Monday, September 05, 2005

One Year Ago...

...this past weekend, we went to a party at our friends' - Mark (a.k.a "Thong Man") and Sandra's - house, and the police showed up at 2:00 a.m. to tell us that the neighbors had complained that we were making too much noise. To celebrate that momentous occasion, I decided to complain about one of OUR neighbors here in Binningen which has been making too much noise - Primus.
I've mentioned Primus before. They're a fire protection/extinguisher company which has a loading dock that's located within earshot of our bedroom window. If they comply by the town rules which dictate that they can't start working until 7:00 a.m. (or, it might actually be 8:00 a.m.), then there's no problem. However, when TBF wakes up at 5:27 a.m. to the all too familiar sounds of trucks being loaded, then there's definitely a problem. Mrs. TBF told me that she actually heard them around 5:00 a.m.
I know it's very Swiss of me, but I called Frau Honigman at our building's management company and complained. She told me that there are "very streekt rules" in our town concerning when companies can "beegeen making zee noyce" and that she was going to write a letter to Primus. I asked her to include in the letter that Hell hath no fury like TBF woken up at an unnatural hour. Actually, I didn't say that, but I did tell her that the next time it happens, I will go down to Primus in my bathrobe and break out a verbal can of wupp-ass (OK...didn't actually use those words. Her English is good, but not that good!), and then I'll call the police. She said that calling the police was not necessary, and that her letter should be enough.
Huh? We'll see. Stay tuned.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I absolutely understand and feel with you. I lived just above MacDonalds in Kleinbasel for a little over 2 years. I hope Frau Honigmann's letter will be useful. Although I still believe that the effect of seeing - and hearing - a furious TBF will have more impact on the guys actually unloading! Good luck!

The DP said...

Silly Big Finn! The Noise Rules are only for us, the Uncultured Foreigners! The Swiss, in their infinite wisdom, know that sometimes extra noise is necessary. But woe be the Big Finn who dares to make noise himself at 5:27am...

One good thing about the French part of Switzerland is that people are less a-r about noise.

I could go on and on about the noise thing...