Ashley in Sheffield received this lovely belated birthday card from a neighbo(u)r.
(Nicely done, Laura.)
related: If you were the one who was so drunk or so stupid…
A belated birthday/thank you card
May 2nd, 2012 · 104 comments
FILED UNDER: birthday · most popular notes of 2012 · neighbors · noise · sleeping · thanks (but not really) · U.K.
104 responses so far ↓
#1
Fat Desdemona
I’m definitely Team Letter Writer. Drunk, screaming girls should burn in the fiery depths.
May 2, 2012 at 5:25 pm rating: 137
#2
hugsandkisses101
File this one under plain ol’ “aggressive”.
Yelling “shut up, please!” to a rude neighbor and her self-absorbed (probably) 20-something, (certainly) DRUNK friends at 2am: 2 seconds (and probably forgotten the next day).
Leaving a bitchy, overly dramatic, passive aggressive ‘birthday’ card for someone you LIVE next to? That’s there forever.
May 2, 2012 at 5:27 pm rating: 52
#3
Kaylee
I like how the neighbour took the time to put a nice picture of a peacock on the card
May 2, 2012 at 5:40 pm rating: 23
#4
Amory
Ashley is also a boy’s name, but at any rate, I am on the side of the neighbour. There’s nothing quite so annoying as a gang of obnoxious young and drunken people hollering outside when you’re trying to just get some proper sleep. Now that’s aggressive.
May 2, 2012 at 5:43 pm rating: 49
#5
Siobhan
eh it was her birthday its allowed.
May 2, 2012 at 6:00 pm rating: 10
#6
Mrs.Beasley
Loud Party Rule #1: Always invite the neighbors. Even if they decline, there’s less likelihood that they will be moved to complain about the noise.
May 2, 2012 at 6:50 pm rating: 46
#7
havingfitz
Having grown up with a drunk, I learned first hand the dangers of confronting, angering people who have had a few too many. You never know how someone is going to react. The letter is a bit much, but at least it was safer.
May 2, 2012 at 7:10 pm rating: 34
#8
Daniel
Haha … I love the hyperbolic comments, particularly the “putting-your-life-at-risk cause-you’ve-been-up-all night-and-driving,” or the “how they might react” dangers … really, it was a birthday party. If the neighbor would have asked them to keep it down, I bet they would have … team party-your-ass-off-on-your-birthday.
May 2, 2012 at 7:41 pm rating: 19
#9
Danielle
Nope, letter writer is wrong here. She KNOWS this neighbor, the thing to do is go over and politely but firmly insist that the noise level is kept down. While the letter writer is justified in being angry, you don’t just leave nasty notes to someone that you are at least somewhat on friendly terms with.
May 2, 2012 at 8:17 pm rating: 13
#10
ziblue
The illustration of the peacock is pretty, and if it was intentionally picked, that part of it IS a clever statement (ever heard a peacock?) If she’d kept it low-key and underhanded like that in the note part, this would be a masterful passive-aggressive note. She loses points by sounding so whiny and huffy. And not asking her to keep it down a little, since she obviously knows her.
May 2, 2012 at 8:54 pm rating: 14
#11
bitchy the dwarf
funchon? If you’re gonna bitch about something, at least spell everything properly. Oh wait…I forgot you were sleep-deprived ((rolls eyes))
Team Birthday!!!
May 2, 2012 at 9:28 pm rating: 2
#12
Tundra
When it comes to neighbours, housemates, etc, not much is worse than a lot of noise at night.
May 2, 2012 at 9:32 pm rating: 24
#13
Nessa
Sorry, #notewriter. I’ll admit, she was a little overly-dramatic about it, but noise laws do exist. I don’t care what day it is. Nobody should have to tell you to keep it down.
May 2, 2012 at 10:46 pm rating: 21
#14
Agg
Ashley sounds like an asshole. Letter writer wins.
May 2, 2012 at 11:38 pm rating: 25
#15
bookworm
Team notewriter all the way. Nobody gives a shit about your birthday Ashley.
May 3, 2012 at 12:49 am rating: 23
#16
Jimmah
maybe nobody gives a shit about yer birthday, but some of us still like to have FUN. if you don’t speak up when yer annoyed, expect to continue to be a bitchey little note writer forever. and not get any sleep cause you can’t communicate with real live humans…
May 3, 2012 at 1:16 am rating: 10
#17
notolaf
Team Letter Writer. Drunk, loud, and obnoxious is what BARS are for.
