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The Quiet Of This Place …
Nobody warns you how quiet it will be. Moving to a town in Queensland, Australia. Back in South Africa, you hear people, cars, sounds. Sounds that keep you anchored in your day. The helpers call out in Zulu to each other, sometimes over the fence. The Checkers 60 guy zooming past on his motorbike. The hadedas, of course the hadedas, noisy especially during the early morning. Someone’s house alarm randomly going off. And now and then, late at night the not-so-pleasant sound of your own house alarm triggering or the beams going off (mostly by the stray cat that wanders the yard but once by intruders looking for an open door!)
Apart from the odd squawking of a bird (thankfully no kookaburras in this area!) It’s all quiet here in suburban Queensland. The bin trucks come on a Monday and the odd delivery sometimes. The funny thing is that once we did hear gunshots here, at around 4.30 am. It was very strange, almost felt like I was back in South Africa! But otherwise mostly quiet, always quiet.
It takes getting used to.