The Retired Couple moved into The Boulevarde and quickly made friends with their closest neighbours. The wife was a lovely cook and every weekend would cook soup for her husband to eat throughout the week. Each weekend The Young Mother would smell a delicious aroma wafting over the fence.
One particular day the aroma was amazing and she called over the fence to ask the name of the soup being cooked.
“Oh that’s Cauliflower soup, one of hubby’s favourite soups. It smells quite strong as it has mainly cauliflower and onions in it but it does taste really nice.” she replied.
“Could you share the recipe with me?” asked The Young Mother. “I’m always looking for new recipes and I think the family would love this one!

A few weeks later The Young Mother woke early one Saturday morning while the family were still asleep. Realising she had a busy day ahead with the children attending their different sporting activities she decided she would prepare dinner.
“Hmm I think I’ll have a go at that Cauliflower soup, " she thought to herself.
“I have all of the ingredients and it will be an easy meal to serve at the end of the day.”
So in between putting on loads of washing and cleaning she set about preparing the vegetables for the soup. Eventually with all the ingredients in the pot she set the soup to simmer.
“ Hmmm it does have a rather strong smell. I suppose that’s to be expected with cauliflower and onions not to mention some garlic.
It’s the same smell as when Mrs. Retired Couple makes her soup. Maybe it doesn’t smell as strong then because it’s wafting over the fence. I’m sure it’s okay. I’ll let it simmer a while longer. “

As she set about cleaning up the kitchen she was startled by the sudden appearance of her daughter who was looking very distressed, pulling at her hair while sniffing at her armpits.
“Whatever’s the matter? “asked The Young Mother “What on earth are you doing? Are you sick? What’s wrong with your armpits?”

Just then the other daughter scrambled into the kitchen looking confused and pulling at her clothes.
Both of the daughters started wailing at the same time, “Something’s wrong, I must be sick, oh my God it’s terrible. I can’t stand it! The smell, the smell it’s terrible!”

With that they both ran for the bathroom pushing and shoving in an attempt to be the first into the shower.
The Young Mother followed them wondering how both of her daughters could have lost their minds and gone crazy at the same time.
“Just stop both of you, everything is okay, slow down and tell me what’s upsetting you.”

“It’s the smell, I woke up and my bedroom smelt terrible,” said the first daughter.
“Yes, I think I must be sick because my bedroom smells awful, I thought I’d pooped my pants,” wailed the second daughter.
“ I need a shower,” cried the first daughter.
“So do I, I can’t wait ” wailed the second daughter.
“ Let me just check your rooms,” said The Young Mother as she tested their foreheads for fever and checked to see if their eyes were glassy.
After entering both bedrooms and watching the girls sniffing the air, pulling at their clothes and generally looking quite offended by the stench of their individual rooms, The Young Mother started laughing to the point that she couldn’t speak.
Both daughters were shocked by her reaction to their sudden illness and began wondering if she too had the beginnings of the same sickness.
“Follow me,” she gasped as she led them into the kitchen and pointed to the soup simmering on the hot plate.
“It’s the Cauliflower soup you can smell!” she said as she began laughing again.
“The soup! It’s awful. The smell is awful, it woke me up, I thought I was dying!” shouted daughter number one.
“ I woke up and couldn’t work out why I smelt so bad,” Said daughter number two.
With that Hubby wandered out, “What on earth is that smell?” he asked crinkling up his nose. “It smells like a dead dingo’s donger”, he stated with  all the authority of someone who had smelt such a thing.
“It’s your dinner for tonight so stop protesting and go and open all the windows in the house.” exclaimed the Young Mother.

After much grumbling and with accusing stares cast her way everyone set off to open windows so the aroma could be dispersed.
Later that night after serving the soup for dinner and firmly encouraging the family to at least taste the soup they all agreed that it was tasty and they had enjoyed eating it.

However the family elicited a promise from The Young Mother that she would warn them next time she was going to make Cauliflower soup so all windows could be opened and they could exit the house!

​
Several years after the incident with the Jessup dog, the #1 School Teacher and her family were at home one summers evening having just finished dinner when they smelt smoke. They looked out the front of the house and noticed black smoke in the next street and could see people running towards that end of The Boulevarde.
#1 School Teacher quickly rang #2 School Teacher and said “There’s a fire in the next street, I’m not sure what to do!  Do we leave, do we stay in the house?”
Meanwhile her children had wandered into the street and came back announcing there was a house on fire around the corner and one of the neighbours had contacted the Fire Brigade. With that two fire engines arrived and the fireman began to lay out the hoses while trying to establish who was in the burning house.

