It may sound from this account that I live on some rough council estate in some rough area of Birmingham, but I don’t. I live in a pre-war semi-detached house on the edge of the city in a nice, quiet grove. I’ve lived here quite happily for 22 years, the only problem being the odd tiff with my neighbour about his loud music (he’s patently deaf!).
Also bear in mind, as you read this, that I work full time and I'm busy at weekends. I'm not a curtain twitcher, I have better things to do than watch my neighbours. Nor do I stand at the window for hours 'spying' - I have neither the time or the inclination. These are just the things I've noticed, or seen, or heard as I go about my daily business, so this is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
A few months ago a new ‘family’ moved in, supposedly comprising of a mom and two (possibly three) teenage daughters, except I’ve only ever seen the ‘mom’ once. Consequently, these girls (who are seriously rough!) have pretty much run riot since day one. At first they were just noisy, standing outside their house with a crowd of teenage boys yelling and swearing at each other until the early hours of the morning. Then things got worse, a lot worse.
11 JUNE
My neighbour’s son starts hanging out with the teenage boys who regularly visit the girls house. The boys are obviously out to make trouble and urge my neighbour’s son to swear at me whilst I’m watering flowers at the front of my house. I make the mistake of arguing back, which makes them swear at me more, which brings my partner out.
My neighbour’s son then casually calls me a f**cking sl*t (not the first time he’s been abusive to neighbours, but the first time its happened whilst my partner was there!). My partner reacts like an explosion going off and races into their garden. They all laugh at first, but my partner (a gentleman to the core) is deadly serious. Neighbour’s son leaps over a hedge still laughing, still heckling, shouting for his mates to get him a stick. My partner races into our house and emerges with a baseball bat!
The teenagers stop laughing, suddenly realising my partner means it. They make a run for it, but my partner chases after them. They pull metal bars from a skip and shake them a bit, but my partner charges at them and they drop the bars and scatter like terrified mice. Two run out of the grove - one has his arm in a sling and shouts, “I ain’t getting hurt no more”, the other one says he’s going to tell his dad (my neighbour). A third one is so eager to escape leaps over a six foot wooden fence like a cat.
We’ve had no problems with neighbour’s son since. I don't think anyone's ever stood up to him before.
28 JUNE
I come home to find my other neighbour has cut down my four foot high privet hedge at the front of my house. Not just a bit, but 16 feet of it! It wasn’t done maliciously, he just wanted to get his car onto his garden and saw nothing wrong in taking down my hedge and driving over my property to do it! I’m incredibly upset.
The girls stand outside their house and hang out of the bedroom windows laughing hysterically at this.
29 JUNE
My son’s car is broken into and the stereo stolen. We suspect it was one of the teenage boys who are constantly hanging around the girls’ house (who laugh, “Had your stereo stolen have you?”), but we have no proof. Two days later his back window is smashed in and his speakers stolen. Nobody sees anything but, again, a crowd of teenagers stand outside the girls house laughing.
1 JULY
We install a CCTV camera. The girls laugh the entire time we’re installing it, constantly shouting “Smile for the camera!” My partner tells me nobody would stand for this in Bradford (where he comes from).
One day when I’m off work ill, it catches my attention (because is so blatantly obvious) that there’s an awful lot of visitors to the girls’ house. Curious, I sit and watch from 5pm to 6pm and actually count 20 different people going into the house and coming back out again a couple of minutes later. They’re selling drugs!
I begin to worry about coming home from work as I’m having to walk passed groups of teenagers who snigger and call me names as they pretend to cough. I ignore them – this is incredibly difficult to do but I’ve read on the Neighbours From Hell website that you shouldn’t encourage them in any way or it just makes them worse.
After my sons car is broken into, I start to worry about the safety of my house whilst I’m at work. I use the house alarm every time I leave the house, even if its only for a few minutes. I install an alarm on my garden shed, ensure the gate bolt is drawn at all times and that the security lights at the front and back of the house are working.
Because of this, and because we’re being woken up in the middle of the night so often, I start making a note of what’s happening.
Saturday 10 July
Whilst putting up the wooden fence to replace the 16 feet of privet hedge, two girls pass us as they walk towards their house. Sniffing loudly, one of them says, “Nice family!” The other one says, “Yeah, nice family!” Suspect that, after the scene with the baseball bat, they’re trying to rile us into reacting again. We don’t.
