Barbecues
By Darkwing
@Darkwing (21583)
April 22, 2007 11:17am CST
The dreaded Barbecue Season is here again. I'm not a great lover of home barbecues or many others, really, and I do get annoyed at inconsiderate people.
I live in a flat... my bedroom is at the back, facing onto the back garden and the windows are always open. As I said, I'm not much into barbecues myself but this is not why I get tetchy. What annoys me is that my neighbours know where my bedroom is, and my next door neighbour and downstairs neighbour, constantly light their barbecues for their evening meals.
Inevitably, my bedroom windows being open, by the time I go to bed, my bedroom is full of the fumes from the lighters and charcoals they use on the barbecue. Is it too much trouble for them to knock my door, or call me on the phone to warn me of their intended barbecue, so that I might close my windows until the toxic fumes have gone. I'm not one to grumble too much and spoil their fun so I let it go, with just a quick word mentioned at times. There is also the occasion when I have washing hanging out on my line, and that comes in stinking of barbecue fumes.
I'm a smoker and I suffer constant moans from non-smokers who choose to join me and other smokers in the pub and then grumble that their clothes smell of smoke. So, as I think barbecue fumes and bonfire smoke is worse, is this a get-back, or do you think they are just showing their ignorance and lack of politeness in avoiding warning me of their intended barbecue use?
Please, please, let me know when you're having a barbecue guys... I would like the choice of shutting out the fumes. How does everybody else feel about this?
4 people like this
9 responses
@mel_87 (856)
•
29 Apr 07
I agree with you, they know your bedroom window is open so they should at least tell you so you have the choice to shut your window, its not nice to go to bed and smell all the fumes, i hate it at home if we have cooked bacon or burgers or something fatty and the smell after is horrible, people should respect other peoples feelings, and for your washing to be out and they still just let the smoke go into them thats wrong if i was them i would of come to you to pre warn you so you could take your washing down
@Darkwing (21583)
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29 Apr 07
Would you like to move into the flat below me, Mel? lol. He is the most inconsiderate person I met. :-) However, I don't cause problems... I just put up with it, but I do slam my windows shut quite loudly, so that he realises how I feel. lol
Thank you for your response and Brightest Blessings.
1 person likes this
@mlgb_24 (638)
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29 Apr 07
i live in a terraced house and i love bbq's. our neighbourhood are quite good actuallly, because before lighting up a bbq, we check first if there are clothes hanging outside, neighbours don't mind if their windows are open, or my windows are open. it's not everyday we do it...and it's only this time that we do it. half of the year we don't. probably they could warn you before doing so, just so to be polite...but sometimes, you can't get away with it.
1 person likes this
@weemam (13372)
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21 Jul 07
I know what you mean , It must be horrible trying to sleep with that smell , we have really good neighbours , When my neighbours wife was alive and they had a barbecue , it was usually on fathers day and they always warned me , I think thats whats makes this such a good neighbourhood, Mind you here in Scotland we don't really get enough sunny days to make it worth out while setting up lol, I have actually only ever been to one barbecue , and that was at a new car demonstration , I sound like a billy no mates lol xx
@Darkwing (21583)
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22 Jul 07
No, you don't sound like Billy No Mates! lol. We've had very inclement summer weather this year too, Weemam, so the barbecue smells haven't been too much of a problem. My neighbour downstairs did had one, earlier in the year, and set his barbecue up under my living room window, which was a little more considerate, as it's the opposite end of the flat to my bedroom. He's not so bad though, because he sets up the table and chairs by the hedge and before he lights the barbecue, so if I'm home, I know when to close the windows. The neighbours next door, however, have a high gate to their patio and I can never foresee when they're going to light up, and end up with smelly washing and a bedroom filled with the smell of firelighter paraffin. I'm sorry, but that smell makes me quite nauseus.
Brightest Blessings. xxx
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
23 Apr 07
Ok Darkwing I will try to remember to let you know well in advance so you can shut your Window but I did not think it would drift that far
Hmmm well I will prewarn you so you can shut your Window.
Ok Seriously now yes I do know what you are saying as it can certainly fume the Place out
But you see that is different from smoking so it is no offense or inconsideration (ok I will get rid of the Sarcasm here) I agree that People should be more considerate if it is going to cause a lot of Fumes specially if someone has their Window open
Love and Hugs
@Darkwing (21583)
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23 Apr 07
Hi Gabs! Seriously, I do believe it to be different to smoking. The fumes from the firelighters used to start the charcoal burning give off some quite toxic fumes, and when your bedroom, where you expect clean air from leaving your windows open, is filled with fumes that make you nauseus. Most smokers, when in a public place, are considerate. This is not the case in a pub bar where nobody is eating, of course, but then the non-smokers have the choice of whether to use that bar where they know there will be smokers, or not. This is what I'm saying... I would like to be given the choice to close my windows and keep the fumes out of my bedroom. But hey!!! I hear there's going to be yet another tax, which will be placed on barbecue users. This pleases me to an extent because of smoking being banned in pubs from 1st July. he he he. Also, garden bonfires are going to be stopped, so I guess it's no longer just the smokers being singled out. However, the local landlord was telling me and others last week, that you're not allowed to stand within so many yards of the pub's door and smoke, or they get fined!!!!!!
