Neighbours...everybody needs good neighbours! Well they do don’t they? I like to think that I am a good neighbour too.
I’ve not lived in that many places really, only 2 x houses in Nottingham, UK and another 2 x since moving to Irvine, CA so I’ve not had that many neighbours.
Back when I was a kid, we lived in a lovely neighbourhood on a tree lined street, I remember having street parties and washing cars. The old guy across the road used to show me how to make pop-ups, like you get in books and next door to us we had a guy called Allen Edwards who was into fishing and did a TV/radio fishing show. He used to get our family tickets to the London Boat Show each year and we’d get to sit on a posh boat with the best seats. Allen actually hosted the show! I never realised what a big deal this was really...but you don’t when you’re a kid do you.
In our current UK house, we have lovely neighbours like Jane & Trevor, Steve & Michelle and of course Sue & Dave who are the best neighbours ever! They were like surrogate parents, nothing was ever too much trouble. They happily looked after Minnie (the cat) when we went on holiday (which was often) and we always got back to a few days worth of groceries and cake. Dave often did a bit of gardening for us and even installed our kitchen and taught me how to wallpaper. They are absolute stars! It was very sad to leave them when we left the UK for the US. We’ve emailed a few times since though and they know we will go and see them next time we visit the UK.
I know of friends who have had horrid neighbours and the police have been involved. I’m glad things have never got that bad for us, although it was close at one point. A few years ago (back in the UK) a family moved in next door. At first they seemed friendly enough, then they turned....they had loud friends over all the time (blocking our cars in the drive), they stood in the quiet street outside drinking and smoking (when they had a large garden available), they revved motorbikes for hours at the weekends, they got a massive Rottweiler dog and let it run loose and they had parties with karaoke until all hours. We don’t mind a bit of noise or parties (as long as you invite us!) but it was too much and the neighbourhood was a really quiet area. After 18 months they got kicked out by the landlord and he came round to apologise for their behaviour. Apparently, they had ripped up all the carpets and trashed the house inside. I guess some people just don’t know how to behave?
Where we are now in Irvine we have lovely neighbours, Courtney & Ed who welcomed us with homemade banana cake and Noev & Shoba who bought me some beautiful pink flowers. It really does make a difference living somewhere with nice neighbours.
Here is a list according to Wikihelp on how to be a good neighbour (followed by my artwork for the day):
What are your neighbours like?
I have neighbors... not neighboUrs. Bummer... yours sound way nicer.
ReplyDeleteI guess we spell things differently in the UK....I have been lucky really. I read your post about your neighbour and the dog barking, she sounds a pain!
ReplyDeleteMine was good so far. Nothing horrible happened till date. And we do a dozen of small kids in the neighborhood which do bring some activity around.
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me, having kids around does help as long as they are too noisy or kicking balls at your house! Ha ha
DeleteWe have here brats too. For some day at sharp 3pm, two lil girls rings our door bell and runs away. After 2 days of hide n seek we caught them. But it's fun hae these people around. v
DeleteHa ha, I remember playing knock a door run, I was in my teens by then though!
DeleteI like those good neighbor rules. We've lived in our neighborhood for over 15 years now and I still don't know many of our neighbors even though most of them have lived here the same amount of time. Kind of sad in a way, but I guess we're all too busy most of the time working to pay for our houses.
ReplyDeleteLee
An A to Z Co-Host
Tossing It Out
Hey Arlee! Thanks for popping by. Glad you like the rules. That's sad that you don't know your neighbours, maybe you should try and organise a weekend street party so you can all get to know one another better. I feel good safer knowing I have good neighbours around me, someone to go to nearby with a problem and someone to keep an eye on the house/cat when we are away.
DeleteI know. Funny thing is that I was a board member for something like 8 years. Hardly anyone comes to the meetings unless they have something to complain about. Events we planned had little interest. And I'm bad with remembering people--a lot more people know who I am than I know who they are.
DeleteI got off the board this year finally. Somebody was willing to run in my place.
Lee
An A to Z Co-Host
Tossing It Out
I think thats always the way, people are happy to complain. Thats a shame that you planned events and no-one was interested..I guess it depends where you live sometimes. In the UK, everyone went mad for the royal weddings and had street parties with neighbours, not really my scene but I went along to be sociable.
DeleteI've had many different neighbors in many different types of neighborhoods, and I don't remember ever having a problem. The one *bad* neighbor I've ever had is one I have right now. She lives diagonally across the street from us, so I feel worse for the people on either side of her. To us, she's mostly just entertaining. She walks out of her house drunk, slurring words as she yells for the little dogs she always accidentally lets out. The cops go over there at least once a month. It's pretty hilarious.
ReplyDelete#atozchallenge, Kristen's blog: kristenhead.blogspot.com
That does sound funny (but sad too that she has to get in that state in the first place).
Delete"Sue & Dave" have never lived next door to me, that's for sure. My current neighbors don't even know my name...mostly older folks. It's very quiet. I do like that.
ReplyDeleteQuiet is definitely good, I like quiet.
DeleteWe have a really varied mix of neighbours, most of which are cool. A young SA family next door, a professional couple, a retured lady, a female couple who are nurses and an irish guy across the road. Shame he lives next door to the area's scum family. Police cars are common outside because of it.:S
ReplyDeletehttp://thenovabug-blog.blogspot.co.uk/
A mixture if people is good...don't like the sound of the the trouble family though, there always seems to be one lot of trouble makers.
DeleteIt makes a lot of difference to know you have good neighbours, who you can trust and rely on if needed, your neighbours sound very nice, luckily I have nice neighbours too, who we can borrow sugar from or look after our house when we go on holiday.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I mean! If you need something it's good to know you have people close by to held, just for sugar or a corkscrew in my case once.
DeleteWhen I was a kid we lived in a great neighborhood. We all used to run in and out of each others houses just like they were our own. Now, I don't really know my neighbors well, just enough to wave when I see them outside. At least none of them are troublemakers, though I do wish the neighbors across the way would invite me to their frequent parties, they always sound like fun.
ReplyDeleteYour childhood one sounds lovely cat. At least with your neighbours now you are friendly and wave at each other. Maybe you should bake some cookies and me them over to the party neighbours hinting for an invite, or have a party of your own and invite them? Then they will invite you over to theirs! Win win
DeleteWe ignored neighbors growing up. Not to be rude, that's just the type of neighborhood we lived in, where everyone kind of kept to themselves. Since then I've lived in a horrible neighborhood I'm so glad I left. My current neighborhood is amazing. Plenty of kids for mine to play with, my day care is my back yard neighbor and there's a contest with the neighbor across the street on if he or my husband can snow blow each other's drive the most. My husband and I originally thought we would only be here a few years before moving closer to the city, but with neighbors like these, it's difficult to justify an expensive move.
ReplyDeleteI think it is definitely important having nice neighbours, I'm glad you have good ones now, it does make you want to sell up if not. I used to hate going him when I had the horrid neighbours next door and it shouldn't be like that.
DeleteOur neighborhood isn't have block parties, but on summer evenings you can find the guys in the alley, drinking beers as we listen to our neighbor's mariachi band. We loan out tools and help fix cars and keep watch over houses....all in all, our neighborhood fits me perfectly!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really cool, I want to come over to yours in the summer!
Delete