Later the same day, when driving into the grove, the girls shout something at my partner’s car. He doesn’t hear what was said but the girls laugh. He’s annoyed. I tell him the best way to seriously piss them off is to ignore them.
That night as they all gather outside their house, the girls stand at the top of my 30 foot driveway and stare into my house, pointing and laughing. I resist the urge to run outside and slap them. On the internet I discover its not actually illegal to stare into someone’s house, which I find surprising.
Friday 16 July
At 1 o’clock in the morning we’re woken up by my neighbour’s son and one of the teenage boys from the girls house screaming at a girl outside his front door. The argument continues and gets more and more ferocious, moving into the middle of the grove for all to hear. The girl runs off. My neighbour’s son races into his house yelling that he’s going to get a knife and knife her! I’m not sure whether to call the police or not, but they all leave the grove and everything goes quiet.
Minutes later, I hear them arguing again in another road. It really sounds vicious and I’m afraid for the girl, who sounds hysterical. I hear a car screech to a halt (police car? not sure, can’t see) and the arguing suddenly stops.
Adrenaline coursing through us, we can’t get back to sleep.
Thursday 22 July
One evening I suddenly realise that there hasn't been a constant stream of ‘visitors’ to the girls house for a while. They’ve obviously stopped doing drugs – or have been made to stop.
Neighbours son and two boys from the girls’ house return at 12.15am after a ‘drinking binge’. They announce to the world that they’re back, yelling and shouting at the tops of their voices. They pull up someones two foot garden fence and drag it across the grove. The owner of the fence yells out of their bedroom window to bring it back. The disturbance lasts for about 25 minutes, after which we can’t get back to sleep again.
Friday 23 July
I’m walking to the bus stop on my way to work one morning when I see one of the girls and her friend standing at my bus stop. The girl turns, looks at me, and laughs out loud. All the other passengers stare at me. I’m hugely embarrassed but force myself not to react in any way. The girl turns her back to me, stops laughing and begins nodding her head and saying, “We’ll see. We’ll see.” Something’s obviously happened (a neighbour complaining about their behaviour to the council or police?) and they think I’m to blame – but I’m only guessing.
Its like living with animals.
Monday 26 July
The girl is at the bus stop again, but she’s on her own and doesn’t even make eye contact with me. I resist the urge to say anything.
Tuesday 27 July
The girl gets on at a different bus stop. As she and her friend walk passed me in my seat, she whispers something I can’t hear (but definitely derogatory). They sit at the back of the bus laughing … I try not to listen to what they’re saying but its difficult when they’re so loud. One of them says, “Thinks she’s f**cking Dot Cotton” (i.e. a busy body, which is the complete opposite to what I am). I hope they’re not actually pointing at me so the whole bus knows who they’re talking about. So embarrassed I want to cry.
For a person who’s very quiet and private, I find it all excruciating.
Thursday 29 July
The girl and her friend are at the bus stop again. Incensed after yesterday and not willing to let them get to me, I deliberately stand too close behind them. The girl subconsciously picks up her bag and moves it further away from me. I step even closer. The bus comes and when she gets on, I’m right behind her. She’s obviously uncomfortable, and so am I, resorting to such futile tactics in order to vent some of my frustration.
11.45pm and all the girls are outside their house yelling abuse at another girl. The other girl slowly makes her way out of the grove. It takes her 20 minutes to do this, and every expletive is used at great volume and in great abundance in the process.
30 July
I’m walking home from my bus stop when a gang of boys and one of the girls come towards me. They all start laughing. As they pass, a boy coughs loudly and shouts “Grass.” I glare at him and shake my head, but he’s too busy laughing with the rest of them.
This is seriously getting to me now.
Monday 9 August
Girls’ mother seen for first time ever! A woman walks across grove and lets herself into the house with her own key. We let out a sigh of relief, thinking that things will quieten down now.
No chance! 10.30pm the girls (like vampires) emerge from their house and start yelling at each other (like normal conversation only very, very loud!). They all walk off, still shouting back at the house. Can hear them deliberately yelling at the very top of their voices all the way up the road.
