This is an attempt to put a bit of light humour into the horrid time we are living trough.

With the constant announcement that air raid sirens, that are going of in towns and cities in Ukraine. I'm reminded off them from when I grew up.

Way back when every first Wednesday of the month at 12 noon, the local councils would test the sirens. It became part of the daily background noise. As you got a reminder that another month had started. A bit like when you hear the bin men coming, "ah, it must be Thursday", that is if your refuse collection day, is a Thursday like ours.

Then one year the councils decided that they needed to move into the future and have new modern electronic sirens. That didn't have to make sound, when they were testing them. Which was good, as the councils did get the odd complain that they were too loud.

Though two things happened:

The public started to complain that they didn't get to hear the sirens anymore. Like I said it had become the norm and part of life, that monthly reminder.

Also they found since nobody could hear the new modern sirens, when they tested them, nobody knew if they were working at all. Since the smart people haven't thought about actually testing for what the sirens were supposed to do. So lo and behold when they did turn on the sirens, they found that many actually didn't work at all.

After they faced out the sirens in Denmark, I moved to the UK where they didn't test the air raid sirens. The daily soundscape changed and I forgot about the sirens.

I then moved to Paris, where one day I was walking down the street minding my own businesses. They did a air raid sirens test, I must have been just below the siren as it was LOUD and amplified by the normal Parisian street, that do like to trap the city noise.

I jumped out of my skin and had a rush of nostalgia.

I, so wish, that Ukrainians could experience this and not the horror they are living through now.

If you can, please donate to Red Cross (https://www.icrc.org/) or other NGO's that is helping the refugees. Here's a link to Red Cross in the UK - https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-crisis-appeal