When I hit play the next morning, I was surprised to hear a rhythmic, rumbling noise that was enough to disturb my wife's sleep.

The worries about the vuvuzela's noise seem to be well justified. A stadium full of vuvuzelas can hit up to 130 decibels - a chainsaw can only reach a meagre 100.

Sometimes we would also try to hit the hubcaps of passing cars and, when we succeeded, it made a loud pinging noise.