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.
