176. Neighbours (4)

 I am left on the side of the road, with not even a yard of colourful tape to notify the innocent passerby that this is an illegal waste burning site. 

I set to action picking up all the rubbish from the pavement and then sweeping it all up. I ask Baby to come with the pressure washer out and we noisily spray the pavement and the road revealing the extend of the damage. Or actually the lack of extent of the damage.

A small area of the pavement surface is blackened and there are bits of plastic that have melted and stuck to it. Even my pressure washer can't get this off. Not even my heavy duty brush. The wall of the house next door is blistered at the bottom and blackened in parts.

I am left with a question: how can three bags, full to the brim with paper and cardboard, set on fire could cause so little damage? And how come the damage stops right on the limit. As if someone had set a fireproof fence between our house and next door.

This is truly puzzling. I take a picture. I will discuss this with my husband. Maybe he put the fire out? 

I make a few phone calls. I get nowhere with the Insurance people wanting to know why I would claim for some damage inflicted to someone else's house? Was I the cause of the damage? Did I get up in the middle of the night to set fire to the bags? Just leave it for now. Let your neighbours deal with their insurance. See if they come to us.

I put the phone down thinking they are probably putting a warning sign next to my name as 'possible fraud attempt'.

Then just for the hell of it, I call the townhall. The person I speak to is so disagreeable I want the number of the AI firm responsible for such bad programming. Every question I ask she replies and then says good bye. But I have so many questions and comments to make too! When I tell her about how my bins have burnt and damaged the neighbours' wall she says.

'Call the police. Here is their number.'

I sit down and recap. I woke up this morning feeling great. In the space of a couple of hours I have turned into:

- a bin burner

- an insurance frauder

- a destroyer of council's property (pavement, wheelie bin)

- a very bad neighbour (confirmation)

- a bad citizen

- a bad teacher

I'm going back to bed. At least the exam papers are now tucked at the bottom of a bin bag at the bottom of a proper bin so my reputations safe. I am going to think twice about recycling items from now on.

And then I call my husband hoping he will suggest we leave for our TGA right now this instant go and pack and get a tank of fuel.