Student noise levels can go up as well as down

I wish I would stop trying puns as titles for my postings as they are usually dire and seem to only make sense to me.  Particularly when you have James Graham’s recent “Knick-knack-Paddick-whack” to compete with, I might have to give up trying to do humour. But anyway, that wasn’t the reason for my posting.

When I moved in to my flat in May I was pleasantly surprised that living in the city centre was a lot quieter than I had anticipated.  After the last week I am now going to revise that.  Previously the only disturbances had been the occasional early morning start at the building site next to my flat (4.30am one morning!) and the one night when I was woken up by someone in the street shouting “Billy” over and over again at 2.30am.  Whoever Billy is, someone had clearly lost him.

This week things have been very different.  My flat is between the city centre proper and Sheffield Hallam University Student Union.  I know that should spell trouble, but my bedroom faces quite a narrow street that is not really much of a thoroughfare.  However this week I had to contend with noise from a fun fair designed to welcome freshers to the city, people singing drunkenly as they walk down the road, people throwing bottles of lager down the street, people shouting for no obvious reason, and tonight’s highlight which was two people brawling whilst a woman stood and screamed.  I’ve ended up being woken up a few times in the early morning.

My hope is that this is early in the term exuberance and it will quieten down as student bank balances diminish.  I now feel really old writing this!  Grumpy old men here I come.