The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Silence

I live in Breda, a Dutch city situated close to the Belgian border. Not so long ago the town prided itself on becoming the eighth largest city in The Netherlands. Shortly after, though, things went quiet. Apparently Breda had slipped back into ninth place. Somebody must have moved out.

Despite it's prominent role in the history of the Lowlands, outside of the Benelux countries few people have heard of it. Those who have, apart from a handful of historians and some war games enthusiasts, know it only as a place one passes on the motorway between Amsterdam and Antwerp. However if you have the time it is worth while stopping for a visit and not just because it has more bars and cafés per square meter than any other Dutch town. The whole year round  there is plenty to see and do including several events to suit a variety of tastes and... you can drop in and see me!

The apartment block I live in is about half way between the town centre and the forests to the south of the city. A quiet fairly dull suburb with unimpressive architecture but plenty of green space. Well, it's quiet most of the time, except in the mornings and late afternoon when it's a short cut for commuters – oh – and the mini buses and cars picking up or dropping off children at the various schools dotted around the neighbourhood. In the summer the field across the road is used by the schools for outdoor activities... on the whole a quite joyful background noise but it is amazing how loudly even the smallest little girls can squeal when they are playing. At the other end of the field older boys live out their Champion League fantasies. GOAL! PENALTY! CORNER! PASS! SHOOT! YEEEEAAAAAH!

In the weekend it's more peaceful, that is if nobody is repairing, rebuilding or extending their house or just trying out a new drill they got for their birthday..
Oh yes, and we live on the fourth floor and for some reason, maybe the wind, the architecture or just the way sound travels, if there is a festival in the centre of town or even further away we can hear every word, note and bass beat quite clearly while at street level the event may be barely audible!
Otherwise it really is a quiet leafy district ...well except that we've had a circus just across the road for the last two weeks. The music they played during the performances wasn't exactly my taste but the donkeys braying for food or attention was quite endearing although they had some difficulty getting themselves heard.  
You see our apartment building is being renovated...
...one of the advantages of not owning a house is that you don't have to bother about maintenance or renovation. In our case the housing corporation does that for us. The disadvantage is that we have no control over what, when or how they do it. Usually when the time comes we are descended upon by an army of workmen, a great deal of dust, disruption, noise and inconvenience which is close to being traumatic but is over in a relatively short time. A short, sharp, shock. However in this current, less drastic, renovation round the corporation has chosen a different tactic. The work has been spread over several months and involves just five men, three hydraulic work platforms, one paint brush and a hammer. Every work day morning the team arrive at seven  o'clock in high spirits, there is plenty of laughter, at seven-thirty the mobile platforms are started up and moved around a bit before the coffee break. After the break a lot of standing, looking and thinking goes on, followed eventually by some indiscriminate drilling and random hammering until they drop tools at four o'clock sharp!

Some of this work force are from eastern Europe, Poland to be specific, they speak broken Dutch with a Flemish accent. In Western Europe there is a constant stream of migrant and seasonal workers from Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and so on. Without them our building industry, agricultural industries and health services, among other things would be struggling. However, and it probably won't surprise you, we are going against the flow. For part of the next six weeks we will be working in Romania. Helping out on a camp site in a small village where there are just three shops, no cafés and generally the only sounds are the village church clock and a few clucking hens. I just hope we don't find it too quiet!