Thursday 12 August
I get home from work, closely followed by a drugs raid on the girls house! Two vans, two marked cars, one unmarked car and about 20 policeman pour into the grove. They turn up with riot masks and one of those things to bash the front door down, but the girls let them in without a fight. Policemen distribute “Rat on a Rat" leaflets to all the neighbours houses, including the road opposite (brilliant idea - it gives power to the normal people!). A sniffer dog is taken inside.
Three non-police types in suits stand outside, we think they’re from the council – they take a great interest in our CCTV camera (yes, this is what we have to resort to when these people are around). It’s all very exciting … at last they’re getting what they deserve! Someone’s obviously had enough (the same as us) and ‘ratted’ on them.
Eventually, one of the girls (the older one) is brought out of the house in handcuffs and taken away. The police and the suited people disburse. The girls argue furiously in their house afterwards. Small Son, who’s outside fixing his car, hears them say, “I bet it was [Small Son’s] mom!” i.e. me! But I don’t care. If they start on me, I won’t be holding back this time; I've had enough.
Friday 13 August
It’s in the local paper! Front page news! There’s a picture of the arrested girl - cannabis was found in their house. The Evening Mail wrote: “Police said local communities are now in the driving seat to rid their neighbourhoods of drug pushers. Many have had to endure months of misery at the hands of dealers, with increased crime and anti-social behaviour.” Yes!
I read something in the same article that has me dancing in the office. “Three of those arrested yesterday were hit with a double whammy when they were also threatened with eviction. Housing officers [so we were right about the suited people] served a notice seeking possession of their homes after they were raided by police. Under the Housing Act, city housing officers can serve the notices on anyone in breach of their tenancy, by allowing drug use or dealing from their homes.”
So they could have been threatened with eviction too! Fabulous! If they don’t behave, they’re out!
Girl who was arrested is driven into grove later that evening. When she gets out of her car she throws the finger at her own house and goes straight to my neighbour’s son’s house, where she loudly declares that she’d slept all day and feels much better for it. I’m aware that its all bravado – she wouldn’t be human if she wasn’t embarrassed about being arrested so publicly and appearing in the local paper.
But behave themselves? Not a chance! The girls and an assortment of teenagers spend most of the night standing out in the grove, drinking and yelling and creating as much noise as possible. Again, suspect it's bravado, a case of “We’ve been arrested and shamed in the paper, but we don’t care.” They all look incredibly bored doing this, as if they want to prove a point but would much rather be doing something else.
Saturday 14 August
At 7pm my neighbour’s son invites the girls and their friends into his house, right next door to mine (his dad is out). They all sit outside in the back garden, playing music so loudly the windows vibrate and they have to scream at each other to be heard. Neighbours from the houses out the back stare out of their windows at the commotion. I clearly hear one of the girls laughing and shouting, “Well, its not my f**king house, is it!” I’m not sure if they’re doing this deliberately to get at me (paranoid?) or if its to get at all the neighbours, any one of whom might have ‘ratted’ on them, but they’re certainly determined to cause as much disturbance as possible.
A woman a few doors down screams to be heard above the noise. In between music tracks she shouts at them to turn it down because she has young kids in bed. One of the girls hollers back above the music, “What? I can’t hear you!” and they all laugh but don’t turn the music down. I feel sorry for the attached neighbours, an elderly couple who have lived there longer than I have.
The music is so loud and so intrusive my partner wants to call the police, but I tell him that if he reacts they’ll do it all the more, and they can’t possibly tolerate that volume for too long.
I’m right. They give up after an hour and wander off. I didn’t witness what happened then, but Small Son (who was out the front working [perpetually!] on his car) told me that the woman with the young kids came out of her house and started yelling at them about the music. They all started arguing, one of the girls swearing and saying, “You don’t know me! You can't call me names when you don't even know me!” A young girl of about 10 raced out of the girls’ house and joined in, swearing so profusely even my 19 year old son was amazed.
They’re really pissing people off.
At 10.30pm the same group come back, standing in the grove drinking and shouting again. Out of curiosity I watch them for a while. They’re all standing around my neighbour’s car (who is still out … or on holiday … or else he’s left the country because he can’t control his own son!). One of the boys is clearly hammered and keeps yelling at the top of his voice. They’re all shouting and laughing and swearing, apart from the girl who was arrested. She sits still and quiet on the bonnet of the car not interacting at all, just smoking. At about 11.50pm, the group wanders off to another house in the grove and the girl slides off the bonnet and woodenly follows them. Outside the other house, this girl stops and just stands there in the middle of the road, not moving, not speaking, just standing stock still. The gang come out of the house and walk off down the road and this girl just follows them like a zombie.
