Coming home I noticed a couple of vans and a mini-digger in the street. I somehow failed to notice the road closed signs. Or, in fact, that an Explosion damaged street and car almost directly outside my house. More importantly, it is right outside the chippy, the much-praised 'Tasty Plaice'. Fear not, far-flung friends who have succombed to the greasy joys of chips and gribbles - it is intact.

In fact, I only discovered the explosion had happened when my father rang to check all was well. He got the classic response of "what explosion?". This is a family tradition, as another sibling happily slept through an IRA bomb in the next street from them back in the 80s and there are a heap of stories about sleeping through air-raids in WW2. The only galling thing is it happened whilst I was out at work rather than when I was asleep in bed. Ruins the continuity, that. As far as I can tell, the entire damage to my home and contents is the cablebox and my alarm clock being reset.

I only mention it now because, as of 23.45, they have started drilling up the road and I'm pretty damn sure they aren't supposed to do that. I'm tempted to change into my jammies, tousle my hair and go out to demand "wha's goin' on?". We'll ignore the fact that I am up reading fanfic and just pretend I'd already gone to bed...