1For the past three months, the young couple upstairs have been playing loud music almost every single night.
2At first I tried to be understanding, since they had only just moved in and were clearly still settling down.
3However, when the noise began to affect my sleep and my concentration at work, I decided something had to be done.
4I went up one evening and knocked politely, hoping a friendly word would solve the problem without any unpleasantness.
5They apologised sincerely and promised to keep the volume down after ten o'clock on weekday nights.
6For a fortnight things improved, but then the parties started again, louder and later than ever before.
7Reluctantly, I wrote a formal letter to the landlord, explaining the situation and attaching a record of the worst nights.
8He spoke to them, and since then there has been a noticeable improvement, though relations between us remain rather frosty.
9I regret that it came to that, but I was simply exhausted and running out of patience.
10Living so close to other people always requires a degree of compromise, but occasionally a little firmness is unavoidable.
11Next time, I will try to raise the issue earlier, before resentment has a chance to build up on both sides.