Wednesday 14 May 2008

Lofty matters

There are three floors in our block of flats, and we live on the top floor. Being at the top, and being a rather quirky sort of building, our flat is more like a house with stairs up to a split level landing, and sloping roof windows. It also has a loft.

A couple of months ago when J was working away from home, I came home late at night to discover the loft door was ajar. It is usually kept shut, and is opened only by sliding it across – it doesn’t drop down. Boy did it freak me out! The problem with imagination is that it conjures up lots of ‘worst case scenarios’ and mine were roughly on a par with a weirdo living in my loft.

I shone a torch through the gap and saw nothing (I was feeling very brave at this point), attempted to close it (couldn’t) and then decided since nothing in the flat had been touched, that it was best to ignore it. My way of ignoring it was to settle on the downstairs settee for the night so I could keep a beady eye on the ceiling – not the most restful of nights.

J came home the next day and had a good look around the loft and said all was well, no weirdo’s in the corner. He suggested it must have been the wind, as we’d had the windows open, and the wind no doubt slid the door across. Fair enough…

Then, a few days ago, J is away and I come home from work to the exact same thing – the loft door is once again open a few inches. I can totally believe it is the wind, as the windows were open – but why does it only happen when J is away? Why has it never happened all the months I have been working from home? And I do have windows open when I am working (if it is hot enough!) and that pesky loft door has remained shut.

I am off to town to buy a lock…

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