At ten o’clock last night, just as the BBC television news was starting, my cell phone vibrated, indicating that I had a message.
Rambling: ‘Cell phone’ is one Americanism that I do use. It is much easier and quicker to say than “mobile phone” and although a ‘mobile phone’ may be used in the way its name suggests, ‘cell phone’ is just as acceptable as it is named after cellular networks, where service areas are divided into ‘cells’.
Unlike the mobile phone which can never be anything but “mobile phone”, I foresee the day when the single word “cellphone” is recognised just as “telephone” is an established word now. Telephone is derived from tele (at a distance) and phone (sound or language).
I looked at my cellphone screen and saw a message that I had never seen before. It read:
[Alarm] Anti-theft alarm triggered. Check your vehicle.
Electric cars like ours have become very popular among car thieves but our model has Immobilisation Technology which is supposed to make their theft more difficult. Nevertheless, I have read that a determined thief, with the skill and technology, finds it quite straightforward.
Our car was parked right outside the front door and as I opened the door, hoping that I would not be confronted by a burly figure wearing a hoodie and a Covid face mask, I could hear the wailing of the car alarm and all four indicator lights were flashing. It was pitch black but as far as I could tell, there was no one there. The doors and the boot were still locked. After a minute or two, the wailing stopped.
Twenty minutes later, the alarm went off again. This time, I rushed out. The alarm was sounding, the lights were flashing but again, there was no one there.
I thought that possibly, the thief had scurried off as soon as the alarm sounded and was hiding behind a bush somewhere nearby, watching me.
I devised a shrewd plan: I turned on the outside porch light so that now, the car was visible. I went upstairs, got a chair from a bedroom and sat on it so that I could look out of the window on the landing and watch the car below.
After a few minutes, the indicator lights started flashing and the alarm sounded, louder than ever. No one had gone anywhere near the car. There was clearly some kind of fault and so, we had a problem.
Five houses are within 50 yards of us and if the car alarm was going off every now and then throughout the night, there would be justified complaints from angry neighbours. I had to do something and the something I did was to drive the car some 200 yards away and park it a long way from any houses. At 11:10 p.m., as I went back into the house, I could faintly hear the alarm in the distance.
At nine o’clock this morning, I went to the car to drive to the KIA dealership and get them to fix this irritating and annoying fault. As I approached it, I was becoming a little worried. All was quiet.
“Oh no,” I thought. It’s happening again. I’ll ask them to fix a fault when that fault seems to have fixed itself. What if it starts again tonight?
As soon as I reached the car, I felt relief. The problem wasn’t coming from outside. I could see through the windows that what was causing all that fuss was inside the car.
Its movement inside the car when the doors were locked had been what caused the alarm to sound. How it got into the car, I have no idea but it just sat there, staring at me and it didn’t fly off until I opened the door nearest to it and then it was off and away.
Problem fixed.
*****
Talking of birds, this photo shows an interesting fact that I've discovered recently about bird behaviour.
Blue tits in Wavendon prefer to eat to the left.
Both sides of this bird feeder, which is fixed to the outside of a glass patio door, were filled at the same time with sunflower hearts from one packet. The birds, most of which are blue tits, are clearly drawn to the left side first.
‘Lateralisation’ among birds, akin to being right or left handed in primates, is a known characteristic. It’s been shown that many parrots tend to be left-footed, meaning they prefer to use their left foot for tasks like holding food and some bird species prefer to use their right foot for picking up food or scratching their beaks.
Apparently, lateralization in feeding is food-type specific and it somehow impacts on feeding success in wild birds. Maybe, I’ll fill the feeder with biscuit crumbs next and see how they deal with them.
Interestingly (I think), while primates are usually right handed, orangutans tend to be lefties.
