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Post by mossie on Nov 10, 2020 14:43:34 GMT
It is rumoured that the Irish had that switchover well sorted out. Cars and light vehicles changed on the 1st of August one year while lorries and large vehicles changed over on the 1st Sept.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 10, 2020 15:06:43 GMT
I think that joke is older than you are Mossie!
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Post by tod2 on Nov 20, 2020 9:20:25 GMT
I can hear the Hovercraft engine starting to turn the twin blades and move away from Ryde into the Solent. Some seagulls are calling to each other. I can hear one of the double-decker buses driving past and soon another Hovercraft will make that whirring sound as it pulls up onto the concrete landing.
How can I be in two places at once? I can't, so I have the live Rail webcam on the TV in the kitchen, next to my study. It's camera is facing Ryde Pier and across to Portsmouth. Cowes is towards South Hampton so I might go to that webcam later. It always amazes me that I can be anywhere in the world at this very moment…….hearing the sounds of a far away place.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 21, 2020 13:45:52 GMT
And you can use it to briefly confuse your fellow forumites when telling about the sound around you! The only sound here right now is the refrigerator humming & an occasional car passing.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 21, 2020 19:38:10 GMT
There was a report on the news tonight about a profession that has not changed at all since the pandemic arrived. Restrictions, total confinement, curfews or whatever have not changed the jobs of night watchmen (there do not seem to be enough watchwomen yet to mention them). In the report they said that their job has become somewhat creepier because in the past, they could hear traffic passing in the street and other sounds of life. Now they just hear the various creaks and whispers that scare all of us when we are alone.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 29, 2020 10:06:10 GMT
Silence. Took the dog to the park for her walk and not a soul about the whole way round. Not even children in the play area. Very unusual but it is a gloomy heavy airless morning anyway.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 11, 2020 15:09:48 GMT
Ever since the new zinc roof was installed on my building, the sound of the rain is much louder in the upstairs room. Actually, I quite like the sound of rain on a roof, but I might change my mind if I slept in that room. As it is, I sometimes have to turn up the volume on the television.
(If anybody is wondering, the grey zinc roofs of Paris are protected as part of our cultural heritage, so if you live in a building with a zinc roof, it is obligatory to use the same material when reroofing.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 12, 2020 4:52:15 GMT
It is so quiet here right now (10:50 pm) that all I can hear is the clock ticking and, if I really listen, the laptop humming.
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Post by tod2 on Dec 12, 2020 8:47:54 GMT
We are supposed to be having a Power out but so far so good. My study door is wide open and all I can hear are bird twittering and a gentle rain causing the drainpipes to play a runny hollow tune.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 12, 2020 17:37:43 GMT
Once again I heard my neighbor's bizarre cursing this morning, but right now it's fairly quiet with just sounds of cars passing in the street. But that quiet is strange in itself, as today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe and I have not heard a single firework.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 14, 2020 20:37:51 GMT
Sitting in the living room, Jeff has taken the dog for his evening walk. I can hear the darned dog barking his head off.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 14, 2020 21:30:36 GMT
Rain on the roof again.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 14, 2020 21:58:46 GMT
-- the only sound here is the song I just posted on 8-Song: Summer Rain
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 1, 2021 6:24:29 GMT
The fireworks have slackened off a little. They built to a crescendo around midnight. I stood in the hall upstairs looking south over the city. The bursts and blooms of colored light were continuous & the hall smells like gunpowder.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 1, 2021 9:16:49 GMT
This New Years Day has been welcomed with lovely rain. Our tanks are full at last and ready for the garden.
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Post by htmb on Jan 16, 2021 20:29:02 GMT
Heard this morning outside my window. Father to his youngish child: “When we get inside, hold your hand against the wall to brace yourself as you lean over the toilet.”
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 16, 2021 23:21:34 GMT
Now that is an auditory jewel!
The sound around me is the guy with the trike playing his electronic music and announcing churros with a bullhorn. He has now paused in front of my house, knowing I can sometimes be tempted out with my ten pesos for four grease bombs. (I do share with the dogs.)
