Neighbours.

[sister_luck]

I live right at the edge of the city centre. Considering the location, it's fairly quiet: no trams close-by and the bigger roads with lots of traffic are a couple of streets away. There is a constant background hum of distant traffic. Except for the occasional boyracer reving his car or the siren of an ambulance you can't make out the individual vehicles.

Instead, we can hear a rooster crowing in the gardens by the mostly disused railway line which gives you a strange illusion of rural life. But he's not the one who, on working days, wakes us nearly every morning at about 4.30. That honour falls to the guy with the moped living in a house across from our backyard. The space before the garages there is covered with noisy gravel and the moped is a bit reluctant to start. It took us a while to figure out what it was.

Today, he left at about 7 to go somewhere. That means I got some quiet computer time before I enter into marking hell for the rest of the weekend.

The house is slowly waking up - I can hear the downstairs neighbours rummaging around, but I've not yet heard the husband's trademark sneeze or their phone. Their dog never barks, but when the grandkid is around, we get our share of their life as proud grandparents.

What do you hear in and around your house on a Saturday morning?

Comments

[comava.livejournal.com]

I'm a heavy sleeper, so unless my sister is home and making a lot of noise in the bathroom directly next door, I'll sleep through most anything. The church is nearby but I've grown so used to the sound that I hardly hear the bells ring every half hour. I wish I could say the same thing for when the pasture nearby is occupied by cows! You're lucky the animals in your neighborhood are well-behaved. ;)

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I can hear everything! I live in a noisy city that never sleeps (yes just like New York), on the first floor, and my windows aren't noise-proof(there's just a double glass), so I hear cars, people walking and talking in the street...and of course my Spanish neighbours in the apartment above.

I'm used to the sound of the passing cars but human voices often wake me up.

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

I don't mind general noise - I used to live on a busy road and wasn't bothered by it, but the moped generates a sudden burst of sounds (garage door, crunching gravel, stuttering engine etc.). Church bells I can ignore, too, if they're not right next to me.

Cows, though, that's something else! I hope they don't have the traditional bells - they make enough noise without them!

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

I used to get the human voices at my parents' place (only it was the small-town version): People coming home from the pubs or just talking on the street - the street is fairly narrow with tallish buildings, so the sound is reflected quite well and drifted up to my fourth-floor window.

But then, we never had any noisy Spanish neighbours!

Here, in the city, we rarely get people providing late-night entertainment out in the street, but when they do, it's usually quite spectacular with long slanging matches and drunken arguments.

[long-roadtoruin.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I was at my parents, my old home, and was woken by the sound of birds, and someone shouting 'FORE!' on the golf course next to their garden.

Usually...in our flat, I hear rubbish being put down the chute, busses stopping outside our bedroom window, cars, people walking up and down the stairs, the occasional train, Al snoring or talking in his sleep, the boiler kicking in to turn the heating on at 6am and then turning off at 8.30am....just to name a few!

[lijability.livejournal.com]

Not much.... maybe a truck or tractor or combine on the highway. Trains on the railroad two miles to the east, but that is mostly on clear nights. Sometimes the wind, we live on a hill so the northwest winds get compressed when they blow. Or the rain on the windows or the vents in the house. Sometimes a dog barking or a coyote howling. I once woke up to hearing a tom turkey gobbling trying to get two hens in the backyard into the mood one spring. Then there are the other birds singing in season.....

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

It's good to see you commenting - I have been thinking about you.

I hope you had a good weekend.

*hugs*

[long-roadtoruin.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Aww...sorry I've been so absent. Things are a bit mad!

Weekend was quite pleasant.

My BP is FINALLY up to 93/74...may stop fainting soon!

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

I like country sounds, but the best is staying close to the sea and being able to hear the surf. So soothing.

It's good to hear from you!

Currently, there's a dog barking here, but it's somewhere outside. Mary, our neighbour's little dog, is much too well-behaved to bark inside.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Darn, that's still very low! Where did you come from?

[long-roadtoruin.livejournal.com]

85/59...so it's a LOT better! But my norm is low at 109/75...got a home monitor coming to keep an eye on things!

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that your BP is improving.

I wish you two could do some sort of a blood pressure exchange with frances_lievens sending some of her excess pressure over to you...

Even after my surgery my blood pressure was never that low - well, maybe that one time on the first night when I was on my way back from the loo and everything went black for a while. (The bathrooms were much too warm for my liking.) But as soon as I was in bed again with my lower legs propped up everything was well again.

So, I can't imagine what it is like trying to function with such a low BP all the time.

*hugs for you both*

[long-roadtoruin.livejournal.com]

Usually it's fine but right now it means I have to be careful to get up slowly and not stand on my heels too much. Just have to take things slowly! And yeah...wish I could borrow some of that extra pressure...the 15 mins to get out of bed is a pest!

That feeling is no fun at all.

Hmmm...al is once again playing games online...bed I think. So much for quality time.

xxx

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

I'm off to bed now, too - giving up on marking hell, I'm much too tired to concentrate right now.

BTW, postpeople didn't screw up this time! Thanks for the card.

xxx