Auditory musings on the advantage of wheels

Or, I really wish I was already travelling and not still sitting at home

It's Saturday morning and I really wanted to write a blog post that was supposed to start with how taking the decision is the hardest part of the adventure, as I was told recently. BUT, my concentration is being dastardly impaired by 1. a screaming child in the garden, and 2. a little weaver bird incessantly tapping on the window...

(OK, yes I know dastardly is an adjective and not an adverb but I really wanted to use it here, so let’s just go with that)

Not to mention the multitude of other auditory stimuli streaming at me through the open (and closed) single-pane windows... So instead I decided to chop them all out with a stream of Chopin and a little ranting session...

Not going anywhere for a while yet…

Since I started my journey in the world of voice-overs, it seems my hearing has been honed quite substantially, because I am constantly being plagued by thousands of little annoying sounds that are driving me crazy. It's no surprise since I work all day listening to audio in my headphones,  picking out the smallest mouth clicks to clean out of my voice recordings, or listening out for airplanes and helicopters from the inside of my soundproof booth at the same time as reading a script out loud. Yes, my soundproof booth unfortunately still lets in much of the low frequency sounds, and yes, apparently I can audio-multitask hahaha.

As a result, what one usually describes as backgrounds noises find themselves thrust into the foreground of my sonic landscape on a permanent basis !  Right now behind Chopin I can hear sweet birds tweeting away in the trees, the neighbour's grinder, a dog up the road, a fly in the room, and my computer's fan. The screaming child has found something else to do for the moment thankfully, and the closed curtain seems to have removed the weaver bird's imaginary reflected competitor from the window pane, although I can still hear him trilling away in an angry manner from his hanging nest. Perhaps his female companion is arguing with him to spend more time building and less time tapping... 

There's never a dull moment here I assure you. The dude with the hole in his exhaust pipe and the kids throwing fire-crackers over garden walls, or the chap shouting down his phone as he walks along, and my oh my, the ice-cream van two streets up. Between the football players and screaming  fans in the community sports ground behind me (or whatever sports they play, what do I know) and the horde of toddlers on their black plastic bikes next door right under my window, I am constantly on edge and more grumpy than ever. No place better than the inside of my beloved booth !

Unless that's a symptom of age and menopause ??? I have to face it. I may be preparing for a nomad life and a treasure trove of travels, but I am not the twenty year old my mind seems to think I am ! Oh well, that won't stop me. I relish the thought of finding myself in a soundproof dwelling on wheels and being able to hop in to the driver's seat and hot-footing it away from noisy neighbours so I can continue my script recordings in peace ! Or should I say hot-wheeling it. I certainly intend on having my van thoroughly sound-insulated as it is going to be my work place and recording studio as well as my living area. I promise I won't get upset with the piddling of rain on the roof and the washing of waves on the shore when I park up at the coast... I can always go find some underground cave or something...

I can't wait, in the meantime, I'm researching everything I can on insulating materials and suitable parking spots... Until then, there's still a lot of preparation to do. Actually sell my house (it's on the market officially but that's only step one), disperse all of my belongings that do not fit into two suitcases, get a new SA passport and driver's licence (can you believe they're both expiring this year ?? It's a sign I tell you) and all that other bureaucratic paperwork that needs to be done. No need to bore you with those details... Hahaha.

So, until my next ponderings, back to your chickens my little ones.

Gaëlle

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