Very strange behaviour.
Sunday 15 August
7pm and the gang starts up the music in my neighbour’s back garden again. The neighbours peer out of their windows again, my partner wants to ring the police again. He witnesses the teenagers spraying water from a hosepipe into the neighbours garden (the old couple) and then into our garden. Enraged, he wants to hose them with the jet spray, but I persuade him not to.
The 10 year old who was swearing at the neighbour yesterday suddenly appears in my driveway, annoying my son (who is fixing his car!). I dash out in case there’s trouble and ask her who she is. She tells me she’s one of the girls’ cousin and she’s extremely odd, like a hyperactive old woman with an incredibly deep voice (think The Exorcist!). She reels off a load of questions about the car, then turns to me and quickly asks, “Does the music bother you? Does it get on your nerves? Does it bother you? Does it?” I tell her no, it doesn’t bother me, and she suddenly runs off.
Shortly afterwards, the music stops and the gang wander off, but my neighbour’s son leaves his bedroom window open (where all the music was coming from). My partner wants to use the jetspray to fill his room with water and hopefully destroy the stereo system, but I calm him down.
Minutes later, we’re surprised when two of the girls come out of my neighbours house and hurry into theirs. They’ve been in there on their own!
My neighbour is not going to be pleased (assuming he ever comes back from where he’s hiding!). But then, its a difficult situation - we want him to know what's going on when he's not around (I certainly would about my sons), but we don't want to appear childish, like tell-tale tits.
Monday 16 August
It’s been a weekend from hell. I’m so washed out from all the stress I have to take the day off work. I’m actually afraid to leave my own house unattended in case something happens to it, and I’m enraged that I’ve been made to feel like this, been made to live like this.
I discover that the council’s ‘notice of eviction’ means these girls have 28 days to ‘clean up their act’. If they don’t, the council can start proceedings to repossess the house, but it could take up to 12 months. Things would most definitely escalate over that time period – I, for one, will not be putting up with much more, and I'm sure my neighbours feel the same. The ideal solution would be for us all to get together and make a united stand, but its never been that kind of neighbourhood (we all keep ourselves to ourselves) and nobody wants to be the first to do anything for fear of retribution.
The law should be firmer for situations like this, where the lives of hard-working people (who ask nothing from the state except that they be protected from people like these) are made a living hell. You only have to read the extraordinary stories on the Neighbours From Hell forums to realise that so many people are suffering both emotionally and even physically from bullies and thugs in their neighbourhood, and in most cases ‘the powers that be’ are not taking action because their hands are tied by red tape. Its shouldn’t be 12 months to repossess the house of a neighbour from hell, its should be 12 days, giving a clear message to troublemakers that their anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated. Where are the laws that protect 'normal' people from intimidation and fear? Why do I no longer feel safe in my own home (a sanctuary? more like a war zone!) I've only endured it for a few brief months and already I'm afraid to come home because of what I might find (house broken into? my propery damaged? abusive teenagers waiting for me?), I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for people who've suffered like this for years.
Its been (thankfully!) quiet the last couple of nights. We suspect two reasons for this:
1) my neighbour with the son who let the girls play loud music in his back yard finally came back, and 2) its been raining!
I haven’t seen the girl on the bus this week either (although it worries me every time I walk out the house in the morning - what a way to live!)
However …. last night we went to bed at 10.30pm. As I was closing the bedroom curtains, I noticed a boy of around 10 years old cycling into the grove. He shouted, “Is it the house with the red door?” Behind him, a woman who could have been his mother, shouted, “It’s [house number].” I watched. The boy went up to the girls house, knocked on the door, and spoke to one of the girls whilst the mother stood at the end of the girls short driveway. The boy then went back to his ‘mother’, handed her something small enough to clutch in the palm of her hand, and they both turned and left the grove.
I think they’re still doing drugs! I may be jumping to conclusions as I didn’t actually ‘see’ any drugs, but with their track record what else could it be?
Absolutely amazing! They're reported, raided, arrested, and still doing it!
