Up again at 5 a.m. this morning, a four-litre bucket of water in my left hand, a five-litre watering can in the other, I steal down the stairs, creep towards the front door of the building and step outside into the street.
I'm startled to hear loud voices and I see that the room to the left of the door has flickering lights coming from it and a window is tilted open. The TV is on. I can see it through the chink in the open window. I don't think the man is stirring, though. How he can sleep with the volume turned up that high is a mystery to me.
The ground-floor flat next to this flat also has a flickering TV in the living room. It's on every time I come down at 5 a.m. I can hear it. Sometimes, I hear the man cough, so he must be awake at 5 a.m. sometimes.
A little while later, and I step into the back yard with some water for the poor corkscrew willow that's lost all its leaves already. And coming back in, I look up and see more flickering light coming from a bedroom.
All these flats are occupied by men, two of whom I know to be in their mid-50s, the other I believe to be in his 40s.
We have a fair few flats occupied by single women ranging in age from their 30s to their late 50s, but I've never noticed flickering lights coming from their flats in the early hours of the morning.
Is falling asleep with the TV on a man thing?
Yes it is. Bottle of beer. Flop out in the armchair. Watch start of late-night film ir Sergeant Bilko. Nod off.
ReplyDeleteMe, I tend to fall asleep wi' t'radio on, as I cannot sleep in absolute silence.
And I fall asleep with wax earplugs in my ears (well.. where else would they be?). And the room is so dark that I sometimes imagine that I've been buried alive.
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