Neighbourhood noise: The kinds I try to embrace and those I can't

Besides negotiating with neighbours or the authorities, another way to survive a noise-filled, densely populated city is to embrace certain loud sounds.

- Denise Chong

The squeaky shrieks from a little child ("Help me! No! Help meee... Haha!") were confusing to hear as they wrenched at my heart and flooded my body with adrenaline. But I fought against leaping to my feet with concern because I had observed that the child was just playing in the neighbourhood while supervised by either a very patient or defeated adult.

Tough as it is, this is one kind of noise that I choose to bear with, even as other kinds lead me to march out of my home to have a quiet word with someone about it.

But wait a minute, in the first place, why should we tolerate any sort of noise?

Well, we have to pick our battles, instead of fighting every single noise issue in a densely populated city like Singapore. There will always be sounds of furniture being moved as coins or gym weights are dropped, and more.

Talking it over with the neighbours can get us only so far.

Of course, one could bang desperately on the door of the authorities to get help, but another way to make life more bearable in the meantime may be to actually embrace certain kinds of noises.

I still get that initial spike of frustration when noise of any kind erupts, but the faster I can categorise it, the faster I may be able to embrace it — if it's part of something I choose to value.

BATTLE CRIES AT SUNRISE, AFTER MIDNIGHT

Take the battle cries shouted by a martial arts class near my home shortly after dawn.

I was woken up by them, wondering if I was up on a mountain like in historical dramas, about to be attacked by warriors bursting through the morning mist even as my eyes were blurry with sleep.

Jacked up by adrenaline, I at first thought about letting out my own battle cry over the noise at such an early hour.