Make changes and adapt
Living with a non-hearing partner is easy, it’s the problems faced by the non-hearing partner which present challenges.How PC and, worse, how insincere. I’ll always be honest, so ...being unable to...
View ArticleA little light relief
We make a long, daily, trip in the car which in winter means we spend a lot of time driving in the dark when Sue can’t see my face.Without lipreading Sue is isolated and dark journeys meant we...
View ArticleA friendly face
Going out ‘in public’ has been a real problem, especially when the Meniere’s was at its worse and Sue regularly had loss of balance and spin/drop attacks. Holding her hand at all times has been a...
View ArticleA silver lining - if you wait long enough
Strange how things work out.For the past three years Sue and I have been trying to learn BSL. First evening course we enrolled in (not cheap, when a deaf person needs signing it’s a shame the costs are...
View ArticleGuilty
Springsteen, Maria Callas, the Blues Brothers and Angela Gheorghiu fill my (now unused) Ipod along with my other favourites. Being a biker I’ve spent many, many, nights in bars where music drowned out...
View ArticleSKY's loss is BBC's gain
TV - information and entertainment. Well, that is if you can find something you want to see that hasn’t been repeated so often you’re word perfect.Tastes differ, fair enough, but for Sue TV comes down...
View ArticleHas Santa got a hearing loss?
Life’s not a doodle for Santa, but it used to be a lot more complicated. Not because he ran things badly – after all, the job spec requires a self-motivator and someone able to manage their time – but...
View ArticleThe kindness of strangers
We went shopping in Salisbury before Christmas.That’s our third visit to a big town this year. Sue prefers small shops to large ones, it’s easier to communicate in and she doesn’t feel overwhelmed by...
View ArticleThe Female Barometer
The weather forecast, for us, is more than will it be hot or cold, dry or wet.Sue’s Menieres is severely affected by changes in air pressure. So I wasn’t surprised when I got in last night and found...
View ArticleTuning out
Have you tried the deaf experience? If not, do so or you’ll never understand what it’s like not to take in what’s being said without having to think about it.My last deaf experience was at Hearing...
View ArticleMIRROR, SIGNAL, WHAT?
We’re about to resume Sue’s driving lessons which we had to put aside last summer due to other demands and then shortening days - a deaf person trying to take instruction in the dark is a no hoper....
View ArticleDon't assume anything
I made a deaf person struggle to understand me. Unforgiveable. Sue and I went into an upmarket tea shop seeking overindulgence. The very welcoming male assistant (probably assistant manager) backed off...
View ArticleWould Easy Rider work without the music?
Subtitles again. Sue recently said how difficult it was differentiating between subbed dialogue and subbed song lyrics. Background music is often subbed in a different colour, but for Sue (other’s may...
View ArticleIn print or on the screen?
I read, and thereby learn, a lot, even from fiction. Deaver’s, ‘A Maiden’s Grave’, provided useful info on ‘deaf’ (my quotes, no one left out here) communications before Sue’s hearing finally...
View ArticleOut of sight, not out of touch
Mobile phone texting is the best thing to happen to deaf and deafened people (don’t start emailing threats yet) since hearing aids.Ha, thought I was going to denigrate hearing aids? Well, I’m not that...
View ArticleEye Eye
Sue is sporting one very black eye and a swollen, misshapen, nose. Her nose has a wide black ‘hoop’ over the bridge – I think there’s at least a crack if not a break. But she’s determined not to go to...
View ArticleFirst impressions
No matter how we may try, we judge a book by its cover and go by first impressions. It’s only natural.On Tuesday, when Sue and I were dining out …… well, actually we were heading somewhere and stopped...
View ArticleStormy Weather
Sue is a great weather forecaster, as air pressure fluctuates she feels her ears change and knows what to expect. Her balance changes in concert with the tone, pitch and volume of her tinnitus and she...
View ArticleSorry Mr Pritchard
After writing about the ex-marine I worked with I realised he wasn’t the first deafened person I had close contact with, or even the first ex-serviceman I met who’d lost hearing during active...
View ArticleA Mare’s Tale
I’ve avoided mentioning that Sue has a horse in case anyone thinks we have money to spare. Far from it, we have a horse so there is nothing to spare.We’re lucky, we’re able to keep her (the horse, not...
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