shewhomust | Living on the tideline

durham_rambler and I live at the tideline of student lets: further down the hill are a large number of houses let to students (including all four of the houses immediately downhill), further up are mostly long-term permanent residents.

On Wednesday, as we were leaving home for the pub quiz, we found a Deliveroo motorcyclist frowning over his instructions. Could we help him?, we asked; Yes, he said, could we tell him where no. 44 is? The street was built before house numbering patterns were standardised; the numbers go up one side, and then start again from the bottom. We were able to tell him that no. 44 was at the bottom, on the right, and by the time we had walked down the hill, we could hear him explaining to the newly installed student resident that he'd get his dinner a lot faster in future if he explained whereabouts in the street he lived. I realise this demonstrates the newness to the neighbourhood of the delivery man, too, but his advice was sound...

This morning, parking the car on our return from the shops, we saw our next-door neighbours walking up the hill. We waved, but clearly more was expected of us. Mr Neighbour reached into his shopping bag, and pulled out a package, addressed to me. The postman had left a card saying he was unable to deliver it, but when the neighbours walked past him, he recognised them and asked them to take the delivery. We were all impressed at this familiarity with the customers. We do habitually take in each other's parcels, so I don't think any rule has been contravened here.