Do you know your neighbours? Do you chat to them?

Yea our neighbours are pretty friendly and roughly the same age. I always have the classic conversation over the fence when we are both in the garden during summer time. I've invited them over a few times too.

On a larger scale our little housing developing has an online community forum where we all talk about things related to where we live and our unique type of houses. It's very interesting, some of the people who live here are very passionate about where they live.
 
Yeah, like the op we went over and introduced ourselves, turns out one of them is a hairdresser and I now get cheap haircuts!
 
It's weird this country has this anti-social behaviour we've adopted between our neighbours. We are quite close one side. When we moved in, they knocked on the door and introduced themselves which makes a big difference. The other side has always been rented and people move in and out all the time so don't really know them. The previous people we knew too well :D

Yet the strange thing is I bet most of those that don't know much about our neighbours are the same people how have an abundance of contacts on facebook making them look socialites when they are anything but.

It's almost as though the technology has placed a firewall between virtual friendship and the social skills of reality.
 
I've only been in my new home for coming up to a month but I know 2-3 of the neighbours already and some of the local shops (butcher :D) have started to recognise me too. Then again I chat a lot and spend time getting to know people and show a genuine interest in people - so hopefully that has a positive impact on first impressions to such an extent that people remember me and engage with me when chatting. It also helps further if there are girls that are attractive, makes it even more fun chatting to them! :D

It's important to make the effort to get to know your neighbours I feel. :)

Likewise in my gym now I have started to be reasonably established which is good fun.

I my homes in France and Cyprus I know most of the neighbours to a reasonable degree.

Poor old SPW (my ex housemate) probably got fed up with the amount of time I spent chatting to people! :D
 
Yes - make the effort, it makes you a better human being :)

I live in a leafy street, mind, full of OAPs or young couples desperately trying to get little Johnny and Alice into the good school. No nutcases.

My neightbours are all sweet old dears who look out for me. One old bloke who's a bit of a racist, he can't help himself, so I try not to shoot the **** with him.

It's nice when, on moving-in day, Margaret next door lends you tea, coffee, cups, milk, sugar - you know you're onto a winner :D
 
I use to know my neighbours quite well when living at home, now I'm living in my own place I have not done this but I do say hello and try to make conversation with them, I'm just really busy at the moment.

Stelly
 
I'll nod and say hello but avoid anything more than that. I'll happily help them out if they need anything but cannot be bothered making small talk.
 
One side we get on great with, talk to them quite a lot, the other side just say hello and stuff. Bloke opposite I chat to a lot as well. The rest of the closeish neighbours, mostly just on saying hello terms, but I do make a point of saying hello to them all.

I like my current road better than my old one, the old one had a lot of old people and families down it. The families were all friendly, some of the old people were just nosy snobby weirdos. Everyone's nice down this street including the old people.
 
I live in London and have known my neighbours in every property I have been in. Having good terms with the people next door can be very beneficial ;)
 
On side is another house with a bloke, his gf and (I think) his 3 kids, I nod and say hello if I see them although he always looks like he wants to rip my head off for some reason. One of the reasons I tend not to talk to them is the sheer amount of arguments they have with each other. Quite funny to listen to though.

On the other side is a flat above the garages, a young couple of I say hello to when I see them but that's about it.

Bizzarely I tend to talk to the people in the flats near me a lot due to my dog, as he's a Staffy and they have them also. They are the kind of people that it's good to know and get on with really ;) especially living where I do.

Don't really talk to that many people near me mainly as it's seems hardly anyone leaves their house/flat.
 
We live on the end of a terrace so only have neighbours to one side of us.

I wouldnt say we are on speaking terms with any of our neighbours, not really any small talk or even hello, my wife and i have tried but got sick of being ignored so we stopped trying.....excellent sense of community where we live ;)

I dont suppose it helps that i seem to be the only person on our road that goes out to tell the kids to not kick their footballs at the cars or to stop throwing stones at windows etc, everyone else seems capable of ignoring it.

The amount of times i have had a mouthful of abuse from some scummy little 11 year old is unbelievable, it usually ends with "If it happens again tell your dad that im coming round to kick his teeth down his throat" we usually get some peace for a few weeks then.

In our old house we knew all our neighbours and got on really well with them, it worked out great as if there was ever any problems they were sorted out quickly and amicably.
 
Where my parents live, we know our neighbors very well.

