Noise in the Night

When I finally got to bed last night, any visions of getting a restful night’s sleep quickly evaporated.  I was pretty tired having returned to finish off some Company Law preparation for a seminar later today after foolishly opting to take an hour or so out watching Whitechapel on ITV which quickly led into other TV viewing – you know how these things go down. 

Just after 2AM we were woken by a banging, thudding sound that occurred every few minutes but without any obvious pattern. It seemed to be coming from outside or just inside the front of the house.  Before I realised the time in my sleepy stupor, I had initially put it down to the guy next door leaving for work as he does at 5.45.  Somewhat annoyed, I got up and investigated: looked out of the bedroom windows, went downstairs and looked out there too.  It was definitely something at the front of the house and seemed near the front door.  I opened that and peered out – nothing.  This was getting tiresome.

I went back and reported to my girlfriend that I couldn’t find an explanation.  We advanced several theories as to what it might be: a door or window banging in the wind (we couldn’t find any so thought it might be our neighbours’), a satellite dish or aerial dangling by its wire and banging against the house, water pipes freezing up and, in a similarly fanciful vein, I even propounded the idea it was ‘ice falling off the roof and hitting the roof of the porch’.  I know, I know.  In my defence, it was a little snowy last night!

We tried to sleep again but the banging was just that bit too regular and a touch too loud.  I repeated my investigative tour of the house again, opening several windows and looked over the front of the house before returning, similarly perplexed, by just what the hell this noise was.

A little after 3AM I’d had enough.  I was going to solve this aggravating night mystery even if it meant exploring outside, getting cold and probably wet into the bargain.  I got dressed and opened the bedroom window and peered downwards.  And there, swinging in the wind, was the door to the gas meter housing which every now and then slapped shut or, when the wind blew in the other direction, banged back against the house.

I knew the meter door didn’t fasten well when we moved in last June and had taken the ‘temporary’ measure of wedging the door with a piece of card.  With the snow and sleet blowing against the front of the house last night, that trusty wedge must have finally become so soggy that it fell out.  I quickly fashioned a new paper wedge, somewhat appropriately from the ‘community newsletter’ that I found at the top of our recycling pile in the kitchen. 

That did the trick thankfully.  Still, I’m pretty tired after my nocturnal excursions and am not much in the mood for a company law seminar later.