More new neighbours

We have some new neighbours in the unit across from ours. For years a couple a few years older than us lived there. They were polite, quiet- ideal neighbours in almost every way, but they were too selfish to pay for a plumber to fix a valve in their unit that was thought to be responsible for many of the units in the complex (including ours) having cold water come out of the hot tap. They even said it at a Body Corporate meeting after everyone else had paid to have theirs done- why should they do it if their hot water was fine?

Frankly, they were a bit weird. They'd get up at 5am every morning, drive somewhere (presumably the gym), drive home, go to work, come home and go to bed. In the 3 years or so that they lived here they never once had a single friend visit them. The girl's parents visited a couple of times, and the guy's parents may have visited once, but I can't remember. No dinner parties, no late nights, no music, no pets... no life.

The girl who lived there before them was a bit of a freak too- it's a secure complex with two resident managers and yet she saw fit to install a security screen and a peep-hole. Fair enough, sometimes people have reason to install such things. But she would be friendly enough to say 'hi' passing in the hallway at some times, and then look at us like we were going to rob her and beat her up at other times. Which was unnerving.

Still, it was a bit of a relief to see our new neighbours moving in yesterday. They're normal. Clearly students, once they'd done with moving in and arranging their stolen road signs on the balcony, they sat out there and lit up a joint. And burned sticks of incense to cover the smell. But seriously, it wasn't much of a cover- what 19 year old boys burn incense just for the hell of it?

I suppose I have a soft spot for potheads because all the stoners at International House, when we lived there, were harmless types, and much quieter than drunks (unless you count their tuneless guitar strumming). And as long as none of them are emptying bong water down our sink I'm sure they'll make perfectly good neighbours.


UPDATE: This morning I went out to tip some water on our potplants and noticed that they'd actually left their bong on the balcony! And last night I came to the realisation that I can no longer do late night dashes out to water the potplants clad only in my underwear because there's always someone sitting out on their balcony- in the 3 years that they lived there, our previous neighbours never once used that balcony. Thankfully I arrived at this realisation when I was fully dressed, but I did freak out at being out there at 11pm and turning around to see someone sitting there watching me water the plants!