Morning people
I am not a morning person. I would go so far as to say that even when I had to get up to go to work early, I was not a morning person. I have never been a morning person. If I haven’t had at least two cups of coffee and an hour between rising and speaking, I am not pleasant to meet. I don’t understand morning people. I have never understood morning people, and just don’t get the whole idea.
My French neighbors ARE morning people. In fact the whole town I live in is a morning town. If you happen to walk down to the local boulangerie at 12:00, you will find the doors firmly locked. The same goes for the fish mongers. Despite clearly stating outside that they do not close until 12:30, many's the time I have wandered over to find the place locked and deserted at 11:59.
I live in an apartment and my downstairs neighbor gets up at 5:30 in the morning to go to work. Of course, I am up at 2:00 a.m. wandering around my apartment, so we have had to come to an amicable (non-violent) agreement as to when it is OK to chastise your children (not 5:30 am) and when it is OK to wash the dishes (not 10:30 p.m.) and things are working out now.
The rest of my neighbors are not so considerate, and when I have to listen to one of the buggers using a motor powered strimmer at SIX O CLOCK ON A SATURDAY MORNING, words have to be exchanged. Fortunately, one of the other non-morning people in the area had already taken care of things and by the time I arrived with a few choice French words perched on the tip of my tongue, the police were already there explaining to the gentleman in question that there were now several people living nearby who perhaps did not like the idea of being woken to the sounds of a two stroke motor revving up to deal with the spring growths.
Which left me to wander over to the local boulangerie to pick up some croissants, warm from the oven and have a cup of coffee in the cafe opposite.
The two things I get out of this are: One, if you had phoned the police in the UK to complain about a neighbors noise, you would have been laughed off the
phone, assuming someone answered in the first place, and two, perhaps there is something to this early morning stuff after all.
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