Waking in daylight, the view outside our bedroom was alarming. We live on a steep hill at a crossroads, the house opposite is considerably higher than us and a tall Scots Pine dominates the space in their little front garden. This massive tree is surrounded and supported by a chunky stone wall and is a much-loved feature of the neighbourhood. The downhill part of the supporting wall was now collapsed, stones, shrubs and earth spread over the road and pavement beneath, the tree looking very precarious.
Our next-door neighbour had seen the whole episode, he'd been at his upper window the day before when a car rocketed over from the road opposite, smashing into the wall with a force that rocked our houses. Two men in pink balaclavas were trying to get out of the front of the car and yelling to each other about 'getting the f***ing food'. The cars air bags had inflated which added comedy to the scene. People were coming out of their houses trying to offer help and the drama was further enhanced when a large gangster-looking chap strolled down the road from the direction the car had come, the balaclava boys clocked him and ran off in opposite directions. The big guy went to the car, took out bags of what must be assumed were the 'f***ing food' and headed back in the direction he came.
My neighbour tells me that 'Food' is code for drugs - his interpretation of the scene is that the balaclava boys had stolen a car to pull a heist on our friendly neighboorhood drug baron and it had hadn't really worked out for them. It didn't work out for the poor guy whose car was stolen either, nor the tree, nor the people in the house with the tree.
PS: The BBC tv comedy/drama series called Outlaws was filmed in our neighbourhood, we were quite grumpy about the disruption at the time but loved the series and seeing our house in the ariel shots.
Seems it's on Amazon now - here's a trailer
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