Q is for Quiet Time

Before today's blog I would like to thank everyone for their overwhelming support of Saturday's P is for Pelvic Radiation Disease. A lot of people had no idea what I go through and their messages were lovely. Also it has raised awareness which is great, so thanks for reading :-)



Q is quite a difficult letter to talk about. I decided on Q for Quiet!

Quiet Time

Salvator Rosa
Be silent, unless what you have to say is better than silence.

Quiet

Adjective: Making little or no noise

Noun: Absence of noise or bustle. Silence, calm

Verb: Make or become silent. Calm or still

In this day and age it is difficult to find anywhere quiet. When we do find somewhere other people then hear about it, then they visit and the place loses it's silence. 
I cherish silence. I work in a busy, noisy environment so when I'm not at work I like to just be quiet. I have mentioned in other blogs that we used to have a Neighbour From Hell (NFH). This wasn't simply a neighbour who left his bin in the wrong place or played music loud on a Saturday night. This person mounted a campaign against me, my husband and 5 year old son that lasted for 13 years. It only ended when we moved. He would play loud music ALL DAY, EVERYDAY. From the moment he got up Radio 1 would be blaring in his bedroom, he then moved down to the kitchen where the radio would then go on in there. This would carry on until he went out or if he stayed in the noise would move to the lounge and then through the night we would have loud drum and bass music.
He then over the years moved onto slamming doors, revving motorbikes, riding motorbikes up and down the side of our house, banging on walls and finally throwing rocks at our windows. This was a 55 year old man and as far as we know he still lives in his house tormenting the new neighbours.

So we downsized and moved to a village. The village has a main road running through it so that is noisy. There is no escape, but as the traffic eases all we can hear is the birds singing and not long after we moved in I heard an owl for the first time.
There is a country park nearby where in the evenings you can hear blackbirds singing and other birds beginning their roost. The dawn chorus rings out loud and clear and on a Sunday the church bells call worshippers to prayer.
I can turn off my TV and read in relative quiet, but not silence.

Where can we find absolute silence? Actually absolute silence is a very strange thing. My son is deaf and our local Audiology unit had a major refurbishment. they installed soundproofed rooms. The audiologist showed us round and I asked to go in one of the rooms with the door shut. First of all it felt like my ears had popped. Then when I realised my ears hadn't popped and got used to that feeling I began to hear a high pitched noise. It started to drive me mad. I then started to worry that I had tinnitus! The Audiologist told me this was normal. He said that we are just not used to complete and utter silence and it's as if our brain "fills in" some background noise.

So where do I go for quiet? Well I'm not revealing my places, because then you'll all want to visit and it won't be quiet any more! There is a monastery near me where I go sometimes and there is a chapel inside which is lovely and peaceful.
Libraries certainly aren't the quiet places they used to be. Our new library now has banks of computers and rooms where you can register births and deaths. I walked around the village library the other day and there was a lady on Skype. She had headphones in, but she kept laughing out loud and snorting. Quite off putting when you are trying to read. Today there was a Pensioners coffee morning so I heard all about Doris and her toe operation while I was trying to chose books. I know that libraries have to have that kind of thing as otherwise they will close down and that's not good.

Muted

Silent

Peaceful

Hushed

Muffled

Soundless

Still

So many words for something we all crave on some level. Mind you some people don't like quiet. They prefer noise and hussle & bussle. I remember being left at home when I was 18 while my family went on holiday. in the dead of night I could hear all sorts of strange noises that I hadn't heard before. This was because there was quiet. I had two younger brothers of 4yrs and 1yr so quiet was something we never experienced. Without the background noise I could hear floorboards moving as the house settled and pipes creaking.It was horrible.

Now though I just want parts of my day to be quiet. I want to sit and read in peace with just the sound of birds tweeting. 
Not much to ask for is it?