Disturbed nights

When I see on the news dreadful accounts of house fires and it’s reported that the smoke alarms were out of action, I always wonder why. I think I may have discovered one answer to that question.

Last night, at 1.00 the smoke alarm started ‘chirping’ like a budgie. Oh, I thought, the battery is low – I’ll change that in the morning. However, an hour later when I’d still not got back to sleep, I tried to remove the battery altogether. It was jammed and without going outside to the garage to get a large tool to hit it with, there was nothing I could do, although the intention was definitely there.

As I lay awake, waiting for the next chirp, my thoughts went back to a night a few weeks’ ago when I was babysitting for my two eldest grandchildren whilst their parents were away over night.

Got them to bed, watched a bit of TV then decided to go to bed myself. Drifted off into a lovely sleep to be rudely awoken by an alarm going off. I should explain here that my daughter’s friend had left her car in the drive of a house down the side lane, the owners of which were also away that night. My first thought was, oh no it’s her car alarm. Looked out of the window but couldn’t see anything, except thick fog.

Lay there for a few minutes, mulling it over, the alarm still going loudly. Looked at the clock and it was 2 am. Decided I had to do something, so got up, put on my pink silk dressing gown over my pink silk pyjamas, my daughter’s boots (mine were still wet from an earlier adventure in a field!), got a large torch and the car keys, unlocked the front door, went out, locked the door behind me and set off down the lane in the fog, only to discover the car was fine, the alarm was actually at the house! I could do nothing about this, the house was in darkness with no visible signs of problems so trudged back up the lane, back into the house and back to bed.

After about half an hour the alarm stopped and I turned over to try and sleep again, worrying about a break in at the neighbour’s house and wondering if I should have dialled 999, only to hear a vehicle driving quietly up the road. Jumped out of bed, went to the window and saw the silhouette of a person dressed all in black wearing a balaclava and a head torch. My thoughts immediately jumped to – here are the burglars and this is the vehicle come to collect the loot! Felt rather foolish when the vehicle crept past the house to see it was the milkman!!

It was only the next day, when my daughter was horrified to hear of my escapade and said it was like something out of a horror movie, where the heroine/victim is creeping off to investigate something which you, as the viewer, know is going to be bad and your mind is saying ‘don’t do it, don’t do it’ that I wondered what I would have done if someone had been trying to take the car, or rob the house? I hadn’t thought that far – although I did have the sense to put my mobile phone in the pocket of my pink silk dressing gown!

Poetic justice

I believe that I am a careful and considerate driver and don't give in to 'road rage' very often. However there is one bit of driving which seems to be prevalent in Norfolk, possibly due to the ridiculous road layouts created by the council, which does infuriate me.

For example, two lanes of vehicles come to traffic lights, go through the lights together and suddenly are expected to 'merge' into one lane! Now I know that cars are expected to behave sensibly and merge one by one but does that happen? No way! The one in the outside lane feels it is his right to get ahead of the one in the inside lane, by any means possible!

Last week I sat at the lights, inside lane, with a blue Audi next to me. I don't dawdle around at lights and, knowing the sequence, was quick off the mark and up to the 30 mph limit. However, the Audi felt it was his god-given right to be in front of me and as I, a mere woman, grey haired as well, had beaten him away, he obviously felt affronted. He therefore drove level with me, on hatched lines, and because he couldn't pass me before the central traffic bollard, he went the WRONG side of the bollard to over take me, doing speeds of well over 40 mph! I couldn't believe it!

You can imagine that I took a certain amount of pleasure today, when being told that this same car had carried out virtually the same manoeuvre (except for the bollard overtaking) but had been side swiped by a large lorry when he tried to cut in front of it. YES!!

He won't be trying that again for a while - at least not in that car!
Just for reassurance, no-one was hurt but I did feel a sense of retribution! ;))

Something new for me!

I have always been interested in the Three Rivers Race which takes place on the Norfolk Broads in June every year, this year being the 50th anniversary. You may have noticed my previous post on this subject, which was a bit of a rant!

Anyway, a couple of years’ ago I wrote a letter to the Anglia Afloat magazine complaining at a lack of information on the race being available on-line. One of the contributors to the magazine (Greg Chapman) caught on to my letter and made it the Editor’s letter for that particular issue. He and I have corresponded occasionally since then and I have sent him photos of his boat under sail etc.

Following my letter, he decided to buy a website – threeriversrace.org and contacted the organisers of the race (Horning Sailing Club plus a sub-committee) to see if they would like him to set a website up. The rather stuffy response was that the sponsors, Navigators & General, would be putting together a website for the 50th anniversary. Well, November, December and then January came with no sign of anything so Greg and I asked the person who designed a website all about Horning Village (although he lives in the Midlands!), Craig Slawson, to help and to cut a long story slightly shorter, we have been working on this for over a month now and it is up and running.

www.threeriversrace.org.uk

I have been doing the research for the stories from competitors, spectators and the like, finding appropriate photos, researching local accommodation and I am now starting on the boat recognition section. It is just the kind of thing I enjoy doing.

I am quite amused, however, at the friendly bickering which is going on between the two chaps (Greg and Craig) who are doing the technical bit of setting up the layout etc. As all the interaction is taking place by email I end up with about 20 emails a day, copied to me by these two with decisions like the size and colour of the headings, whether menus should be left or right, should there be captions on the photos etc. I hadn’t realised how much minutiae there is in setting up a website and I’m so glad that there are people who have the patience (and knowledge!) to do all this work. Me, I like to write words and take photos!

