Midnight Madness

We went to bed last night without any inkling that it was going to be one helluvanight.

Around 1.30am or so, we woke up to loud voices. It seemed that there were 2 guys outside, in the middle of the street, arguing very very loudly. I couldn't make out most of what they were saying but they sure were making a ruckus.

D climbed out of bed to have a look-see. I was too sleepy to be bothered, and hoped they would go away soon.

D came back with a status report: Apparently, they were both drunk (pissed, as they call it here in Oz) and Drunk 1 wanted the Drunk 2 to drive him somewhere. Drunk 2 was refusing.

After a few more shouting matches, we heard garbage bins being toppled over (it was trash day so we had to leave our bins on the curb). Another look-see confirmed that our bin was lucky enough to be part of this bin-tipping activity. All our garbage was now nicely strewn out on the street.

We'd hoped that this was the end of their public disturbance and they would crawl back under whatever rock they crawled out from. And for a moment, with their voices fading away, we thought it was.

We were wrong. We again heard their voices outside our window. And then, there was a crash. I had no idea what had happened, until I heard D calling the police, saying, "There are two drunken guys outside having an argument and they've just smashed a brick through my car window."

What the f@*k?? I peeked through our blinds and there it was: D's truck with a hole on its side. Poor truck--innocent bystander injured.

D went out to wait for the cops. It probably took them under ten minutes to come.

This is what I saw as I watched through the blinds of our bedroom window:

- Cops come, they talk to D.

- Cops leave.

- Cops come back within ten minutes. They talk to D again. D goes and looks inside the cop car. D and the cops talk some more.

- Another cop car comes. The cops have a meeting. The second car cop drives away.

- D starts cleaning up our garbage while the cops talk to the suspect in the cop car.

- A neighbour comes out to find out what's going on. More talking.

- Cop 1 writes something and hands it to D. D signs and the cop gives D a copy.

- Neighbour goes back in.

- Cop car 2 comes back and the cops have another meeting.

- The cops drive away.

Make sense? Well, apparently the cops caught one of the guys and D confirmed that the suspect was involved but wasn't the guy who smashed D's car. Suspect was refusing to give Drunk 1 up. He was also denying that he was part of the disturbance.

Unluckily for him, Drunk 1 kept shouting out his name while they were arguing. "Ari, you're such a .... Ari this, Ari that." Well, guess what he said when asked what his name was? Ari.

The second cop car came to look for Drunk 1 but couldn't find him.

The paper that D had was a "Notice to the Victim."

Nothing more could be done, apparently. Well, nothing I saw anyway.

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As we were going back to sleep, I told D, "This is like living in a ghetto! How very exciting."

And to think earlier that evening, I was bemoaning the fact that I felt so poor as I was folding my own laundry. I felt so destitute, not having a maid to do it for me.

In a span of one night, I went from being poor to living a ghetto. What a night.

We went back to sleep at around 3am.

And, just to add to the mayhem, we woke up at around 5am, when one of my picture frames (which I hung on the wall over our headboard) fell on D. How utterly bizarre. My poor husband thought somebody threw a brick through our bedroom window.

I'll say it again. What a night.

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Here are some pictures I took in the morning. Yes, I know. They don't capture any of the night's excitement. Believe me, I was tempted to go out and take some pictures but I was too afraid.