We all need good neighbours!

Me and my boyfriend have been living in this apartment/flat, Its basically a converted house with 3 apartments since last June. We have one (a couple) neighbour downstairs and one neighbour beside us.  However we basically never ever see them. Its so weird, but we always hear them banging the front door so we know they are alive.

I suppose we have the most interaction with the neighbour beside us. When he is too noisy we knock on the wall and when we are talking to loudly late at night he knocks on the wall. Its our code system. When he opens his skylight window coverer in the morning we know he's woken up. We know he likes to listen to horrible noisy music really loud at all hours of the morning.

When I put on my music he puts on his music to respond. The first thing he told my boyfriend when we moved in was the walls are paper thin. He was serious. That was our flat warning gift.

Despite hearing him a lot I have only ever met him 3 times on the stairs since we moved in, the first time was when we first moved in, second time yesterday and today. Me and my boyfriend had this perception of him

He must be divorced with kids (we sometimes hear a woman and kids coming to visit him)

He's a lazy bugger with no job.

He's addicted to gambling.

Then we have the male neighbour downstairs who we have seen a bit more regularly but not that much, Practically every time we have met him he has showed me how to lock the door. which is not very challenging you just pull up the handle.

We also had the perception that the male neighbour downstairs,

has no job, stays at home everyday, gambling. (the few times my boyfriend met him he said he was off to play poker)

Then yesterday I found out that all our perceptions were probably incorrect. Basically I was in our apartment doing my assignments and there was a knock on the door.It was the guy beside us "The census man is downstairs" so I put on my slippers grabbed the census rushed downstairs. The census man was still talking to the female neighbour downstairs and I couldn't help but overhear that the neighbour has a child, and a job.

Then I heard a bang upstairs our apartment door had closed and self locked itself. I was now officially locked out with no keys, no phone and wearing slippers all thanks to the Damn Census!!! I have been locked out of my own house countless times but never like this, It was usually because I forgot my key when I went to college. I used to have to sit in the porch or garden waiting for someone to come home. Anyway I had no choice but to ask the female neighbour could I borrow her phone to call the landlord. Luckily she said OK,

Unluckily neither of us knew his number.... Then out of nowhere our neighbour from beside of us appeared and the female neighbour downstairs explained what happened and he said I will ring the landlord. and within 5 minutes the landlord arrived and the day was saved!

So that will teach us not to make presumptions about our neighbours, total disaster and then they appear.

Damn you Census!

It's Census time in Ireland at the moment, well I suppose technically it was during the weekend, but ours still haven't been collected... Our appartment is a bit off the beaten track... so perhaps its never going to be collected which makes it even more annoying GRRRR!!

Well the main reason it was annoying was because it was so bloody long... and very very personal. which I suppose it's supposed to be. But the incredibly annoying part was the following question

How would you describe your health?

(a) Very good

(b) Good

(c) Bad

(d) Very Bad

No sooner had I picked very good, then I suddenly came down with a horrific sore throat. Damn Census!! Now I know the census didn't give me the sore throat, I just feel like it jynxed me, in general I am very healthy. I don't normally get stomach aches, vomiting or anything like that.

But anyway I have identified the main culprits who caused me this misery, Polish, not Polish people, polish food, On Sunday night, me and my boyfriend decided to stay at home and watch a movie, Alice in Wonderland.

we wanted to get some snacks and we thought we would be adventurous and try polish snacks, OK I lied we thought we would be lazy and go to the polish shop across the road. We bought Polish digestive biscuits and Polish loop crackers. Don't ask me the names because we threw them all in the bin..

Word of warning when you eat polish snacks don't eat too many in one go. Especially when you don't know whats in them. That was our biggest mistake. We just munched on them for the whole movie and then the next morning we woke up and OH MY GOD our throats were so sore.

So my boyfriend decided we would go on a hot food free diet, no oil, no spices, no meat. Just vegetables and fruit. Thrust me not Yum.

Yesterday I was starting to feel a lot better, then last night I made a huge mistake we went to the pub and I had 2 bottles of Smirnoff ice WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?? then I woke up this morning and I can't speak.  So its pretty quiet in our apartment right now... I also have a meeting later at college, I might have to bring my boyfriend as a spokesperson

Does anyone know what to do if the Census man forgets to collect your Census form?? I'd feel terribly guilty if we made the official count inaccurate. 4 million people + 2 forgotten people so sad lol