Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful day with your family & friends celebrating this wonderful day.

I'm currently down south visiting my family - my parents and I drove down to spend Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day with my grandparents, aunt & cousin. We're leaving early tomorrow morning to drive back.

Of course, I wanted to look my best when seeing my family, as I hadn't seen them for some time. So... what does a girl do when she wants to look good? (No jokes about beauty sleep not being enough, thank you!) Gets a haircut of course.

So off to the hairdressers Mum and I go. We both had our hair coloured, cut, and blow-dryed. Now most women, my Mum included, love to chat at the hairdresser's. You get the latest local gossip and just generally have a nice natter while drinking a cup of tea.

Slightly different for me - getting my hair done is a very silent event. I have to take my hearing aids out when the dye is being put in my hair - don't want the dye accidentally dripping onto or into my hearing aids and breaking them. And likewise when the dye is being washed from my hair I don't wear my hearing aids. There's also no point wearing them when the hairdryer is being used on my hair, as I wouldn't hear anything anyway.

So, a visit to the hairdresser's is a very silent affair for me. Instead of putting my hearing aids in and taking them out every 5 minutes, I just leave them out. I also can't lip-read at the hairdresser's as you're sat facing a mirror - haven't learned to mirror-lip-read yet!

Mum said that she and a few others tried to start up conversations with me, but because I wasn't wearing my hearing aids, I was oblivious. It must have come across as very rude. Luckily, Mum was there to explain to everyone that I wasn't intentionally ignoring them, I just couldn't hear them. I had explained this before I took my hearing aids out, but most people don't believe me because I don't sound like a deaf person when I talk.

So, once we were finished at the hairdresser's, we head off back home to pack and get ready. Fast-forward a few hours and it's time to go to bed.

I'm just starting to fall asleep when I notice that my bedroom has suddenly become lighter. I open my eyes to see my Mum standing by my bed. I ask her what she's doing. She moves her lips, but no sound is coming out. Or rather, it is, but she's whispering!

'Mum, I'm deaf, I'm just going to sleep, I'm not wearing my hearing aids...'

Oops. Even my parents sometimes forget I'm deaf. Turns out she was just checking that Snoopy, my cat, was in my room before locking up the house.

Fast forward a day and we've arrived at my Grandparents' house. Lovely seeing everyone again. We all catch up and soon it's time for bed. I'm sleeping in my cousin's room and wanted an early night. He wasn't too fond of that idea - he was playing some online game on the XBox and talking with fellow gamers in the 'scrim' (whatever that means).

I told him he could continue to play, it wouldn't bother me. As soon as my hearing aids come out, I'm deaf. So he can continue to play to his heart's content. He was thrilled and told my parents that it's great having a deaf cousin. It does have its uses!

Christmas Day was lovely as well. Unfortunately, both Mum and I have horrible colds. Which means my ears are all bunged up as well, making hearing aids useless as I can't hear through them anyway.

My Aunt brings out these candles. They're tall, thin and hollow. She put on in my ear and burnt it. When it had burnt down, she took it out. It had cleared my ear right up. These candles take away ear wax (gross, I know), clearing up my ear so I'm able to wear my hearing aids again. Brilliant! Dad also uses the candles (since he gets a build-up of wax making him almost as deaf as me) and they clear his ears right up as well. Strange things, but very effective.

The rest of the day passes and we're watching TV. The subtitles are on for me, as I left my TV gadget thing at home. The family come in and ask 'why on earth are the subtitles on?'

'Because I'm deaf.'

'Oh yeh!'

It's not just my friends and parents forget that I'm deaf, but my extended family as well!

Very easily done.

Anyway, it's about time I sign off and go and be sociable.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Deaf Girl