As absurd as this may sound to other Singaporeans, one of the things I miss about home is the “noise” of life, as I like to call it. Now, just two decades ago, barely 3 million people inhabited the island – but it’s well past 4 million now, and even despite declining birth rates amongst the local population, the population is still increasing, due in good part to the large number of expatriate professionals and workers coming to Singapore. One of the recurring complaints among Singaporeans lie in the lack of peace, quiet and space, and I have more than a few students back at home say how much they would prefer to live in a country where they can get up each morning and see nothing but acres of open land and cattle.
Ironically for myself, one of the things I quickly realised a year ago after moving to Perth is the relative absence of morning noises. I remember waking up each day at home in Singapore to the myriad of a thousand and one sounds of morning – even though I stayed in a relatively large house some distance from the main road, I could hear birds chirping, maids and neighbours chattering while starting the morning housework, door gates opening, buses stopping around the neighbourhood to pick up the young tots to school, even the distant but audible rumble of cars and buses on the main road. In Perth, when I wake up, I hear… almost nothing. There aren’t the usual familiar “noises”. It was certainly unnerving the first couple of times, as it felt as though I had woken up in a ghost town. I like feeling alive, and as noisy as the chorus of sounds can be occasionally, hearing the “noise” of life perfectly heralds the start of a new day for me, and it’s something I miss from home.
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