1 EAGLETON NOTES: A Noisy, Alarming Morning

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Sunday 6 September 2009

A Noisy, Alarming Morning

My smoke alarm went off this morning.  When I say my I don't mean one fitted to my person but one fitted in my house and therefore belonging to me.  But I'm sure that you knew that's what I meant anyway.

I'd already been alerted twice to life in other places by the ring of my telephone.  The washing machine won't stop yelling at me when it's done its stuff until I switch it off.  I usually open the door and take out the washing and am walking away when it emits its next yell because I have failed to throw that switch (actually turn that knob).  My cellphone vibrates in my pocket and gently comes to life to remind me that I have a call to make, a pill to take, an appointment to keep, a TV programme to watch or record and a myriad of other things my memory may otherwise fail to recall at the correct time.  Timers tell me when the pasta has had it's 11 minutes, my Christmas cakes have been in the oven for 6 hours - I shan't go on about timers.  The breadmaker beeps loudly on two separate occasions during a cycle.  The fridge yells if it gets too warm.  It's been a really noisy morning.

I don't use an alarm clock - there are three in the house - unless I'm going off on the early ferry.    I don't have a doorbell - people just walk in.  Sometimes they knock first.  Usually they are halfway into the hall before they yell 'hello'.

Oh for life in New Zealand where, apart from the occasional use of a cellphone reminder and phone calls, the only thing that has ever foxed me was a quiet beep which the dishwasher emitted every so often when I had emptied it but not switched it off.

PS.  Since I wrote the above several hours ago my computers have made all sorts of noises at me and the world in general as has my camera.   What next?

6 comments:

  1. Well, that's just rude! Wouldn't it be nice if all those alarms were more like, "Excuse me, but I think you may have forgotten something..." instead of "HEY, TURN OFF MY FREAKING ALARM!!!"

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  2. I laughed at this. You probably could not hear that, though, through all those other noises. :)

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  3. I'm with shabby girl! ...and I'm SO glad to hear that YOUR smoke alarm is not attached to you internally---or otherwise!!!
    ;^)
    The night before last around 1 a.m., an alarm-clock that I had not set went off, on a shelf in another room! THAT one threw me for a loop!
    ;^) (The clock had been knocked off the shelf the night before as someone went out the door and scattered in pieces. When I put it back together, I inadvertently must have pushed an alarm-set....)
    ;^) ;^) ;^)
    Go sit out by your little water-fall...or down on the beach....let the peace wash over you.
    ;^)

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  4. You forgot to mention the hammering of the rain on the conservatory roof - it was sooooo loud tonight. Life might be noisy at times but rather that than a silent world!

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  5. One of the things my father disliked about the modern day world was the fact that we, his children, felt it necessary for him and Mum to have a smoke alarm. It went off every time he made toast but he refused to move it from the kitchen saying where else would a fire start? And he cursed it until the day he died (thankfully not in a fire!)

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  6. Popped back to say thank you for your words of encouragement on my blog. I share my father's impatience, no matter what I can do I want to do it BETTER! Thought I was growing out of it but every now and then it comes back, less and less often, thank heavens.

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