May 3, 2012 at 1:28 am rating: 37
#18
a-Arialist
Team letter writer, all the way. I used to live in the flat above Ashley’s male counterpart(s) and people screaming and shouting at 3am on a weeknight was a regular occurrence. I never approached them (young single woman trying to speak to rowdy drunk bunch of guys NEVER a good idea) so had to stew in silence. Good for Laura getting it off her chest.
May 3, 2012 at 3:30 am rating: 28
#19
Eat The Beat
Ashley should have sent the neighbour’s notice. When it was my 21st (I lived in a block of flats, some people were elderly, some with kids), I posted a short note through each of their letterboxes a week in advance warning them I was going to be having a party with other 20-somethings and that it would be noisy. Guess what? Noone complained.
Reasonable people expect parties (especially student parties) to be noisy, so if you give them notice then I would say 99% of people would understand. If you don’t, that’s when all hell breaks loose.
That being said, I don’t condone the neighbour’s response. She should at the very least have waited before sending a card. That will most likely dent relations between the two perhaps for the rest of the tenancy, and that’s not good :-/
May 3, 2012 at 5:28 am rating: 8
#20
Sevencrown
I admit I did not read every comment, so maybe I missed if someone made this point.
Being loud and obnoxious on a work night is certainly rude, but some people have interesting definitions of loud and rude. This party could have easily been well within reasonable limits and our card-writer is just being crazy because it was not absolute silence. “People shouting in the street” could easily have been a few people talking out front while smoking, for instance.
I’ve been there when a single neighbor is complaining about the noise that the rest of the block is sleeping through.
May 3, 2012 at 10:36 am rating: 19
#21
Madrias
Team Notewriter.
Having had rather loud obnoxious drunk neighbors who threw parties every night for 3 months straight (and were evicted for not paying their rent…), I know full well that it’s really difficult to function the next day if you couldn’t sleep.
Nothing like going to school/work with no sleep and having to kick beer bottles off of the sidewalk because the upstairs drunks had another party and slept it all off that morning to do so again by night.
I hate stupid people.
May 3, 2012 at 2:15 pm rating: 25
#22
Tarn
Team Notewriter. The last thing I want to do when someone is keeping me awake, is head out in my jammies, bed-head and unmadeup face to tell them to keep it down! Especially since she’s complaining about the noise they’re making in the street, so she’d have to go outside to do it.
The people in the house next door to me hold loud late parties, mostly on weekends, true, but still, it’s getting annoying.. They do warn us (they put a note on the door of our block). But they party at least every couple of months, and they always take place at the back of the house and in the garden (even in winter). You can’t hear a thing from the street, but out back, where our bedrooms overlook – oy. There’s simply no way anyone in my block (and I assume the others around) can sleep until the party ends!
To those talking about calling the cops – not applicable. UK cops don’t respond to noise calls. It’s a local authority matter, and I bet most of those (like mine) only run a Noise Line on Friday and Saturday nights. Any other time, you’re on your own. And the one time I called the Noise Patrol to an all-night party in my block (I already knew these guys were unpleasant, so I was nervous of going up there), the NP came and sat outside in their car & took notes. That was all. They couldn’t tell them to STFU because there wasn’t a cop available to go with them – Health & Safety…..
May 4, 2012 at 9:28 am rating: 15
#23
Annie
Team Ashley. It sounds like this wasn’t a regular occurrence, nobody knows whether it was a weekend or not, and that note was super bitchy. I have a hard time feeling sympathy for someone who stayed up all night getting mad at people for causing noise, but didn’t have the balls to do something about it. The note writer could have gone over and asked them to be quieter, or (if she tried that and it didn’t work) called the cops. Besides, I’ve had some really obnoxious neighbors before who will make noise complaints about the slightest thing. How do we know that the party wasn’t actually pretty low-key and the note writer just overreacted? There’s nothing about loud music or anything. Maybe the “screaming and shouting” was Ashley saying goodbye to guests at the front door, and the neighbor’s an overly sensitive bitch?
