"... and what can I do for you at this time of the night Officer?"

Its five to two on Friday morning. I’m fast asleep in bed. OD enters my room and shakes my shoulder. “Dad, can you wake up. There’s a policeman in the front room and he wants to make sure there’s an adult in the house”. If there’s one thing you can say about my daughter it is that she never loses the ability to surprise.

So it I get up and, yes, there is a copper in the front room. I soon realise that reason for his appearance is that OD’s chum Helena, who is staying over tonight, does not have permission from her strict Greek father to do so. He has returned home from work around 1:00 (he’s a Taxi driver) to find she is not there, has a rant at his wife for allowing Helena to break the ‘no staying at friends during the week’ rule (despite the fact School doesn’t begin again till Monday), gets in his cab and drives over. Helena, fearful that he might hit her, removes the bell bush from my front door so he can’t ring and I – of course – akip in bed don’t hear the door being knocked. She calls the police and so when I am woken-up there is one PC in my living room whilst another is outside calming Helena’s Dad down. Eventually Helena goes home and I go to bed. When my alarm goes off at 6:20, OD is still awake, too riled at her friend’s Father’s behaviour to go to bed.