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Friday 12 October 2012

Bleeping Alarms

It was a bad night last night. Our burglar alarm kept blipping, waking us up at intervals. Then, having been woken by the blipping alarm, we became hyper-aware of a high pitched whistle coming from the industrial estate across the fields. You know how it is, once you hear a noise, you can't unhear it. We spent some time trying block the sound out, but it was one of those determined whistles that can find its way through double glazing, two pillows or even improvised cotton wool earplugs. Consequently, we didn't get as much sleep as we're used to.
So, when I was doing my usual trawl of the news sites, albeit a very bleary eyed trawl, one story had a particular resonance. It's the story of the couple who spent a year (a year?) being driven batty by a persistent bleeping. Finally in desperation they paid a builder £300 to knock down a wall to try to find the source, only to discover it was a forgotten smoke alarm buried in a drawer.
Now, this raises a couple of questions: first, why didn't they do a more thorough tidy up to try to locate the source before calling in the builders? and second, why would you pay someone else to take a sledgehammer to your wall? Quite honestly, after just a couple of disturbed hours last night my temper was reaching a tipping point. If I'd had a year of bleeping, no wall would stand a chance.
Be that as it may, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Mr and Mrs Henry many happy, peaceful and entirely bleepless years.

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