Not long ago I was going through airport security. I did the usual things; take my laptop out of my bag, put all the stuff from my pockets in to the tray (seriously, how is it possible to accumulate so much junk in a pocket that only fits 4 fingers?!) and take my shoes off. Stand in line, waiting for the bored security guards to call me through the metal detector. Get to the other side, without setting the metal detector off, and collect my stuff.
Only, I'm approached by two security guards. At first I think they're going to walk past me, then I realise they're walking towards me. The man (in his late 40s, short, fat and with a beard) looks at me with suspicious eyes. Uhoh. Have I done something wrong?
'Excuse me, what is that?' he says, pointing towards my chest.
I stare at him, looking slightly shocked, not entirely sure how to respond. Are my breasts illegal?
The woman with him, seeing my confusion, clears things up for me, 'he means the necklace'.
I look down. Oh. He's not pointing at my breasts (glad to know that having breasts isn't a crime), but at my bluetooth necklace. What's wrong with my bluetooth necklace?
'I've never heard of a bluetooth necklace,' he almost growls at me, 'why do you have one?'
'It connects my hearing aids to my mobile phone, so I can call people.'
'I've never heard of such a thing. Take it off.'
'It connects to my hearing aids.'
'Take. It. Off.'
I stare at him, he stares at me. I am clutching my necklace. I know I won't get it back if he takes it. I would be lost without it, and it's not exactly cheap. Around us, people are starting to look at us with interest. I feel myself going a lovely crimson colour (why do I blush so easily dammit!). I don't want to cause trouble, and I certainly don't want to be arrested by airport security and miss my flight. I just want to get on my way, with my necklace.
'Please, I'm deaf, I have hearing aids, the necklace connects to it so I can hear,' I say, whilst lifting up my hear and turning to him, showing him my hearing aids.
The man is about to say something, but luckily the woman interrupts.
'It's okay. Thank you.' She turns to leave. The man glares at her back, then at me and then, with a loud sigh, turns and follows the woman.
She was obviously satisfied with my explanation and realised that my necklace wasn't some sort of remote detonator.
Don't get me wrong - I think airport security do a good job, I'm very thankful towards them. I just think things would have been easier had one of them not been such a miserable guts.
Deaf Girl
Showing posts with label bluetooth necklace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bluetooth necklace. Show all posts
Monday, 5 September 2011
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
I want your blood
I'm currently waiting to watch TV, but my Dad is on the phone. Why is this stopping me from watching TV? He's decided to sit in the lounge to talk on the phone... out of the entire house, he chooses the lounge. The lounge being the only place where my bluetooth necklace works with the TV, hence the only place I can watch TV. I'm rolling my eyes and smiling as I type this. Typical Dad!
Anyway. I woke up this morning covered in mosquito bites. One must have bitten me and gone and told all its friends to join in as well. Luckily they're not itchy. If my Mum gets bitten, the bites turn into the size of a golf ball and apparently itch like crazy. My Dad just never gets bitten, or if he does it's only one bite and he has no reaction to it. I seem to have inherited Mum's frequency of being bitten, and Dad's lack of reaction to them. So all in all, not bad.
Since I've started to lose my hearing, I'm being bitten a lot more.
A hearing person would lie in bed and start to fall asleep. Then an annoying high-pitched buzzing sound would, annoyingly, wake them up. Maybe they would hunt around the room with a fly-squatter, or try and kill the mosquito with their hands or spray some bug spray. Either way, they would - hopefully - have gotten rid of the little nuisance.
Of course, I no longer hear any buzzing. Sure, I do when I'm wearing my hearing aids outside - hearing aids also seem to attract flies to land on the damn things! But when I'm in bed, I take my hearing aids out, meaning I hardly hear at all. Which means I don't notice mosquitos. The mosquitos must think it's their lucky day - finally, a source of food that doesn't chase them around the room trying to kill them.
Hmmm, I'm not sure I like being a free-for-all blood bank!