Is this a democratic country, that you are unable to smoke outside, within so many yards of the pub doors????? That to me is ridiculous. The Government does not own the outside World, and how does smoke get into the food area of pubs from outside the building. ha ha ha. It fuddles my brain! Off to the woods!!! :-)
1 person likes this
@deeeky (3667)
• Edinburgh, Scotland
22 Apr 07
It does not take much to ask the neighbours of the concern they may have, and if invited who could refuse a free nosh up and a friendly chat with our fellow friends that one day may helps us when we are in need.
Have a nice nosh up from Deeeky.
1 person likes this
@Darkwing (21583)
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22 Apr 07
No, I wouldn't accept an invite. I like my food cooked, not cremated around the edges. Most people, in order to arrive at a cooked middle and outside to their food, partially cook their barbecue meat in the oven, then singe or burn the outside of it on the barbecue. Pray tell me, where is the sense in that? Burned food can play a part in the formation of cancer cells too, by all accounts, not to mention the smell of the barbecue.
I suppose the gas ones with the lid aren't too bad because they don't stink the place out and act more like an oven in that they cook the food like a grill would. I also don't want to complain as just because I don't like barbecues, doesn't mean they're not fun for others. My question was whether they should be polite and forewarn me and others closeby, so that we can fetch in our washing and close our bedroom windows.
Thank you for your response, my dear friend. Brightest Blessings.
1 person likes this
@kayrod2 (1304)
• Australia
29 Apr 07
I love bbqs. I like to go to a nice park in the open, where the kids can play and the adults relax and the guys cook the bbq. Its out in the open and isnt bothering anybody. If we have a bbq at home or a friends, it usually out backyard and not close to house or not annoying neighbours.
As you are in a flat, i think the neighbours should be more considerate to you and let you know when they are having a bbq. It is terrible that you have to put up with the fumes in your flat or on your clothes. I also understand you not wanting to say anything to them. I think i would be the same, and just do the odd comment like you. You dont want to be offside with your neighbours. I hope things work out, and that your neighbours be more considerate to you. I know that i would.
@Darkwing (21583)
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29 Apr 07
I'm glad for you that you like barbecues. I sometimes make a curry meal in the summer, with strawberries and cream to follow. I eat that in the garden, but then, it's not bothering anybody is it? I agree about the smells in the bedroom and on my washing.
No... I don't want to get offside with my neighbours when they're enjoying themselves. It's up to them to show a little consideration, but I wouldn't spoil their fun.
Thank you for your response and Brightest Blessings.
@shelagh77 (3643)
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22 Jul 07
Well I love barbecues but I do cheat. I cook the food indoors and serve up outside so I suppose technically I eat al fresco. I must admit some of the smells from barbecues do make me feel ill, but we are losing so many of the traditional forms of socialising that i think the odd pong is worth putting up with.
Pubs are closing down, many parks close early due to the activities of irresponsible individuals, traditional fairs and gatherings are subject to so much red tape and insurance procedure that many of them have ceased altogether, and even the jumble sale seems an endangered species, at least it is where I live.
If we do not have the summer barbecue that is another avenue of socialising gone.
However, I think God, or whichever god you believe in, is on your side. I defy anyone to hold a barbecue in the downpours we have experienced during this summer!
@complexvanilla (653)
• India
23 Apr 07
I really don't think it is fair on the part of your neighbor to just start off his barbecue without informing you before hand. If he doesn't, he is just not being civil. Or is it because he dislikes you or has other issues that he is deliberately doing it to spite you? I once had a neighbor who was pretty uncivil. He would play the music at ear shattering decibel levels and would refuse to oblige by reducing the volume. We really did not want to kick up a fuss by reporting him or any such thing as we lived in a small colony where we needed to coexist with the others, and ruffling feathers around was not exactly a nice thing.
@Darkwing (21583)
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23 Apr 07
I get on great with all my neighbours, Vanilla. That is why I don't pick them up on this but it's the younger element of the families who don't consider others, normally. Having said that though, the guy downstairs is 42 and he puts his darned bbq right under my window!
If I notice that the bbq has been lit, then I'll close my windows before it gets too bad, and I DO close them quite loudly, in order that they'll notice my aversion to the fumes. But does that make a difference... nope, it doesn't. ha ha ha
Sometimes if I walk out with my next door neighbour, I'll mention it to her; she's always apologetic but says it's her daughter's boyfriend who does it, and believe me, the guy is quite oblivious to all around him. So, I just shrug it off in the knowledge that she'll mention it to him and everything will carry on just the same. lol.
Thank you for your response, Vanilla and Brightest Blessings to you, my friend.
@whyaskq (7523)
• Singapore
23 Apr 07
NO wonder you don't like barbecues. I would not like it too if the barbecues are done just outside my flat and I am in the flat sniffing the aroma of the food downstairs while inhaling the charcoal fumes :p
I like barbecues and particularly enjoy fuming the fire. However, the barbecues I attended are at holiday chalets, far away from residential areas.
Perhaps you can seek the help of the building manager not to allow barbecue parties after a certain time at night? To totally disallow BBQ might be too much to the residents unless there is such a rule.
