After all the Trouble of a couple of years ago, Gracie, former Mrs Ink, bought a cottage in a row of properties the back gardens of which have communal access. Each resident in the row can get to the tracks at each end of the row through of series of gates in the gardens. All this is made clear on the title deeds to each property and everyone rubs along just fine. Or has done.
Six months ago, new people moved in to the end-of-terrace property adjoining Gracie's and have started playing silly games about access, making snide remarks - "When is the man coming to install the electric fence, dear?" - and being generally objectionable.
When I found out about this, I suspected that she had been antagonising them, but I was invited in for a cup of coffee and a chat about it when I dropped the girls off today and in fact she has behaved perfectly properly and kept a diary of times, dates and sneers. Asked for my advice, I suggested that getting the lawyers in was the very last thing she should do; she has after all to continue living next door for the time being and such disputes are remembered when it comes to selling a house and have to be disclosed. I suggested that she have a word with the village bobby, go to the Citizens' Advice Bureau and read up on the laws relating to harassment. A solicitor's letter should be the final step: at least it stops short of sending her brothers round with baseball bats.
It was the first time I had seen the inside of the house and she has done it nicely. I hope and believe that this is a turning point and that we shall begin to get along like civilised exes with shared and intertwined interests in parenting. At one time such a thing was unthinkable. The whole experience was a like meeting an old part of a oneself. Curious, unsettling but not unpleasant.
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The cat of the son and girlfriend of My Love's aunt's husband (are you following?) died recently. Instead of burying the cat in the garden, the son cited trouble with his teeth (he's a funny lad) and has kept the cat in the house, preventing decay by dousing its corpse in vinegar. I've never heard anything so ridiculous, ever.
