Sunday 27 October 2019

Is there anybody there?

 Pulteney Bridge front.

Pulteney Bridge back.

Victorians without a classical education were very resourceful, if not very respectful. Now all those rear extensions are listed so they are staying. Have a look at the backs of all the grand Georgian buildings and see how many cantilevered external W.C.s you can spot.

Ever since that funny mark appeared on the kitchen wall, we keep hearing brief but loud noises from various places around our compact but adorable city apartment.

Upon investigation I found nothing to explain the sound of something falling off a bathroom shelf and clattering to the lino floor the other week.

The sound of a minor electrical explosion had me quite worried a few weeks ago and I spent a couple of days going from room to room, sniffing the air for any hint of a smouldering fire.

This morning there came a very loud and shrill double squeal of the sort you make by squeezing the neck of a balloon and letting some air out. It was in the kitchen and the only thing which could have explained it is the fridge. Maybe some climate-changing gas leaking from the network behind it? There was no air-lock in the water pipes, because no water was running at the time.

Several hours later and the fridge still works. Yet another little sonic mystery. 

28 comments:

  1. Not being familiar with that bridge, what were those buildings used for originally? I'm looking at the front view. Were they residential or shops? -Jenn

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    1. Always shops, like the one in Venice.

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    2. RIALTO! Yes. How could I forget that. It was one of our stops on the vaporetto line.

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  2. My refrigerator makes that peculiar squeal once in awhile. No idea why, and it works fine. Do you have vermin in your walls? I KNOW there is a squirrel in my attic. The walnuts off our tree disappeared overnight. I'd put money on the squirrel burying them in the insulation in the attic.

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    1. We have had no wildlife bigger than a spider up here for 50 years. Interesting about your fridge. Ours has never done that, but I suppose there is always a first time.

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  3. Also the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
    What better place to have a shop than on an essential throughfare.

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    1. I had been searching for the name in my memory. That was the one I was referring to....

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    2. Oh no it wasn't, I am confused by the spinning of the world now.

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  4. Replies
    1. That one has to be made of wood with a name like that.

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  5. Oh, how very interesting! I have never seen the back of the Pulteney Bridge. Our fridge makes all kinds of noises and one wall in the hallway gives off the hum of vibration. The sound stops if you give the wall a gentle push. And now one of our little dogs farts quite consistently and audibly!

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  6. We had a strange noise in the bathroom but could not pin it down to a particular spot. It turned out to be a bee that had found its way into the toilet flushing system which then carried the buzzing noise throughout all of the pipework.

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  7. I've lived in my new home fewer than six months. It is a trailer, and they seem to have their own peculiar vocabulary. Things shift, groan and even grunt. They bother the cat more than me.

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    1. Oh yes, no foundations. They must be quite flexible.

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  8. We were driving along a quiet road recently when there was a sudden loud noise, which I can only describe as being like a burst hydraulic air line. I was expecting the car to die, or to find a burst tyre; but nothing. We still have no idea what it was.

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  9. Get the Ghostbusters in Tom!

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  10. I heard the noise again today. I think it might be coming from next door.

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    1. I was about to ask this. We had neighbours when we lived in London who were doing renovations. They had taken down everything. all the walls were back to brick, but to make there flat that little bit wider, they took down the bricks on their side of the double skin wall. They had the shock of their life when the neighbour on the other side of was drilling and and their drill bit went right through the brick and smashed glass on the other side. The neighbour drilling owned the the freehold as they had the garden at the back of the house. The people went around and went mental shouting at them and it turns out they were in breach of their leasehold as they had made structural changes that they should have notified all and asked for permission. We had to move out for 3 months as they had to make the property safe again. The flat above had cracks in their fire place because it was moving. Could they have exposed brick in the house next door? or like you thought they need to bleed their radiators? They can clank something terrible if they have air. I hope you find out what it is.

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    2. I would prefer meddlesome ghosts to that.

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    3. Up until recently we had no next door neighbours on that level, so any sounds seem unusual.

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    4. lets hope it is the pipes of the radiators then. Its such a lovely place to live, for it to be messed up with a noisy neighbour would be awful

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  11. Have seen similar external WCs in Valognes, Normandy. They are at the end of the gardens of smart 18thc houses. And sit over the river which is called le Merde. (Shit.)

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