Silence is golden

 

I'm finding it hard to distinguish one weekday from another just now... Monday through Friday this week have been filled with constant background noise and vibrations from the construction work going on in the nearby old football field, to turn that into a park. (Actually harder to imagine now than when they first got started, as just now it's just a playground for huge excavators and trucks and ground flattening machines playing around in wet mud... I'm finding the noise (and especially the vibrations) very tiring as it makes it hard to concentrate on anything at all; but at the same time I also don't have the energy to escape from home for very long at a time. 

Photo from Wednesday
(when it was still mostly dry)

On Thursday it was raining all day, and I didn't get out at all except for a very short walk in the late afternoon, after the moving around of mud had stopped. I know I managed to get some vacuuming done (competing with the noise from outside) - but as for what else I may have been able to get done (or not), I've already managed to forget...

Friday offered somewhat better weather (at least not as wet!) so I went for another walk to the charity shop in town around noon, to donate another old winter jacket. (If this very noisy stage of the park project keeps on much longer, I might end up with a proper wardrobe clear-out!) 

Today is Saturday, though, and no over-time going on in the muddy field - so it's been blissfully quiet! I slept late, and have then been trying to catch up with a bit of this and that - but mostly just appreciating the silence... (Noting to myself that I've not even really wanted to have radio/TV on much!)

Grey sky, but not raining in the afternoon, so I also got out for a quiet (...) walk in the cemetery...

 

 

Snapping these photos of gardening tools in the cemetery may have been inspired by me having read Jenny's (of the blog Salt&Light) post about "Red Things" earlier in the day! ;) 

Blessed Silence

As some might recall me mentioning before, back in spring/summer I was having problems with being frequently disturbed by a neighbour's noisy bird.  

It started last winter but kept getting worse, and during summer became even more annoying, as then the neighbour also kept their balcony door open most of the day.  

I kept thinking of complaining to our housing company's office; but I hate conflicts, and could not really think of a "solution" other than the neighbour getting rid of the bird altogheter, which I wasn't sure was something I could demand.

It was also more about being frequently disturbed, rather than each session always lasting very long. (But that one would never know until afterwards!) Was I to try to report an ongoing disturbance by phone, it was likely to stop (pause) before I managed to get through to anyone. And in the nighttime I did not hear it. (I imagine the owner throwing a blanket over its cage in the evenings and until next morning.)

Summer came, and with it the usual period of noise from big birds outdoors: seagulls, crows and magpies fighting each other over food, and anxious to protect their own young offspring. And with that background noise added, it seemed even harder to "plead my case" about the single pet bird next door (even if to my ears, that was still much worse!).

In July, neighbour + animals (there's also a dog) went away for three weeks or so. Blessed silence reigned for a while in their absence - and my nerves calmed down... But at the same time, that also made me realise how much the frequent daily screeches from that bird had really come to affect me!

Sounds of silence

... And as soon as they were back from their holiday, it all started again. 

After my own mini holiday in August, I decided to keep daily notes for a while (time of day, for how long, frequence etc); and after a couple of weeks of that, I did try to sum up my complaints in an email to the landlord's office.

After a week or so I got a reply back that they had talked to my neighbour. (Their general policy is discretion towards both parties, so no details about what was said.) I did not really expect any sudden major change... But after that, it did actually seem like the owner was probably at least trying not to encourage the bird to chatter away as much as before.

 

However: Since the beginning of October I haven't heard a single chirp. And as there have still been sounds/signs of normal human activity, I'm actually beginning to think (fingers crossed!) that a new home must have been found for the bird - somewhere else entirely. (Hopefully permanently, and with someone living in a house of their own this time...)

Blessed Silence

All illustrations in this post created with the help of Microsoft Bing Image Creator.

Never Assume

Recently (in a post entitled Silence is Golden) I sighed a little over noisy neighbours. Disturbances in the form of loud music seem to have been increasing lately, and become both louder and more long-lasting. It’s not easy to determine exactly where it’s coming from, though. Straight above, or one of the flats in the next (wall-to-wall) entrance? Lately I have been leaning towards the flat upstairs; as silence sometimes seemed to coincide with one of its inhabitants leaving the building.

Today was another Noisy Day – loud music starting already at 9 a.m., which is unusually early. It was like waking up into a nightmare rather than out of one.

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) - Alice in Wonderland
“At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her.”

It kept me on edge (not quite non-stop, but more on than off) past lunchtime. After lunch I went out. When I got back an hour or so later all was quiet – for about ten minutes. Then it started again.

I finally decided enough was enough; if it was coming from upstairs, I had to ask them if they had any idea how much the music actually penetrates through the walls to the neighbours. (I’ve been hesitant to ask before, for various reasons. For one thing, I don’t like to go visiting in my dressing-gown when not sure who will be answering the door.)

As you may already have guessed from the title, it turned out that the noise-maker today was not the neighbour upstairs.  Probably not most of the other times either. It pretty much stood clear as soon as she opened the door, that this neighbour was having the same problem as I. So instead of an argument, I ended up having a cup of tea and a chat in her kitchen, getting to know each other a little bit. And so at least something good came out of the day, even if the noise continued for several hours more. (Just now it’s quiet; although I’m not sure I dare write that, fearing a jinx!)

One of the things I learned (besides Never to Assume) was that besides a son (my former prime suspect), there is also a teen daughter in the household. How I can have been missing that fact for years is beyond me. But it does provide an alternative explanation to the clusters of young girls sometimes clattering up and down the stairs…

Silence is Golden

View from my window this morning

One disadvantage of living with or among other people at all, is that one is not in complete control over sounds vs silence. Today was one of those days for me. A distant irritating bass beat was forced on me by a neighbour for hours on end (will that youngster never go out?!) – not really loud enough to formally complain about in the daytime, just still loud enough to slowly drive me mad... The only way for me to distract myself then is to put on other music of my own choice, but too loud for my own taste – while what I really want a lot of the time is just plain silence (or from time to time an audio book, which does not go well with music either)…

The most welcome sound to my ears lately has been when the constant background beat suddenly stops, followed by hasty steps running to and fro for a bit, then the slamming of a door, and finally someone rushing down the stairs… Phew!