I worship the inventor of earplugs

Hippo

Hippo

Without whom I would do no writing and without whom my weeks off work would have been ruined.

My street has got noisier and noisier over the years, mostly with traffic, but lately with every single, darned homeowner in the area refurbishing their property.  We haven't been skip free for years and last year the average tally was 4-5 a week. 

So, I've got this week and next off, to relax and crack on with my novel and the neighbour opposite decides there is yet more that can be done to his house (which was being refurbished for 18 months by the previous owner before he bought it, about 8 months ago).  I can only begin to describe the amount of activity: skips being delivered and taken away, multiple and bizarre machines arriving, being used and taken away, pneumatic drills being used to dig up the concrete in the drive, spades being scraped across concrete, rubble being dropped into skips...however, thanks to my trusty earplugs 99% of this noise has escaped me.  I've only realised what was going on when I got up for the next cup of tea or a sandwich.  20 minutes ago it was a concrete mixer that I was oblivious to!

Sometimes I get grouchy about this, but mostly I think, 'This will be great when I'm being interviewed about my novel.'

WM interviewer: 'So, Miss Barbour, how did you write your novel?  What is your writing environment?'

'Curtains closed, doors shut and earplugs in.'

Hey, here's a thought, maybe I could get sponsorship from the earplug manufacturers -'Helen Barbour's latest novel brought to you by Quies earplugs'.

Doolally, moi?

PS I can't help wondering if my neighbour has a Tardis at the back of his house.  From the amount of materials coming and going from what appears to be a small rear garden, it looks like he's building an airport terminal.

MonkeyNuts

Oh I love my earplugs too. During times of extreme 'snorage' (bless my boyfriend!), I pop those little babies in and can fall into a deep, lovely sleep. (Opposed to wanting to smother him with a pillow!)

Howard

I have become oblivious the street noise from the square outside my bedroom window. Recently, I had to get up early on a Saturday to drive to Madrid. That Friday night the Carnaval started; not only were there people in fancy dress in the street all night, but there was live music in the square until 3.30 in the morning. In the past I would have flipped. This time I just stayed calm and got about 4 hours shut-eye, which is plenty for me. Earplugs? Well, if they build a new runway for jumbo jets outside my window, I might try them.

Carol

I always have a pair of earplugs in my handbag- not for me- but one of the boys has noise sensitivities, so we always put them in when he's going shopping in the city centre.It reduces the sound to comfortable levels.

Kangaroo

Ohh Hippo, I feel so sorry for you and anybody else that has to put up with noise and mess. Where I live, it's thankfully quiet. I live off a main road, but you wouldn't think it's off a main road. At the moment I'm writing this, all I can hear is a slight hum of traffic and the wind in the trees.

Tessa Tangent

Eeek, Hippo!  It's typical that you get a week off and, lo and behold, there's a giant archeological dig going on opposite your flat.  Thanks for reminding me to nip up to chemist.  I tend to get my ear-plugs at the race-track as they're pretty effective - the spongey type.  Not sure if the chemist will have those or those pink wax items.  But we're not racing till end April/early May so would be good to replace the things now.  Anyway, must go and pick up meds, too.

Jay Mandal

And those eye masks that airlines have. They can help, too.

Tessa Tangent

Ah.  When sleeping, not typing, then.

Carol

Boots and Superdrug do the orange foam shaped type of earplugs, you get a pack with two or three pairs and a little plastic carrying case included in the price.

Nefertari

I was reading an article in the paper the other day that said it is very hard to find anywhere that is completely quiet in England now. Even if you go out in the country you will still be able to hear the sound of a motorway in the distance.
I live next to a main railway line so no peace here and they are also putting up new houses behind it and all day I hear the work lorries going back and forth and they work Saturdays.
My neighbour above me,( I'm in a flat) walks around like an elephant too, which doesn't help.
I was thinking about getting ear plugs but I know this sounds weird I have this thing that they may get stuck in my ears!