As the family and the two School Teachers walked along to stand with the crowd word came along that it was the Calabrian’s house that was on fire. Some people laughed while others muttered unkind words under their breath and still others with no regard for danger took their children to stand at the front fence of the burning house so they could get a closer look at all the action!
​
It was #1 School Teacher who asked if the Calabrian had got out of the burning house safely. “Who cares!” shouted one onlooker, while other people began to look for him in the crowd. Gradually word filtered back that the neighbour living across the road from him had seen him leave the house only 30 minutes before the fire and the police were busy trying to contact him.
Some time later after the fire was put out and the damage was assessed Mrs Jessup was able to pass on the news that it was a cigarette left lying somewhere in the house that had caused the fire. The house was completely destroyed and The Calabrian was found emergency accommodation to live in while the house was repaired.
Some months later when repair of the house was almost complete the residents of The Boulevarde learned that The Calabrian had suffered a heart attack and passed away and even though he had caused so much trouble within the local community the news was still met with shocked silence and perhaps just a little regret.....

The Calabrian did not live on The Boulevarde but he would use it to enter the lane that backed onto his property. He was a man who rarely smiled and many people chose to avoid him if they saw him driving or walking past.
Over time his family grew and along with his wife moved away and left him to live alone.
Once retired he took to walking the streets or travelling on the local bus all day silently watching people or sitting next to them to strike up a conversation. Mrs Jessup concluded he was harmless while #1 School Teacher thought he was lonely.
Often when he passed by the Jessup family property their dog would bark as all dogs do when protecting their property. The Calabrian was annoyed by the barking and took it upon himself to bang on the fence as a way of upsetting the dog. It soon became a competition between man and dog to see who could create the most noise by barking or banging on the fence. Mr and Mrs Jessup both spoke to the Calabrian and tried to explain that he was upsetting the dog for no good reason but this just seemed to spur him on with his game.

One day while out washing his car Mr Jessup allowed his dog to wander along the nature strip within sight of him so he could call him back quickly if necessary. Unfortunately while bending down to wash the wheels on the car he missed seeing The Calabrian walk around the corner and only became aware of his presence when he heard barking and shouting.
Looking up he saw the dog and man fighting with each other and had to quickly intervene. Eventually he was able to pull the dog away from The Calabrian and drag him inside. The Calabrian followed along behind shouting and swearing and threatening to kill the dog. Such was the noise neighbours came running to witness a quickly escalating scene that required the intervention of several people in order to prevent further arguing and fighting.
For several weeks after Mrs Jessup was most distressed and was unable to work in her garden for fear of The Calabrian walking down the street.
People in the neighbourhood became even more wary of him as he began to walk the streets carrying a big stick threatening to hit any dog that ventured near him. Needless to say the police were informed and could often be seen visiting his house as they followed up on complaints from people within the local community.
Where once Mrs Jessup had thought him to be lonely she now considered him to be a menace and for once many of the neighbours on The Boulevarde agreed with her.

​The Angry Man had lived on The Boulevarde since he was a young man. His Aunt and Uncle had taken him in so he could work in the city. In those days he was known as the Quiet man.
They were friendly with the Jessup family and were seen sharing weekend newspapers on a regular basis. He loved his little dogs, his cars and his miniature railway carriages.

Although he was a quiet man he would greet the neighbours whenever he saw them.
Eventually he retired and spent more of his time working on his several different cars and his miniature train carriages.
By this time his aunt was a widow and she could be seen in the garden with her nephew working away and having a chat with people as they passed by the house.
The husband of the Young Mother got along well with the Quiet Man and would often chat to him when he saw him working in the garden.

Over time the Quiet Man’s demeanour began to change. He no longer spoke to the neighbours and he began to park several of his cars in the street preventing locals and visitors from parking in front of his house.
He would growl at people when they greeted him and if cars were parked in front of his house he would yell at the people concerned.
 Eventually neighbours began to warn their friends and delivery people not to park there as the Angry Man would throw grass clippings all over their cars. When that didn’t deter people he would smear dog droppings over their windscreens.

Sadly his aunt became more and more reclusive speaking only to the Jessup family and leaving the house only to go with her nephew to attend the doctor or to go shopping.

This concerned the Jessup family and Mrs Jessup felt sad she could no longer spend time with her friend.

Mrs Jessup told the Young Mother the Angry Man had a medical condition and that sometimes he would stop taking his medication which then caused mood swings.
In spite of the mood swings the Angry Man would always stop to have a chat with the Young Mothers’ husband who’s company he seemed to enjoy.

Mrs Jessup and her husband lived in a lovely house with an in ground pool in the back yard. Mrs Jessup didn’t like the hot weather and in summer would have her industrial strength air conditioner turned on as soon as she woke in the morning. The addition of the pool was part of her attempt to escape the hot summer days.

During their first summer living on The Boulevarde she was very welcoming to her new neighbours and invited them over for a swim. They were very excited and jumped into the pool ready for some cool relief after a hot week at work.

Soon however they began to feel uncomfortable and tried to work out how to politely ask about the water temperature.

“Mrs Jessup your pool is lovely, thank you for the invitation. It must have been very hot this week because the water is quite warm.”

“Oh thank you,’ said Mrs Jessup. I hate being in cold water so I always keep the water temperature warm just like a bath!”

The new neighbours soon made their goodbyes but not before they learnt that even with a beautiful beach house down on the Peninsula Mrs Jessup never swam at the beach either because the water there was even colder!!