Can it be that the TV series Neighbours used to be so popular because it shows what neigborhood life could also be like? As all of you I have lived in different places. Two times I moved in together with others. So people didn't know one another. On two other occasions I joined an already established community. Getting on well with neighbors is not always easy as we all know. When communities are newly formed, such as in newly-built residential complexes I noticed that there is usually the same pattern. Actually, people do not really want to meet one another but are after metadata, above all, the profession, how others earn their living and the like. So, sooner or later, there will be a first get-together enabling them to find out. Very rarely is there a second one then because all they wanted to know they now do. From that point on, everybody just live their life and there isn't much contact. Three years ago I moved into this condo complex where I now live. It is an established community of 24 owners living in 4 houses which were erected 16 years ago. The welcome was not very friendly - as my previous resident had warned me. You might even say it was kind of hostile. There may be several reasons all of which don't have anything to do with me. Together with the condo and the attached garden I had bought an extra car space in front of the house. One of the residents had given me a plate indicating that this was a private parking space. I put it on and then it happened. Instead of contacting me in person and telling me that this plate was not fully legal, the admin advisory council put it on the agenda for the next community meeting, which I was unable to attend, and, in the meeting, fixed a deadline for me to remove the plate. I only learned about it from the minutes which I received some days later. That did it. Obviously, no-one of that community wanted to talk to me personally but rather made sure that the first impression I made to the whole community was negative by not giving me the slightest chance of putting the record straight. It would have been no big deal to phone me or see me and explain to me what the situation was. I would have removed the plate in no time. However, they wanted to show me who wears the pants. Meanwhile, I'm getting along well with my immediate neighbors (a married couple both of them doctors) as well as with some other residents in the house(s). I haven't been to any community meeting since, though, because I got the message. Judging from what I observe there isn't a lot of contact between most of the other residents. So pretty similar to what some of you have experienced, too.