POLICE!!

The police came knocking on my door at about 1pm on an ordinary Sunday afternoon. I had just got up after a very late night at my daughter Jasmeet's house. We had thrown her a baby shower and had enjoyed a lovely evening with her, into the wee hours of this morning.

I got up very late as I'd had trouble getting to sleep. The whole week had been a horrid one with regard to sleep. I had barely got out of the shower when my son in law knocked loudly on my door. I answered wearing only a towel - he said, "Mum there's two police men at the door". I said, "I know you're pulling my leg"! He said, "No Mum, I'm not, there really are 2 policemen waiting to see you". He asked me if he should ask them in. I said, "yes." I still didn't believe that there were policemen waiting to see me.

I was shocked - police on my doorstep, on a Sunday afternoon - to talk to me! OMG! I took a few minutes to get dressed and make my hair look less scary. My daughter Amrita, knocked on my door; she asked if I knew the police were waiting for me. I said, "yes". I can honestly say I was bloody nervous. I think she was quite worried for me. I don't blame her, I was worried for me!

I came down into the lounge and there were 2 plain clothed policemen there. They stood up and introduced themselves. They seemed to take up so much space in the room, I felt overwhelmed. One of them was tall and broad and severe looking; the other was not so tall, not so broad and not so severe. The severe one flashed me his ID. They sat down and told me they were here to take me to the police station for questioning with regard to a complaint made about me by a family member. The complaint was of dangerous driving, assault and criminal damage. I was in total shock! I couldn't believe what they had just said. It was absurd. It was surreal.

I got more than a weeny bit defensive. I asked how I could be sure they were who they said they were. ( A result of watching too much TV)? The severe one went to get his ID out again. The not severe one wasn't very impressed; he said I could dial 101, ask for Staines police station and ask if he was a detective/inspector! So I was convinced; and I was thinking - OK, nobody paid these guys to come over to my home and put the wind up me!

The not severe detective/inspector (good cop) took charge. He said they could have sent uniformed police over in a police car, I could have been arrested, handcuffed and taken to the police station for questioning. But they had decided they would come to see me themselves, explain that a complaint had been made and ask me to come to the police station with them, today. My first reaction - Thank God they did it this way!! My second, knee jerk reaction - don't you have any rapists or burglars to go after! Yes, I said this out loud! OMG! This is not helping. I must behave, these guys are nice and are trying to be decent to me. The good cop, by now a bit peeved, told me they do have rapists and buglars that they need to go after but a serious complaint had been made about me; it was a violent crime and had to be investigated. An assault had occurred and it was their job to investigate it. So I chilled out and tried not to alienate the officers any further.

Thankfully my son in law and Amrita were with me the whole time. I could have been at home on my own. My husband was at the Temple, doing voluntary work. So the detectives/inspectors got down to business. I was told that I should go to Staines police station today. I would need a solicitor or I could be provided with a duty solicitor. I would be interviewed and the interview would be recorded. It could take several hours depending on the situation at the police station and depending on how long a solicitor took to arrive; they had a maximum of 24 hours to question me. Amrita asked if it would be OK if I went to the police station tomorrow; this way we would have time to bring a solicitor with us. Good cop said yes that would be fine. I was advised to report to Staines police station the following day, as close to 12pm as possible, when good cop's shift would begin. I was warned that I could be at the police station all afternoon. I was told that if all went as smoothly and quickly as possible, I could be back home by tea time. Well that was clear enough. OMG!

Well my feet were firmly on the ground by now. The surreal feeling had gone. It hit home how serious this was. I felt .... I'm 51 years old; never been in trouble with the police; it's very rare that I ever got a parking fine or speeding ticket and now I felt like a common criminal! WOW! What a come down, a bit of a fall from grace. My reputation in doubt and in taters. Nice Indian lady who works in a library gone bad.

After I had been told that I would be interviewed at the police station, the good cop said that I needed to assure him I would attend Staines police station the following day. I assured him I would; I was happy to do that rather than attend the police station immediately and have to wait for a solicitor for hours while sitting in a police cell. The thought of doing that gave me chills up my spine. The inspectors were happy with my assurance and were willing to wait for me to turn up tomorrow, so they left me in peace. Thank God!

Phew! I was glad they were gone. My head was reeling. Me, in trouble with the police. I had narrowly avoided being carted off in a marked police car in hand cuffs! I was gobsmacked. At least my kids were there for me or I don't know how I would have coped.

Car Crash!

Beautiful sunny winter day. I had taken my time leaving the house to visit my Mum on a chillaxed Sunday afternoon. All had been well with the world and me for months and I was feeling very good about life.

I left the house in a sunny mood, same as the day outside. Sunglasses on, music playing, feeling great. A few hundred yards down the road I gave way to an oncoming motorist. At first he hesitated, then when he came past me he was laughing and he gave me the rude 2 finger sign. OK so that sunny warm feeling didn't last long! It was my nephew - the awful orphan - he drove past me; I decided to go after him and ask him why he had to be so arrogant and rude. Big mistake. I caught up with him in a side road very close by. He was parked up, I parked up just a couple of yards infront of him. I was just about to get out of my car to ask him what the hell he was doing when he went to drive away; before I had time to think he had hit my car! OK, my lovely day is quickly descending into a disaster!

I got out of the car, turned the air blue with some colourful language. He gave as good as he got. A lady of mature years came out of her home; the awful orphan asked her if she saw what happened, she said no, but would he move his Porshe as her daughter would be over to visit any minute and would want to park her car in that spot! I had a look at my car - no damage as far as I could see - just a broken brake light cover which was already broken before he hit me. I decided there was no point in hanging around and I should get on with my day as best I could. so I got in my car and left.

I have no idea what the awful orphan did but I went to the nearest petrol station to call my Hubby to tell him what the awful orphan had done; a couple of minutes later I saw the awful orphan driving away back to his cave.

What a day! Started off great and spiralled into a nightmare!

I didn't feel up to going to see my Mum; it would have been a lousy visit for her. All I would have done is recount what the awful orphan had done to me. My Mum doesn't deserve any more heatache, she's had more than her fair share.

So I went to see a very good friend of mine who doesn't live too far away; when I got to her place, she was out, so I decided to go home and have an early dinner alone. I picked up some chiken pasta salad and the Sunday papers on my way home. I tried to salvage a rubbish day.