Deaf Girl
Anyway. I woke up this morning covered in mosquito bites. One must have bitten me and gone and told all its friends to join in as well. Luckily they're not itchy. If my Mum gets bitten, the bites turn into the size of a golf ball and apparently itch like crazy. My Dad just never gets bitten, or if he does it's only one bite and he has no reaction to it. I seem to have inherited Mum's frequency of being bitten, and Dad's lack of reaction to them. So all in all, not bad.
Since I've started to lose my hearing, I'm being bitten a lot more.
A hearing person would lie in bed and start to fall asleep. Then an annoying high-pitched buzzing sound would, annoyingly, wake them up. Maybe they would hunt around the room with a fly-squatter, or try and kill the mosquito with their hands or spray some bug spray. Either way, they would - hopefully - have gotten rid of the little nuisance.
Of course, I no longer hear any buzzing. Sure, I do when I'm wearing my hearing aids outside - hearing aids also seem to attract flies to land on the damn things! But when I'm in bed, I take my hearing aids out, meaning I hardly hear at all. Which means I don't notice mosquitos. The mosquitos must think it's their lucky day - finally, a source of food that doesn't chase them around the room trying to kill them.
Hmmm, I'm not sure I like being a free-for-all blood bank!
Deaf Girl
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
The square!
I was in town the other day about to meet my Mum. We were going to text/call each other and meet on the highstreet. (I had my bluetooth necklace on). So I call my Mum. Voicemail. I try again. Voicemail. I call a total of 8 times, each time I'm getting voicemail. So I call my Dad and explain that I can't get hold of Mum. He explains that she's left her phone at home but managed to borrow someone's and called him. He then told me where to meet her.
"She says to meet at the round thing by the square thing."
"The round thing? The square thing?"
"Yeh, the round seat things by the square thing"
"What square thing?"
"Well you know... the square thing."
"What are you on about, what square thing?!"
Now bear in my that I'm connected to my bluetooth necklace and I'm standing on a busy highstreet.
I hadn't thought of that, as I continue talking to my dad about some square thing. It was only as I started to take notice of my surroundings that I realised people were giving me a wide berth. Some were eyeing me warily, others refused to meet my eye.
I can imagine what I looked like to them: some random woman standing in the middle of the street, seemingly talking to no one, shouting; "what square! Where's the square?! I don't know where the square is!"
No wonder people were avoiding me.
In the end, I did finally meet up with my Mum - the square my Dad was on about was actually the name of the shopping center.
So, that was my brief experience of being the raving lunatic shouting about random things in the middle of a shopping street.
Until next time,
Deaf Girl
"She says to meet at the round thing by the square thing."
"The round thing? The square thing?"
"Yeh, the round seat things by the square thing"
"What square thing?"
"Well you know... the square thing."
"What are you on about, what square thing?!"
Now bear in my that I'm connected to my bluetooth necklace and I'm standing on a busy highstreet.
I hadn't thought of that, as I continue talking to my dad about some square thing. It was only as I started to take notice of my surroundings that I realised people were giving me a wide berth. Some were eyeing me warily, others refused to meet my eye.
I can imagine what I looked like to them: some random woman standing in the middle of the street, seemingly talking to no one, shouting; "what square! Where's the square?! I don't know where the square is!"
No wonder people were avoiding me.
In the end, I did finally meet up with my Mum - the square my Dad was on about was actually the name of the shopping center.
So, that was my brief experience of being the raving lunatic shouting about random things in the middle of a shopping street.
Until next time,
Deaf Girl
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Hello? Hello?
I was at home with my parents the other day. We were watching TV (I believe it was Bedlam - a series about the supernatural, but that's besides the point). I was wearing my bluetooth necklace, so I couldn't hear anything but the TV. So of course it's at this point my parents decide it's a good time to start talking to me. Never mind that I'm watching TV, but I can't actually hear you...
