Fighting against ‘old pensioner syndrome’

Are you becoming what is classified as having the bored old pensioner syndrome? Do small things annoy you so much that you are regularly complaining to authorities? Are you sitting behind the curtains observing every move your neighbours make? Do you regularly complain to authorities or shops about the smallest things?

I use to live next door to an old couple that had cameras around the whole house which the owner of the house seemed to monitor every time we were home. It was a small sleepy town near the water, and only a few joggers use to run down the street in the mornings. When I would go out, I would see this 60-year-old male peering between the curtains at me and his wife would be looking outside through the kitchen window. I got so sick of his neuroses that I was actually becoming neurotic about him.

First, he complained to the Council about the noise of our cars driving in and out of our yard. We use to come and go at all hours as both of us worked shift work. I found out the local Council would put him on a loud speaker and have a bit of a giggle because he used to ring in so often.

My talking cockatoo “Clarry” was a risk when I moved into a suburban area, and I put him around the back of the house near the back door. Clarence used to screech twice a day and often call when he wanted to talk to you. Most of the time Clarence would just chat away to you in his own form of English, which was not noisy. Of course, the neighbour put in a complaint to Council. I was duly advised by the local real estate that I was approved to have the bird as there were hundreds Corella birds hanging around that were wild and made much more noise.

I decided to have a little bit of fun. I started to feed the local birds in the front yard on the other side of the house from this neighbour. I figured if I had lots of wild birds hanging around then he would no longer be able to complain about my one little cockatoo. It worked. I came home the next day, and 50 Corellas were sitting along the power lines outside my home. They made an excellent noise, many many more decibels than my one little cockatoo. You actually could not hear another person speak if you were in the vicinity.

Now, this is where my bored old syndrome cuts in. I left the hedge that grew over the fence into my yard from his yard, grow. It was bougainvillaea and grew quickly, and many long shoots appeared. I felt if the neighbour were really neurotic this would annoy him. Sure enough, my dog caught him leaning round to my side of the fence to clip the shoots off in the middle of the night. The neighbour had sneaked along the fence line and reached around the hedge only managing to snip a few shoots off before my dog started to bark.

It was a lovely neighbourhood to live in, but every time I walked outside, he was watching. Every visitor we had, he was watching. I could not wait to move. If you took the dog for a walk without a leash, he would be on the phone to the Council putting in a complaint. I wondered how many other residents he had driven out of the area. I found out later this bored old pensioner had done his very own local town plan, had complained about the local camping area (he wanted it as a parking area for his boat trailer), had complained about tourists in the area, and had complained about dogs barking near his home, even complained about the only two shops in the town. He was well known.

Do you have a neighbour like this or do you suffer from bored old pensioner syndrome yourself?  We would love to read your stories in the comments below.

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