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I got a shock yesterday when I went to open the kitchen door.

All day there had been screeching machinery like a dentist drill, and hammering. I went to the front but I couldn't see the cause of the noise except it sounded as from my Mr Xmas Lights neighbour, but they were all out, and I could see his garage door was open and someone seemed to be working in there.

It went on all to about 5.30 pm. Then about 6pm I went to open the kitchen door. It was if I had been hit in the face with a heavy plank of wood.

In front of me was The Berlin Wall.

Mr Xmas Lights neighbour had taken delivery of a load of fencing panels a few days earlier. I wondered where they were going to go. Now I knew. They backed on to the breeze block wall that divides our two driveways up the two bungalows to the garages in the back gardens. (When these bungalows were built in the 70's there was no dividing wall in the driveways, but the first person who brought my bungalow, and the bungalow next the other way for his mother, did not get on with my current Mr Xmas Lights neighbour, who has been there all that time, and so he built the breeze block wall. (The son of the mother was still around visiting his mother, when I moved in here and helped me with some stuff, like getting rid of furniture the elderly gentleman I bought the bungalow from, left behind)


Well, as I said, it was like being hit in the face with a heavy wooden plank immediately I opened my kitchen door.

i retreated in immediately and sat on the couch for a few minutes to gather my wits.

Mr Xmas Lights nor his wife had given me any warning.

Then I went into the back garden, and I could see that the wooden fencing was edged up right to his garage.

Brilliant, I thought, now I have no need of those summer parasols I got to get my privacy when I want to sit on the swing in the back garden etc. At that moment I wanted to do a hop and skip dance in the back garden yelling at the top of my voice "Thank you for this amazing fence protecting me from your prying eyes"

He has always been watching me ever since I moved in, and it was the reason my friend from Liverpool stopped coming, because she said he made her shiver because he was always standing somewhere, looking through a window, or peeping over the wall whenever she was there with me.

J bought me fast growing bamboo to plant where Mr Xmas Lights was always watching through a particular window. J got tired of Mr Xmas Lights always spying on us or watching us over the wall when we were painting in the garden etc and J wanted to go round to sort him. I said no because I live here, and J goes back home to his own property. So, in the end I put some sheets on the line so Mr Xmas Lights couldn't play peeping tom. J would say hello etc initially but Mr Xmas Lights always sneered and walked away.

So, last night I am working out pros and cons of this fence.

Anyway pros are
*I cannot see either of his security lights go off in the night, they cannot beam into my bedroom any more
*I won't be able to see him stare at me from his window or over the wall
*dare I hope pro #3 which is those infernal eternal Xmas lights of his which go all up this passage will be blocked somewhat. Will the fence deflect the angle so they don't shine in my windows for 2 whole months nightly?
Only one con...
* I don't have any sun in my back garden in the winter months, and so for a couple of hours in an afternoon the sun shines in that side passage where the fence is and I used to sit out there. But it is going to block some sun, however, if I put screening on half my iron gate up to about 5 foot, I can create a new small private area by my kitchen door where I can put a chair and maybe read for an hour, so maybe there is no con here, and it is all positives.

I was hoping when I came back that he was going be outside and I was going to say a bright and cheery good morning, isn't it a lovely day (blue skies already), but he wasn't. He just sneers and turns away, but no need for me to descend to his level is there?

I cannot see why he has done this Berlin Wall. The only thing over it is the side of my bungalow which is a normal brick wall, like his is. And the very top part by the garages he could see into my back garden but since J died, I have managed to grow some forsythia bushes, mimosa and other bushes in containers so he cannot see me so easily on the swing. All yellow flowers I have just realised.

Going to open some doors now, welcome in this bright new day.

And then some breakfast.

I am going outside now to enjoy my absolute privacy now. This is a beautiful day.

Creative is some scribbles on an old app, you can't get hold of any more, so app will stay on my tablet until it breaks down!!!

Have an absolutely amazing brilliant day!

Nearly forgot, I posted a few videos yesterday. Here is one...
A short one 22secs
Cat Merlin listens to the night...
https://youtube.com/shorts/LnxZLe0_a90?si=MfGwb4ksuvW0mHN8

And an extra of the Berlin Wall, outside my kitchen door.
The top flat slabs of the breeze block wall are about my eye level/forehead level, and the Berlin Wall is above that. I had tried to grow some bushes in pots at that point to try to raise the height of the wall for privacy on my side, but none of them grew much beyond the height of the wall.

I cannot see his bungalow or roof from the Berlin Wall.
Oh Joyful Happy Days!