My flat (apartment) faces a valley, and so noise bounces around from every direction. On the weekends, there are various clubs around, so we get noise from the “music”. There is a rail line just outside the wall of the compound, so we get regular noise from the train. I’ve noticed about 10:00 pm each night, there is a loud motorcycle with a muffler issue that speeds along the road. I’m guessing he has just gotten off from work. One gets used to these noises, and on the whole, one can ignore them.
Well the other night, we got a new noise. A car alarm in the form of a car horn went off and continued to go off ALL night. It was very loud and not regular enough to tune out. I decided that I either had to use earplugs and try to sleep or I was going to go out and kill someone. I don’t know how many hundreds of people were disturbed by that continuous noise. By the time I got up in the morning, the battery had mercifully died, and the alarm with it.
That incident made me a bit more sensitive to noise, and not long after, it rained. When it rains, something (I had assumed the rain) seemed to short out the electric wires that are on top of the wall to try to keep out thieves. On this particular night, it sounded like a small firecracker going off at one-second intervals all night.
After a rather disturbed night, Margaret and I were talking to Julie, the wife of the guy in charge of maintenance. We wanted to know if they had heard the noise and been disturbed by it. (I suspect the implication was, if you were why didn’t you DO something!) Julie told us that usually when it rains, the slugs crawl up the walls to get out of the wet. They keep crawling until they get to the electric wires. Perhaps they are expecting a flood. Anyway, once they get there, they keep going until they touch two wires at the same time, and their bodies short out the wires. They are hanging there, dead, while the electricity cracks and pops because of them. UGH! The only way to stop the noise is to get a stick and knock them off. From the third floor, we would need a VERY long stick with a flashlight (torch) on the end.
A few nights later, it was raining once again, and the wires started popping loudly! Margaret, my flat mate, phoned Andre, Julie’s husband, to tell him there was a slug! I guess she thought he was hearing it and she wanted him to go knock it off the wires. Instead, he came rushing up to the flat with a stick, assuming we had slug in the flat! Margaret soon corrected that misconception and Andre dutifully went down and knocked a millipede off the wires. We had a good laugh about having the slug that slimed Nairobi! Many thanks, Andre!
Well the other night, we got a new noise. A car alarm in the form of a car horn went off and continued to go off ALL night. It was very loud and not regular enough to tune out. I decided that I either had to use earplugs and try to sleep or I was going to go out and kill someone. I don’t know how many hundreds of people were disturbed by that continuous noise. By the time I got up in the morning, the battery had mercifully died, and the alarm with it.
That incident made me a bit more sensitive to noise, and not long after, it rained. When it rains, something (I had assumed the rain) seemed to short out the electric wires that are on top of the wall to try to keep out thieves. On this particular night, it sounded like a small firecracker going off at one-second intervals all night.
After a rather disturbed night, Margaret and I were talking to Julie, the wife of the guy in charge of maintenance. We wanted to know if they had heard the noise and been disturbed by it. (I suspect the implication was, if you were why didn’t you DO something!) Julie told us that usually when it rains, the slugs crawl up the walls to get out of the wet. They keep crawling until they get to the electric wires. Perhaps they are expecting a flood. Anyway, once they get there, they keep going until they touch two wires at the same time, and their bodies short out the wires. They are hanging there, dead, while the electricity cracks and pops because of them. UGH! The only way to stop the noise is to get a stick and knock them off. From the third floor, we would need a VERY long stick with a flashlight (torch) on the end.
A few nights later, it was raining once again, and the wires started popping loudly! Margaret, my flat mate, phoned Andre, Julie’s husband, to tell him there was a slug! I guess she thought he was hearing it and she wanted him to go knock it off the wires. Instead, he came rushing up to the flat with a stick, assuming we had slug in the flat! Margaret soon corrected that misconception and Andre dutifully went down and knocked a millipede off the wires. We had a good laugh about having the slug that slimed Nairobi! Many thanks, Andre!
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