Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Party time- excellent...

Don't you just love your neighbours? I know that the Bible says to love thy neighbour as thyself, but I suppose I'm just not that Christian, at least not when it comes to my neighbours.
I've had my fair share of "special" neighbours, remember the McNasties? And lets not forget the old lady who used to knock on my door to tell me all about her continence problems- yes, that's right, she had the same bladder problem as Mrs. Emery from Little Britain. However, my old neighbour could talk about her leaky bladder for hours and hours, regardless of whether I had guests or not.
At times I would draw the blinds and pretend I wasn't there when she came a-knocking, but it's not really fair that one should have to hide in their own home from the nosy and leaky neighbours is it?

My current neighbours are in many aspects ideal; we greet each other politely when we meet, but that's it and I honestly like that. However, they have a tendency to travel, a lot. When they're away, their grown up sons throw parties.
Sometimes, they just sing a few sappy Icelandic songs from the 80s via their ever so loud karaoke machine. After the singing's over, usually around 1-2 AM they continue their partying downtown, so no complaints there.
However, sometimes they extend their partying into overtime and jump around, singing and shouting with loud music and serious bass. This can last into the morning hours, which I don't really appreciate.
Now, I think I'm pretty nice, at least most of the time, but when nearly middle-aged men keep me up all night long, without my consent, I get a wee bit annoyed, especially when it's a reacurring theme on a working day.
Last night, a bleeding tuesday mind you, I got out of bed at 3.15 AM, put my bathrobe and sneakers on (nice ensemble right?) and went upstairs to ask them politely to pipe down. "Sure no problem, so sorry, we'll stop making noise..." Right!
At 5.30 AM I felt as if Tony Hadley, the Kemp brothers and the rest of Spandau Ballet were actually in my bedroom singing "Ah ha ha ha haaaaa, I knooow this much is truuuuuuue". Now don't get me wrong, Spandau Ballet did good things back in the 80s and I personally think that Journeys to Glory from '81 is a damn good cd, but good things can go really sour in one's bedroom at 5.30 AM, and besides True was not a track on Journeys to Glory!

So, I pay my neighbours another visit and this time around I wasn't as nice as I had been during my 3.15 AM visit. They cut the music but continued speaking loudly until 10 AM, when I think they must have passed out.
All I want for Christmas is a good night's sleep and you can call me a Grinch but can you really blame me for dreaming of spending the holidays somewhere in a neighbour-free cave up in the mountains?

Comments:
I so empathise... My brother, in my own home, used to do similar tricks when we were younger, but I have to say that I have got pretty numb towards noise pollution since coming to Camiri, where that same-self concept doesn't exist...

On another note, my mum just wrote me an e-mail telling me that I'd got a letter from a 'Bjöek Porleifsdöttir' (yeah, I know, but she's not familiar with Icelandic name conventions). That's sooo sweet, except that I won't be home this X-mas, so I hope you don't mind if I only answer it in March... Which, incidentally, is when I'll be dropping in for a quick Scotland visit, so maybe a good time to plan an escape from the noisy neighbours... ;-)
 
Yes, neighbors can be pesky creatures. I trace this back to the fact that they are human and therefore innately troublesome and selfish. I recommend leaving a pile of shit -- yours or maybe a pet's -- on their doorstep after the next blowout party. Alternatively, a card saying, 'I'm sorry I couldn't come to the party last night, but I had to go to work this morning and needed to get some sleep. I look forward to speaking with your parents upon their return, party on.'

Also, I tried to explain Icelandic Santa/Christams to some folks here and I don't think I got all of the particulars right, but they seemed pretty scared, so I think the general message was communicated -- haha!!
 
Calling the police on such neighbours usually does the trick and is entirely justifiable if this is a reacurring event. And if you don't want to go to such drastic mesures, switching the power off for the whole house usually is a good way of slowing things down too.

I speak from experience mind you, having never resorted to those mesures myself, having only been their "victim". ;)
 
Thanks for all the wonderful advice guys! All has been quiet on the neighbour front since the incident and I've got my fingers x-ed that it stays that way...
Decided not to rat on the party people for now :)
 
Did you know the Daily Show went to Iceland? Check out the videos here...tehehe!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=148212&title=operation-deserter-storm-pt.-1
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=148348&title=operation-deserter-storm-pt.-2
 
Are you ever going to write again? Two months, woman!
I've said it before but I live my life vicariously through you and your inability to write means my life has become relatively dull!
 
I most deeply apologize- have woken from a blog slumber and will do my best to live an exciting life and write about it (even if I have to make stuff up)
 
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