Things that go bump in the night!

In the middle of the night I woke to find that our balcony door, which we leave ajar to allow air to circulate, had blown wide open. Curtains billowed into the room and light from the street-lamps flooded in, which is probably what woke me. And then, from somewhere inside the hotel, there came a huge crashing noise. Perhaps a bit of the roof had blown off. Maybe a piece of wall had collapsed. Something solid had gone down with a huge amount of noise. Was it anything to do with the wind rushing through our room? We hastened to close the door, just in case!

All remained quiet. We went back to sleep.

This morning there is no sign of damage anywhere. Its a bit wet and windy outside but all appears to be well. Another of life's mysteries.

We leave the balcony door open without any great fear of burglary. It would take quite a supreme effort to climb up from the well-lit street, several floors up the side of the building. And when we go out we leave stuff locked in the safe.

Fairly secure here then, we feel rather less so about the house in the UK. Phil is on a mailing list from the local police who keep sending him updates on robberies in the area. There seems to be a gang at work. The police are now appealing for residents to be on the lookout for people trying all the doors of houses and parked cars in the hope of getting into one or other of them. Statistically this can happen and the police reckon this is at least part the robbery gang's modus operandi.

They - the thieves, not the police - are on the lookout for small stuff, such as jewellery, that is easy to carry away and easy to sell. They would be disappointed if they came to our house for jewellery. My whole collection would be unlikely to raise more than £25 on a good day! But the thieves do not know that, of course, so we shall have to look to another bit of the police advice. They say the thieves want to get in and out as quickly and quietly as possible. So perhaps we should leave collections of noisy stuff for them to bump into or fall over at strategic points in the house!

We are on the lookout! Well, we shall be on the lookout when we go home!

Also on the lookout, apparently, are vigilante groups in the USA who plan to take steps to ensure that their elections are not rigged. They have accepted all Mr Trump's claims that rigging is going to happen on a large scale, that non-citizens are voting and votes are being stolen.

"In a “new effort”, the National Socialist Movement, a white nationalist, neo-Nazi organization, is planning to send out hundreds of members to watch for voter fraud outside polling places in 48 states, with a focus on California, Illinois, Florida and Michigan, Butch Urban, the group’s chief of staff, said.

Members would not be wearing their uniforms or National Socialist Movement gear. “They’re going to look like everybody else that’s going in there to vote,” Urban said."

Talk of a National Socialist Movement which wears a uniform is rather worrying, to my way of thinking at least. I can only hope they meet the same ignominious fate as the "Illinois Nazis" in the film the Blues Brothers. Standing smart in their uniforms they had to leap into a river to avoid being run over.

If only life's problems could be sorted as easily in real life as they are in the movies.