After some arm waving and shoulder tapping, I realise they've been talking to me. (I swear, it's impossible to watch an episode of anything the whole way through - why does it seem like such a good idea to start a conversation when you've settled down to watch your favourite series? It's not just my parents either, it seems like watching TV equals a green light to start a conversation, no matter where you are or who you're with). So I press pause and disconnect my necklace from the TV.
Mum wants to make a phone call to make a reservation at a restaurant for her and her girlfriends. Cool. She calls, talks to the guy on the phone. Suddenly, all I can hear is background noise and a man talking. I look around the room. TV is in pause, and there definitely isn't a crowd in my living room to warrant that much background noise (sure, my Dad and cat snoring are quite loud - but not that loud). And who is this strange man talking to me? Am I the only one that can hear him? Oh no... I'm hearing voices. This can't be good. Help.
That's when I realise Mum is talking in to the phone. 'Hello? Hello? Strange... I think he's hung up on me.'
Ah. That explains it. My bluetooth necklace randomly connected to the housephone whilst my Mum was on it. The man in my ear isn't some figment of my imagination (thank heavens!) but the man at the restaurant. Oh dear. How do I explain this one?
'Hi, this is the daughter of the women you were just talking to. I'm deaf. The phone decided to connect to my necklace which talks to my hearing aids. My Mum can't hear you but I can relay your message...'
Perhaps not. So, very discretely I press the button on my necklace which ends the call.
'Strange, must have been bad reception or something' - my Mum.
I smile weakly and nod whilst switching off my necklace. Mum calls back and they continue to sort out the reservation. Only after the call has ended - properly this time - do I confess what happened.
Whoops.
The next day Mum tells me the same thing happened again. She had been trying to make several phone calls but they kept cutting out. Only after the third or fourth time did she realise my necklace was lying on the table and the phone was connecting to that. Of course there were no hearing aids to transmit the signal to, so it was just going round the loop.
The lesson? If a phone is connected to a bluetooth necklace, make sure the necklace is off if a hearing person wants to use the phone and doesn't want to use their deaf daughter as the relay.
'It wasn't me, it was my necklace, honest!'
Deaf Girl
After some arm waving and shoulder tapping, I realise they've been talking to me. (I swear, it's impossible to watch an episode of anything the whole way through - why does it seem like such a good idea to start a conversation when you've settled down to watch your favourite series? It's not just my parents either, it seems like watching TV equals a green light to start a conversation, no matter where you are or who you're with). So I press pause and disconnect my necklace from the TV.
Mum wants to make a phone call to make a reservation at a restaurant for her and her girlfriends. Cool. She calls, talks to the guy on the phone. Suddenly, all I can hear is background noise and a man talking. I look around the room. TV is in pause, and there definitely isn't a crowd in my living room to warrant that much background noise (sure, my Dad and cat snoring are quite loud - but not that loud). And who is this strange man talking to me? Am I the only one that can hear him? Oh no... I'm hearing voices. This can't be good. Help.
That's when I realise Mum is talking in to the phone. 'Hello? Hello? Strange... I think he's hung up on me.'
Ah. That explains it. My bluetooth necklace randomly connected to the housephone whilst my Mum was on it. The man in my ear isn't some figment of my imagination (thank heavens!) but the man at the restaurant. Oh dear. How do I explain this one?
'Hi, this is the daughter of the women you were just talking to. I'm deaf. The phone decided to connect to my necklace which talks to my hearing aids. My Mum can't hear you but I can relay your message...'
Perhaps not. So, very discretely I press the button on my necklace which ends the call.
'Strange, must have been bad reception or something' - my Mum.
I smile weakly and nod whilst switching off my necklace. Mum calls back and they continue to sort out the reservation. Only after the call has ended - properly this time - do I confess what happened.
Whoops.
The next day Mum tells me the same thing happened again. She had been trying to make several phone calls but they kept cutting out. Only after the third or fourth time did she realise my necklace was lying on the table and the phone was connecting to that. Of course there were no hearing aids to transmit the signal to, so it was just going round the loop.
