No, this isn’t an homage to everyone’s fave Aussie soap (although I bet at least two of you are humming the theme tune right now aren’t you?) It is however a little ode to just how bloody lucky we are to have literally the most brilliant neighbours. Sitting outside on a Sunday evening christening the beautiful new Moya Blush Serving Set from LSA International and celebrating an exciting collaboration, it definitely feels like a pinch me moment.
After all, neighbours can make or break your dream home can’t they? About two weeks after we moved in, there was an epic street fight between the matriarchs of a house a few doors down from us and one up the road. I watched from an upstairs window with the lights out as baseball bats were wielded (no joke!) and told Pete ‘who needs TV?’. Inside though my heart was breaking slightly wondering where on earth we’d moved to. Thankfully that was a one-off and just poor timing and both families have since left the area.
With the rest though, we’ve really lucked out. When Pete and I have those fantasy conversations about winning the lottery, invariably we always decide to stay put and a large part of that is down to our existing neighbours. Because really, who wants to go live in some swanky neighbourhood where your neighbours are either boring as all hell or never there?
We love our semi-detached home here in SE London. On our ‘attached’ side, the couple who live there regularly ply us with home grown fruit and veg in the summer. This is the type of place where we chat over the garden fence in our PJs and if I’m home and have washing on the line when it starts to rain, I’ll hear a “LINDSAY DARLIN’ IT’S RAININ” so I can rush it all in. Last year they very kindly fenced pretty much our entire garden between their side and ours, all 100ft + of it. Ok, it benefitted them too but it would have cost us a fortune to pay someone to do it.
On our non-attached side, our lovely friends who are purveyors of wonderful light up letter company Locke & Busby. Friends and now clients of mine which feels SO exciting. There will be more on this in due course but I’m delighted to be able to help grow their business and work creatively. To know someone will happily take in parcels, look after our home when we’re away and just generally be there for a good old natter, such simple things but really irreplaceable. I’ll never take it for granted because it could so easily be different. By all accounts the people who lived here before us had both our neighbours at their wits end. I think they’re grateful on both sides that we moved in but we’re more grateful to have them.
So here’s a toast to the future, to celebrating with important people and now I think it’s time for a bit of Angry Anderson. If you know, you know.
Disclaimer: Kaleidoscope very kindly gifted me the LSA International Moya Blush Serving Set. As always, I only ever accept product from a brand I love and would genuinely use.
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