We hardly ever see any of the people who live in our building. Although, for the most part, I'm not sure I'd recognize them if I saw them. But our downstairs neighbor, he is everywhere. We go to the store, we find him shopping. Or we meet him on our way there or back. We leave the building, we pass him on the stairwell. We go to the basement to get our bikes, he's just coming in the other door. The working theory is he takes a lot of walks to escape his wife; however, often we see them together, or rather, we know they are together because, well, we know they are together, but if we didn't know, then we wouldn't know, as he is always several steps behind her, and they appear not to talk. She says hello, but is a bit grim and gruff. He's always very friendly and smiling, and sometimes chats to my boyfriend.It's has gotten to the point where we take bets on whether we'll see him or not when one of us leaves the house. We talk about him, how he's always there, like he's stalking us, does he wait for us to leave the building and then run out so that we can run into him, and so on, as fun dinner party conversation. But then it hit me. What if they do talk to each other, when indoors away from the public eye? And, what if, when talking, they say the same things about us? Conversation would be as follows (translated from the Danish, of course):
Him: Hey, honey, I'm home...and guess who I saw?
Her: You're kidding. Again? They're everywhere!
Him: I know. Don't they have anything to do except to walk around town?
Her: Did you see them both? Cause I saw just him the other day.
Him: Presumably trying to get away from her. Do you see how she is? She's always talking. And in English...can you imagine?
Her: Yeah. If I were him, I'd take long walks, too!
Him: But no, actually I saw both of them. With shopping bags, of course.
Her: Figures. Do they do anything except shop for food?
And so on. It's making me a bit paranoid. Or does everyone have a neighbor like that, and I've just never noticed the ones where I've lived previously? Any stories to tell to ease my increasingly tense nerves would be greatly appreciated.
*The ceremonial last random China photo (there are some other non-random ones which will be posted shortly). This is a street in Chengdu, where we did not, to my knowledge, run into any neighbors.*
7 kommentarer:
Over here we have a name for that: stalkers!
Amusing. I always fall victim to that, telling someone, "they're always down the pub...everytime I'm there..." blah blah. You guess the rest.
Oh this is BRILLIANT! You're so funny!
I don't have a specific neighbour like that but I bump into my neighbours all the time and unfortunately know everything about their lives (not only because the walls are crap in this building, but also because they tell me!! that's Portugal)
But that was really funny and it reminds me of the importance of remembering that there is always a reverse side to things.
Day, it's kinda fun actually...and good luck again with the sugar thing...you'll notice the difference!
Kunstemæcker, could be, could very well be. Or we just all go out at the same times...but that's not as much fun is it?
Fly, I'm glad to know it's not just me, then. And, by the way, I realize I'm totally lost about which of your blogs there are, which allow comments...I'll be untangling it all in my own mind this weekend.
Ms. Mood, thanks! Luckily, I only had a few of the 'chatty older lady' types as neighbors when I was in Portugal...it's nice at first to hear about their lives, but the novelty wears off quite quickly, as I recall.
Ya know I used to see the same characters everywhere as well. It's like a strange Simpsons universe. Neighbor spotted at ISO, Oesterbro at 12:00. Spotted again in Noerrebro, furniture shopping at 14:00. Seen at Sticks and Sushi, Vesterbro at 19:27. Seen again puking in front of our building at 2am.
Never happens anymore now that I live in a house in the middle of nowhere.
Thanks for the laugh. I'm sure it is just coincidence that you see this neighbor, but that would not make such a funny story. And you are so right that they may be saying the same basic things about you.
LOL
Mr. Heartburn, actually I think that's funny...our town is quite small, and when I've lived in bigger places, I never see anyone.
Mr. American, that sounds ominous for some reason.
Imma, oh, I'm sure they're saying lots of stuff about us. Maybe more about my boyfriend, as he grew up in a nearby neighborhood and used to hang out which these neighbors' kid (which is the only reason we know who they are, probably).
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