Door problems

I have the bad luck to live on top of the main entrance of my block of flats. Sometimes it can be good thing because I get to hear a lot of gossip. People tend to forget how well sound carries when you are standing next to a wall. However, most of the time it’s a menace!

First of all, there is a door phone that with a metallic voice shouts out which flat number any visitors pressed for Queen and country to hear. I had a friend that used to say it was unsafe. I think he might have been slightly paranoid though. The mechanic call outs are okay during the day but not at 4am when I am firmly at sleep or rather tries to be at sleep!

Secondly, there are the youngsters that can’t bother to announce their arrival so they simply kick the door phone and let themselves into the building and help themselves to one of the bikes in the entrance hall. So much for security.
The other day I heard a cunning neighbour trying to scare the youngsters from stealing bikes from our house with a story of a crazy man living in the house that sometimes have a go at people with a huge knife. At least I hope it was a made up story - I never have seen such man.

Thirdly, when people kick the door phone or play with the door, which some of the little kids in the house like to do, they sometimes knock off the shield for the emergency alarm and sets off its high pitched siren. I then open my window and tell them to put it back but usually they don’t know how to do it so I end up having to go down and fix it myself. This is a hassle since I have a bad knee at the moment and struggle to climb the stairs. Next time I just have to shoot them at sight!

Today the gas and electric goes up with 20% and 18%. I have a feeling it will be a very long and cold winter for most of us in the house. I spoke with Simone about it the other day and we said we have to buy one of those Slankets and maybe a pair of slippers for both feet. Sod looking good!

I really hope I don’t get any surprise visitors this winter.

We might be cold in our flats but Brixton is certainly still burning under the surface. The footlocker store started to burn again after the riots. They put the fire out last week but yesterday the fire had started again. The fire in Brixton will go on burning until the police stop killing our young men on the streets!