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Post by tod2 on Jan 17, 2021 11:28:21 GMT
It is rather hot outside on the patio so I came inside to catch up on Anyport. The only sound is my little Bennett Read portable air-conditioner next to me blowing cool air on my face and the tap tap tap of my keyboard as I type, Occasionally I hear a trumpeting elephant or birdcalls from the TV in the kitchen - its permanently on LIVE action at the Thembe waterhole.
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Post by casimira on Jan 17, 2021 15:58:18 GMT
For the first time in many, many months the street performer who sets up her gear on the street adjacent to us did not appear this weekend. I had initially been thrilled to have her here and applauded her efforts. Over a period of time however I tired of her and she was driving me up the wall. All efforts on the part of many in the neighborhood to shut her down have failed. Her sense of entitlement and insensitivity to our quality of life only heightened my negative angry feelings about this woman. (I approached her more than once to ask her to tone it down some but I was met with a nasty, hostile response). Here's hoping she has relocated to another neighborhood.
And so, it's peaceful and quiet save some bird song and an occasional freight train blowing it's horn.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 6, 2021 14:56:26 GMT
Vaguely watching a rugby match on television (Italy-France, so no suspense on who is going to win), but I still can't get used to the roar of the crowd in the stadium when the stadium is empty. I guess all of those people who used to put in the laugh track on TV sitcoms have found work again. Meanwhile, the camera crew does everything possible to keep the shots tight on the players so that you can't see all of the empty seats, but there are many moments when they are obliged to show reality in spite of themselves...
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 16, 2021 16:55:55 GMT
Today I listened to quite a bit of hammering next door, as my neighbours had an impromptu visit yesterday afternoon. They are 3 student roommates who will soon be shopping for new laptops and also apparently some jewellery, perhaps some other items as well. I was home and didn't hear a thing, although it was apparently extremely noisy as it alerted one of the neighbours living downstairs.
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Post by htmb on Mar 16, 2021 17:19:19 GMT
Oh, that’s really distressing. Has that unit been broken into before in recent memory?
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 16, 2021 17:31:57 GMT
Sorry I missed your comments on the street performer, Casimira. I was at an outdoor cafe with some other people when a couple of perky young women squatted right next to our table and chirped, "We're just going to be doing some drumming!" HA! I think not. If the all-singing all-dancing all-irritating woman comes back, it's time for the neighbors to engage in a group street cleaning, or at least for those near her to suddenly need to "water their lawns".
That's pretty distressing, Kerouac! You are on the top floor, right? It seems so strange that a thief would come all the way up there to break in. Do you think the amateurish mess made of breaking in the door might mean that it was some disgruntled acquaintance of the students?
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 16, 2021 17:34:40 GMT
I think every apartment in the building has been burglarised over the years except mine. I only had an attempted burglary. I am lucky to be at the end of the corridor because there is no way to brace yourself when trying to break down my door (which now has a steel plate totally covering the inside).
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 16, 2021 17:37:16 GMT
Do you think the amateurish mess made of breaking in the door might mean that it was some disgruntled acquaintance of the students? No, it has always been pretty clear that all of the thieves are total amateurs who take advantage of the fact that there are so few apartments and that there is a good chance of the building being empty in the middle of the afternoon.
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Post by bjd on Mar 16, 2021 19:16:10 GMT
Bixa, I was always told that top floor apartments are the most likely to be burgled because the least number of people go all the way up to the top of the building.
They sure made a mess of that door!
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 16, 2021 19:34:02 GMT
Yes, I have also read that the top floor is the most dangerous because once you have determined that there is nobody on the floor to bother you, the lookout can hear anybody entering the building or coming out of a lower apartment. But there is also a chance of being trapped if somebody figures out what is happening.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 16, 2021 19:36:41 GMT
They sure made a mess of that door! I was surprised to see that the door was only put back together today rather than replaced. But then I realised that it would have been impossible to replace so quickly -- none of the doors in this old building is of a standard size, so they must be custom made.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 16, 2021 22:14:18 GMT
there is also a chance of being trapped [on the top floor] if somebody figures out what is happening. That would have been my thought. It's good I didn't go into the house-breaking game.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 20, 2021 18:48:19 GMT
One of my least favorite sounds is filling my house right now -- compressor noise. Of course there is that relief when you hear the hiss and then silence, but there's also the tension of knowing it's going to start up again.
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