Preparing for a neighbourly dispute

Parking to the letter

I never get to write letters like this that often though sometimes one just has to be polite, firm and resolute about protecting one’s property from abuse.

My apartment comes with a car parking space and they cost a premium in Amsterdam, as the last year turned difficult I attempted divesting myself of that asset without success and so the hardship that followed.

Thankfully, things have begun to turnaround and it is still part of my property as it sometimes gets used by neighbours or other apartment block residents that have the courtesy of asking to use the parking space.

Though, I do remember a birthday celebrant coming over to ask to use the space years ago at least that was the reason she gave for wanting usage but whilst I am not complaining the offer of a piece of birthday cake would definitely not have been snuffed at – there’s gratitude for you.

Taking liberties

So, by happenstance I took my bicycle into the garage to get air in the tyres and saw a car in my parking space, it did not belong to my neighbours or my friends so I called the Residents’ Committee about the problem that I have now learnt is rife in the apartment block.

There have even been instances when the illegal activity have involved the miscreants moving non-vehicular property of the spots to park their cars, how annoying.

The Residents’ committee got back to me today and offered a few suggestions including getting a vehicle removal firm to shift the car, meanwhile, I have be taking pictures of the “criminal” activity for actionable process.

Stretching the meaning of theft

One analogy I was given was I do not expect when I am away from my home on holiday to see others occupy my property without my consent, that would be burglary. Without extensive extrapolation to occupy a parking spot without permission is an inconvenience if needed and an affront to polite society even it is empty, it might not be burglary but its value gives it a context of an element of theft.

I have given the miscreant till tomorrow morning to move that car before I am compelled to take drastic action.

The responsibility is not mine

It would be interesting to note that as I placed the letter under the windscreen wiper there was an envelope just on the dashboard without an address but a mobile phone number, probably from the abuser expecting me to call and then using that occasion to ask for permission to use my parking space.

Well, honestly, after three days of my noticing the car on the spot, there is no reason for me to seek out the culprit and then be bounced into doing the person a favour. It is incumbent on that person to seek me out and do that, so there we are.

Without Prejudice

I do not know if Dutch law allows for the usage of “Without prejudice” letters, but in English law I am informed that it grants the sender certain privileges of protection of expression that the receiver cannot take advantage of in law.

Many a time, when I was in the UK, it came in handy when dealing with difficult situations. English just happens to be my mother tongue even whilst living in the Netherlands, my shame but then, it has its effective uses.

The purpose is to ensure I am not unnecessarily inconvenienced if I do decide to have the vehicle removed and rightly so. The letter appears below.

Without prejudice

To whom it may concern,

I have noticed over the last few days that you have parked your car in my parking space without my permission.

Whilst the space is empty it does not make it a free parking space; it is a matter of common courtesy to request permission to put your vehicle in a place that you do not own.

I have for actionable purposes taken pictures of your vehicle on the space and reported the matter to the Residents’ Committee.

I would kindly suggest you remove your vehicle by dawn of the 23^rd of September 2010 before I seek redress for this illegal activity.

I hope with this note you are duly notified without prejudice and with the utmost consideration on my part.

With the kindest regards,

Signed with contact number.

Dreaming of alarmed cars

When alarms slumber

As vivid dreams go, they could be stranger than fiction and that is how I felt this morning. I had been out partying the night before and set the alarm on the television to wake me up at a time I knew quite well I might not be able to respond to.

A few hours sleep after a night out cannot necessarily give the body the needed rest and recovery to approach the next day with any vigour. A smarter side of I did consider using the alarm on my mobile phone which with its distinct sound would get me up when my mind computes that the sound is for a particular purpose and a response ensues.

I must have settled into rapid eye movement sleep when the alarm went off, I heard it well but it had moved into the setting of my dream.

Memories and innovation

The driver and my mother had gotten out of the car and activated the security system of the car which from what I can recall was an Audi TT – the addition to the context of my dream must have come from John Grisham’s effusive praise of the model in one of his novels I can no more recall*.

The system was quite advanced that we were kept locked up in the car and it started a few manoeuvres to keep us in the car – the self-driving was not erratic though I noticed it had problem with pedestrians that suddenly crossed the road without obeying traffic signals – it swerved rather than hit them, I thought that was cool.

Some idea for reality

So, we tried to call the driver, riffled through all the glove compartments and found that he was a professor in a university and just our luck to find the details and phone numbers of all other member of his faculty listed but his.

Then I thought about why I had not bothered to note the telephone numbers of my father’s friends – well, some idea I need to explore in reality, I am told they all ask after me whenever I speak to my dad.

It stopped with exaggerated prompting

This cacophony of security went on for a while and then we saw the driver run up to meet us and the car return to its original position after the fifth time of rigmarole. I remonstrated with him as he gesticulated to us to stop the car – well, we could not, he had to and he jabbed incessantly at his key fob to stop the alarm and the car’s waywardness or dare I say the security breach anti-flight algorithm.

Then the alarm stopped and my phone rang, all in the dream, I was making some adjustments to allow the driver get in the car so I tossed the phone to him to answer the call, when he handed the phone back, I mustered all the calmness to tell the caller that I had just been messed about by a mad robot of a car due to the built-in security measures.

Triggered by another ring

Just then the bedside phone rang and it was the reception that had been alerted to the fact that my television alarm had been ringing for the past 5 minutes and I had not responded to it.

If that ring had found its way into the dream, I could be sure that the door to my room would have been mowed down to determine if I was about, around and alert-able.

This I believe represents the danger one faces when you sleep with some background sound on, there might be cases where such external stimuli might well get integrated into your dream sequence, I could do with next week’s lottery numbers but in other cases I need to expect my mind to discriminate between dreams and reality, then instruct the appropriate system to respond as required.

* The Summons by John Grisham