Doing the right thing.

When I first moved into my flat, I thought things would be relatively quite. I'd chosen that area because, being 1 bedroomed flats, there were unlikely to be children around and as most people were shift workers at the airport, it should generally be quiet. In the beginning, it was heaven as I heard barely a peep from my neighbours and I often forgot that I was living near anyone.

Fast forward to today and the area has become much more "colourful". I've had to learn a lot about tolerance although, particularly when I'm not so well, it can be hard to tolerate people thumping up the stairs the other side of my head in the early hours of the morning never mind my neighbour's very loud and vigorous love-making at 4 a.m. I've also learnt that people change over time. When my neighbour downstairs moved in, he was with a pleasant young girl and although they had a dog, there was very little noise from them.

Over the last couple of years, this has changed a lot and not to my advantage. At some point, they must have split up and there has been a steady stream of people coming and going, most of whom, I don't recognise. For someone who has bouts of paranoia, this can be difficult to deal with but it's his home and I have no right to say who lives there. I guess I must be a pretty easy going person, either that or I'm a complete pushover as I've put up with loud music late at night, groups of people talking very loudly late at night in the garden about subjects that make me want to tell them to grow up (maybe I'm just an old grump!) and numerous BBQs in the summer conveniently placed right under my living room window so the room is filled with smoke.

A few months ago, there was a particularly unpleasant incident when a local guy turned up in the dead of night demanding the keys to his flat. From the noise he was making, it sounded like he was about to break down the door and smash the window. Part of me was tempted to open my window and shout at him for waking me up but, in spite of appearing to be strong and tough, I'm actually very frightened by violence that happens in front of me. Fortunately, I was saved by my other noisy neighbour who wasn't afraid to give him a piece of her mind. The downside for me, is that whenever I see this guy round the village, I cross the road as I now know what he can be like.

Last Friday, well it was more the early hours of Saturday, there was yet another incident. I was attempting to get to sleep when I heard violent knocking at the door of the downstairs flat. I hoped that there would be someone in as I didn't want to put up with lots of noise having had a particularly stressful day. An argument then started between the guy that lives there and a young woman. Even though my windows were closed, I could hear what was going on and could tell it was a very heated row. It got to the point where I'd decided I'd had enough and I was just about to open my window to tell them to keep it down when I saw him hit the girl so hard that she flew into the next garden.

Feeling absolutely terrified, I dialled 999 and asked for the police. All the way through the conversation, I was told "officers are on their way" and, as I put the phone down, I saw a police car drive into my road. I waited to see what would happen, mainly so that I could go to sleep knowing that there wasn't a violent man in the flat below. to my surprise, the police parked round the corner for twenty minutes and then drove off without coming anywhere near the flat. By this time, I had no idea where the girl had gone although her bag was still on the ground - I'm hoping that she saw the police and went to them although I would have expected them to find out exactly what had happened by speaking to both people involved.

Just under an hour later, I was again disturbed by the arrival of a paramedic in a response car. I opened the window and told him what I'd seen and he was surprised that the police had done nothing. As far as I know, he took the girl's bag which was still there and drove off just before 4 a.m.

Two days later, and I've still not heard anything from the police despite saying I was willing to act as a witness for the girl. Part of me wonders if the police looked at the information that they have about me and decided that it was that mad woman and if they drove round there, it might shut me up. It has certainly knocked my confidence in the police - if they don't do anything about a violent incident when the attacker is still around, what is the point in reporting anything? I already know that they're about as much use as a chocolate kettle when it comes to theft so are they equally useless when it comes to domestic violence? More importantly, if I urgently need them, will they actually help or will they just write it off as part of my madness?