Who says neighbourliness is dead…?

‘Knock knock’ I hear from my window (I live in a ground floor flat). On going to see who it is, I find a middle aged woman holding a clipboard, so I open the window and hear what she has to say. She’s trying to contact two people in the flats apparently, but the building is just too hard to get into — tried the buzzers, and they didn’t work. I say I’ll go round and let her in; as I go to do this, someone else is coming in at the same time, but the window knocker has stayed standing back outside by a couple of yards or so (a good sign?).

Anyhow, says she’s from Mori, again says about the buzzers (I say many residents probably don’t keep the batteries in), has numbers 14 and 24 on her list, will only be going to them and will be out again… Well, as number 14 is opposite me (hey, I’ve even said ‘hello’ to him once!), once she’s inside, I just go back inside my own flat.  A couple minutes later though I think to myself that I’d better see whether she’s still about; opening my door, I hear her upstairs speaking to a man, presumably the occupant of no. 24. Standing where I am, I hear her going through her spiel, upon which he says that to be truthful, he has no interest in these surveys, so doesn’t want to take part, thank you. She won’t take no for an answer though; so, feeling slightly guilty about letting her in in the first place, I go upstairs myself. To him I say that I’m from no. 15 and that sorry, but I let her in; to her, I say the guy’s said ‘no’, so please can you leave now.  She then replies that when someone says ‘no’, they typically don’t mean it; we then basically debate the point over a couple of minutes — upon me referring to her as a cold-caller and gesturing to close her clipbook, she says she’s not a cold caller because Mori is a well-respected organisation, ‘and now you’re using force!’ Eventually the guy says that if he shuts his door, there can be no question of him changing his mind; he then actually does this, which finally leads the woman to give up. Chaperoning her out of the building, she then continuallly whines about my affrontery, again emphasising how Mori is a well-respected organisation, that she’s only doing her job, and that she’s never met anyone so rude…

Well, after she finally left, I went upstairs again and found the guy waiting for me; we have a word and shake hands, upon which I head back downstairs. Only once back in my flat do I think that we didn’t even swap names…