The mad German next door

My neighbour is a German woman of advancing years with questionable dress sense and bad highlights. I'm no follower of fashion or trend setter, but I hope that I'm blessed with a little more dignity than to put myself in a situation where I might be accused of being "mutton". Do some people really not look in the mirror!

Her boyfriend is considerably younger than her and whilst I am aware that I am standing in a glass house as I'm casting this stone their age gap is somewhat more yawning than that between me and Raja.

There have been many occasions when she has done something spiteful just to put a spanner in our construction works and she has successfully upset a number of local people, but her latest feat takes some beating.

Above her piece of land runs our access road and there are 3 pieces of land that sit along it. All of them DID have nice views of the bay. That was until the Mad German built The Wall. It runs across the top of her land and stops at our gate columns. In most places it is over 6 foot high and for the people that occupy the 2 sections of land next to us all they now have is a view of concrete breeze blocks and a sliver of ocean above it. In addition to that she has had two rows of rusty nails cemented into the top of the wall.

Now, I realise that it might appear to be a justifiable security measure; we are after all living in a remote part of the village surrounded by jungle. The perplexing things is that she has not continued with this theme along her other boundary next to which runs a public footpath. On this boundary she has erected a wire net fence.

I'm trying to fathom the logic of this move because it surely can't be a security consideration; if I were intent on breaking into her property I wouldn't bother with The Wall and risk breaking a limb climbing it, I'd just go and cut a hole in the fence.

Maybe she has a phobia about squirrels and the rusty nails are a deterrent against these acrobatic fiends - I actually like squirrels a lot.

Sadly I think her motives for building such a monstrosity are to rob other people of natures beautiful view and keep it for herself. I intend to find the most virulent climbing weed in the jungle and plant it behind the wall so that at least our other neighbours don't have to look at concrete.