It was 7:00 in the morning, and my alarm goes off; time to get up for work! As I lay in my bed, still somewhat dazed, I suddenly heard some ticking just outside my window. I peeked through my window shutters and was rather surprised to be staring right in the face of a young Jackdaw!
When I came back from the shower about 20 minutes later, it was still there! I opened the shutters and said to the bird "So, what do you want ?". All I got back was a little "caw"-like sound. The bird jumped onto the handle of my window and sat there watching me.
It was a rather awkward, but awesome way to start my day.
It's Monday morning 01:00 and my sleep is rudely interrupted by some shouting somewhere in the neighborhood. I stuck my head outside my bedroom window, but there was nothing to be seen or heard. Did I imagine it ? Was the shouting part of my dream, and it woke me up; thinking it was in real life ? I shrugged and returned to my bed.
A few minutes later, the shouting returned and became a bit more intense and fierce. It almost sounded like a pack of rabid baboons was invading the neighborhood which, later on turned out to be not that far off. The shouting continued, followed by some slamming on (or so I thought) some wooden gate. My first guess was that some neighbors were having a quarrel and were bonking on each other's gate. I decided to put on some panties and a t-shirt, grabbed my PD20 flashlight, and went outside to check out what the ruckus was all about.
When I arrived at the parking lot on the other side of the housing block, some of my neighbors were already there and were arguing with some youngsters that were quite noisy and appeared to be somewhat intoxicated. One of my neighbors told me that they had been jumping on the cars, and that was the slamming that I heard. I did a quick inspection of my car, and was relieved that it seemed to be unharmed. The arguing between my neighbors and one of the kids quickly evolved into some pushing, cursing and slapping; and finally someone called the police.
I was genuinely impressed! No less than 3 minutes later the police arrived and approached the group. Apparently the kid that was arguing with my neighbor made some bad remark at one of the police officers, because a minute later I saw him running inside with two police officers rushing after him. It didn't surprise me at all, because in the few minutes before the police arrived, the youngsters put up quite some language against my neighbors; though it was probably the alcohol that was doing all the talking... A few minutes after the first police car was on the scene, 3 more arrived.
A bit later, when half the neighborhood was standing on the parking lot in their Pajamas, the kid that was fighting was shoved into a police car handcuffed and taken away. I decided to move my car to another parking lot, in case the other youngsters decided to take revenge. When the other police officers walked back to their car, one of them said "Have a good night's rest", to which I replied "Can you guarantee that ?"; but the police officer did not bother to respond.
Ah well... I shrugged and returned to my bed. Damn kids and their alcohol...
Neighbors... ah yes... neighbors... No, I'm not talking about the Australian soap opera in which the ever charming Kylie Minogue played the role of Charlene Robinson. I'm talking about neighbors that wake you up at 05:00 o'clock, because father and son have to roll around in the backyard while beating each other up. Oh how I love my neighbors.
It's a recurring event. Father has a bit too much to drink, and his juvenile delinquent son comes home baked and drunk at 05:00. The "fun" part about this family is that for some reason they always fight in the backyard, so that the entire block can join in on the party. Then when the shouting in the back yard is done, they go inside and you can hear a lot of furniture being shoved around and people cursing and fighting.
Why this always has to happen between 03:00 and 05:00, I still haven't figured out. Apparently they don't have jobs they need to go to in the morning. Apparently someone called the cops, because they showed up with a grand total of 3 squad cars a bit later. I'll see if I can record some audio next time they fight.
People always ask me why I'm grumpy and look sleepy most of the time. Let me tell you the story of my "insomnia ".
Ever since our neighbors moved in about 2 years ago, I've been having trouble sleeping. When they moved in, first thing they did was build a massive shed in the backyard, where they have an illegal barbershop for dogs. We (me & my parents) have tried to stop it, but unfortunately the local authorities could not find enough evidence about the illegal barbershop to put a halt to it. The guy next door keeps telling the cops that it is a "playroom for the kids ". Hmm... A playroom for the kids... includes a large table with chains on it, and a washing cabinet? What kind of games do those kids play in there?!
Next to having an illegal barbershop, they also have 3 dogs and a cat of their own. At night one of the dogs is kept indoors and another one is kept in a large cage inside the shed. Nothing wrong with that, one would say; and I totally agree with that. The problem is that the dog in the shed keeps barking and squeaking all night long. Every day it starts around 20:00 and the dog doesn't shut up until the next morning 06:00 or so.
Annoying? Click on [this link] and find out for yourself! It keeps me up and awake all night, never the less.
Even though it's a serious problem, the issue can only make me laugh my ass off. Today somebody decided to do some graffiti on our backyard-gate. The message, directed towards me and my family was "Kankerleijrs jullie gaan kapot" (In English it would basically come down to "motherfuckers you're going to die"). Unfortunately, the person that wrote it on our gate isn't the smartest person alive. He wrote down "kankerleijrs", while the correct Dutch word would be "Kankerlijers". Hehe, so much for another attempt to intimidate me. Check out this photo of the graffiti.