Up until now I’ve taken the view (and enforced this view on my wouldn't-stand-for-this-in-Bradford partner) that we take the pacifist approach - don’t react and they’ll soon get bored. But these aren't normal teenagers looking for attention, this is actually their way of life - noisy, inconsiderate, foul-mouthed and ignorant. Now I’m coming round to my partner’s point of view - why should they be allowed to get away with it, to do whatever they want without any complaints or come-back from anybody?
Evil things happen because good people let it.
So I’ve decided ... from now on we’re going to do it my partner’s way. We’re going to fight back. We're going to use that hose next time they blatantly play their music loud and upset everyone in the neighbourhood, and we're going to let them know that we're no longer willing to tolerate their behaviour.
NOT SURE OF DATE - WE'RE ON HOLIDAY!
Its 3am in the morning and my neighbour's son wakes us up shouting in the grove. He's with the boy who frequents the girls house and they're both shouting at the top of their voices, "Fat w**ker!" over and over again. I'm not sure who this is directed at as there's only them in the grove, but they're moving away from neighbour's son's house.
A few minutes later, just as we're trying to get back to sleep, we hear a scuffle and my neighbour is chasing his son into the grove using language I've never heard him use before. The son says he'll phone for an ambulance. I'm not sure whether to go round and make sure he's alright, but I don't want to appear to be a nosey neighbour. The ambulance arrives but they don't take him away so I figure it can't be that bad.
Next morning, my neighbour tells my partner that he's thrown his son out after they'd had a fight.
And where does the son go?
He moves into the girl's house. Every night is party night there!
Oh, and incidentally, since the girls were raided by the police, we've seen the mother three times! Obviously wants to keep her name on the rent book even though she's not living there, but I'm just surmising.
Monday 30 August
There was a gang of youths outside the girls house tonight, including neighbour’s son from next door. One of them (who we’ve had trouble with before) came strutting to our front door but we were in the middle of dinner and didn’t answer it. A few minutes later, he comes down our driveway again, blatantly staring through the window at us, shouting, “Watch them just sit there and not f***ing move! Open the f***ing door!” We both raced to the door and yelled a few choice words (once again the entertainment for the entire grove - I’m getting heartily sick of this). He stood at the top of my driveway, staring through the window making crude motions with his hands and fingers. My partner wanted to go out and bash him one but I persuaded him not to … chasing youths with a baseball bat once is acceptable, twice is heading towards a bad habit. But its so incredibly frustrating not being able to do anything.
My neighbour’s son (the one who was chased out of the grove with a baseball bat) didn’t say a single word. He didn’t swear, he didn’t laugh, he just watched. Maybe the baseball bat isn’t such a bad idea after all!
During the course of the evening this same crowd of youths (not including the girls) moved off to the top of the grove, where they continued to shout and rant at each other until gone 11pm. Pity the neighbours who live up there
Tuesday 31 August
It’s not been a good day. This morning I noticed a couple of strange men in my driveway! When I went outside to investigate, there were three men down the side of my house, two next door and three in the grove! When I showed them my gormless ‘wot you doing?’ face they showed me their ID’s … from the CID! They were after my neighbour’s son, who is now living at the girls house (after his dad threw him out). They left ‘empty handed’. And this used to be such a nice area!
Later, when I walked down the grove after work at 5.45pm, the youth who came down my driveway last night yelling for us to open the effing door stood in my path. As I got closer, he didn’t move. I glared at him and he said, “Yeah?”. I hissed at him to stay away from my house and never come to my door again. As I walked off he yelled that he would come to my door any time he wanted, that he would break into my house, that he would beat up my son and steal his car. I literally had to force myself to walk away, I so wanted to turn around and smash his face in. The frustration is almost unbearable.
Then tonight (the fun never ends!) a large group congregates at the end of my driveway yelling to each other across the grove. This is at 11.30pm, yet they’re acting as if its broad daylight! When I look out of my bedroom window (unable to sleep) a car pulls up and one of the girls goes to it and hands them something. Obviously not bothered about ‘delivering’ any more, it appears they are once more selling drugs from the house. Again, I'm just guessing.
I’ve said it many times, but this used to be a lovely grove to live in. Now its like a bloody war zone! There is no sanctuary in my own home because to reach my home I have to run the gauntlet of teenagers at the end of my drive and, once inside my own home, they stand outside staring into my house and making rude gestures. Why should I be expected to live like this because of them?
Action has to be taken. I’m complaining to the council. And if I see them selling drugs outside my house again, I’m informing CrimeStoppers.
