Well, it has to be said, sometimes I really don't think things out before acting....... I know this, people have told me this (frequently)... but sometimes, you know a good idea in your head is hard to see past and look at the possible outcomes....
Which brings us to last night's exploits...
Having decided to take yesterday off work despite my visitors cancelling I spent the day very boringly doing housework and laundry. Now these sort of mindless tasks allow the voices in my head to chatter at me and tell me their stories..... they haven't been playing ball recently so I was a little surprised to get a couple of them shouting quite loudly at me about what they wanted me to write.... unfortunately, they weren't the characters I'd been planning out for my NaNo (avoid the revision) project... they weren't even the incredibly familiar voices of my YA characters... they were two characters who appeared a while back, gave me some interesting ideas and then hid...
So when the house was marginally cleaner and upstairs resembled a Chinese laundrette with clothes hanging from every door frame I decided I'd at least write out some character profiles...... which is as near to plotting a story as I get.... So, older of the two characters was easy as he appears to be a lawyer and as I work with them all time time I could easily see him, his habits, his routine, his wardrobe etc..... younger character I have what he looks like, his tattoos/piercings, some of his habits and part of his wardrobe... the day time part...which comes from my commute too and from work when I drive past both universities..... only I then got to the question "what would he wear of an evening, say going out, or just for lounging around at home in?"
I pondered for a while and then had an "idea"....... it was Friday, I'd been home with the dogs all day so I would put them to bed at 9pm and then nip out in the car with my note book..... the plan was to park up initially in an area where there are lots of student houses, coffee shops and a long row of take away places and take some notes.... then wander across towards the town centre where there are a couple of big shiny loud bars and a couple of smaller pubs, one of which I know is a gay friendly pub (because our diversity group at work go in there out of term time)... I remembered there was a side street I could park in which would give me a visual access to all the venues...
So off I went.......... the first part was simple, I wrote down a load of details of what I saw and then headed up into town.... only I forgot to get to where I wanted to park I had to negotiate my way round some one way streets and the tram lines......a couple of wrong turns later I made it to where I wanted to be, parked up and took out my note book....
I was kind of lost in what I was doing when there was a loud tap at my window which sent the notebook flying, and my heart rate through the roof..... Now it wasn't a brilliantly lit side street, and yes I'd locked all the doors.... so I cautiously wound down the window only to see a badge and hear the words "can you step out the car please"..... Yep, police officers, two of them.....
So I did as I was told and whilst one of them called in my car's details I provided my own to the other.... then it came to the explanation as to what I was doing..... I was researching for a story....... which got a sceptical raised eyebrow as one officer looked at the other..... they then proceeded to explain that my car had been picked up on their surveillance operation in the red light area.... which I'd forgotten ran between the university residences along the back streets up into town past where the old maternity hospital used to be.... and through the streets of which I'd been seen driving slowly on several occasions that evening... They'd then had a call from one of the security/door men of the bigger bars concerned at my presence in the side street and now wanted to know exactly what I was doing......and if they weren't satisfied with my explanation they would have to consider taking me to the police station for further questioning....
My explanation was extremely garbled... I ducked back into the car and grabbed the note book and waved it at them..... I am not sure whether or not they actually believed me, but their radio went off with a call out for something serious so I got told that I should move along and not loiter in the area again........
I was very relieved to get home and shut the door behind me..... I think I shall stick to surfing the net for my research for a bit... much safer that way....
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