This is it. The period I have been dreading all year. Christmas danger zone nightmare. All because of a neighbour who thinks he can make industrial-level noise, non stop, and a kid ‘manager’ who demonstrably has no idea what management is let alone possesses the skills, qualifications and knowledge to do it.
In fact both people are worse than that. The neighbour takes issue and considers it an affront to be questioned about the noise – I’ve long given up on that, years ago, because the neighbour complains even if I ask politely “How long are you down for?” – the most innocuous of very common questions. Not this prick.
And the kid ‘manager’ sides 100% with the neighbour. And considers me the problem due to the complaint above. I think he should be hauled in front of a magistrate and a court order issued prohibiting the daddy’s boy kid from having any interaction with the tenants and residents beyond fixing a dripping tap.
So much for the twelve days of Christmas.
4.02PM. Every day now until after New Years I have to be ready, packed and agile in order to get away from the place I pay rent for so as to find some peace away from the neighbour’s industrial-level noise, and away from the kid ‘manager’ who’s bound to make everything worse.
Every day up until 9.30PM but to be safer it would be up until 10.20PM every day: they might arrive later to beat the huge highway traffic.
Which is what I have to contend with if/when they come down and make my rental unlivable. The rest areas on the highway fill up very quickly in the afternoon so the first day I’ll probably have trouble getting a spot. Then for however long the neighbours are down I’ll have to make sure I’ve got my highway rest area spot before 3.30PM to 4PM every day.
This is the Friday Threat on a thousand times steroids. Twelve days of it. Every day a huge threat.
Lovely, isn’t it.
FRIDAY 20TH DECEMBER 2024. 11AM
Same as last night, woke shortly after 2am with the instant worry about this period I’m in: the neighbour and the kid ‘manager’. Too stressed, same as last night, to get back to sleep. Now packing the van for the usual Friday Threat compounded a hundred times by potential work holidays for the neighbour and certain school holidays for his children. Everything has to be packed for what could be an eight day exodus to the highway rest area. I just don’t know if he’s coming down or when, and the kid ‘manager’ has sealed off any avenue for consideration of me and my situation – the kid has never shown an interest in that, and showed in fact he doesn’t care for my health or wellbeing. (Something of many for which he should face a magistrate.) So I just have to get through the day and wait it out until well after the usual 9.30PM tonight to see where I can live.
4.09PM. This is nasty, this time, this threat. I would like to just go away somewhere to be nowhere near here if the neighbours arrive, but then since I don’t know when or if they’re coming I could be away for several days, use up my water, and have to come back to fill up or to recover from sleeping in the van (I have a sore neck and back, which keeps me awake or wakes me up), being crunched over and constricted in space.
So I can’t just leave now; I really have to wait until they come and then go, and then that’s my starting point for being away: use of water and pain from living in the van.
The van is fully packed, just need to put in the laptop which I’m using to write this, and food and backpack. I add the food last so the fridge items are less affected, but there’s no point really because they will get affected, only I save an hour.
I’ll have dinner at 6PM here all going well and then head out for the usual Friday Threat exodus to the carpark. It’ll be later though, to get a safer idea if they’re not turning up. Should know fully by 10.50PM.
I’ve been angry all day that I have to do this. Now I just feel sick. It’s so wrong. I’m the one providing the solution to two peoples’ problems they cause and doing so at my cost: in health, peace of mind, productivity, getting what I supposedly pay for, actual money outlay, car usage ‘unnecessarily’ including equipment such as battery drainage, vulnerability to incidents such as accidents, theft or harassment, and cost to my general wellbeing.
SATURDAY 21st DECEMBER 2024
7.47am. Got back to the kennel, otherwise known as a garden shed without the garden, otherwise and misleadingly known as a “cabin”, at about 9.55PM last night after a careful driveby to see if the neighbours were down. Slept the sleep of the dead due to being overtired and unable to go to bed at my usual time much earlier, having been stuck in a local carpark waiting out the hours.
Today as with the remainder of the days in this danger period is almost completely uncertain. It’s a reasonable guess that the neighbours won’t arrive earlier than, say, 10am. So each day they’re not here I have until 10am to enjoy the day. After that, I live under the constant threat that they’ll arrive and I have to go and live in a rest area off the highway until they leave, which is an unknown number of days and nights later.
7.28PM. Still not out of the woods today. Probably can’t be sure my life won’t be sideswiped until about 9.30PM. If the neighbours arrive this evening then I’ll have to travel tired through the night to the rest area off the highway. Been a horrible day so far, not knowing, waiting, stressed from the situation, and DO NOT want to go driving tonight. Fingers crossed they don’t come now for today. It starts all over again then tomorrow.
SUNDAY 22nd DECEMBER 2024
4.58am. First thought when I woke up. The threat. Merry Christmas: as if.
9.34am Meeting with an old mate, Mark, this morning between ten-thirty and eleven, so I’ve packed the van because at and after that time I’m in the danger zone for neighbours arriving. That means frozen food is going in, all other food for several days stay in a highway rest area, clothing, water for camp showers, electronic devices and charging, and medication. I don’t know if I’ll be coming back to the place I pay to rent, or staying away, and if staying away I don’t know for how long.
MONDAY 23rd DECEMBER, 2024.
7.53am. Well I’ve tried to focus on other things since waking earlier this morning and not having much luck. I like to be productive but not knowing if – suddenly – unlivable noise is going to impact, forcing me to leave, means I can’t start something that requires normal, everyday living. You know, what you pay for.
9.23PM. Looks like I can now relax for today.
TUESDAY 24th DECEMBER, 2024
8.20am. Naturally when living under threat it’s the first thought when waking, which I did a few hours ago. Now, it’s Christmas Eve and I would like to spend the day enjoying Christmas spirit. But that’s not possible to do, fully, and not without effort of trying to mentally dismiss the threat.
When tenants and residents are involved, it’s so important for each to be considerate of the other, which includes not making industrial-level noise, and when that fails – and in any case in order to create a good vibe within which to live – it’s critically important to have professionally qualified, knowledgeable, proper management.
Getting the job by being a child of the owner doesn’t cut it.
WEDNESDAY 25th DECEMBER, 2024
6.33AM. Terrible sleep. I remembered a few days ago that the neighbours turned up last year on Christmas Day. I thought I had gotten away with it: that I had a day of quiet to enjoy. But then the industrial noise hit. So I woke three times and didn’t sleep well. They stayed last year for five days.
THURSDAY 26th DECEMBER, 2024
6.21am. What a horrible, threat-dominated Christmas that was. Woke up twice, upset at this predicament. Today it starts all over again, guessing from about 10am onwards. If I’m forced out of the place I pay for by the neighbour’s noise – which means if he and his family turn up, because they make industrial level noise with banging, thumping and the relentless air-conditioner ten feet from these flimsy thin tin walls – at least the weather isn’t too bad. Heat wave until midday tomorrow then it starts to cool down.
4.20PM. Well, they arrived thirty minutes ago. Heat wave conditions here, very windy. No way I can stay here now with their air conditioner going, ten feet from the thin tin walls. And they’ve got a dog now, which is barking. I need the window open to stay alive. I am now off to the rest area off the highway as soon as I can get to the car and not be in a position to engage with them. How long they’re down for I don’t know. Hope the owner family is enjoying my rent money while I go live in the rest area.