I am really, really reluctant to censor or edit anyone’s opinions (apart from a few boring, boring, boring pedantic nitpickers who are thankfully no longer with us). But I’m even more averse to this turning into one of those websites where people point fingers and hurl abuse at each other from behind the Sofa of Anonymity.
So let’s just assume that everybody has a valid point and move on.
I remember renting in an apartment block where every Friday night a woman entertained her friends on her balcony until the wee small hours. The woman had the most irritating and piercing laugh on the planet but I felt I couldn’t complain as I was trying to make a living as a comedy writer at the time and I thought it would be tempting fate if I asked even one person to stop laughing.
I also recall the night at 1 am when the guy downstairs decided to play guitar and sing his repertoire of Neil Young songs. “I am entitled to enjoy my balcony as and when I like,” he shouted back (erroneously) when my wife called down and asked him to give us a break. “And I’m entitled to come down there and shove your twelve-string up your Jacksie,” I responded. Silence. Then “sorry …” in a very small voice. All he could hear was the six-foot-six Scottish voice. Just as well he couldn’t see the five-foot-five body from which it emanated.
But seriously, are there people who are just too sensitive to noise? Are you entitled to sit on your balcony and talk through the night, however hushed your tones are? And is there a compromise?
I find earplugs effective against most noise, apart from the deep throb of bass from someone who has decided to turn their flat into an extension of the club from which they and their friends have just been evicted.
Back to this thread, I just ask everyone to play nice, forget for a moment about by-laws and rules, and consider what you do when a light sleeper and a night owl live in too-close proximity