LAST Monday while contemplating such serious matters such as ‘the meaning of life’ and ‘what am I going to have for lunch?’, I was disturbed by a loud knocking on the front door.

I opened it to be confronted by two large gentlemen in woolly hats, thick coats and Hi-Vis jackets.

They asked if I would move my car from where it was parked in front of my house as they wanted to dig a hole in the road.

My car was duly moved and by lunch time, four holes had been excavated at various points along the length of the road; each about a metre square and a metre deep. They were suitably neat, with a small mound of spoil and displayed a colourful array of pipes at the bottom.

Each hole was duly surrounded by pristine plastic barriers and festooned with a collection of mandatory traffic signs.

This was all very entertaining and I looked forward to watching the next stage of the project, when the gentlemen returned the next day.

However, contrary to expectation, they were distinctly absent the following day and the next and even the next.

I was considering planting some shrubs in the hole and adding some fairy lights to the barriers when, on the fourth day, another crew arrived with a truck.

They promptly filled the holes and covered them with a smooth layer of tarmac. The barriers and the traffic signs were duly removed and life as we knew it, returned to normality.

Needless to say, I was left rather bewildered. Was this a training exercise in digging and filling holes? Or scientific research into the development of potholes? Was our street targeted for some collective misdemeanour?

However, similar holes have now mysteriously appeared in the road adjoining ours. Are they too on someone’s black list?

Perhaps your readers may have other suggestions?

TOM DAVIES

Houlton Road, Poole

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