I never stay up alone to see in the New Year and last night was no different. Feeling quite tired I went to bed at my usual time as my eyes are programmed to shut for increasingly longer intervals after 9pm. After listening to 'Book at Bedtime' I soon drifted off to sleep and was not even woken at midnight by fireworks or people coming out of their houses singing or laughing and shouting.
Instead, I was very rudely awoken at 1:30am by the sound of 'head banging' music, thump, thump, thump which at first I thought was coming from next door. However, I soon ascertained that it wasn't then I thought that someone in fairly close proximity was having a very noisy party, so I looked out of the windows front and back but could see nothing.
After that, I did not get very much sleep. First I tried earplugs but they only make me sneeze violently. I came downstairs and made some ovaltine but that didn't work either so I put the radio on and still the thumping continued louder than the radio. In the end I gave up and was glad when it was time to get up but still the noise continued. By this time I had worked out that there must be a rave nearby as there are a few warehouse places in the locality.
After breakfast, I decided I would go out for my walk and I must admit that within 100 yards of my front door I thought I has stumbled into a nightmare scenario! Along the bicycle track there were various people relieving themselves, cars of all ages and vans were parked in every available space along the road which is unusual at weekends and holiday times and the pavements were scattered with empty cans and broken bottles. There was an assortment of what I can only describe as shifty looking sub-humans either under the influence of alcohol or drugs (or both) and all of them looking as if they hadn't had a good wash in a very long time. The clothing they wore (or not in some cases) was a strange selection of what I assumed had been thrown out by Oxfam because it wasn't good enough to be sold.
Luckily, I had not taken my handbag because I certainly didn't feel that safe as there didn't appear to be any normal looking people around as I continued to walk towards the city centre, instead there were even more weirdos, some carrying large rucksacks, heading towards the rave which was very close to my home.
Making sure that I kept to all the main roads instead of my usual short cuts which are quite isolated, I continued my walk. Even some considerable distance from the rave I saw one couple having sex in a car and a young man relieving himself in the middle of the ambulance station car park while someone else was asleep under a scruffy duvet in another car. They obviously arrived too late to park anywhere near the rave and were a stone's throw from the main shopping centre.
What leaves me speechless is apparently everyone knew this was going to take place (one of my neighbours said it had been in the Evening Post), yet there was not a policeman or police car in sight and no effort had been made to stop them. My walk took me about a mile from where this was held and back around almost in a circle and I certainly saw no sign of the police although it was obvious that there were a lot of drugs to be had.
This rave must also have broken every H & S rule in the book with the number that attended as there could not have been adequate toilet facilities, fire safety precautions and usually they 'break in' to the electricity supply as well. The city council 'Noise Pollution' department is also at fault because they didn't stop it and I'm beginning to wonder just what I get for all the council tax I pay. Surely people that pay their council tax are entitled to a peaceful night's sleep and all these weirdos have not contirbuted a penny towards what it will cost to clear up the mess they've left behind.
The racket eventually stopped around midday and I only hope they don't start up again tonight because if they do, I will crtainly be making a few phone calls including one to our local councillor if I can find her number, I'll ring her about 2am!
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