Thin Walls
Neighbours can't live with them and can't avoid a trip to the post office for your Amazon packages delivered without them. One of the dilemmas of life.
So the house I currently live in has fairly thin walls, so any loud noises from our neighbours who live in the adjacent house travels fairly easily.
In the moment of writing this I am working from home (read: meant to be working but actually writing a blog post instead - let's call that a coffee break shall we?) and the neighbours teenage kid and his friends are playing video games. Fair enough, they are boys and shouting loudly when you win is fine it does interrupt me. I must agree that this example was a bit petty, since it's in the middle of the day and not hugely inconvenient.
Here are a few anecdotes about how the thin walls between their house and ours have created some inconvenient, uncomfortable and occasionally blush making situations.
Loud party
On a bank holiday Monday (a day which is public holiday with no work in the UK) our neighbours decided to have a big party. It was an odd choice of day in this 3 day weekend as the party could have been done on either Saturday or Sunday, so that there would have been a non-work day to recover on. Yet they decided to pick the Monday evening for their party - which meant that everyone (at least in my house-share) were getting up the next morning to go to work and go to university. At party was pretty rowdy but I managed to fall asleep and slept through the majority of it (I am like the dead when I sleep and have slept through thunder storms before). But even with my sound sleeper qualities I was awoken at approximately 2.30 in the morning by extremely loud music. In my top floor room the furthers away from their kitchen/living room area, I could still very clearly hear every single word of the chorus of the song 'Zombie' by the Cranberries.
Side note: A pretty weird song choice for a party?
Arguing
As the couple next door has a teenage son I understand that there sometimes might be heated moments and raised voices. But this family certainly pick their moment - normally late at night say midnight onwards and they will shout, slam doors and stomp up and down the stairs. Sometimes they are so loud that I for a second think that my housemates in our house are arguing in the kitchen downstairs before I realise that it's actually our neighbours next door.
I can't really criticise this too much - all families have their disagreements. But it does leave me a bit uncomfortable when I can hear the majority of what is shouted between them in what obviously is a family matter.
Intimate moments
This last example is by far the most uncomfortable and embarrassing. The woman who lives next door has recently introduced a new man in her life, who clearly knows the ways of a woman - if you know what I mean. Semi-regularly on the weekends I will wake up in the morning and hear very load sounds from next door. They are clearly enjoying a private but loud moment, which through the thin walls makes it impossible for me to not overhear. Her screams of ecstasy and 'Oh yes!' travel clearly through the walls. Even leaving my bedroom and moving two floors down to our kitchen - the noises produced by their union are still very clear to the ear.
Oh dear... What does one do in these situations? Make a cup of coffee and put on the TV on really high volume...