Tommy Collison

Locked In.

This morning, I checked out the local library to avail of their free wifi, to check if 4.0 was released to the general public. It wasn’t, but I realized that developers would’ve been able to get it straight away. I asked a developer I knew over MSN if I could use her developer account to log in and download the 4.0 release. She agreed and I began downloading. It was a 378 MB file and Chrome told me it would take over an hour.

Around 13:00, I wondered what time the library closed at, if I’d be turfed out before the download finished. Since about midday, an alarm had kept going off and stopping intermittently – I’d assumed it was a car alarm.

I got up to check what time they’d closed for lunch at when an alarm went off. It dawned on me that the two events (me standing up and the alarm going off) might not in fact be unrelated. I went out to the main hall -I’d been in a ‘wifi room’- and saw the lights off, the shutters down and the alarm growing louder. With nobody in sight, I checked the sheet of opening times and discovered the place had been closed since 12 until 4.

Interesting!

And so, I appeared to be locked in. The alarm around the front door was absolutely berserk – it would deafen most normal people and it was only my 4 years drumming that kept me from running towards a window and making my escape.

As a matter of fact, with power and wifi (and a lack of hunger), I was perfectly satisfied where I was. It was an inconvenience, sure, but I wasn’t scared or in danger or annoyed. On the contrary, being allowed to spend time online without anyone bothering me is quite fun! :) If I’d been locked in overnight, sure, I’d have done something, but 2 hours is grand.

I was disappointed that my ideas of Night at the Museum-esque events happening didn’t actually happen – there was nobody around and no cool artifacts to come alive save some books.

I’m looking through my MSN conversations to try and give some bearing as to the time-frame of my imprisonment:

13:10:20 ☆ Tommy : library is deserted tho
13:10:29 ☆ Tommy : wouldn’t surprise me if they’d forgotten about me and locked up
….
13:10:45 ☆ Tommy : speaking oh which, shit, when do they close for lunch….
….
13:11:49 ☆ Tommy : well it’ll either be 13:30 or 14:00 they close (assuming they do) and probably the latter
13:11:59 ☆ Tommy : actually haven’t seen anyone in about an hour… :S
….
13:15:08 ☆ Tommy : also – I saw dad drive past in the car but he hasn’t come in
….
13:15:43 ☆ Tommy : he mentioned collecting me. brb, checking if anyone’s around
….
13:16:04 ☆ Tommy :  an alarm keeps going off at random intervals
13:16:08 ☆ Tommy : some sort of motion sensor
13:16:09 ☆ Tommy : ?
13:16:17 *other person*: I dunno
13:16:22 *other person*: oh god
13:16:24 *other person*: maybe
13:16:50 ☆ Tommy : yes
13:17:01 ☆ Tommy : lights off, shutters down
13:17:04 ☆ Tommy : I’m locked in!
13:18:35 ☆ Tommy : brb, again
13:18:55 *other person*: kk
13:19:51 ☆ Tommy : fucking hell, they’re closed til 4
13:19:55 ☆ Tommy : another 2 hours and 40 mins
13:20:44 *other person*: balls
13:20:57 *other person*: at least it ain’t overnight
13:21:14 *other person*: how careless to just lock up like
13:21:38 ☆ Tommy : yep, not even hidden away
13:21:46 ☆ Tommy : texting dad now
13:22:20 ☆ Tommy : and yup, it’s definitely a motion sensor alarm
13:22:26 ☆ Tommy : goes off when I stand up
13:22:36 ☆ Tommy : goes batshit crazy when I went to look up times
13:22:51 *other person*: and noone comes to check the place out when the alarm goes off
13:22:53 *other person*: mad Ted
13:23:18 ☆ Tommy : D is on his way, though

It did strike me as slightly odd that nobody had checked on me before they locked up. I think it’s actually a French thing – they expect the people to bugger off before they close for lunch. It’s the same with French folk with dogs – the people will let the dogs crap in the streets with no thought of picking it up – ah, that’s someone else’s problem. There seems to be a definite lack of self-responsibility here, which is what caused this. After all, I wasn’t hidden in a corner or using headphones when they locked up. Out of sight, out of mind..

However, my Dad had texted me, worried as to my whereabouts. He’d gone to the nearby police and told them of his daughter (fils) (thank you Dad’s broken French…) stuck in the library. The librarians weren’t far away and were able to re-open the doors.

So, a fun escapade, no harm done either… apart from having to leave my download with only 11 minutes left.

People have asked me – if I had been stuck there over-night, what would I have done? Well, I wouldn’t have stayed over-night, that’s for sure. I would’ve looked for an emergency exit door first and exited that way. Failing that, I’ve seen House M.D. break a window with his cane in an episode, I can follow suit.