Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.
I know I had promised to go through the football stickers today. But events waylaid that.
I live in a suburb of Bridgend and like all suburbs it has it's morning routines. So that when when anything occurs that is outside this normal pattern of suburbia existence then it's noticed.
Now today unusually not only did I have today off work so did my wife. She had a hospital appointment to go to early in the morning (for the record everything is fine).
Whilst she was out I just so happened to have looked out of the window. And on the corner of the road opposite,literally on the corner, there was an unmarked white van. Inside there was a man apparently doing nothing but watch the world of suburbia around him.
When my wife returned she too had noticed this van and was disconcerted by it. She thought that it belonged to the owner of the house on the other side of the turning who had parked two white vans on that corner for the two businesses he runs.
My wife who unlike me does not have an attachment to the sofa when sports are on wanted not to waste the day and decided to do things around the house. The first being the re potting of a few large plants in front of the house. Despite my dislike for most things gardenesque she needed my help in this, representing the only thing that could be described as muscle this early in the morning.
When I got outside she beckoned me forward and whispered to me (which is trust me most unlike our normal conversations).
"I've been listening to them. He's saying that the man has barricaded himself in the house". "He said that in all his time doing this job he'd never experienced this ever"
I looked up. Them? But she was right. For the man in the van had got out and was talking to an older smarter dressed what appeared to be controller of events. After all he had a clipboard and was chatting on his bluetooth.
Furthermore my original perception was wrong. For out of one of the vans parked opposite came not the owner of the house on the other corner but an electrician. Knew this because it was then I'd noticed that the van was from the electricity company.
After chatting a few minutes all three men went down the road away from our view. We made these assumptions. The leader was a bailiff, the electrician was, surprise,surprise an electrician and the other man was a locksmith. They were going to cut off the guy's electricity supply.
Ten to fifteen minutes later the three amigos came back. They chatted again and went to their respective vehicles. The "bailiff's" being a dark saloon model. I reckon it was chosen deliberately to exude menace. Still the point was that they were waiting. But for what?
"What" turned out to be a van belonging to the private security firm G4S. So then order was being restored by bastions of the private sector. Who needs the police anymore when we have full blooded free market capitalism?
They went up the wrong turning.
But they were back. And they drove down the right turning this time,the three amigos dutifully following them again by foot. After about fifteen or so minutes they were the ones who were first to come straight back and off enforcing the rule of law somewhere else. Their pedestrianised associates followed soon after. They had the satisfied look of people who had done their job. Soon they all went away and this world of suburbia was as quiet as it normally is at this time of the day.
Assuming we were right initially then let's make something clear. I've no idea whether it was a case of couldn't pay or wouldn't pay. Still a few more assumptions follow from this morning's events. That in this nondescript middle class suburb where I live there is a house near me, and possibly at least one person living inside it, without electricity. Which, even in a hot day like yesterday, sends a chill through me.
Until the next time.
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