I've Got To Move.
 

I have a ground floor, front of building, apartment and last night I was woken in the middle of the night by someone banging on my window, shining a torch into my bedroom and yelling "Can you open the door". I assumed it was one of my neighbours having locked themselves out again, so I got up to let them in.

Got to the door to find two police officers asking me if I knew which apartment a particular one of my neighbours lived in. I was not surprised by this for three reasons:

1) There have been many times in the past when the police have turned up to arrest one of my neighbours.
2) About 50% of those times it was the neighbour they were asking about that they arrested (surprised they had to ask his apartment number, I would have thought they would have known it by heart by now).
3) The apartment they wanted was once a cannabis farm.

I let the police in, but told them the guy would probably not be there, they replied "We know he won't be there, we have arrested him and have him down at the station." I explained that I meant that he does not actually live there anymore, he moved in with his girlfriend (he keeps his old place as a bolt hole to run to when they have an argument, which happens semi-regularly). He replied "We know that too, we arrested her as well."

I showed them the apartment and knowing that the police usually use their boot or shoulder as an improvised way of unlocking doors (from the fact that I seen the landlord's assistant repairing smashed locks and splintered door frames after several previous arrests), I opened the door for them (it was not locked, the tenant never leaves anything in there when he is not there except the furniture, and he leaves it unlocked so other tenants can use his room for storage - but the police have a habit of kicking the door open first, and checking to see if it is locked afterwards). Then I went back to bed and left them to it.

It crossed my mind that I had not asked for any ID, they could be burglars wearing false police uniforms to get into the building. I decided probably not, because we have had a few burglars over the years I've been here, and they were not the imaginative sort who dressed up as police officers. They tended to be more direct - they dressed in ski masks and smashed the door down to gain entrance.

My father owns a holiday chalet in Norfolk (Norfolk England, not Norfolk USA). and for the past few years I have been considering moving to that area. Three weeks I ago I was down there on holiday with him as a "last ever visit" to the chalet because he is selling it, and has a buyer ready. While there, the loss of a "holiday bolt hole" in the area (I often borrow it from Dad for a few days away) made me think it was time to move up there permanently.

Last night's activity was the last straw. The worst part was that it was not an unusual event. Once or twice a year the police come to arrest one of my neighbours. Also about every couple of years a gang of assholes in ski masks smash the front door in and ransack a few apartments before the police arrive (fortunately not my apartment, so far). Over half my neighbours are heroin addicts. Oh, and one apartment used to be used as a cannabis farm. On top of this, the town won an award a couple of years back, it came first in the "Scummiest places in Britain" category. I've fucking got to move out of this fucking shit hole.

I've decided I'm defiantly going to move to Norfolk next year. Probably not until the summer, the town I'm considering is on right the East Coast, and the winters there are even colder than the winters here!

It's got to be safer than where you are now.

Here in Florida if someone shines a torch in someone's window it just means they want to come on in and smoke crack with you.

http://t2.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn...ntFE7&usqp=CAY

Come to Europe, we´ve given up on all that crime stuff and decided to lay about in our pools instead :D

Well fuck me running! I learned a new term today!

Yep, that would apply in the context ecchi used it. I also saw that the history of the word goes to the time of trench warfare, when it was dug out of the sides of a trench with the earth shored up with wood and the roof often lined with corrugated iron. The men would use the bolt hole for protection, eating and sleeping.

In another context, this would also be a bolt hole...



(if it's good enough for filet mignon, it's good enough for Anton Chigurh)

:-D

OMG! I saw the clip before I read your post & was trying to figure out how it could possibly have anything to do with my post!

BRAVO!! |thumb

I told a neighbour about the incident yesterday evening, and he told another neighbour who came running to me in panic. He wanted to know where the police had been, how long they had been here, where they had searched etc... Obviously he has something hidden in the building he was afraid they would find!

Well the guy they have arrested often comes round to scrounge some cooking foil off me. He buys the drugs, then realises that he has nothing to heat the damn things on!

Umm I am in Europe. England is part of Europe!

I guess you mean "Mainland Europe". - I don't want to go there, there is no money left. Although I'm told you can pick up a house for pocket change these days!

Always glad to be educational!

|attention England? In EUROPE ??? What !?! We never agreed to this!!

Dont let Ukip catch you saying such things or you´ll be banished to Northfield, Stoke or Brixton ...

Besides, the UK has the highest national debt in Europe (a staggering 406% of GDP or 160k in dollars pr person) - you better get out before the boom |bananna|

As much as ironic this is UK doesn't want to be in Europe either.
Near future will tell.

Actually I Quite like Brixton. I used to live in Streatham, about a mile from the border with Brixton. It was the best place I ever lived. Mind you I was living in dog kennels at the time (true - not a joke).

Sorry, your user details say "Location: Spain" yet you can say this with a straight face? |couch|

Well a few people in the UK don't want to be in Europe. Hopefully, if the idiot Cameron gives us his referendum it will turn out that not too many think like this. But as you say "The future will tell", and I am a little afraid that enough of my fellow countrymen are asshole enough to vote us out!

PS: Apologies to all you Americans, for whom the above is probably nothing you know about, and defiantly nothing you care about!

The building is full of police again!

A few minutes ago I answered the door to the postman who had a parcel for apartment 14. There is no apartment 14. While I was talking to him another guy came down the drive, entered and showed me his warrant card. The postman was an undercover cop, the parcel a ruse to get them in the building without scaring anyone off. They are now upstairs knocking down the doors of three apartments.

The surprising thing is that this has the hallmark of a major operation against organised criminals. And although many of my neighbours are criminals, I doubt if any are bright enough to be "organised criminals".

Fuck, I am getting so fucking sick of this.

Shit, there is now about a dozen of them with a battering ram. Thank fuck we don't arm our police over here!

Sounds like an absolute nightmare living there. Cant you get a place somewhere nicer?

I have been considering it for quite a while (the landlord who owned the place when I moved in used to check people out before renting, but he sold up and the current landlord does not). Over the past few weeks I have decided I really must go. However the place I ideally want to move to is on the east coast (Great Yarmouth/Gorleston/Caister area) and although that is fine in Summer, it is bloody cold in winter (biting east wind). So my plan is to move mid summer when it is hot, then gradually get used to the cold as the winter moves in. That leaves me here for the next eight months or so.

Nice and close to the glorious games at Portman Road :D
Wouldnt a place like Brighton be a good alternative, slightly less of a rough winter and still some of that seaside charm? (I was totally taken by the little pedestrian streets, the backalley restaurants and the pier of course when spending a few days there)

Actually I hate Brighton. It has a nice old penny arcade, a nice nudist beach, and the oldest electric railway in Britain. But apart from that and the "lanes", the main town is too much like "Croydon on Sea". Also I am not married and my father is terrified that I might be gay, it would probably kill him if I moved to Brighton!

I have thought about Margate or somewhere similar in Kent. I spent lots of holidays as a kid in Kent and have fond memories.

However I have been going to Winterton (a few miles north of Great Yarmouth) every year for over a quarter of a century, most years several times, so I know the area well. Also it is flat, and I am getting to an age where I no longer like walking uphill!

Since you enjoy going to the gym so much you should move someplace that has lots of gyms.





|couch|

You're trying to kill me aren't you!