Sayings, and neighbour/privacy problems

 Yesterday's post and all your comments on things our parents/grandparents used to say got me wondering about what things we say that we might be remembered for.

I'm partially deaf, I can only really hear what people say if they're standing in front of me and facing me - I cannot hear them if they're behind me, or when there's a lot of background noise, like outside in the street or in a busy shop, e.g.  I also can't really hear people speaking if there are appliances in operation - like the TV, radio, hoover or microwave for example.  I certainly can't hear what someone's saying  if they're in another room.....something that husband does persistently, every single day, as he forgets every time that I'm deaf!  So the thing I'll be remembered for (I'd have it on my headstone, if I was going to have one, which I'm not!) is "I can't hear you!!".

Husband's will be "It wasn't me" - his standard and immediate response whenever anybody asks if or why he's done/not done something.....his automatic response is to deny all knowledge.  He gets that from his mother, she was exactly the same, wouldn't admit to anything even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

So what's your memorable saying likely to be?

Husband has cooked the dog food this morning, a mixture of chicken and beef mince with vegetables.  The smell of meat cooking nowadays makes me want to heave, I can only do it with the kitchen windows and outside door open, to get rid of the smell as quickly as possible.  Husband offered to do it this morning though, so I happily agreed....even though I have to wipe up all the splattered fat and meat juices afterwards, which he seems oblivious to 😒.  One job out of the way.

The neighbour whose garden backs onto our own - well, it's not a garden, he has that at the back of his house, this space is basically his car parking area across the road from his house - is having the old barn in the space converted to a holiday let, he's got planning permission.  He's doing a lot of the work himself, he's already started by digging up the row of trees and shrubs all along our shared boundary fence, a waist-high fence, he's intending to erect what he says will be a 5ft high picket type fence along his side.  As the ground on his side is quite a bit lower than our side, it will probably only be around 4ft high.  At the moment, with just the waist-high fence on our side, we are very overlooked and have no privacy in our garden or our back windows - kitchen and my bedroom.  Once the barn is converted (it's currently single-storey but will be two-storey - and with a small balcony - when completed) we'll have even less privacy.  Our next door neighbours are similarly affected.  I can't imagine how he got planning permission, actually - it was applied for and granted before we moved here.  We're not at all happy about it but don't know what we can do - I doubt whether complaints to the Planning Dept would be taken into consideration when the plans have already been approved.  So we've been thinking about what to do from our side that will give us more privacy.  We're going to have trellising put up all along the top of our fence, so we can grow climbers up it, for a start, although we're not doing it until the neighbour has put his fence up.  I don't want to put our trellising up only for it to give him an excuse not to put up high - or even any - fencing on his side, so we'll wait to see what his new fence is like first.  I've also ordered some tall shrubs - after googling for suitable evergreen flowering shrubs that will get to around 6 or 7 ft high, I decided on Ceanothus, Californian lilacs, they're arriving next week I think, they're currently around 5ft tall apparently.  So they will give us some added privacy.

It's always difficult I think when there are neighbour problems.....he's friendly enough but is a bit of a loud arrogant type who acts like he's lord of the manor (he lives in a big old stone house).  I don't want to fall out with neighbours, having had neighbour problems in years past.  Our next door neighbour years ago first started a dog breeding business from his back garden, you can imagine the noise and smell that caused, then when the Council put a stop to that, he moved out but rented the house out to a couple of prostitutes who ran a brothel from there!  The police 'encouraged' them to leave, thankfully.  So basically we'll just resolve the privacy problem from our side, as far as we can.