an explosion or two

i'm thinking of renaming this blog the perils of Pauline Fran.  or, the misadventures of Fran.  i'll start at the beginning.  last night i finally got into bed and had read one page of my latest book (it's about reincarnation) when i heard a bang. i thought it was my back gate but didn't hear anything else so ignored it.  then i heard another two bangs and people talking so of course i got up to investigate.  i looked out of the spare room window which faces my car park and lo and behold there was lots of black smoke coming from over in the other car park.  my unit is in a u shaped block and we have two car parks.  there were flames which weren't visible.  i rang the fire brigade and they said that they were on the way.  next thing the flames rose above the house between me and the other car park and loud explosions with firework like effects.  it was very scary.  i heard the fire brigade arrive and saw their lights.  it took about 20 minutes to get it out.  of course the neighbours were out in our car park wondering what the heck was going on.  someone said that the car had been stolen.  i was watching all of this from the spare room window and talking to my son on the mobile.  he also had fire engines in his street which is something of a coincidence.  well, after nearly an hour i went back to bed and finally went to sleep.  then ... at precisely 5:30 am i was woken by a loud beep beep.  i thought it was the battery in the smoke alarm so when it didn't stop i got up, got out the step ladder and took out the battery.  i went into the bathroom and i heard it again.  beep beep.  oh, it's the downstairs smoke alarm i thought. when i went downstairs it went off again and was def. upstairs.  please remember i was half asleep and a bit slower than usual.  i was at a loss as to what it could be.  not my mobile, not the tablet, not the alarm.  next thing it went off again and it turned out to be the portable phone on the side table.  bloody hell, i didn't hang up properly when i rang the fire brigade many hours before.  drrrr.  so i hung up the phone and unsuccessfully tried to go back to sleep.  i think i got an hour before the alarm  went off.  i don't think it would have caused problems for the fire dept. as they'd have more than one line.

not much left of it is there?  the one park next to it didn't fare well either