Bugger em! I want my bloody life back!
Well, you won’t believe what’s happened. Nothing! Not a thing. The grove has been wonderfully peaceful and our stress levels have dropped dramatically.
The neighbour’s son (the one who moved in with the girls) was apparently wanted by the CID for whatever reason (gotta be a serious reason for the CID to be involved). Then, suddenly, neighbour’s son disappeared and the girl’s went really, really quiet. I mean, we barely saw them much less heard them. What a transformation! Something’s obviously spooked them and they’re keeping their heads down.
I heard that the arrested girl not only got done for possession of drugs but also handling of stolen goods (wonder if Small Son’s car stereo and speakers was amongst them?). Then I heard that the girl’s had, from the date of the drugs raid, been given a month to move out of the house, which makes that 13 September.
13 September, nothing happened and they’re still there, but they’re quiet, so amazingly quiet. There’s no crowd of drunken teenagers yelling at the end of my driveway every night, the constant stream of visitors has stopped and I don’t have to run the gauntlet of abuse when I come home from work. Its great, it really is.
I have to admit that, when things got really bad and I seriously couldn’t stand it any more, I did complain to Birmingham City Council. Cynically (having read the experiences on Neighbours from Hell in Britain) I didn’t expect anything to be done, but the woman I dealt with was absolutely brilliant - sympathetic, understanding and not only promised to do something about the problem but actually followed through and did something (the threatened eviction and, I suspect, the drugs raid). I don’t know how much they’re paying her but its not enough, and I have nothing but praise for the way Birmingham City Council responded so promptly and effectively.
Normality is a wonderful thing.
Woken at 8am by neighbours intermittently screaming at the top of their voices for no apparent reason other than to wake everyone up. Peer out of window. Two of 'the' girls are standing at their door of their house along with two boys (one of them my next door neighbour's son). They both had cans of lager in their hands and seem very drunk.
Later that morning my son walked round to his girlfriend's house nearby. The two lager louts yelled abuse at him, finally shouting, "I won't be robbing your effing car next time, I'll be doing your effing house."
My partner had to be restrained from rushing out to 'sort them out'. The boys were, by now, horribly drunk and any interaction with them seemed a waste of time. I couldn't believe we were having to go through this again.
The lager louts continue to shout on and off to anyone and everyone all day whilst standing outside the girls house drinking beer. One neighbour who came out of his house was told to "Eff off and get back to effing bed, you b*****d."
My son's friend refused to drive into the grove with all this going on and parked round the corner. My son rang us from his girlfriend's house saying they were worried about leaving the house to meet the friend. My partner said he'd watch from our door (he dug out the baseball bat in case there was trouble!). As my son and his girlfriend walked out of the grove, the boys hurled abuse at them from the girls house, but they didn't try anything 'physical' (lucky for them).
Later in the afternoon one of the boys started staggering around and approached a parked car. He started pounding on it and yelling through the window. There was a woman inside the car and she got out, said
something, just as my partner was racing down the stairs to intervene. The lager lout turned round and yelled, "They've only called the effing police on us!"
They all quickly went indoors. The woman (not sure who she was, but she was definitely watching their house), stayed for at least another hour. Then she drove off. Five minutes later, the lager louts were out again. And apparently blaming us for 'calling the effing police' (we didn't). One of the boys stood at the top of our driveway screaming single words of abuse which echoed around the neighbourhood. "I'll rob
the effing boom box again," he threatened (referring to when my son's car was broken into last summer and had the stereo system stolen). I've no idea how I managed to stop my partner from going out to them - he was livid, but confrontation wouldn't have solved anything.
There was some wandering across the grove (drinks in hand) and shouting from windows for the rest of the day, but we managed to ignore it. Our CCTV camera was switched on for the first time in months. Doubtless it will be staying on for a long time to come.
I have to say that, after the events of last summer, tolerance towards these neighbours from hell isn't my strongest trait at the moment. And, judging by the baseball bat leaning against our front door, its not
my partner's either.
I'm hoping it was a one-off.
I may post pictures and/or sound files of the 'event' which we caught on CCTV, depending on quality.
Sunday 16
Neither sight nor sound of the neighbours all day. Thank God.
I'm really, really hoping it was a one-off - I don't think I'll be able to restrain my partner any more if they start on us again.