Looks nice - a fairly new estate somewhere in a small village where everyone likes to go about their own business. They say you can choose your friends but unfortunately you cannot choose your relations. This is also a problem, but there is another aspect of this saying. You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your neighbours. Neighbours is more luck than anything else. I must say that all my neighbours are friendly people, going about their daily business and minding their own business.
I did once mention our meeting that we have once a year to discuss various "problems" that may arise and mentioned Mr. Black, also know as Mr. Loud Mouth, who likes to organise things. He usually has the mandate for his next door neighbour. She never attends the meetings and probably no-one else would carry the responsibility of representing such a person. This next door neighbour is a widow and has a son. Now this son has never really had a job to go to every day. He is around 30 years old. He did try to move out once but came back again. He has been known to do strange things in town with the result that in one store he is not even allowed to enter. If he uses the lift you notice it by the smell of a joint afterwards. Sometimes he even throws the smoked joints into other peoples gardens. However, they are a honourable family so you just put up with it.
His mother tends to beat her carpets over the balcony, making a dust cloud which tends to fall upon the people living at the bottom. Once she set fire to her balcony flower trough at Christmas by burning a candle in between the holly. One of the neighbours called up to her what was happening, but she strolled out to the balcony, took the plant in and said we shouldn't make such a fuss. Mr. Black and his wife find she is ok as a neighbour and has no problems with her.
It may be that we can ignore this lady, but not her son. There was a small problem some time ago with another neighbour because he had put furniture in the corridor to dry out after we had flooding, which absolutely bothered no-one. She decided to verbally attack those neighbours (very nice people) and my other half asked why she has to bother them all the time, after all the furniture would only be there for a couple of days. Her son came down the stairs and helped his mother by threatening the neighbour and my husband with his fists and remarked we can settle the problem outside. Luckily the neighbour just laughed and my husband refrained from continuing the conversation. The best was that the mother of this street fighting son thanked him for supporting his mother and coming to her rescue. There was no question of rescue, there was an argument going on and not an assassination.
We all went home, but the son decided to remove the furniture and throw it around and give it a few kicks. Everything on photo now, but believe me there is nothing you can do. Through the legal advice of one of my family members (my son), he said unless the police actually see it, they will do nothing and if you process it could pull itself into infinity, cost a lot of money and the only people that get anything out of it are the lawyers.
The neighbour's son now has a new game, probably because he is bored not having anything to do all day. He likes to listen to very loud rock music (of a certain kind that I associate with a certain type of right wing political party). Lots of four letter words in it and he sings loudly along with it. Even Mr. Black must here it, but up to now Mr. Black has made no comments. Last week the son chopped up some wood outside for his mother. I don't think he was very happy about it. As he was chopping he spoke in a very loud voice, muttering stupid things which everyone heard to the extent that a neighbour said to us she realises what we have to put up with. Thank goodness it seems that people are waking up.
There was also the occasion where the wife of our neighbour was waiting for the local train and son No. 1 was also there. He did not hesitate to play with a knife all the time.
What do you do with such a young man in the house. Basically ignore him and just hope that eventually he will smoke so many joints that he will go on a trip and never come back. I wonder if his mother still thinks that her son is such a wonderful person. I did hear that they do have a misunderstanding now and again. His mother does sometimes mix up things between what actually was said and happened, to what she thinks was said and what happened.
A week or so ago she wrote an e-mail to the people running our places complaining that it is just not tidy where we are. Gardens that look like allotments, people that have b-b-q grills outside and articles of clothing that hang around. It just doesn't fit into the surroundings, after all we have such a lovely mountain chain and a river near bye. Of course, the fact that she has about 20 palm trees on her balcony is something different. Personally I couldn't care less if she had a pine tree forest on the balcony, but why does she have to write such stupid. things. Everyone got a copy of the e-mail with the exception of us and another neighbour that speaks her opinion. Everyone just laughed at it and it will not be taken seriously. This lady is ill and I suppose her delinquent son does not really have a chance in life, but from my aspect the son is dangerous.
Our next meeting is next year in February/March. Perhaps Mr. Black realises by then that he would be better off not carrying the mandate for his next door neighbour.
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