I thought I may have got used to the noise volumes of general British town and city life, I guess I was wrong to a degree.
This morning, at the Natural cafe again (free wireless access is why I go) I had to seriously concentrate on fixing an internet script for a client newsletter bulk email shot.
This is where an ipod would've come in very handy, to drown out the noise with music.
Coffee shops are generally noisy places, however, the Natural is incredibly noisy at the best of times.
Coffee grinders that sound like Jet planes, staff that really whack things around, young babies howling and the other day, a barking dog which was rather amusing.
It was one of those moments when you wonder what the dog sees that you don't. An old couple pop into the coffee shop each day with their two irish terriers. They are usually friendly well behaved dogs. The other day some old bloke set the one dog barking like crazy, the noise was unbelievably loud. The couple were reasonably embarrassed, but the bloke rushed out double time without saying anything, looking a bit worried. Makes you wonder what the dogs could detect. Maybe they didn't like his coat. Perhaps the guy just hates dogs.
Back to noise. I've always had a bit of a problem with sudden sharp loud noises and other random sounds. Someones laugh can grate on me - a specific type of laugh. Usually, hearing laughter makes me want to laugh too.
Even the tone of someones voice at certain times can grate against my ear.
I think most of us suffer from the "nails scraping on blackboard" effect. There's a range of sounds which give me a similar feeling. Take the sound of pouring tea. I hate that sound unless it's me actually pouring the tea. Wierd.
Perhaps there is some bizarre incident from early childhood I've associated with it.
I also cannot stand the sound of a plate or saucer spinning to a stop on a hard surface. Its like a potential energy sound, the potential that any moment the plate will shatter. Drives me crazy.
As far as babies and young children go, I can easily handle a good 80% of wailing and crying, but there's that 20% of children who are premium grade howlers. The type of howl that makes polite parents pick them up and take them outside. (to the relief of everyone around)
I can sit through most noise if I don't have to concentrate to hard, but today really was trying my patience and I eventually gave myself a headache from trying to ignore the constant barrage of bangs, grinds and howls.
I eventually got part the way to solving my script problem and got the hell out of there to the peace and quiet of my B&B room, where I've been for a few hours working on a freelance pitch. I've got some peaceful tunes playing and have managed to do a reasonable website mockup. I would never have got it done with all that noise surrounding me.
A need portable music player, but I'll have to go the retro Dreaded Outsider route in the interum, I think, or maybe a generation ahead - a portable CD player.
