curtain twitchers

And could care less

boodymum67

Great to see how much interest my post attracted......twitchers or non twitchers!

We're all thread twitchers

Great to see how much interest my post attracted......twitchers or non twitchers!

As she got older, my mother was fond of a good old nose out of the window. Her ‘Who’s that?’ if she saw anyone she didn’t recognise, turned into something of a family joke.
Along with ‘That hair!’ about anyone on TV with the sort of long, messy/curly hairstyle she particularly disliked.
Dds and I still say it ?.

I'd sort of like to be a curtain twitcher but we live down a driveway off a cul-de-sac. One other house alongside ours but we are surrounded by other people's back gardens so there's no passing trade, so to speak. Occasionally we hear exciting noises from the road and Mr. G toddles off down the drive to have a look but basically a bomb could fall and we wouldn't know. Bit boring really and also somewhat isolating.

I live in a street that houses several HMO's (houses of multiple occupation), I generally recognise a few faces once the new term starts. However... one long standing neighbour who says he keeps himself to himself pulled me to one side a few weeks ago. He informed me he would be going to India for 5 weeks so could I write down all the vehicle registration numbers of the cars who park in the street, arrival time and departure time?!! By the same token, I was recently talking to a neighbour from 'round the bend' He mentioned he hadn't seen me before and had I just moved in? I've been here 19 years!!

The only things I an see in my garden when I twitch my curtains are the lovely birds I see on my feeders. I have always been a very busy person and not really interested in gossip or what people are doing outside of my house. I have lived in the same house for 16 years and really couldn't even tell you what cars my neighbours own. I am always there for them though to help and listen should they need me but just not really interested in their comings and goings. Fortunately I have considerate neighbours.

I'm not a deliberate "curtain twitcher" but I cannot miss what is going on in our cul-de-sac as my bungalow is in a prime position at the top of a Road where cars have to turn around and it has a pathway through to another Road which is used by lots of people as a short cut'
When we lived in our other property we where 1st floor and whilst we couldn't view what was going on outside we did have a downstairs neighbour who when ever we opened our front door to go out would make sure was at her front door to question as to where we where off to,she couldn't help herself it got so bad my husband used to hide himself by the side of the storage units at the bottom of the stairs so she couldn't see him then wait for her to go in again before he went out of the gate the poor man was plagued by her.

My Mum lives in a flat which is part of a retirement living block. She overlooks the car park. She can see what is going on when she sits at the table for a meal. Any noise and she'll have a look. Not our of nosiness but she says to feel part of the world. This view has been a god send during lock down as all the residents social activities she used to go to have been banned. I do feel we have to balance isolation with mental health.

No- I'm not but my next door neighbour is & rings me to tell me what is going on. I have given up telling her I am not interested so now just say ' sorry- too busy to chat right now'- she must think I live a very full life!

My stepfather often used to stand looking out onto the quiet road. There weren’t net curtains so no twitching. He just liked on occasion to see any neighbours passing.

My late mum said to him one afternoon ‘if there’s such a thing reincarnation you’ll be coming back as a bluddy vase’!
?

She wasn’t as interested what people were up to.

I'm not but hubby is and it drives me insane I get a running commentary on who was mowing their lawn at 6.30 in the morning, and who was coming back from the village shop grrr. We live in a small village so I suppose it keeps him occupied, as it's normally as quiet as the grave. Lady opposite is a bit of a twitcher, my kitchen is at the front and when I am at the sink I can see her scanning our tiny circle of bungalows.

There's nothing to twitch a curtain for round here as we're down a very long drive in the middle of fields so we can't see the road and what's passing or our nearest neighbours!

I don't know about me, but my neighbours aren't! There was a paramedics car and two ambulances outside our house when I was taken I'll suddenly! Nobody saw them and wondered why my husband kept disappearing at hospital visiting times!!!!!! But one couple were very kind when the penny dropped and cooked for him so that he didn't have to do it when he got home.

We live in a Close of just five houses and all of us always know what the others are doing. Apart from being nosy, it means that we all look out for each other and rally round if help is needed.

