Noise
I love our local shopping centre. It's smaller than many, and heavily Italian. It's a rare shopping day I don't hear Italian being spoken in the fruiterer's and the supermarket. The size and the ethnicity seems to make it all a much quieter and more intimate environment. Tony and Mark's has a radio playing, but not too loudly, and the aisles are the right width and height to feel comfortable, and the lighting is...gentle. And they don't shift stuff around—bliss! People chat with friends while shopping. Westpac was down yesterday, at all levels, creating havoc. A young couple with two toddlers was trying to pay the bill, and his phone would not connect to the bank, and neither would hers. Another customer stepped up and offered to pay their bill.
Over in the supermarket they have a muzak system that really irritates me. I arrive tired, Tony and Mark's helps me recharge a little, and then that bloody music (and the bright fluoro lighting) wears me down... Sometimes other events damp down its effect on me: stepping in to stop game little old 4-foot-nothing Nonnas climbing up the shelves to get what they can't reach, and then chatting about life, or the morning I heard the young woman whose perfect English had an accented overlay that meant a childhood in Italy. "We need some tagliatelle," she stated. "Well, there's some San Remo here," says her first gen and very strine husband. Her "Pfffft," was the most expressive put-down I've ever heard. Yes, I have become a pasta snob. Bring on the L'Abruzzese!
One morning, the music system was on the blink. It was gloriously quiet. And not only for me! People are always chatting, but on this day the shop came alive. Bunches of people chatting everywhere. Drakes has a quiet shopping time each week, and I appreciate that. But this was next level. Why on earth don't they simply turn the music off!
We had to be at Tea Tree Plaza recently, and it happened to be during the quiet time. Nothing was quiet about it. And then, on another trip, after I needed to visit the bank, I found out how noisy it normally is. I barely made it out! I used to be able to tough it out in places like this—never liked it—but now I just can't make it happen.
Andrea (August 2026)
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