours, just like men...........

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  5. I literally moved into a tiny hamlet of 180 homes, picked a unit available and moved in. I am so fortunate in my neighbors, but then I take people as I find them, and don't cross any bad paths.

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  6. My neighbors are all there for us should we need them and vice versa. However, I do wish that one of them would take down her Trump/Pence sign now. She also has a sign in her yard stating, "He is Risen!" which has been there since Easter years ago.
    Hopeful thinking, that.

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    1. I am lucky, where I live at the moment, signs are not allowed in yards. :)

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    2. There are some Trump/Pence signs up in town here also. But this is Texas, after all. I still see bumper stickers for McCain/Palin and Bush/Cheney. A woman who swims at the same pool as I do has "Catholics for Romney" and "Life begins in the womb" plastered on her car. The ones that get me are the "Secede" stickers. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.

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  7. We have new neighbours on both sides so invited them in on New Year's Day and had a great evening. We had the neighbour from Hell when we lived in Spain but I regularly got revenge on her by doing petty things which made me smile a lot x

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  8. Anonymous2:46 pm

    Well, they say you attract into your life that which you need. So, maybe, the Prof's anxiously anticipated "riff raff" neighbours will provide you with ample material for many an anecdote to relate on your blog. What do you expect when you call it "Disasterfilm"? Going gently indeed. And nothing wrong with the odd slammed door. You don't even have to be drunk to raise your voice. If you want peace and quiet at ALL times I'd recommend to move to the middle of nowhere or, in absence of a desert nearby, a silent retreat.

    To cite Sartre (a man I would have loathed to have as a neighbour): "Hell is other people". Which, by definition, makes us all hell.

    U

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  9. Why not buy the plot yourselves and then you would not have to worry who was going to live there.

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    1. Good idea Mrs Weaver. With building permission in place it would be a shrewd investment.

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  10. Wish you were my neighbour, John...

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    1. Me too ! let's all join together and by the houses next door to John ! :)
      Yes, I know, a Brilliant idea.

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  11. I had a vile neighbour many years ago when single I lived in the flat above her and she was ooooold. Middle of the night she would bang on her ceiling and shout stop it! I later found out from the neighbours that I had men queuing up all night. I wish..

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  12. Lovely neighbors are a blessing. We have wonderful neighbors to the right of us and across the street. The house on the left, not so much. They had a huge confrontation with my husband (who is the easiest man to get along with in the world). They've been pretty testy ever since but we are really good at ignoring them except when the wind is blowing from the west. They like to light up their cigarettes and smoke near the fence so the smoke drifts towards our pool and BBQ area.

    Would you like to buy their house? You would be very welcome to join us in the neighborhood!

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  13. I haven't heard the term "riff raff" in years! I hope you are fortunate and get good, long-term neighbours on that lot of land.

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  14. Good neighbors are worth their weight in gold.

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  15. Or at least, if they ARE riff raff, they are friendly riff raff.

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  16. I have been lucky with neighbours at all three houses. The ones I have now are all friendly. Only one gripe, the new people opposite have one car and one transit van which they park on their side. Another car has appeared and the van was parked right in front of my small front garden, blocking my view. I hope that is not going to be a regular occurrence. I like to watch people coming and going, I'm a nosy beggar.

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  17. Bad neighbors can ruin everything. We've been mostly very fortunate but have had two experiences that immediately made us want to move. I hope the Prof gets his wish.

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  18. I am so lucky to have good neighbors on either side and across the street.

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  19. It isn't riff-raff who scare me.
    I am lucky now, but have had neighbours with tendencies to loud, drunken and dangerous fights.

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  20. Your TV programing is quite different! LOL.
    No real close neighbors here.

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  21. I have an awful neighbour - she leans over onto my side to cut my trees! She hates all trees! Cuts the neighbours trees the other side too - I've told her so many times that she can only cut to the boundary line but she ignores that and does what she wants.
    She's a dirty cow - she only washes her sheets twice a year - they are grey (should be white), never opens her windows to let in fresh air, but will happily climb into her council bin to wash it out on a Saturday night and she's even gone outside and spray cleaned the yellow parking line in the street outside her house! - she's a dental nurse....wouldn't let her or or anything the dirty madams touched get anywhere near me - not the full ticket by a long way - hate her xx

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  22. I hate to say it John but I think WE were the neighbours from hell for a time. Oh we were always friendly and helpful to our neighbours (and vice versa) but as my ex started drinking more and more and staying out later and later, he would come home raring for a fight so they would get to listen to the screaming match or just him arguing with himself. My neighbour was telling me how lovely it has been since he moved out (yeah, tell me about it). But I have to admit I have great neighbours and we all really are there for each other. Bliss. Anna

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  23. Our neighbor pulled a gun on my sister when we asked him to move his trailer from our side yard so we could mow. Spent the money and got a fence. His wife killed herself. He is on probation and that house has new neighbors with noisy grandchildren. Ah well...how much is the lot selling for. Wendy and i and demon puss can build a cottage, promise to be quiet, watch the dogs and fix you some good southern cooking. Can also turn a hand at some good creole cooking. See you soon!!!

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  24. My kid and are are surrounded by old folks. Oh and we love it, they just don't party!

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  25. I've heard of racists, sexists... even ageists but never riffraffists. Shame on The Prof!

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  26. We've recently had to move my now-86yr old mother from her beautiful home with beautifully tended (by herself)garden to get her away from the psycho who lived next door, after many confrontations,silent phone calls, threats from her Asperger's son, police intervention (they always took her side because she's a nutjob and they felt sorry for her via her son's disability),dogs barking at all times of the day and night or when we were trying to spend a pleasant Summer's afternoon out in the garden. Something had to give before I strangled the bitch so we felt the best option was to get my Mother out of there. She bought a lovely little bungalow with very nice neighbours who now look out for her and with whom I've exchanged phone numbers in case of emergency. Oh, and FYI, I live in 'social housing'. My neighbours are diamonds and none of us are 'riff-raff'.

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  27. You can have my neighbors, if you want to. The lovely Hickmans never pick up the poo in their back yard, deposited there by their 3 dogs. You do the math on how many piles you have at the end of just one week. When you tell them that it stinks, they are highly offended. Want them?

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  28. I'd love to buy that plot. I think we'd get along great but the Prof would probably consider us riff raff

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  29. I have neighbors that fight, not so much now that they're older, but there were times when he'd felt the need to take out his anger up and down the street, shrieking obscenities until the police arrived.

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  30. My FIL just passed and we have decided to move into his home just to get away from riff raff. Unfortunately our neighborhood had fallen on hard times during the recession. But now it doesn't seem to be turning around. So, we have a chance to get out and we are taking it. But I like my home of 40 years.

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  31. I had good neighbors for years, then they all left. The replacements have varied over time. Right now, there is only one nosey rosey in the bunch and I avoid her.

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  32. Good neighbours are a blessing; bad neighbours are a pain.

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  33. Our next door neighbours are horrible!
    She's a nosey, mouthy, unbelieveably ignorant cow, he's just a pig....they're referred to by all the residents of our road as 'Twatman and Gobshite'!

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