I don't think anyone could ever beat one of my D's extended family in Oz. I used to be in hysterics laughing at uncle G's antics of nosiness. He knew the engine sounds of every car in the road and told me one teatime that so-and-so across the road was coming down the hill ( without him looking out ) and, he said " you'll hear a large bang ". Yes, there was the bang, right into the garage doors which were peppered in dents from her arrival. " Throwing out time " apparently

He was a corker when it came to being nosy, but it used to make me laugh as it was quite an art form. The best was when he stayed up to catch the person with a pooping dog as it was always in his garden. Anyway he spied the culprit---his next door neighbour taking the dogs for a late walk so next morning he shovelled up the mess and threw it over the fence along with more which was around. I often wondered what the neighbour thought getting more poop than the dogs had left.

He was also a " shouter out of the drivers window " man too and one day a car cut right across him. That was that, after a flurry of language Aussie twang, shouting " you stupid b---h, the person turned around and it was a man with long white/blonde hair. I slid down the back of the back seat couldn't stop laughing. He thought it was a woman.

If ever there was an Elmer Fudd it was him.

No we never know what's going on around us. Our reception rooms don't face the road and we can't even hear it if the doors are closed. One of our neighbours sometimes brings us up to speed on any interesting happenings in the village.

MamaCaz

I'm definitely not a curtain twitcher. My grandad was - after retirement, I remember him spending a lot of time standing by the window and giving a running commentary along the lines of: "That's Mrs X coming up the road - she'll be going for her fish", "I wonder where Bob is going at this time of day!" and "Joe's lad has just been up to Colin's for his newspaper" etc.

It used to drive me mad.
I couldn't understand why anyone would be so interested in other people's comings and goings, and even at a fairly young age, it felt like an invasion of privacy to me.
Since then, I have realized that I am just a very private person, and also that I am so bad at recognising faces that I would struggle to do what he did even if I wanted ?

I could have written this MamaCaz the only difference would be that it is my DH not my Grandfather and it does drive me mad.

My mum is def a curtain twitcher ! When anything went on in her road that she couldn’t see, she would ring her friend and DH who lived further up the road, to see what was going on. Last year Mum saw an ambulance and flashing lights, rang her friend straight away to ask what was happening and it turned out that it was her friends DH who had just had a heart attack and had died ! Mum felt really awful as you can imagine.

I suppose I called be called a curtain twitcher as such. We had a lot of 'traffic' at the end of our road which is a turning point. This was during lockdown. It was obvious that drug dealing was going on as the activity was strange, cars pulling up, a motorbike arriving, pulling alongside the car and then driving off, followed by the car. My neighbour and I stood outside, chatting and took registration numbers. This was then reported to the authorities. The police started to make regular visits. Read in the news later that some of the County lines drug dealers had been operating and had been caught. Now that I am back to work I do not sit and watch so much as in another room, but I do try to take a healthy interest in the neighbourhood.

I used to be a bit of a curtain twitcher, but since new people moved into the house across the road I try not to. They sit outside under their car port a lot just staring at everyone and everything. Every time I try to look out of the window, they’re sitting there looking straight at me ( or that’s what it seems like). They remind me of Joe and Petunia from the public information films back in the day.

I do take some notice but not everything. The police chase that ended up almost outside in our usually quiet residential road couldn't be missed though!!

My neighbour opposite us is the nosiest neighbour we could have. He is a lovely, helpful man who keeps his eye on our house while we are away. He waters our plants, reports to our DS if anything is amiss Puts our bins out and brings them in. He must be looking out of his window all day. He loves to be in his front garden pottering and watching out for anyone walking by. We hear the same conversation a dozen times a day. BUT we wouldn’t be without him. ?

The term 'Curtain Twitcher' completely denigrates and trivialises a recognised and vital social activity - watching the antics of others is called 'Empirical Research' , and I am a lifelong Empirical Researcher. Twitcher indeed - how insulting!!

Aha fluttERBY, that explains why whales spy-hop. They really are being nosy!