Fame

I was delighted recently to see one of my photos published in our local newspaper, the fairly provincial but well respected Eastern Daily Press.

We had been out on the river and rounded a bend to be met by the sight in the attached photo. No panic, just get as near to the bank as possible and wait. However, there was very little wind and it seemed to take forever for the yachts to sail past us. The Broads Authority ranger who came across the same sight as us promptly turned round, shouting that he would 'clear the way' for the yachts, prompting one of the skippers to comment later that they felt like a circus parade being led by the ringmaster. I think it would have been more fun not to warn other boats and watch the antics as the hire boats tried to negotiate the daunting bunch of 'sailies'.

On an impulse I sent the photo to the newspaper, not thinking for a moment they would publish it as I have done this before with no luck but was pleasantly surprised to see my photo in an almost half page spread the same week, attached to the report of the race - the Snowflake Sailing Club first race of the winter season - the Tri-Icicle.

Fame at last!

Urban myth ...?

I was recently sent the message copied below and, whilst treating it with a slight amount of skepticism, I felt duty bound to forward it on - in particular to my daughters who are most often too distracted by loading shopping and children into their vehicles to notice a piece of paper. Whilst forwarding it, I scanned down my list of family and friends and sent it to one or two others, particularly those who live in urban areas.

Warning..!!!!
Just last weekend on Friday night we parked in a public car park. As we drove away I noticed a sticker on the rear window of the car. When I took it off after I got home, it was a receipt for petrol. Luckily my friend told me not to stop as it could be someone waiting for me to get out of the car. Then we received this email yesterday.

WARNING FROM POLICE
THIS APPLIES TO BOTH WOMEN AND MEN
BEWARE OF PAPER ON THE BACK WINDOW OF YOUR VEHICLE--
NEW WAY TO DO CARJACKINGS (NOT A JOKE)'

Heads up everyone! Please, keep this circulating.. You walk across the car park, unlock your car and get inside. You start the engine put it into Reverse.

When you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your space, you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window. So, you stop and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view.
When you reach the back of your car, that is when the carjackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off. They practically run you over as they speed off in your car.

And guess what, ladies? I bet your purse is still in the car. So now the carjacker has your car, your home address, your money, and your keys. Your home and your whole identity are now compromised!

BEWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED.

If you see a piece of paper stuck to your back window, lock your doors and just drive away.
Remove the paper later. And be thankful that you read this e-mail. I hope you will forward this to friends and family, especially to women.
A purse contains all kinds of personal information and identification documents, and you certainly do NOT want this to fall into the wrong hands.

Now, I feel sure that most of the women I sent this message to would read it and store the information somewhere at the back of their minds for possible future use. However, my darling, logical brother emailed me to say that anyone who didn't notice a piece of paper stuck to their rear windscreen deserved to have his/her car stolen! I thought this was a bit harsh! I'm not suggesting that women are less observant than men but they normally have a lot more distractions during the day and after dark their first priority is to get into the car and lock the doors, particularly if parking in a city centre car park or street.

I love my brother dearly but I do wonder if he understands how vulnerable some women feel in certain circumstances, particularly as they get a bit older ;-))

Fred is a lovely cat who lives down the road from us. When our cat was alive, Fred used to come up to the patio doors and peer into the kitchen but as soon as our cat sensed he was there (she was blind but had an acute sense of smell) she would growl and hiss in the general direction of Fred and he would back off.

When our cat died last year, we were distraught and Fred would come to the house and make a big fuss around us, helping us to get through the difficult loss. He was totally relaxed in the house as can be seen from the photo!

However, there is another lovely cat, Felix, who lives closer to us but who hates Fred and used to pounce on him every time he went down the road. Both cats used to end up with clumps of hair missing and bloody ears and they couldn’t seem to settle their differences. Felix used to hide in the hedge and wait for Fred to go by. Fred got wise to this eventually and used to take a detour over fences and through gardens to avoid Felix.

After nearly a year, Fred stopped coming to see us – he was getting old and obviously didn’t want the aggravation of having to ‘run the gauntlet’ every day. We still see him, rolling around in the sun outside his house but he doesn’t venture far these days.

Felix has taken advantage of the situation and now spends much of his day in our garden and kitchen. As soon as his owners go out, he is under the gate and at the patio doors and you can guarantee that he will be fussing around us within minutes of hearing our car arrive home. Felix doesn’t have such a nice nature as Fred – we think he must have been ill-treated in a past life as he will suddenly hiss at us and either claw or try to bite us, for no reason, sometimes if we move a bit quickly. He knows it’s wrong as he’ll shoot out of the door when this happens.

We are just grateful to have a cat visit us – we get the pleasure without the pain!

Unusual boats

I have recently started putting photos on Flickr – just snaps taken around the Norfolk Broads when we have been out on the boat.

Purely by accident, I have become fanatical about snapping old or unusual boats as there is a small but tight-knit circle of 'otaku' who know EVERYTHING about EVERY boat on the Broads and they will pounce on my photos to see who can be the first to identify the boat, even having arguments over the year of build etc.

The trouble is that now I am constantly scanning the passing boats or those on the moorings to see if I can find something unusual to keep these good people on their toes.

The photo is of one boat which beat the experts as, although I knew the name of it, no-one could come up with any history. Hah!