it’s midnight.  the people in the flat one down, one over from ours are having a party.  which apparently includes extremely loud techno music, lots of screaming/yelling/shrieking/singin at the top of ones lungs, and stomping (??!).  the whole apartment is shaking and it’s just ridiculously excessive, even for a friday night.

in the uk, you do not call the cops for this.  noise is a council problem.  this is what we pay our council tax for.  so at about 12:30, we ring the emergency noise line, and they say they’ll send someone out.  even more shockingly, no one in the flats immediately adjacent or above/below this craziness has bothered to complain.

a little green wandsworth car comes out.  and then leaves.

jonno rings back the noise line.  apparently they cannot ask the people to turn it down because there were people “loitering”, and they deemed it unsafe.

loitering? at a party? well i never!!

seriously.  they tell us they can file a report.  that’s it.

we try to go back to bed.  j has to go into work in the morning.  it’s 1:30.

and finally, i spring up, put on slippers and go downstairs.  there’s a 20-ish guy outside the flat with a beer, the door open, insanely loud music blasting out.

he seems a bit unsettled by the approach of a woman half-asleep in pyjamas.  i ask him what time it is.  he (in all seriousness) looks at his watch and tells me it’s 1:30.  he begins to look sheepish.

i say, “which means that that noise is beyond ridiculous, and completely unacceptable.  i live here too, and it’s incredibly rude to be this loud at this hour of the morning.”

he starts apologising, says he’ll take care of it, and immediately begins to start yelling at the people inside to turn the music down.

i shuffle back upstairs.  the noise drops off immediately.

climb back in bed and fall asleep.

the damnwells – bastard of midnight

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