The sound of silence

Maybe it’s just because I’m tired but when did everything get so noisy? I seem to be surrounded by endless noise pollution all day long. Sitting on a train for an hour and a half each way I have to endure the automated drone informing me which station I’m approaching and which stations the train will stop at. Given that it’s 23 stops, it’s a long old list at the start of the journey, barely finishing announcing our ultimate destination before launching into ‘We are now approaching…’. Throw in a few random messages about penalty fares and security, plus the conductor chipping in with his location on the train if anyone is in need of a ticket to avoid said penalty fares and it’s pretty much a non-stop assault. And that’s before you take into account the other passengers.

That hell on Earth that is half term is upon us, which means that the train is full of families and their screaming broods, off on a day out to the harbour and a trip up the tower. There are also the students off to Chichester, who insist on playing music and videos on their phones at full blast, screaming about their exploits the night before and the ‘sss sss sss’ emitting from numerous headphones. Can you all just shut the fuck up and let me read the paper in peace?

As part of the events for the Volvo Ocean Race and half term promotion, the management at Gunwharf have decided to have a live band playing this morning. The stage is just outside our offices with the PA system facing us. The band play turgid, acoustic covers of MOR favourites and the female vocals in particular cut through everything. To make matters worse, they only seem to have a limited amount of covers in their set and we’ve been treated to the same songs 3 times now. It really is the live equivalent of muzak.

At one point a mail went round the office suggesting that we try and concentrate to see if we could summon up a Tsunami to cleanse the harbour of this aural filth. The experiment met with mixed results and it was clear that some were not concentrating as much as others as we were rewarded with Katrina and the Waves.

And don’t get me started on the fairground type attractions that have sprung up this week all around the shopping centre. Music, sirens and screaming kids everywhere I go. I just want to lie down in a nice, quiet, dark room. Still, the band has stopped now. Hopefully for good and not just for lunch.

I’m currently working on a game design that involves failed musicians and a high powered sniper rifle.