hestia8 / Fuck that noise (Reply)

You know, I would love to talk about the Luther finale now, but no. Having got thoroughly worked up again last night, I am going to talk about noisy neighbours. And my ridiculously reactive body.

So, I live in a small block of flats next slightly behind two other blocks of flats. Most of the time, it’s dead quiet. At the weekends it tends to looks like the aftermath of a zombie outbreak, because all the cars have gone and there’s no-one about.

(this is usually the time I like to wander round playing the 28 Days Later theme music on my iplayer)

Unfortunately, all this lovely peace and quiet tends to get spoiled by a few people who – particularly in summer – go nuts and play their music LOUD. And by LOUD, I mean so that they can’t hear you talking when you’re standing right in front of them.

I know it’s all different people playing this stuff, because the styles of music are different. My neighbour plays (some really rubbish) R&B, the dude upstairs plays recordings (?) of prayer, there’s someone in another building who played VERY LOUD Katy Perry etc until half twelve last Saturday, and so on.

I’ve had a particular problem with my next door neighbour, though it’s mainly because I have to ask him about three times a year to keep it down because when I ask he’ll turn it down for a while and then the noise level creeps back up. He is always apologetic about it, at least.

(also last time I spoke to him he blamed me hearing his music on the fact that the walls in between flats are breeze blocks, and not on the fact that he had it so loud that when I was standing a foot away from him in the same room he couldn’t hear me)

And recently – literally the last few weeks, so I don’t know if he’s new or just because it’s summer – there’s been some chanting/prayer stuff going on. Until midnight. Every night. So last night I was getting a bit frayed around the edges, so I went searching, because I thought that the sound was coming from the other end of the building, if not another building entirely.

Turns out the guy was two floors directly above me. Weird shit happens to sound in my close, clearly.

He didn’t open the door (it was 10.30 pm, to be fair, although I’m hardly the most threatening person in the world). He was talking to me through an open window by the door, and he said he couldn’t hear me.

So I explained that I lived downstairs, and I could hear the music, and could he please turn it down after 10.30 at night because it was disrupting my sleep.

He told me that a) it wasn’t loud, b) ‘your law’ said he could have it on until midnight, c) that it was prayer not just music and his religion said he had to listen to it and therefore d) I couldn’t tell him to turn it off.

I explained that I wasn’t telling him to turn it off, just that I’d appreciate if he would turn it down after 10.30. He said he would try, and I said thank you and went home.

HOWEVER

a) it was loud enough that he couldn’t hear me when I was right in front of his door,
b) ‘my’ law (dude, even if you’re a recent immigrant – which is the only reason I can think you’d say ‘your law’ - you’re covered by the laws of this country too) says you should keep the noise down between 11 pm and 7 am, not after midnight,
c) I don’t care if it is prayer, I’m pretty sure no holy book anywhere has said that you have to listen to prayer at a loud volume until midnight every night, because people need sleep, and
d) I didn’t tell him to turn it off. I asked him to turn it down.

So. We’ll see. I have asked politely so if he keeps it up I’ll talk to the housing people (the ones I pay my service charge to).

I find this whole thing epically frustrating, to be honest. Having to deal with these people over and over again (I don’t expect this will be the last time I have to go and knock on someone’s door before the end of summer). I don’t get what is so hard about turning your music down at night. If you’re that desperate to fuck up your eardrums (I am almost certain my neighbour has given himself hearing problems), plug some headphones in and leave the rest of us in peace.

(also I know I’m nowhere near the only person who has this problem – I think almost everyone I know has had trouble with people playing loud music late at night at some point – why are people such arseholes?)

The whole thing is rude and inconsiderate, from the music itself to the way people get when asked to just keep it down. Look, dude, you’ve made me leave my flat at a time when it’s dark and I am tired, and I’ve come to knock on a stranger’s door just so I can get some sleep, don’t act like I’m the one inconveniencing you. And it’s not as if I’d be there if it wasn’t bothering me! If I couldn’t hear it, I wouldn’t even have been able to find them, you know?

I hate doing it, because then I get home and I’m worked up. I have to get quite desperate before I will actually go out and ask people to be quiet, because I hate talking to people and I’m aware that I am a single woman who lives on her own and I don’t know what I’m going to get. Luckily so far the worst I’ve had (at 2 am, mind you) is someone yelling at me to fuck off.

And then, of course, I’m worked up and I can’t sleep (and I don’t just put my head down and fall asleep anyway, it takes my brain about half an hour to wind down). And this is the problem. Sleep for me is like food: I can’t skip it. Three days in a row last week I couldn’t sleep properly, and I probably got about half the sleep I need, and I was useless and terrified (that this would be a long term thing) by the end of it.

Basically, I can skip an hour or two of sleep one night if I’m going to catch up the next. If I get less than 8 hours for more than two days in a row, I can’t function and I get shaky. Yes, it’s ridiculous, but I have learned to cope with it, the way I have learned to cope with needing to eat regularly (even if I wake up at 11 and eat then, it does not mean I can skip lunch, oh no).

I do wonder how other people in the building cope with it. I can only presume that they are more adaptable and have decided it’s not worth the bother, or that they have already asked and been ignored. I don’t know.

I just wish people would have some basic consideration for others. I’ve had a hard enough time sleeping lately because of my face, and being surrounded by constant noise hasn’t been helping.