Having grown up playing with their children on both sides of us, as well as having even been away on holiday with one set a few times. It was also quite common at times like Xmas for most of the neighbors to be invited around and that's mostly still the case now.

I live in London now in an apartment block, with there being only two sets of neighbors in my direct area. We actually moved in before anyone else did. I met my first neighbors, who actually own their place as they asked for some flour one evening. Other than that, I only really know them to say Hi, or general chit-chat when in a lift or such.

The other neighbors next to me are renting and there were at least three of them, who stayed there about eight months. I never actually met them though and barely ever saw them in passing. Some new neighbors moved in a few weeks ago and I would have actually offered to help moved their stuff in when I saw them, as a way of actually saying Hi, but I was on my way to a wedding. I've not actually bumped into them since then.

I think more than anything it's a cultural thing. Where my parents live, everyone has settled down and having kids is also an easy way to get to know other people. In cities, you never know if your neighbors are coming or going, everybody mostly works and is already busy trying to fit everything they can in to a day as it is, meeting/spending time with neighbors doesn't really fit into that.
 
I do think its a bit of a shame that people are much more closed off than they used to be, particularly in the South and in the cities.

Growing up we used to know all our neighbours and would speak to them all to some degree. Sure, there was the odd fruitcake, but most were fine.

As I grew up, more and more younger couples moved in and we had less and less contact with them.

All seemed to be perfectly nice people, just more paranoid, suspicious and closed off.

Just seems a bit of a shame that things have moved away from the days of auld, and people who you live alongside for years are strangers, and therefore who do you go to in the event of emergencies etc?

It's also a shame that when I'm out in the sticks etc and people greet you in the street (as they do in many villages) my first reaction is that they are a busybody or a weirdo. Damn city conditioning.
 
i live on the end terraced, there is no one in the double fronted house to my right but the house next to me is occupied by a husband and wife and their 2 kids. the wife is cool and so are the kids. the bloke, however gets on my nerves due to how bone idle he is. he had a barbeque for his wifes birthday at the start of june, the barbeque still stands how it did when it finished and i noticed the other day (he originally asked to borrow our barbeque) that the ice bucket is still out there and so are the bottles of drink that were in it. there was also an incident with some tree stumps which i've already gone into on this forum before. his garden is a disgrace and i often wonder why, instead of lounging in front of the tv, he doesn't get off his backside and do something about it. he's very critical of anything he hasn't got. i drive a vw and he told me the other day what i thought made my car better built than his vw, i replied why he thought that i think that and he replied 'oh come on, all vw drivers think their cars are the best built in the world' now, this may be true of some people and whilst i do admit a vw is probably better built than a renault, i certainly see no reason to raise it in a conversation like he did.
other than that and other things i suppose it could be worse but i only moved in in april.
 
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One is a care home for the elderly, my mum has known the owner for 20 odd years or something, so we know her fairly well. If I see her, I always say hello.

The other side is a bunch of flats. One of the tenants is a mean biker looking guy who I only see in the morning sometimes, he revvs his bike really loud and zooms off, he is sometimes working on his bike out front, looks like an old school biker with the beard/tache overgrown etc. I try not to look him in the eye lol. If I see him I usually just say something like "Alright?", then I'm off!

Other tenants include an Irish guy, who seems to get **** drunk every other day and have arguments with his girlfriend. The police make regular visits to his place, sometimes taking him with them. I don't think I've ever spoken to that guy.

The only one from the flats I do know is a poor old guy with Parkinson's, lives alone... I once went over to drop a package of his that had been left with us. He invited me in and was showing me photo's and badges from when he was a paramedic... he's a good fella, I always say hello if I see him.
 
i know 3 of my immediate neighbours reasonably well

1 Singaporian guy and his new family who is cool and into his gadgets, he crashed his mini RC helicopter into my garden.
an old guy living on his own now who is nice and decent into his local church.
a mad family of Muslim types that seems to be 30+ people. The main man i speak to is class, he wears a sarongs and a kaftan sometimes and is always inviting me in for food - proper loon
 
Our street is nice...opposite ours the bloke used to be a UFC fighter and martial art instructor and is well into mountain biking and extreme sports. He is approaching 50 - mentalist. Attached 'left' are Ok, but will sometimes play loud music on a Friday. We don't really like them too much, couple to the right are sound, but think he's just left her (again) as his van is never parked there any more. There is also an absolute hero with a massive dog who live two doors down...really chatty and been on the street for 30odd years.
 
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