Brookies back

It's been a hive of activity in the Lane this week. Firstly, and sadly next door but one suffered the dual shock of the death of Granny and death of dog. A cruel blow to them. The knock on has been that the planned eighteenth birthday party for their lad has been cancelled....not postponed but cancelled, which is a shame.

One further down had an attempted break in which led to door to door investigations by Essex constabulary. Their probing questions were, what's your name, do you live here and did you see anything suspicious. The culprit is yet to be apprehended, but it's only a matter of time. This happened on the day I read that the Brighton flat is slap bang in the middle of one of Britain's burglary hot spots.

And then last night as I rode home, I followed a fire engine with lights flashing and sirens blaring, and felt my heart sink as it turned down the Lane and slowed to a halt. I'm pleased to report the boy had not been playing with matches, but the next house up from ours had a fire which appeared to be in the garden. Don't tell anyone, but I suspect it was a bonfire, or perhaps even a barbecue.

So I expect there will be lots of twitching of curtains over the next few days to see if we'll have our first lesbian kiss or body buried under the patio. Alas and alack we will not be able to partake of the twitching as we have received our made to measure wooden blinds and have removed our curtains. I might just mention that I did the measuring, and am distraught to discover that you're supposed to do it accurately. So I've re-ordered. On the other hand, it's probably best not mentioned at all.