Hippo

Kateyanne, I kind of feel better reading your post, as you appear to be describing my life.  My elephantine upstairs neighbour has just moved out and the landlord of the property has moved back in, which is a 'better the devil you know' scenario'.  He gets up at 4.30am for work, which often wakes me, but is lighter footed and doesn't play loud music or have friends round late at night (which his tenant did).  Fingers crossed he stays put for a while.

Meanwhile I've discovered they are not just relaying the drive over the road, but putting up a 2 storey building - garages on the ground floor and a gym (for personal use!) on the 1st floor.  Maybe they'll let me use their gym as compensation for the disruption, if I ask nicely.

Anyway, I'm not letting the b******s get me down - I've managed to reach this week's target of 5,000 words in spite of the chaos outside.  Tomorrow I escape into town for another workshop - I'm pretty sure the cement mixer (which is outside again as I type this) can't follow me on to the Tube train...

My ambition is to have a house in Iceland - only £30,000 to build a little summerhouse apparently.  There are plenty of totally quiet spots in the middle of nowhere out there...

Carol, am I right in thinking one of your boys is autistic?  Is he the one with sound sensitivity?  Years ago I googled my sound sensitivity, but could find no reference to it other than in relation to autism.  I did wonder if my OCD, which of course can resemble some aspects of autism, had something to do with it.  From a young age I've had trouble tolerating outside noises, especially repetitive ones, and seem to have very good hearing, so I pick up all sorts of things other people don't.  Maybe it's that, that's the problem.

PS Kateyanne - I've used earplugs for years and never got them stuck.  I use the wax ones, but the foam ones tend to be longer and are probably easier to get a grip of when you come to take them out.  I'd go insane from lack of sleep without them.

josiehenley

I’ve never been able to use earplugs, though I’ve wanted to! I find them too uncomfortable, so can’t sleep while wearing them, and wouldn’t be able to keep them in for very long, so not for writing either.

I’ve got a strange sort of sound sensitivity that sometimes seems like deafness and other times seems like too acute hearing. I can’t have a conversation in a crowd because I can hear the people in the other side of the room talking to each other better than I can hear the people standing right next to me who are trying to talk to me. I find it very difficult to work if the TV or radio is on, not so if it’s music with no lyrics, but as soon as I hear a voice then I loose my train of thought completely. I often have to get my family to repeat what they say to me several times before I understand it, this more so first thing in the morning. It’s not that I don’t hear it, more like my brain can’t differentiate the individual sounds into words and sentences with meaning.

I have wondered if this has something to do with my ADHD (I was diagnosed with this at age 8) as it is related to being distracted and not being able to differentiate between stimuli. It’s really difficult to explain and most people lose patience with me when I try! Most of the time I just pass it off as ‘I’m a little deaf.’ Although I have had hearing tests and come out as perfectly normal, there is definitely something ‘wrong’ with my hearing. I don’t want to be labelled with a ‘condition’ though, and have always found a way around it rather than confronting it.

This is one of the main reasons why I find it easier to make friends and converse with people through the written media rather than through face-to-face conversation. Thank goodness for email and forums like this one, I think I’d be very lonely if it weren’t for that.

Nefertari

Yes, Hippo, my neigbour above does shift work at the airport and so I can hear him getting up at odd hours quite early in the morning too and I don't know why he has to walk so heavily on the floor when he does. I think a lot of people don't realise just how much they can be heard in a flat, especially if they have moved from a house.
Sometimes I feel like saying to my neigbour you come down here in my flat and I will walk around in your flat so you can see what it sounds like to me.
Still not sure about the ear plugs I need them really as I am such a light sleeper. But I haven't had a decent night's sleep for ages.Maybe it's my age......

