Illustration: Mick Marston
Shush!
There are certain days and times of the
day in Germany when you’re expected to
keep it down. Even if you finally have the
time to mow the lawn on the one day in
the last fortnight it hasn’t rained, or you
think you might, at last, get round to put-
ting up a few shelves, using the drill you
borrowed from Jürgen three months ago,
you can forget it if it’s a Sunday or a public
holiday. And you can forget it again if it’s
between the hours of 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.,
because those are the quiet hours of the
Mittagsruhe (midday rest).
Should you forget that it’s a Sunday
when you decide to power-wash your
Terrasse, your neighbours will feel quite
entitled to let you know in no uncertain
terms that they’re seriously displeased.
Either you take a day off to get your pow-
er-washing / mowing / drilling done, or
you do it on a Saturday like everyone else.
That’s if you can squeeze it in betweenallowance [E(laUEns]
, hier: Zugeständnis
chirp [tS§:p]
, zwitschern
content: to one’s heart’s
~ [kEn(tent]
, nach Herzenslust
drill [drIl]
, Bohrmaschine
entitled: be ~ to do sth.
[In(taIt&ld]
, das Recht haben,
etw. zu tun
exempt [Ig(zempt]
, befreit, ausgenommen
fortnight [(fO:tnaIt] UK
, zwei Wochen
frown upon sth.
[(fraUn E)pQn]
, etw. missbilligen
keep it down
[)ki:p It (daUn]
, leise seindoing the food shopping and taking the
car to the car wash.
Kinderlärm (noise made by children, be
it crying, screaming or simply playing) is
also frowned upon, but only during the
Ruhezeiten. Most people are pretty toler-
ant, but occasionally, some people insist
that everyone else remain silent while
they take a nice long snooze after lunch.
The fact that there are Mittagsruhe rules
makes them feel entitled to do so. They
know they’re not going to win a popular-
ity contest, but they don’t care.
Exceptions can be made, of course, but
only for church bells. They can ring to
their hearts’ content as early as 6.30 a.m.
Bird noise is also exempt. Should they
want to, birds can wake you up at 4 a.m.
with their screeching and chirping and
there’s nothing you can do about it. Even
people who are totally lärmgestresst have to
make allowances for bells and birds — or
else get triple glazing.mow [mEU]
, mähen
power-wash [(paUE wQS]
, mit einem Hochdruck-
reiniger reinigen
pretty [(prIti]
, hier: ziemlich
screech [skri:tS]
, kreischen, krächzen
snooze [snu:z] ifml.
, ein Nickerchen machen
squeeze: ~ sth. in
[skwi:z]
, etw. dazwischenquet-
schen
terms: in no uncertain ~
[t§:mz]
, unmissverständlich
triple glazing
[)trIp&l (gleIzIN]
, DreifachverglasungCULTURE 9/2019 Spotlight 67Endlich auch als Buch!
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