The neighbourhood that we live in is spacious by Bangalore standards, but the houses are much closer than I am used to, and really, what I comfortable with.  We know a lot about the neighbours whose house backs on to ours, as there are lots of windows on these walls.  Our houses are about eight feet apart and both of us keep the windows open all the time. I know when they are eating, what they are watching on TV, when their lils are in trouble and that at least one member of their family has a weak stomach.  They know the same about us, except the weak stomach part (we are pretty cast iron here).

For the most part, this hasn’t bothered us in the least.  It’s just life, and they are living theirs.  They are actually pretty friendly people, and we have shared a few chats over the fence as I chase the lils.  I do admit that I have been tempted to ask them to shut the window on a few occasions, though.  There are two things that have bothered me pretty much since we moved in, and I blame them both on this family, our closest neighbours.

They have a cook, who arrives between 5:50 and 6:00 AM every day.  I know this, because I hear her arrive.  It seems that they have not given her a key or made other arrangements to let her in, so she needs to ring the bell.  They must be sound sleepers, because most days she rings it enough times that I could make it over to let her in.  It’s frustrating, as I am sleep challenged, and this is an interruption that I could do without.

The second annoyance that I attributed to them was whatever squeaky appliance that the cook used for about an hour each day after she got there.  It was loud, annoying, and persistent.  It was actually the more irksome disturbance, and the noise was particularly loud in our bedroom, given that the open window in our bathroom was right over the open door to their kitchen.  I stewed on this for weeks, until I realized that it wasn’t coming from their house at all.

It’s a damn bird, and it nests on the wall just outside our bathroom.  I feel bad for blaming the cook, but the sound fit so well with her arrival time.  I was sure it was her, and I feel guilty for making that assumption.  Now I am stuck, as I clearly can’t ask them to stop making a noise that they are not making and I can’t have the bird evicted, what if it has babies?! Eep! WHAT IF IT HAS BABIES??

Here is a video that Woo shot one morning as he waited for us to get up.  You can clearly hear the bird in the clip. You tell me, does that sound like a bird? Or a squeaky wheel?

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilbunnyrabbitz/7733815920/)