Love Thy Neighbor

I don't know how we do it, but we always end up with over-the-top neighbors.

Here is a list of all my different neighbors since moving to this country:

• First up are some Chinese students *living above us* always making some kind up dancing routine after midnight.
• Second was a Italian man who always poked his ceiling with a brush every time I was hoovering (regardless of time of day I did this).
• Third was a social South African couple who would not understand why we didn't want to join in on their parties with our newborn baby.
• Fourth (semi-detached house) was the loudest little human being I have ever heard. This little boy screamed from dusk til dawn and his parents didn't seem to notice.
• Fifth was the manor-style-house-in-fancy-suburb-neighbors who after crawling through the bushes screaming to us that I was not allowed to use the hose during the water ban (If I'd had a pool like our neighbors, it was not against the law to fill it will hundreds and hundreds of liters of water, but here I was sprinkling a little bit on my flowers and *yes, I confess* a few seconds on my 4year-old son during a 32degrees hot day). When we responded with letting her know that her son usually has parties while they are away and that he and his friends have a habit of taking their party across our garden, we suddenly started receiving greetings like a bag ot French fries poured on our doorstep on a Sunday morning..
• Our sixth neighbor ignored us completely, we were renting on a private road for goodness sake, so it's all understandable..
• Our former neighbor has just started to climb the list of most annoying neigbors:

She has developed a bit of a habit of ringing our door bell ever so often. She usually has opened some of our mail and I constantly get excuses. Funnily enough she never opens any of our electrical bills or council tax, this should be the kind of mail you easily could mixed up, but it is always something a little bit extra like the mail addressed to me as Company Director or something similarly worth digging into. *yes, it does sound fancy, doesn't it? Out of 2 people in our company, we have 2 company directors!*

Fortunately she doesn't live here all the time, her husband works inte Middle East, so she is going back and forth.

The past couple of days she's been back and O have managed to run into her a couple of times. The other day she and the father of four from the lower ground floor flat was standing outside our house talking.

Our downstairs lady introduced the man to O as "This is X, he lives in the basement" *they have the most glossy magazine look-gorgeous courtyard outside and from what I have seen through the windows *yes, I am trying to get a little peek every time I pass by!* it looks fab!

The polite lower ground floor neighbor turns to O and says: "Oh, how nice to meet you. Bla..blaa..Have you managed to unpack yet?"

When O laughs a little and says: No, no way near! our lady downstairs looks startled and let them both know that she is very surprised over this fact.

The nice man asks O what the flat is like, if it has the same layout as the flat of our downstairs neighbor. Upon O opening his mouth she exclaims: "Well, basically the layout is about the same, but the ceiling is much lower, it is more...ehum...propoooortionate"

*Our flat is double the size of hers, but yes, I would estimate that her ceiling height is ca 1feet higher than ours*.

Today she came round our flat again, just letting me know that she is leaving for the Middle East and can I let the "basement family" know if there are any problems?

"And, we must get together when you have *trying to look over my shoulder* finally managed to get yourselves organized."

*can't wait!*

Comment of the day: C, when studying his plate when I have served dinner: "Are these peas?" and exclaims when I am nodding: "Puh! *a Swedish sigh of relief* I thought it was stones!