This post follows on from yesterday’s Suspicious caller post.

8:00 a.m.

We got up bright and early to be ready for our fraudsters, should they put in an appearance. I reckoned that if they maintained their supposed Council employee pose, they would arrive some time after 8 a.m.

We do not have a good view of the doorstep area from our window, so I posted myself on lookout in order to spot anyone coming along the front path.There was a lot of traffic on the road as well as pedestrians, almost like a “normal” weekday. Every time someone passed the house, the movement caught my eye.

As I mentioned, I am expecting an important delivery which I do not want to miss. So I need to know who it is who comes to the door so I can prepare the appropriate response.

Tigger thinks the fraudsters will not come. This is because the woman who called yesterday looked surprised when Tigger joined us partway through the conversation, as if she had assumed I was on my own. If they know there are two of us, Tigger reasons, they may desist from whatever it is they intended.

When the Council says “morning”, it means any time from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and if these people follow that pattern, I have a possible “window” of 5 hours to wait.

9 a.m.

No callers so far. I am tempted to call out “Nine a.m. and all’s well” like the watchmen of olden times, but I will not, lest it turn out premature.

For aught I know, they may be busy “fixing” other people’s doors before coming to us. A life of crime is a busy one.

9:05 p.m.

A young man in work clothes, carrying a small stepladder walks along the path and rrings our doorbell. He claims he has come on behalf of the Council to install smoke alarms in the communal areas of the house, following a letter we would have received from the Council. We have in fact received no such letter. His ID badge is not a Council badge and I refuse him entry, saying we have already had fraudulent callers and therefore don’t accept undocumented callers. He offers to show me his criminal record check but I still refuse admission pending delivery of the aforementioned Council letter. He remains polite and goes away quietly.

Should I call the police? No, because Tigger and I both think he was genuine. Perhaps the Council has forgotten to send the letter or this has gone astray. If we receive a letter, we will think again.

What a coincidence, though, that this person should turn up just when we are on tenter hooks expecting fraudsters.

Back to window watch! Tigger has made me a pot of my Russian Caravan tea to fortify my spirits!

10 a.m.

“Ten a.m. and all’s…” Oops, no! I’m not doing that, am I? 🙂

At 10:29 a man wearing a hi vis vest passes the window but I think he is a Council employee, a member of the team coming to empty the recycling bins. Relax again!

12:00 p.m.

In theory, the morning has ended on a no-show for the fraudsters, as Tigger predicted. However, there is still one hour left if they follow the Council’s timing which regards “morning” as running from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

The final hour has passed and no one further has called (not even the postman).They might still turn up on the second of the two suggested dates, next Friday, but I think that’s pretty unlikely. I shall, however, be remaining “semi-alert” for the time being.

Update

Just when you think it’s all over…

At 1:15 p.m. the doorbell rang. I went to the door and found a man standing on the doorstep wearing the sort of heavy duty mask that builders wear in dusty conditions. He pulled it slightly to one side and said:

“I’ve come to measure your front door.”

My reply was short and sweet and mentioned the police. Then I shut the door.

I thought I ought to update the police on the case, even though I had not followed their instructions to dial 999 (the man would have been long gone before they ever came near the place). They seemed quite glad that I had done so.

Then I called the Council’s customer service to report what was going on. They thanked me and suggested I talk to the Housing department as they would know what work was commissioned for each of their properties.

It turns out, of course, that no work has been commissioned for our front door, confirming our suspicions that this proposition was fraudulent.

While I had the man on the line I raised the question of the other caller, he of the little stepladder. It turns out that no such work has been commissioned, either, and so he too was a fraud. Even though we did find him convincing, we at least had the nous not to let him in.

What intrigues me is this: There are four flats in our building and yet these fraudsters always ring our doorbell and no one else’s. Why? Maybe because we are on the ground floor: you know, easy access and easy escape if there’s trouble. Could that be it?

The cold spell continues, or the warm spell has ended, depending on your meteorological philosophy. The sun was hiding demurely behind clouds and the temperature (for those of you that like numbers) was around 12° C (54° F) with a “feels like” value a couple of degrees cooler.

We did not feel inclined to tarry and so, just to show willing, took a turn around Myddelton Square (the name should be familiar to you by now!). As we went round we spied an open window where two cats were taking the air.

Cats at the window

I have the impression, though I could be wrong, of course, that these are indoor cats. Something about their demeanour and the cleanliness of their fur suggests it. Either way, they are a handsome pair of moggies and everybody likes cat pictures. Don’t they?

We carried on round the square to our usual destination, the deli. The conversation there was about the coolness of the weather but what really clinched it was the trousers.

