Noise has been a constant on this trip. And I have become more aware of different layers of noise and my response to them.
For example, in my little room in Allen Hall, London, with the window open because of the heat, the noise was constant - loud traffic hum all night, frequent police and ambulance sirens, planes and helicopters overhead, rubbish trucks... To my surprise I was able to treat this night-time noise as wallpaper and sleep despite it. It is a part of the very heart and buzz of a big city.
In Tavistock, which is a small rural town in a very rural and quite remote part of the UK, I would have expected less noise. However Rebecca's cottage was hard up against the A384(?) that runs along the western fringe of Dartmoor and the traffic noise was constant and penetrating. I found it more difficult to deal with in Tavistock than in London. London I expect to be noisy, Tavistock I don't. The only way to avoid the noise at the cottage was to shut all the windows.
In Rijswijk there is also a constant, though slightly more distant and less intense traffic hum, penetrated regularly by the sound of the passing trams. The 'noise' in Rijswijk is more local. The last few days have been very hot which means all windows open at night. Terraced or tenement housing means you have lots of very near neighbours and the balmy nights bring them outside to eat and chat. There was a bunch of maybe Turkish men in the little courtyard next door whose voices and laughter continued late into last night. (As an aside, in this warm weather you also get all the cooking smells mingling in the air and that is rather nice).
Then there are other noises. Loud shop music, as prevalent here in Holland as anywhere. It drives me OUT of shops. Tired children screaming - a pitch designed to gain attention! Loud conversations on trams and trains. Loud cell phone conversations. The distinction between public and private seems to have diminished. The private is public and loudly so.
I don't mean this to be a moan - though I suppose it is - so much as an observation from someone with very acute hearing who, from childhood, has hated noise. It is a form of pollution that we have come to take for-granted. However I have never taken for-granted the comparative silence of Governors Bay - and I shall treasure it all the more on return.
:)) It is harder to concentrate with mucho noise around so I blot it out with my own (music) at work. I public areas I quickly lose my voice trying to be heard so don't hang around long. Sometimes silence is too quiet though :o)>
ReplyDeleteMany young people here on public transport/in the streets are wearing headphones.
ReplyDeleteThinking about silence - total silence is almost impossible. What we think of as silence is the absence of the noise we are so accustomed to. When this is absent we hear other sounds - birds, wind, heartbeat...
There has been the odd occasion out country where late at night in the winter .. it is soo still and quiet .. cannot remember heart beating .. but no wind, animals, tvs etc, voices, rivers ... nothing, and soo dark!. Really unusual. :}
ReplyDeleteGood to experience - just to have the comparison :-)
ReplyDeleteAmen about noise pollution. I think that's what I enjoy most about retirement---the quiet and fewer interruptions---indoors and out---no little children calling my name :-) Mrs. Miller! Mrs. Miller!
ReplyDeleteGenerally I don't even want music during the day---just birds. Love to sit outside early in a summer morning before sunup---to hear the earliest murmurs of waking birds until they swell to the dawn chorus. Such an old woman I've become! Now we even choose our restaurants by the noise level:-) and have noticed, the younger the crowd, the louder the music and talk---the older the crowd, the better the food, service, and the better to hear the conversation.
I don't think it is even just an age thing. I have hated noise all my life - even as a small child. I really do love silence :-)
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