I've Got To Move.

[ecchi]

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!