love thy neighbour



Sashia and Wendy



I have often been blessed with fabulous neighbours.  I suppose if you move homes as often as I have, you stand a good chance of landing alongside some great people!  Everytime we move house I find it hard to give up the place that I have called home, the feel of the garden, the flow of the rooms.  After we have moved, it's the neighbours that I miss.  Some of our greatest friendships have formed "over the wall" and this last move was no different.  Blond, vivacious Wendy breezed into my new Aussie life within hours of moving to St Michaels Road.  She filled our empty house with excess toys from her son, Sebastian's, vast collection and filled my life with laughter and great Aussie wit.  She always welcomed us in or stopped to chat on the verge.  We used to have long 'girl talks' in our pj's over the wall and the boys ran between the two houses on the weekends.  Wendy is full of great shopping tips for the uninitiated and was willing to share her wardrobe and her iron in those early days.  One night our spontaneous drink next door resulted in my fetching our dinner from our oven to share like loaves and fish between our families. On another occasion Wendy was collected for a Girls' Night Out party in a stretch limousine to the delight of our three boys who peered in the door.  Sebastian came over for movies and dinner and willingly shared his toys when Hugo wanted to bring something home.  Sebastian would often look longingly over the wall at us filling up the car for an outing and ask to join in the fun.  He liked having temporary brothers for a while.  Sashia, Wendy and Sebastian were fantastic neighbours and shall remain our great friends. 



Sebastian



 A friendship with this proximity is so easy and natural.  Great bonds are formed and while we will have to make more effort now that we have moved, the foundations are in place and we can build from there.



Today I salute all the neighbours who have been so good to us across the way or over the fence.  They have made our homes so special and are what we miss the most every time we move.

This time our neighbours are an older Afrkaans couple on one side and a "digs" with three young people on the other.  I am thinking dogsitters and babysitters respectively!