Walking to the bus Friday morning I hear an update of Game 6 of the World Series and it takes me a moment to find that strange, seeing as it was on Radio 4 which is not known for sports coverage and furthermore in England where baseball is held in especially low esteem.  Fortunately I [...]

I do miss the gnome, face down on their kitchen roof. But, since the neighbours suddenly left at the end of July we have been holding off on celebrating (links to past descriptions of their behaviour can be found here).  As one of my work colleagues put it, “it’s bleak up North, and it sounds [...]

I think they are gone.  No shit, all indications are that they have moved away.  With the apparent retreat of the forces of darkness, the Siege of Swindongrad may be over.  I am still cautious but here were a series of emails and then my eyewitness observations of the halfwits: from    xxxxx.xxxxx@ymail.com to    xxxxxx@gmail.com date   [...]

Two nights ago, the circus next door spilled out onto the streets with some yelling and screaming followed by a visit from one cop who hauled away a girl when another cop showed up and went into chat with the neighbours for an hour and a half…we poured a couple of drinks and, like many [...]

It has been awhile since the last update, so here is what the best neighbours in Swindon have been up to. Pet lovers that they are, they have given a home to some ducks to accompany their 8 or 9 cats. They actually swam about in the pool with them from time-to-time, completely oblivious to [...]

Perhaps it is a housing for the inevitable hot tub boiler.  A meth lab would not surprise me, either.  Here’s the latest installation in the performance art that goes on, free of charge so far, right next door. And there are still enough pallet pieces left to fire the boiler, or throw out into the [...]

Following up on the April 2011 report, I give you our neighbours in June. There were brief periods of sunshine this past Saturday and Wednesday was nice, but the laundry next door has been hanging out since Monday in the intermittent showers and torrents that plagued us most of last week.  Gumption is not a [...]

I do love Swindon, my new town, but my neighbours leave a bit to be desired.  Not all of them, mind you; the old woman next to us is a hoot, and the young families beyond her are quite nice.  Two doors down in the other direction has just been sold or let and the [...]

Update on 13th August 2011 — Okay, fair enough…some of you have taken offense at the smarmy tone of this post. I’m sure you will all feel vindicated by this ‘proper’ press article: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/08/13/edl-to-gather-in-telford_n_926111.html Telford is a shit hole.  There’s no two ways about it, and that’s a shame because for a new city it [...]