As an expat in Switzerland you should not drill, mow the lawn, listen to music during Ruhezeit. Otherwise, a complaint will be made to the landlord.
An elderly neighbor rings the doorbell and asks if we ever hear her. “No, no,” I say. “We never hear anything.” What a sweet person.
Just before I want to invite her for coffee, she shouts angrily: “Well, I will you.” I’m stunned. So she explains that she does indeed hear no noise. We always walk in slippers. But she hears us “shuffling, when it is very quiet in the house at night”.
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A version of this article also appeared in the December 12, 2022 newspaper