This morning I came close to understanding why Harlesden used to have such a high murder rate.

At some ungodly hour, somebody's car alarm went off. Admittedly it wasn't one of those excruciatingly multi-tune alarms, but it did have the additionally annoying foible of sounding like it was about to stop before going right back to the start of the loop. Noise-wise I've led a pretty protected life, never really having had my bedroom overlook a busy road. And this one is just more heavy residential rather than busy.

So early morning car alarms: irritating but unremarkable for many people. It'll go away in a minute and I'll get back to sleep.

But whereas in civilised society the owner would rush out to turn the alarm off as quickly as possible, this motorist just let it carry on. And on, and on, and on. After 20 minutes I was just about ready to pop a cap in his ass myself.

Whether it got turned off, the battery wore down or I passed out through fatigue, I can't remember. However, I have no memory of gunfire. Next time he surely won't be so lucky...