Has anyone lived next door to someone who is a little odd? I would love to hear stories to this effect or anything about dodgy neighbours!
I live in a rented barn conversion on a farm. The neighbour’s family used to own the farmhouse, the property that I live in (now owned by her sister who lives abroad) and the barn on the other side of me, which she lives in now. They have a horse in stables opposite our house. When we first moved in a couple of years ago, they would come through our garden gate and go across our patio with the horse in order to put him in the field behind. It didn’t matter what time of day this was. It annoyed us pretty quickly, especially when we would be eating our dinner only to suddenly hear a clattering of hooves. We started putting our wheelie bin in front of the gate as a gentle hint, but they would pay no regard and move it out of the way to come through. After a couple of months, we asked if it were possible for them to ask us whenever they wanted to come through, as we knew they had access to the field another way. Obviously this didn’t go down well. A couple of weeks later things were fine and they haven’t bothered us since.
Cut to today. I get a text from the neighbour that she “will be coming into the garden to trim the hedge as it’s getting a bit overgrown”. For clarity, this hedge sits on the top of a wall. The wall is not adjacent to her house, it’s on the other side. It was now only slightly above the wall, but it obviously had bothered her. I texted her back to say, “only do it if you would like to, I can probably do it on the weekend”. I then get a phone call basically saying she’s going to do it today, so I said OK and let her do it as I figured it would be easier. We had a chat whilst she was cutting the hedge back and once she was done I said thank you and that I felt a little bad that she had done it. She smiled at me and said “well if you feel that bad about it, you could always get me a bottle”. I thought that this was a little cheeky considering I had never asked her to do anything in the first place, but for the sake of neighbourly relations, went in the house and grabbed the only unopened bottle I could bear to part with, which was a big bottle of Baileys. She looked me dead in the eyes and said, “oh no, not that, my drink is Gin - I really like ginger and rhubarb”. I laughed this comment off, but the more I think about it, the more it has annoyed me. Firstly, when someone offers you something, just accept what you are given. Secondly, I know we are all missing the pub but you can’t really expect me to buy you a thirty quid bottle of gin when you offered to do something I never asked you to do in the first place. She will be waiting on that bottle forever now! It’s a principle thing! Anyway, we ended our conversation nicely but it has irked me.
Please share your stories too!
I live in a rented barn conversion on a farm. The neighbour’s family used to own the farmhouse, the property that I live in (now owned by her sister who lives abroad) and the barn on the other side of me, which she lives in now. They have a horse in stables opposite our house. When we first moved in a couple of years ago, they would come through our garden gate and go across our patio with the horse in order to put him in the field behind. It didn’t matter what time of day this was. It annoyed us pretty quickly, especially when we would be eating our dinner only to suddenly hear a clattering of hooves. We started putting our wheelie bin in front of the gate as a gentle hint, but they would pay no regard and move it out of the way to come through. After a couple of months, we asked if it were possible for them to ask us whenever they wanted to come through, as we knew they had access to the field another way. Obviously this didn’t go down well. A couple of weeks later things were fine and they haven’t bothered us since.
Cut to today. I get a text from the neighbour that she “will be coming into the garden to trim the hedge as it’s getting a bit overgrown”. For clarity, this hedge sits on the top of a wall. The wall is not adjacent to her house, it’s on the other side. It was now only slightly above the wall, but it obviously had bothered her. I texted her back to say, “only do it if you would like to, I can probably do it on the weekend”. I then get a phone call basically saying she’s going to do it today, so I said OK and let her do it as I figured it would be easier. We had a chat whilst she was cutting the hedge back and once she was done I said thank you and that I felt a little bad that she had done it. She smiled at me and said “well if you feel that bad about it, you could always get me a bottle”. I thought that this was a little cheeky considering I had never asked her to do anything in the first place, but for the sake of neighbourly relations, went in the house and grabbed the only unopened bottle I could bear to part with, which was a big bottle of Baileys. She looked me dead in the eyes and said, “oh no, not that, my drink is Gin - I really like ginger and rhubarb”. I laughed this comment off, but the more I think about it, the more it has annoyed me. Firstly, when someone offers you something, just accept what you are given. Secondly, I know we are all missing the pub but you can’t really expect me to buy you a thirty quid bottle of gin when you offered to do something I never asked you to do in the first place. She will be waiting on that bottle forever now! It’s a principle thing! Anyway, we ended our conversation nicely but it has irked me.
Please share your stories too!