May 4, 2012 at 12:07 pm rating: 7
#24
derp
I like how the morons submited it here thinking people would side with them. Yes, we all love noisy drunk bitches next door during weekdays
May 5, 2012 at 10:16 am rating: 25
#25
Guy who lives with Ashley
Just a little bit of info about where we live…
It is densely populated with students. Laura is one of around 4 or 5 houses on a mile long road that decided to move to this area. Noise happens regularly on this street.. I personally think if you want peace and quiet where you live,dont move to what is practically a student village. Now for those of you you believe were morons for making noise, go crawl back into your caves and remain bitter about everything you stand against.. whilst we sit in our noisy environment and have a great time.. thanks. Oh and just so you know, 2 of us DJ for a living, so we gave her our mobile numbers when she moved in.. so a text or phone call could have easily been made.
May 6, 2012 at 1:01 pm rating: 2
#26
Tarn
I think you’re projecting, Annie. It sounds like you’re still bitter about those neighbours. You seem determined to tar Laura with the same brush. ….overly sensitive bitch? Yep. Bitter.
You say you’ve
had some really obnoxious neighbors before who will make noise complaints about the slightest thing.
Neighbours, plural? Because I can see maybe getting one neighbour who is hyper-sensitive to noise. That was unlucky for you. But if it keeps happening, maybe you need to consider whether they have a point….
No, we can’t assume ‘this wasn’t a regular occurrence’. There’s just not enough to go on. Laura doesn’t mention any history of noise, but she doesn’t say there wasn’t one, either.
Nobody knows whether it was a weekend or not
I think you mean if it was a weeknight. OK, we don’t know for sure, but since Laura says she had to go to work on no sleep, the odds are good that it was. Or a Sunday, which is just as bad.
Laura not confronting them means she didn’t have the balls? Bollocks!
I’d call it self-preservation. She might know Ashley, but she probably doesn’t know her mates.
Last Sunday night, I went out to ask a drunk neighbour to turn down her music. Myself and the guy next door spent half an hour asking her to please be considerate. She just shouted us down. We gave up when she got really threatening. Net result: we were shaken up, and the drunk neighbour’s noise carried on! And that was one woman and two of us. I’d hate to confront a group of drunken idiots on my own, and I don’t think it’s fair to fault Laura for that.
No, she couldn’t have called the cops. Not an option in the UK, as I said in another post. She might have been able to call the local authority noise line, if there is one, and it was available. (But most of them only cover Fridays and Saturdays).
Still Team Laura.
May 6, 2012 at 2:03 pm rating: 14
#27
Tom
As sure as I am that all you people are not taking a note far too seriously or blowing it way out of proportion and are actually helping to change the world by discussing such a vital issue I can’t help but notice that if she had time to get up, find a nice card and sit down to write it then her day of work can’t be as bad as she makes out. If she’d have just sat down, had a coffee and a bit of toast she’d have felt far better about her day. I remember one time I was kept up all night and I was getting ready to write a letter to my local council about it but then I just had some Cheerios and carried on with my life.
May 6, 2012 at 2:49 pm rating: 4
#28
Sarah
I can’t believe no one has pointed out the fact that Laura could well have talked to Ashley several times before sending this card, hence the amount of passive aggressiveness in the note. These people are often repeat offenders.
I’ve had noisy neighbours for years in several locations. Each time I’ve gone to talk to them, been very polite and requested they consider my feelings. Has it helped? Not. One. Bit. The guys who live next door to me now told me I have to come round and tell them whenever they’re making too much noise. Considering they play loud music at various times of the day and night on a regular basis, how is it fair that the onus is on me to put a stop to it EVEN AFTER I’ve told them it’s a problem? If it’s 4.30am, I would like to stay asleep, not get dressed and go and try and find them among a whole crowd of party-goers!
May 10, 2012 at 9:31 am rating: 7
#29
Lillith
My ten cents:
Write out the nice card, without so much passive-aggressive malarky.
Get up twenty minutes earlier than you need to to get to work, go over and POUND on the door and doorbell until you get her up to wish her a happy birthday and give her the card. Blithely make a remark about “oh, I’m sorry- did I get you up? You were still going hard at two/three/whenever, so I figured you’d still be winding down about now!”
Extra points for heating up some potent-smelling canned soup as a gift as well.
Later in the week, leave a polite note about how you realize it was her birthday, but the neighborhood has noise ordinances and in future, to turn down the bass at nine.
Jul 23, 2012 at 9:16 pm rating: 0
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