Nice neighbours..

... or not. Our fabulous next door neighbours (those of plant cutting, trespassing, grass killing fame) stepped up the action against us last week by complaining to the council about us. Apparently rainwater came from our property onto theirs !!

Now, bare in mind we live on a steep hill with him below us and when he built the property he didn't put in retaining walls and the day he complained about it was when we received the whole monthly rainfall in a couple of hours and Paul was out there all day pumping out the garage and stopping everything flooding. Petty is a word that springs to mind.

Anyway, all turned out good. Paul used to play football with said council guy who was a pom so they stood outside, close, to the neighbours open window and chatted about everything and anything except rainwater, had a good laugh and council man drove off just saying "put some pipes in when you can"

Don't you just love it when melicious acts backfire Unfortunately they obviously weren't happy as the next day my bourgainvillea was completely hacked back again (I think it's only managed two flowers all year !) and now they spend their time hanging over our fence checking what Paul is doing and reversing up the road as they come out of their drive for a better look !! It's a shame really that on putting the pipes in Paul has to raise the level of the ground to half way up the fence !! Why did we have to get them as neighbours !!!

Saturday we all travelled up north to Joondalup (about an hour and a half away) for the girls' birthday treat (I know, a bit late !) They had managed to save most of their birthday money so went on a bit of a spending spree. It was great spending the day as a family and we hit every shop, I think. We even managed to bump into someone we'd met from Yatton when we were in the UK !! Getting the train there and back was a doddle and took all the stress out of the day. I now need to set a date for my birthday treat (Paul had his on the day - suprise !)

Talking of dates - we've booked our tests for citizenship - 4th August. I can't believe we've been here nearly two years already. Paul and I have to sit a 45min multiple question test on history, values etc. It's not easy, there is quite a thick book we have to read and digest, but luckily the pass mark is 60% so fingers crossed ! If we pass we can apply for our citizenship and then, finally, will belong somewhere. It's funny really but it's not nice not having a voice. We can't vote in either the UK or Oz until we get citizenship.

07:22 - Tue 27 May 2008