The lesson? If a phone is connected to a bluetooth necklace, make sure the necklace is off if a hearing person wants to use the phone and doesn't want to use their deaf daughter as the relay.
'It wasn't me, it was my necklace, honest!'
Deaf Girl
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Funny moments
As we all know, I'm a lip-reader. What I can't hear, I can see. My hearing aids work up to a point, and my eyes do the rest. Most - if not all - of my friend know this. But they often forget, and it's not obvious when I'm meeting new people.
Some people feel uncomfortable, as it appears I'm staring them in their eyes the whole time we talk. I've had one person make the comment that I'm quite 'intense' when they talk to me, to which I've had to reply that no, I'm not staring deep in to your eyes when we're taking, I'm lipreading...
There can be aother, albeit amusing, problems. One guy, when I was talking to him in a club, asked me if I wanted a kiss. I was confused - this seemed to have come out of nowhere. I politely declined his offer, generous though it may have been, and asked him where that had come from. He replied with something along the lines of 'well, the whole time we were talking you were looking at my lips, and I read somewhere that if a woman does that it means they want to kiss'. I laughed and explained to him I was lip-reading, to which he turned bright red.
Of course, there are other times that have caused me to laugh. For instance, when I'm wearing my bluetooth necklace (that connects to my hearing aids turning them in to a headphone) and answer my phone on that, people look at me strangely when I suddenly start talking to myself. Or some people think I'm talking to them and look very confused.
And on the topic of my bluetooth necklace - a couple of times it has connected to the TV with no warning, making me jump out of my skin! The first time it happened, my parents were watching some kind of action movie and I was walking down the hall from my room, when suddenly I hear gunfire and loud explosions. Definitely made me jump - but luckily I managed to save some of my dignity by not falling to the ground shouting 'don't shoot, don't shoot!', as I was very tempted to do.
Some people must also think I'm being very rude when I'm listening to music through my bluetooth necklace - like anyone wearing headphones and listening to music, I just don't hear anyone talking to me. But of course, because there are no wires, it just looks as if I'm ignoring them.
The same goes when I'm watching TV with my necklace on - my parents start talking to me but I just don't hear them. They laugh and say it's a likely excuse, but it really is!
Until another time,
Deaf Girl
Some people feel uncomfortable, as it appears I'm staring them in their eyes the whole time we talk. I've had one person make the comment that I'm quite 'intense' when they talk to me, to which I've had to reply that no, I'm not staring deep in to your eyes when we're taking, I'm lipreading...
There can be aother, albeit amusing, problems. One guy, when I was talking to him in a club, asked me if I wanted a kiss. I was confused - this seemed to have come out of nowhere. I politely declined his offer, generous though it may have been, and asked him where that had come from. He replied with something along the lines of 'well, the whole time we were talking you were looking at my lips, and I read somewhere that if a woman does that it means they want to kiss'. I laughed and explained to him I was lip-reading, to which he turned bright red.
Of course, there are other times that have caused me to laugh. For instance, when I'm wearing my bluetooth necklace (that connects to my hearing aids turning them in to a headphone) and answer my phone on that, people look at me strangely when I suddenly start talking to myself. Or some people think I'm talking to them and look very confused.
And on the topic of my bluetooth necklace - a couple of times it has connected to the TV with no warning, making me jump out of my skin! The first time it happened, my parents were watching some kind of action movie and I was walking down the hall from my room, when suddenly I hear gunfire and loud explosions. Definitely made me jump - but luckily I managed to save some of my dignity by not falling to the ground shouting 'don't shoot, don't shoot!', as I was very tempted to do.
Some people must also think I'm being very rude when I'm listening to music through my bluetooth necklace - like anyone wearing headphones and listening to music, I just don't hear anyone talking to me. But of course, because there are no wires, it just looks as if I'm ignoring them.
The same goes when I'm watching TV with my necklace on - my parents start talking to me but I just don't hear them. They laugh and say it's a likely excuse, but it really is!
Until another time,
Deaf Girl
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