Amused me :-)

We have an odd collection of neighbours around here – infact one day I really must write about them all in all their delightfully, charming and mainly harmless lunacy but the cream of the crop is David and Jeanette – a brother and sister who are both well into their 40s and live opposite us with their mother Doreen. They all used to live in London (not sure where) but their father died, their mother was mugged and the ‘final straw was when the road started to fill up with ‘darkies’ buying all the houses’ (their words obviously, not mine) so they moved down here to Sunny Sussex by the Sea.

None of them work, although I would imagine that at least one of them is getting some sort of carers allowance for Doreen and they seem OK for money so they spend every day loading themselves into their silver Mondeo (David always but always drives, perhaps the other can’t drive actually) and heading off to country fairs, village walks and cream teas around Sussex.

They are all very sweet, adore D & S and regularly bring them things like cuddly toys David has won at country fair hoopla stalls and sweets.

Anyway the other night as I was unloading Tescos shop from the car David and Jeannette were off out for an early evening walk (not too far, the heat knocks me out and I have a pile of ironing this big (hand held up to shoulder height) to do when I get back) and mentioned it was Jeannette’s birthday the next day.

We duly waited until they were all out – not too keen to get past neighbourly chats on the lawn and into going in for sherry and voluvants or anything like that – and I headed across the road to shove a birthday card through their letter box. Ady (hilariously he thought!) took a photo of me running down their drive having done it 🙂 But it was safe, they were all out and not hiding behind the sofa waiting to catch me having parked the car up the road to trick me (which would have been really hilarious if they had as they would have seen me running (an odd sight) and Ady photographing me and wondered why!).

Got home yesterday to find a thank you card from Jeanette. It has a little picture of a teddy holding a card up saying ‘Thank You’ and inside (in gold pen!) is a thank you for my birthday card message, followed by a brief round up of what she did on the day (went out for a meal to a Tapas bar) and signed with lots of love.

It is the first time I have ever had a thank you card for a card. I am so inclined to send one back thanking her for her thank you card and see whether I can start a communication through the ‘power of the thank you card’ which could go on for years. I have the message planned already:

Dear Jeannette,

Thank you so much for your lovely thank you card. It is on our mantlepiece where we admire it several times a day.

I am particularly keen on the teddy picture – it is sooo cute and I also really like the square design – a refreshing change from the usual rectangle shape of such cardboard greetings products.

I would of course send this in a slightly bigger card than she sent us, perhaps one with glitter or a foil effect. She would then return with something with dangly home made feel bits on, I would then start to add a small gift such as an individual chocolate to my return, her’s would come with a hand tied posy of wild flowers, mine would graduate to a larger box of chocolates, hers would come with a small bottle of champage, mine would come with a helium balloon in a box which floated out when you opened it, hers would come with a larger box containing a gorillagram, mine would contain the keys to a new car tied with a red giant ribbon like the Bully’s special prize on Bullseye, her’s would have tickets for a luxury mini break, mine would have tickets for a round the world cruise…. oh, it could be so much fun!

Or maybe I’ll end the madness right here right now before it gets out of hand. These things can escalate you know 😉