Sounds, Sights, Smells, Tastes, Touches

This blog is a space for my research notes, so here some I made today:

The enthusiastic babble of school children, before, during and after school.
The faint trickle of water dribbling down the street as someone hoses their car.
Men’s voices. Shouting.
The rhythmic tap of a builder's hammer.
The loud and chaotic thud of articulated trucks thundering through streets barely wide enough for them.
The mechanical whine of refrigeration units on trucks delivering foods.
A rooster somewhere in the distance. A flying insect close by. The crickets late at night. A dog’s bark. The faint but constant twittering of birds.
The valley as an amphitheatre of small sounds magnified.
The occasional mummer of a toddler and a mother’s response.
The tinny sound of music coming from a radio, or perhaps a mobile phone.
The church bells marking the hour and the muezzin calling prayers.
The pungent odour of garbage, rotting in road side carts.
The dust winds that races along just behind trucks and ends up in your nostrils.
The pebbles and stones beneath your feet, that you occasionally kick as you walk along the street.
The densely packed buildings of the Old City that cling to each other and the contours of the ground.
The newer buildings, more dispersed, and sometimes five or six storeys tall.
The distant sound of an aeroplane heading elsewhere.
The occasional smell of donkey shit.
The hum of idling motors coming from cars queuing at a checkpoint, punctuated by a single car horn. The rising purr as they are suddenly all allowed through at once.
The smell of my own sweat, and the sensation of dampness where my bag rests against my t-shirt.
Cigarette smoke.