One Day One World Project: 06:00 – 07:00

I haven’t done well with the project during the early hours, and I am a week late with this time slot, but last weekend I was called in to look after my three English grandchildren whilst their mother (my daughter) was whisked off to Bruges for a romantic weekend. Whilst there the opportunity for a post for the project presented itself when I was rudely awakened between the hours of 6 – 7 am due to three factors:

  1. Aircraft – my daughter lives on one of the flight-paths to/from Heathrow. Fortunately it is not one of the busiest flight-paths and the planes are still quite high at this stage. But when you are not used to this it is quite noticeable.
  2. The not-quite son-in-law’s alarm clock. Set to 6:15 am so even if I could ignore the planes, the incessant buzzing of the alarm pulled me from the depths of sleep. No matter what buttons I pressed I could NOT stop that damn alarm from operating.
  3. Birds. Not just any birds. My daughter’s neighbour runs his own zoo. Or at least it seems like it. In addition to the chickens he has always kept, there are now white fan-tail doves coo-cooing away and an aviary containing cockatiels, parakeets and other screeching, squawking flying objects that start their day around 6:45 am.

Because it was warm and I always like fresh air, the bedroom windows were open. On Saturday and Sunday though, when the alarm went off I got up and closed the windows so that the noisy bird squawks were slightly dulled, so I suppose the alarm was useful in one respect. As for the children. No problem.

Cockatiel-Rico-001
By Bensem51 (Own work (own photo)) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
When the happy pair returned I was asked whether I’d be willing to child-mind again – “of course”, says I nonchalantly, “once you have moved.”

Do you have any noisy neighbours?

Lisa of the blog NorthWest Frame of Mind has decided to run a different project over the next 24 weeks. To try to show what is happening in different parts of the world (if you all join in) at a particular time of day. If you would like to participate you have until next Saturday midnight to post a photo or write about what is happening in your part of the world.   This week is between 06:00 – 07:00.  I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.

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Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

60 thoughts on “One Day One World Project: 06:00 – 07:00”

  2. It’s never easy sleeping in an unfamiliar environment. Sounds like it was made many times worse 🙂
    Loved the bird – such a cutie!

    1. I couldn’t get a decent photo of the actual culprit, he/she/it successfully stayed out of my sight (though not hearing). You’re right, I always sleep badly away from home, (well, actually I sleep dreadfully here a lot of the time too), but those birds were almost the last straw. My daughter and partner find it so amusing that I moan about the noise, they insist they never hear the parrots.

      1. Thank god I’m not the only one with sleeping issues!! … and birds that start their cheerful chirping at 4 am don’t help!

        1. I don’t actually mind the ‘dawn chorus’ but the noise that these birds make is simply not pleasant. More like someone dropping a load of pans onto a tiled floor!

    1. I’m sure glad it amuses some people 😉 but I was a very grumpy grandma last weekend I can tell you! Never again!

  4. Loud birds at sunrise bother me too, here we have seagulls and chickens but the worst is when someone (my husband) leaves their alarm set. 😦 Glad you’re home now and able to catch up on some sleep. 🙂

  5. I had very noisy neighbours when I lived in Camden. Banging, drilling, arguments, smoke alarms going off- and that was just in the flats either side! Add to that the constant emergency sirens along Hampstead Road, stir in Euston Station, sprinkle with numerous helicopters, and it was a miracle I ever slept at all. (Red wine sedative helped most nights…)
    Regards as always, Pete. x

    1. Ah, the joys of living in a flat. We had people above us who always seemed to have the washing machine going – as it was above our bedroom it was most annoying. One reason why I will never live in a flat again – unless I have the entire top floor!

  6. Doesn’t sound like you had any peace and quiet, but it must have been lovely to have your grandchildren all to yourselves. It’s quite peaceful at my daughter’s house, except for my grandson’s electric guitar. 😉

    1. Haha, I didn’t mention the keyboard practice! But that was at a much more sociable hour. I’m not a morning person.

    1. I had considered unplugging the alarm clock, but didn’t want to be responsible for everyone waking up late once I had gone if they forgot to set it again!

  8. Cute bird, after all that! 🙂 I’m not good with strange beds either and often take some adjusting to being back in my own here 😦 I was up at silly 4am this morning due to a certain son. Guess I’ll be tired soon. 🙂 It made a fun post anyway.

    1. I adore parrots etc. but preferably out in the wild – not in a suburban garden! It is funny though I can be a grump when I am tired.

  9. I laughed. I’m sorry! Especially at the unstoppable alarm clock. I’ve met them in motels. A lovely glimpse into your life beyond gardens and beautiful towns. (My worry now would be being disturbed at 6pm: I’ve been awake for a couple of hours by 6am.)

    1. That’s right, laugh at others’ misfortune! Actually it is amusing in retrospect – not at the time – I am not a morning person and this early wake-up call was quite disturbing. I just can’t understand how people around him don’t complain! We usually stay in a hotel now when we visit, but obviously I couldn’t do that this time 😉

  10. The things we put up with for our children 🙂

    That foreign alarm with the elusive button is the worst!! Had a few tussles with thise in hotel rooms when click set by previous occupant.

    Love the bird with its ‘fancy tophat’

    1. I tried every combination I could to switch the alarm off, only to manage to set two alarms, the second one 15 minutes later tuned to a Rap radio station!! I did learn where the stop button was, and once I’d hit that in the morning, I could get back to sleep for half an hour before the birds started 😉

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