everybody needs good neighbours
As some of you know our new house is situated in a little pocket of One Tree Hill which receives NO television reception. After some discussion we decided that we would get a basic sky digital package through Telecom (cheaper than going directly through sky). Unfortunately the installation process was rather slow (we have now had TV for just over two weeks). During the TV lull we got into the habit of watching ‘Greys Anatomy’ with the Tollans, as they live just around the corner (we can see their house from our Kitchen window!). This has now developed into a regular routine of Monday night food/dinner and TV, with us each taking turns at being the hosts.
It’s really nice to be able to go out and have your destination within 5 minutes walk of your house. It reminds me of neighbourhood BBQ’s from my childhood. Growing up we knew all our neighbours and most of the people who lived within 4-5 houses of our house. All the kids knew one another and played together (though not always amicably). If you ran out of sugar, you knew you could pop over to the Corks or the Bells, because they would be bound to have some. If it started raining and someone had washing out on the line, you’d go grab it off the line and leave it on their doorstep out of the rain. If you were going to do something naughty you knew that even if Mum didn’t see you that Mrs Cork, Mrs Bell, Mrs Sharp or Aunty Leonie were bound to catch you out. These days, most people don’t even know their neighbours first names, let alone know them well enough to have dinner with them on a regular basis.
I have to say I miss that sense of community. We have wonderful friends who would be here in a second if we called, but to know that you can run next door in a time of crisis, even a small one, leaves you feeling incredibly secure. So I’m loving the fact that we now find ourselves living in a situation where we have friends just across the hall, and just over the back fence.
We are also getting to know one of our new neighbours; Gordon. He came around this morning to tell me that his cat had been run over on the weekend (very sad :( ), and that the people from number 98 had put their rubbish bin outside his house, instead of putting it outside their own (very funny :) - though not apparently from Gordon’s perspective!). Oh well, as a wise philosopher once said...’neighbours should be there for one another...that’s when good neighbours become good friends’.
It’s really nice to be able to go out and have your destination within 5 minutes walk of your house. It reminds me of neighbourhood BBQ’s from my childhood. Growing up we knew all our neighbours and most of the people who lived within 4-5 houses of our house. All the kids knew one another and played together (though not always amicably). If you ran out of sugar, you knew you could pop over to the Corks or the Bells, because they would be bound to have some. If it started raining and someone had washing out on the line, you’d go grab it off the line and leave it on their doorstep out of the rain. If you were going to do something naughty you knew that even if Mum didn’t see you that Mrs Cork, Mrs Bell, Mrs Sharp or Aunty Leonie were bound to catch you out. These days, most people don’t even know their neighbours first names, let alone know them well enough to have dinner with them on a regular basis.
I have to say I miss that sense of community. We have wonderful friends who would be here in a second if we called, but to know that you can run next door in a time of crisis, even a small one, leaves you feeling incredibly secure. So I’m loving the fact that we now find ourselves living in a situation where we have friends just across the hall, and just over the back fence.
We are also getting to know one of our new neighbours; Gordon. He came around this morning to tell me that his cat had been run over on the weekend (very sad :( ), and that the people from number 98 had put their rubbish bin outside his house, instead of putting it outside their own (very funny :) - though not apparently from Gordon’s perspective!). Oh well, as a wise philosopher once said...’neighbours should be there for one another...that’s when good neighbours become good friends’.
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