…this ol’ Jurassic Scots scribbler is normally impervious to extraneous noise… utter silence is not welcome when I write or indulge my SOSYAL NETWURK stuff on the laptop… at home, background bruit is usually provided by SKYNews, which is so bad, its often good, if yeez know what I mean… I can sit in any people-packed clone of the Starbucks chain, with multiple conversations humming away around me, happily tapping away on the Mac… on long train journeys, constant, ambient noise is never a distraction to me… what a shock to my aural system it was then today, when I visited a Japanese restaurant for a late lunch… it was almost last orders when I sat in my booth… no compooooter with me, just fiddling with messages on the Samsung thing-y… the only other diners at that hour were a group of expatriate ladies of middling age, crammed into the booth next to mine… I say ‘crammed’, ‘coz, regardless of how wide or long their table and seating arrangements, it clearly wasn’t accommodation enuff for their conversation…
…I should have known at the start when I tried to give my order for Gyoza Dumplings, Shrimp Tempura and Chicken Katsu… the caterwauling from the adjacent group made it necessary to repeat the order three times… I wasn’t so much ‘listening’ rather than having my ears assailed by the four of them all talking at once in what appeared to be four different simultaneous ‘conversations‘… the modus seemed to indicate a philosophy of ‘the louder one speaks/shouts, the more important the message’, even though not one of them was taking heed of anyone else’s diatribe… my initial pique at this prandial interlude lapsed into amusement as the unspoken competition from the Society of Screechers degenerated into a free-for-all race to determine which of them could say the most without apparent pausing for breath… I would like to record what any of the conversational content from the quartet was about, but sadly, communication fell a distant second to volume control… the lunch itself was enjoyable – its hard to screw up on the menu items I had chosen… and I s’pose I should whisper a small ‘thanks’ for being able to attend Listening to Ladies Who Lunch, Loudly and Long, as it served as great practice for when next I’m in my normal sound-bound writing mode… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!
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Reblogged this on Imagination and boring hotel rooms.
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…cheeers, that man 🙂
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I’ve never understood how people can talk AT each other without taking a break to breathe, never mind LISTEN to what others are saying 😄😄😄
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…it’s a birthright 🙂
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LOL
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I wonder what would have happened if you had pretended to be on a phone call and spoke loudly while making up a juicy two-way conversation as you went long…
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… be just my luck my phone would ring in the middle of doing that, Russ ! 🙂
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Loved it! I have had many such experiences with both the male and female of the species. I must admit the females win hands down every time!
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…every time … 🙂
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I know I am a woman….But I dislike listening to those who possess those high-pitched, tinny voices. I can natter with the best of ’em but fervently wish I spoke like Joanna Lumley! Poor Seumas!
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…tee hee 🙂
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You were much more polite than I would’ve been. (In my younger days it was another story though)
I might’ve gone with, somewhat politely, asking them to tone it down as they were embarrassing themselves because XXX (celebrity of choice) was sitting on the other side of them … or … snarkily commenting that the people in the building three blocks away couldn’t hear them.
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…LUV IT! 🙂
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Probably not one of them could tell you what one of the others said if they were all talking at once. Some discussion groups on TV are becoming like that especially if they disagree with each other. 😀 —- Suzanne
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…absolutely 🙂
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I have a problem with modern restaurants with hard flooring, no carpets, painted walls and blinds instead of curtains – there is nothing to soak up the sound of chattering diners… You end up bawling across the table to your partner because of the row! I hate it. But when you get a bunch of well-oiled diners who are busy out-talking each other you might as well resort to sign language.
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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Sometimes I’m a bit confused by the fact that some people really don’t even consider not every person in the restaurant is interested in their conversation. I can totally rely on this, even as a woman. LOL 😀
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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