Something we miss in our everyday lives is the sound of silence.

There is always some noise somewhere.

Either the telly is on in the background or there are the everlasting 'white noises' that we don't even hear any more - the sounds of the fridge, freezer or TV decoder humming away constantly.

HeeHoo likes the TV on in every room in case She Hoo Must Wear Kevlar suddenly appears on the news.

The sounds of the birds in Zimbabwe is ever present, its always so refreshing coming home to Zim after an extended trip away to climes where the houses have air conditioning and the bird sounds are non existent due to the double glazing.

However HeeHoo and I can detect different sound levels, HeeHoo can hear the melodious sounds of the Heuglin's song and the chatter of the Cut Throat Finches, whilst I can hear the ugly deep sounds of the trucks racing across the rumble strips outside Milton School!!

Well I am half deaf so I live in my own world of semi silence, I can hear certain deep throated birds, but not all the magnificent feathered choirs.

Whilst on the houseboat recently, we experienced real silence, no TV, no radio, no signal for cell phones, occasionally the wind would rustle or the waves would lap, but other than that it was pure exquisite deafening silence. We were also at Hwange even more recently and the utter silence in game park was tranquil and halcyon, one needs a weekend in Hwange often to find inner peace.

Some people seek silence so desperately that they choose to go into a water tank for total sensory deprivation! Here you climb into the watery blackness of a float tank that can slow one down to a state of dreamy calm. I think it would have the opposite effect on me though, claustrophobia would set in as it did once when I was coerced into having an MRI to measure my bone density!!

What have we humans done to our planet by bombarding it with the incessant chatter of man and machine

As I sit and listen to the noises of suburbia, I can hear the birds faintly, hear the Telly on softly in the far room, hear distant traffic noises, and hear the click of my nails on the computer keyboard.

With age comes definite benefits, the benefit of not having to listen to the demands of three children raging at the same time, the chorus of questions that only Mothers know how to field. Dads have extra capabilities, they can block out these sounds most effectively, as do husbands who have selective hearing!!

Silence is satisfying, the bedlam of the family house is sadly a thing of the past, but if I strain I can hear the sound of the pool pump and the borehole slowly chugging along.

Even the TV sounds are different. Previously when She Hoo Must Wear Kevlar, was working for eNCA, our world was a confusion of SA Municipal Workers toy toying, and ANC members dancing, but now she has moved to CNN our world is full of strident American voices and beautiful nasal women feeding us the latest disaster.

Perhaps what we all need is a little "white space." A moment of silence