One of the two chaps who run the shop always – as in always – wears shorts as he works behind the scenes and stocks the shelves. Not today, though: today he was wearing trousers. No further proof needed!

The doorbell rang this morning and as I was expecting a delivery, I buzzed the house door, expecting the delivery person to toss the package inside as they usually do. However, when I went out into the hall, I found a young woman with a clipboard. She flashed a badge at me and claimed to be from the local Council.

She said that they needed to do a security check on the front door of our flat and would call to do this tomorow and again on Friday. She was tidily dressed and polite and spoke with a slight accent, suggestive of East European. Not having my reading specs, I didn’t get a good look at her badge but did notice that it did not have the word “Islington” written in large letters on it as council badges do. On the spur of the moment, however, I agreed to the proposed visit.

Talking it over with Tigger afterwards, I began to feel suspicious. For one thing, she spoke only to us and did not contact any of the other three flats. Why check only our door? For another, it seemed odd that the council would carry out “checks” during lockdown when only necessary repairs and breakdowns are being attended to.

I decided to call the Council to see whether they had any knowledge of security checks being carried out. I had to wait a long time for someone to respond, listening in the meantime to information bulletins of no interest. When a customer servioce person replied, he said that he would put me on hold while he consulted a colleague. After another long wait, he told me that he had not been able to speak to his colleague and proposed to put me through to Housing. When the automatic voice at Housing replied, giving me s list of numbers to press, none of these produced any result. I kept coming back to the same automatic response.

In frustration, I called the Council number again and this time was answered fairly quickly and, happily, by the same person. He told me that in the meantime he had heard back from his colleague and that they had no knowledge of any “security checks” being carried out. He advised me to call the police on 101.

I called 101 and spoke to an officer who listened to my story and took down my details. He also put me on hold while consulting a colleague. When he returned, it was to say that tomorrow I must not admit the callers but should dial 999. The police, he said, would recognize my number and access today’s report.

So, here I am, wondering how, exactly, to respond to a caller or callers tomorrow. Should I simply not open the door but dial 999? The problem with that is tthat I am expecting an important delivery and I don’t want to miss it. I think I shall have to confront that the possibly criminal caller or callers and say that I cannot admit them and that we are calling 999 as instructed by the police. How will that turn out? I will let you know tomorrow!

Yes, that’s the extent of my outing today, a little trot down to Jusaka and back.

And a miserable day it is too. Just when we had started to think that maybe – maybe – spring had finally come, one of those reversals, so common in our benighted British climate, occurred to punish us for our complacency.

The temperature has hiccupped down to 10° C (50° F) with a “feels like” value of 8° or 9°, because of the cloudy, damp conditions.

Tigger went out to do the weekly shopping while I occupied myself at home, thinking that today would be a stay-at-home day for me. That changed when I received a text from Tigger to say that she had made it as far as Jusaka but could go no further because the number of hands required to carry the coffee, together with the rest of the shopping, exceeded the number of hands actually available.

I therefore hurried along to Jusaka to increase hand availability from two to four. As it turned out, that was sufficient and even allowed a surplus of 25%. This was fortunate as there was a bit of a breeze blowing and the 25% came in useful for holding onto my hat!

Following my post An experiment, I have been busy editing old posts and republishing them on SilverTiger. One subscriber to that blog reported being inundated with notifications of new posts. I’m sorry about that but, if I am to carry out the plan, I need to catch the blog up to present times by posting past articles. There is no way round that. If subscribers find the influx of posts is too much to deal with, then unsubscribing temporarily may be the best solution.

If you feel like taking a look at my old blog as it emerges from suspended animation, use the link in the preceding paragraph. And if you feel like leaving a comment, even better!

Today is the warmest yet: 23° C (73° F) and there were a lot of people in the streets making the most of it, including couples and family groups on bicycles, whether their own or the red hire cycles.

Family photo in front of Wild King

We saw this family group, the mother photographing the children posing at the feet of Wild Kong.

I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to persuade very young children to conform to the distancing rules and lockdown when they may not appreciate the need for this.

St Mark’s Church and jogger

Quite a few people were choosing to use their exercise time jogging, some trotting in a fairly leisurely way and others putting in a turn if speed. Rather them than me!

VE Day display on the church steps

As it did for Easter, the Church has a display on the steps for the 75th anniversary of VE Day. It is a rather miscellaneous collection, suggesting that suitable materials were hard to come by.

Lions

The centre-piece was formed by these two lions, obviously children’s soft toys and somewhat ill-matched with regard to size. I don’t know why they are attached to one another by string. They are endearing, in a way.

From here we progressed, as is our custom, to Myddelton’s deli. We waited outside while customers in the shop were being served. Then we collected our coffee and made our way home, playing dodge’em with other walkers and joggers.