A group of maybe 8 teenagers walked past the house a few minutes ago, one saying, “Oh my God, there’s a bloke ¹ sat in the dark on his phone!” That was me, that was, Mollie cat sat on one leg, Pumpkin puppy resting her head on the other. But the young people outside wouldn’t have seen how warm and comfortable we were.

The irony wasn’t lost on me as I looked up to see half of their faces illuminated by their screens, and one taking a photo of the front of the house – with flash. I’m not worried about my privacy, after all I was sat there with the curtains open, and from what I know about light, reflections and angles, there’s a better-than-good chance the photo would be one of a flash bounced back from the window.

But hey, maybe I got my 15 minutes of fame early this year?

So, teenagers walking past in the dark (we do have streetlights) and cold (hovering around freezing) and damp (the fine rain that wets you through), at this time of year‽ There must have been something pretty catastrophic happened this weekend to make that happen!

And unless the content creators to whom they owe their very lives are down today it’s not TikTok, this isn’t the USA after all (where the company’s self-enacted, political-points-scoring ban started this weekend).

So, I wonder what calamity sent them out today?‽!

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¹ A British English word for man, guy, me in this case. (At least they didn’t say “old guy”).