She was only a farmer's daughter
She still is. Her parents didn't buy themselves a TV until she was about 14. Which meant she grew up in an isolated farmhouse in rural Norfolk in almost complete silence.

There, she could say something to someone in one room, then walk off to do something somewhere else, and still be heard.

And she got used to reading in complete silence, too.

Me, I grew up in a house with a TV and radio that got used, also in rural isolation but - here's the thing - in a 16th century cottage with stone walls three feet thick so you couldn't hear a damn thing from one room to the next. I can read a book or newspaper and watch a TV programme or listen to music at the same time paying, attention to both.

So now I live with an otherwise lovely girlfriend (most likely the future Mrs Shiny) who will happily start a conversation then leave the room while she busies herself and continue chatting away from two rooms away, upstairs, the toilet, etc. And she has a book she wants to read or work to do, she can't do it while I do anything that makes noise (TV, radio, music, cooking, etc.) so disappears somewhere quieter and huffily shuts all the doors between where I am and where she is.

Mind you she gets annoyed by my inability to see dirt* and spends most of her waking hours when she isn't working (which is most of the time, her being a teacher) cleaning. Possibly because there wasn't anything else to do as a kid, there being no telly...?

I see dirt just fine, I just don't care about it if it isn't one something I have to wear, sit on, lie on, eat or eat from.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Thu 4 Oct 2012, 15:45, Reply)