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Feb. 28th, 2009
On Feeling (In)secure in Ones Own Home
Feb. 28th, 2009 11:15 pmCompounding the theft of Sylvia's bike last weekend, a couple of things have happened recently which have made me feel rather less safe living where I do than I used to.
Firstly, the CCTV system which I installed this week caught a disreputable looking bloke coming into my porch just after 3:30 in the morning on Friday, walking over to the window where the camera is, craning his neck as if to look for keys in the lock inside the front door, noticing the camera and beating a hasty retreat.
This looked massively suspicious, and so I contacted the police, who made an appointment for me to go and see them with the footage today. At the appointed time, after dropping a![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
parmonster off at the airport, I set off to cycle over there, laptop bag slung over shoulder (a typical Cambridge sight - the laptop carrying cyclist), with the intention of popping in to Boots to get my HRT and antihistamine prescription afterwards. As I set off, I hear a commotion from behind me, where a group of kids, perhaps 8-10 years old are playing. One of them is shouting...
"Oi! Are you a tranny?"
"Oi, Miss! Miss!"
"You in the red coat!"
I've cycled off a little bit by then, but I turn round to face them briefly after making sure I'm not about to cycle into anything.
"Hey miss, are you a tranny?"
I shake my head in a kind of "give me a break" gesture and cycle off. I don't have time to remonstrate with them - I'll be late for my appointment. It's not so much the kids asking that which bothers me - I suspect they don't even know what the word means, and that's what bothers me - someone, presumably their parents, has been using that word around them, apparently in reference to me.
This makes me wonder what context this was said in, and what else was said. I'm assuming it's probably not kind, and I imagine there's a fair chance that there were wishes of ill-will expressed as well.
On the way back from Boots (where the nice lady asked if I paid for my prescriptions while handing me the repeat request form back, which now has five ticky boxes on it - I'd have to be mad to pay for prescriptions with that quantity of drugs on regular repeat!), the kids were still there, and I cycled right past them, while making eye-contact with the eldest, half willing, half silently daring him to repeat the earlier accusation/question. Nothing was said.
Last night, for the first time in years, I slept with the front door dead-bolted. I think I'll be doing that a bit more for a while...
Firstly, the CCTV system which I installed this week caught a disreputable looking bloke coming into my porch just after 3:30 in the morning on Friday, walking over to the window where the camera is, craning his neck as if to look for keys in the lock inside the front door, noticing the camera and beating a hasty retreat.
This looked massively suspicious, and so I contacted the police, who made an appointment for me to go and see them with the footage today. At the appointed time, after dropping a
parmonster off at the airport, I set off to cycle over there, laptop bag slung over shoulder (a typical Cambridge sight - the laptop carrying cyclist), with the intention of popping in to Boots to get my HRT and antihistamine prescription afterwards. As I set off, I hear a commotion from behind me, where a group of kids, perhaps 8-10 years old are playing. One of them is shouting..."Oi! Are you a tranny?"
"Oi, Miss! Miss!"
"You in the red coat!"
I've cycled off a little bit by then, but I turn round to face them briefly after making sure I'm not about to cycle into anything.
"Hey miss, are you a tranny?"
I shake my head in a kind of "give me a break" gesture and cycle off. I don't have time to remonstrate with them - I'll be late for my appointment. It's not so much the kids asking that which bothers me - I suspect they don't even know what the word means, and that's what bothers me - someone, presumably their parents, has been using that word around them, apparently in reference to me.
This makes me wonder what context this was said in, and what else was said. I'm assuming it's probably not kind, and I imagine there's a fair chance that there were wishes of ill-will expressed as well.
On the way back from Boots (where the nice lady asked if I paid for my prescriptions while handing me the repeat request form back, which now has five ticky boxes on it - I'd have to be mad to pay for prescriptions with that quantity of drugs on regular repeat!), the kids were still there, and I cycled right past them, while making eye-contact with the eldest, half willing, half silently daring him to repeat the earlier accusation/question. Nothing was said.
Last night, for the first time in years, I slept with the front door dead-bolted. I think I'll be doing that a bit more for a while...