On 5 Jun, 12:17, Robert wrote:
If only I was an old-fashioned gentleman (I may be old-fashioned but I
do not think that I could aspire to being a gentleman). Please bear in
mind that by the time I posted to urg I had cooled down considerably -
perhaps I should have used capitals in my text to indicate where things
got rather heated.

Oh good. There's fire in there somewhere then. That's a relief.

I do admit that lost my cool somewhat when the neighbours opening gambit
was 'what's the problem' in a somewhat aggressive manner and when I was
accused of being lazy and taking advantage of the previous elderly
occupant of their property by allowing our hedge to become a mess, I did
go ballistic.

I had that problem on my allotment with one member of the committee.
You've guessed it, I wasn't calm and I didn't retain any control when
she told me my hedge of blackberries finishing with a huge hawthorn
going down to the railway, both on *my* plot, wasn't tidy for *that*
allotments site. To me that's sounded like 'in this country we don't
do it like this'... Well, I scared her to death, because I don't think
she was prepared to hear what I had to tell her about her plot. Funny
enough she now likes me, in fact she even gave me a couple of scaffold
planks for free. I think she's after some of my blackberries ;o)