Noise

Bluebell season 2024

It’s early May and that means another few days of Gig in the Goil, when the hills echo with the sounds of a lively music festival. It’s a big deal that completely envelops the centre of the village. Most locals, along with the hundreds of visitors attending, love it. A joyful release after another gloomy winter. It’s not really my thing. Unsurprisingly.

My home, little more than 50 metres from both the main event tent and the outdoor pub entertainment, reverberates with the bass and thumping drums. The music distorts as it bounces around the surrounding buildings. I’d be better off escaping for the weekend, but we have too much going on at home. Too many chores to do. So it becomes a case of locking myself indoors and playing some soothing jazz while I edit photos and a drone film of a new local mountain bike track - I’m still a newbie when it comes to video production and drone piloting, but it’s always fun learning.

After one of my six-monthly cancer check-ups in Glasgow (all good), we pop into a big shop for provisions. The sight of individually alarmed cuts of steak and bottles of spirits locked behind glass cabinets is depressing enough, until a grandmother wheels in two toddlers in a trolley, one screaming non-stop at the top of her voice. Absolutely full throttle. My wife asks if there’s anything else I need. “Peace and quiet.” We scuttle home, having forgotten most of the things we meant to buy.

Our solar panels and home battery installation finally begins. We’ve cleared junk from the loft, laid slabs, emptied cupboards for the electrician, all in preparation for the big day. The scaffolders turn up early and bash and clatter around for a while. Inevitable chaos follows over the next couple of days as the sound of hammer drills fills the air. Stuck indoors, the final washing machine spin noisily makes its promised two minutes feel like hours. I’d be better off escaping for a few days, but someone needs to make the tea.

Finally, there’s silence. Almost. For those who suffer from it, tinnitus is a never-ending, high-pitched squeal that fills the ears from the inside. Relentless. Sometimes debilitating. I’ve an app that plays carefully engineered sounds designed to temporarily relieve the symptoms, but it never lasts long. I’d be better off escaping somehow, but I can’t…