Carol

Hippo, and Josie.
Yes my son who uses the earplugs is one of my two autistic sons. He is effected by a number of sensitivities, food texture, fabric texture as well as the noise, and body temperature. He also has ADHD.
His condition does sometimes go with noise sensitivity, and each person will be effected to different extents. And as you get older some sensitivities become less of a problem, but some may stay.
If I can find the report I can get the correct phrase, but it's Pro-preceptive something. Normal responses are not working properly, so the person's body doesn't regulate things correctly- so you can be over or under sensitive to things.
But hubby is also is sensitive to noise, as is one of my other children (who has recently had problems diagnosed, but is not autistic, although there are elements.)
Hope this makes sense, and sorry for the long explanation.

Howard

Hi Carol. I sometimes feel "attacked" by noise. Just like direct sunlight can make your eyes flinch, all of a sudden, I have to escape local noise like the television sometimes.

Carol

I think noise sensitivity is a bigger problem for more people now, as there is so much more of everything.
As said before there is always low level background noise, then you add everything else on, it's no wonder it stresses people.

Tessa Tangent

Yes to all the above!  Silence is a blessed relief.

Carol

Obviously something that needs to be looked at closer TT. When you think about it, such as Claudia described would make sense.
Ask for referal to the ENT department of your hospital, as it is obviously causing distress. Their equipment is now so advanced they should be able to pick up a problem very quickly.

josiehenley

Claudia, it sounds very interesting. Maybe it has something to do with this. I generally blame a build-up of ear wax!

Hippo

Thanks for the reply and explanation, Carol.

I often joke that I'm going to move to the Outer Hebrides, so just for a giggle yesterday I checked out properties via findaproperty.com.  Turns out there were none for sale on any of the Western Isles or Shetland or the Orkneys.  I guess that's quite likely as they have low populations and aren't covered in blocks of flats or Barratt's housing estates, so properties don't turn around very often.  Anyway, I'd probably end up grumbling about the seagulls or the wind or the sea or being able to hear my own breathing...

Hippo

Hi Claudia, I live on the road which has the old Moss Hall Tavern, now called The Elephant Inn, on the corner!  The building work is just at the house opposite, nothing major - compared, eg, to when Waitrose (might not have been here when you were? - they've been here since 1994/5) next door were the victims of an arson attack and the rebuilding went on for months... 

I found an old OS map of the area, from 1894, in Waterstones yesterday - it was interesting to see how things have changed.  I'd have been happier in those days - lots more fields.

Tessa Tangent

Can't see why you don't move out of London, then!

Tessa Tangent

But, seriously, this hearing thing: I've known for years that my dichotomous hearing is up the creek.  Get me one to one with someone and I can listen and hear quite well.  However, shove in some background noise/people and all is lost.  Claudia's post about it seemed to make sense, so I'll get that checked out.

It's embarrassing because you have to ask people to repeat things.

Tessa Tangent

It's all right, claudia... calm down, calm down... I've met Hippo and I was being tongue in cheek as it's one of those things smug outer-Londoners say to us all the time.  Then they ask to stay with us as we are their London refuge for their nights uptown!

Jay Mandal

It's already started. Mowing the lawn just when the sun comes out. Can't they wait for cloudy days? (Yes, Josie, that bit's really me!)

Hippo

Claudia, well the good news is that the Moss Hall is no longer a bikers' haunt - no offence to bikers, but all those engines revving would have driven me up the wall (I'm such a sad, cautious git that before I moved in I called the local police to check out the pub's reputation), but the bad news is that The Torrington closed a year or so ago and is now, wait for it, a Starbucks...because in the small high street of North Finchley, we needed a Starbucks right opposite a Coffee Republic more than we needed a very popular live music venue (not that I ever went, but it was well frequented).

TT, where shall we move to?  I'm open to offers, if anyone has recommendations as to nice parts of the country...who lives somewhere they really like, which is quiet, civilised and not too expensive?  Is there anywhere, any more?

Hippo

By civilised, I mean, where there is a low crime rate and people are polite to each other.  That would be the 1950s, maybe?