The Neighbors Are Gone, The Neighbors Are Gone!

Well, we’ve come back from travel to a very pleasant surprise. Our neighbors across the hall have moved out!

Why am I so excited?

Well first of all I have had a week of quiet bliss to do my writing. Also, my husband and I can actually hear the TV at night when we sit down to catch up on TiVo.

I haven’t talked much about the horrible neighbors we had so I will summarize a bit for you.

Let’s start with the fact that after about 6 months of living here we finally had to write a letter to the manager about them. Well, about their dog, actually.

On multiple occasions he used our door frame as his fired hydrant. On one occasion he poo-ed in the hall and they never cleaned it up.

At first when we knocked on their door and told them he had potty-ed in the hall the mother would clean it up. Then she started ignoring our knocks.

My husband knocked on their door one evening after an incident and gave up thinking they weren’t home and left to run an errand. However, I was still at our apartment. Not five minutes after he left, a delivery guy showed up with their dinner and what do you know, she was home after all.

After the letter we weren’t questioned at all, they got slapped with a R$100 fine and the whole hall-way-is-a-doggy-bathroom stopped.

Hmm…I wonder if other people had problems with them? They really took the gringos at their word with the complaint.

Next are the two, rather cute, children that lived there. Now, before I get categorized as not liking kids, I do want to say that I realize it was not the children’s fault. Their behavior was definitely a flaw in parenting.

These kids had to be the most awful I have encountered. They were completely spoiled rotten. They would cry and scream every single day. The daughter would use the hallway as her pouting room. The mother clearly had no control over them and as soon as she gave in, the fits stopped.

At about 10:30pm my husband and I often settled in to watch some TV. It is difficult to hear TV as children play ball, cry and scream in the hallway right outside our door.

I can’t imagine what it was like for the people that lived above and below them – slamming doors and screaming. We could even hear them when the babysitter would take them down to the ground floor play room.

I know you think I am exaggerating, but I am not, at all. It was really the worst I have ever seen children behave on a regular basis. Not a day would go by that there was not a screaming fit taking place outside our living room.

We are pretty sure that they bothered other people here, too. My husband ran into the building manager in the elevator last week and he had a huge smile on his face as he told him they had moved out.

Now, I’m just going to say my prayers that by some miracle the apartment stays empty for the next 11 months.

In my experience, when it comes to neighbors and annoying people one thing is sure. It can always be worse!