note to self

I awoke this morning to the strange sensation of quiet. I live on a fairly busy road and my bedroom is at the front so if I sleep with the windows open I invariably awake to the sound of traffic noise. Cars beeping and screeching to a halt by the zebra crossing. Today however there was almost silence. Partly because I had the window closed for the first time in months [I had the ceiling fan set on high and it was still lovely and cool] but the main reason was the broken down bus right outside my window. Police had blocked off the road and were allowing traffic alternately in single file which meant none of the usual aggrivation for drivers impatiently honking to try and speed up their journey. As I stood looking out of the window at the man pouring diesel into a watering can I realised to my horror that not only was he decanting diesel into a watering can in order to pour it into the bus fuel tank but that he had a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I could see the headlines forming in my mind. ‘Explosion in south London creates havoc’ ‘Mass destruction as bus explodes’ etc etc. Today I checked my house insurance was up to date.