Friday 21 November 2008

Things that go bump in the night.

Last night was a noisy night in our house & I am feeling sleep deprived today.

It started just before Tom & I were about to go to bed (while I was writing my last post actually). A police car chase went through the alleyway behind our house. For those of you not privileged enough to have experienced one of these I will explain. It starts with a loud distant rumble & within seconds a car flies behind your house. Seconds later the police car follows with sirens wailing & blue lights flashing. Our house is a traditional Manchester terrace (just like in Coronation Street) The houses are very close to each other and rather than backing onto each other they are separated by a narrow alley (just wide enough for a car to drive down). Every 10-15 houses are separated by another alley.  Anyway, so, Tom & I were chatting when we heard this noise. I said "what was that?" quickly followed by both of us saying "oh... joyriders" in a knowing tone... followed again by "car chase" again, in unison. About 5-10 minutes later we heard the all too familiar police helicopter circling above & we smiled at each other knowing that the chase had been unsuccessful.  You may think I sound blase about this but it's a fairly common occurrence happening every couple of months. The helicopters are out far more often probably fortnightly. It's a pretty normal part of life in Openshaw. I've explained in earlier posts why we're here & I know some of you are probably wondering why we chose to live here, especially now we have children. That answer is a post of it's own which I will tackle one day soon.

Back to our noisy night...

We went off to bed when the helicopters stopped but were woken a few hours later by a loud bang. For the second time that night I said "what was that?" Tom didn't say anything but got up to go and investigate.  He couldn't see anything untoward downstairs so after we'd both had a nosey out the bathroom window we decided it must have been a cat & went back to bed. 

Anyway, about an hour ago the police knocked on my door asking if I'd heard anything strange last night. I told them the story & apparently the lady next door has reported a break-in.  It could be the answer to the mystery noise but the police don't believe her!!! They think she's faked it & kicked the door in herself. Tom's with the police. We hear EVERYTHING from next door & if someone had broken in he says we'd have heard more than one bang. There were no screams, no footsteps, no sounds of stuff being taken, so it remains a mystery.  As Tom pointed out, someone who is bold enough to break into a house while people are inside won't try to be quiet once he's inside so who knows.  As usual we were woken a few hours later when the family next door got up for school (I told you we hear everything) but other than that, it's been pretty quiet since.


3 comments:

slave2boys said...

El, a quick question - how do you get the 'labels' bit at the bottom. And as for the Openshaw story..... I remember it well!! The sound of a helicopter always takes me back to feeding babies in the middle of the night!!

Eleanor said...

Ha ha ha. They were out again last night too! The 'labels' bit is just at the bottom of every new post. When you write a new post you can put a label at the bottom left of the typing box. Hope this helps.
E x

Wendy said...

YIKES! We get a little police excitement in our neighborhood once in awhile too...always a perfect time for me to walk the dogs to have a good gander at what is going on!! :) I am so nosey that way...my husband thinks I should be a detective when I "grow up" Sorry you didn't get much sleep!