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
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Sunday, 26 December 2010
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
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
Friday, 1 October 2010
Media
One in seven people in the UK are registered as deaf or with hearing impairment. One in seven, which is about 14%. Yes, we're in the minority, but not by my much. Consider this; 13% of the population in the UK is a redhead. So statistically speaking, we are more common than redheads.
Now look at the media. Look at magazines, books, TV... Other minorities, such as redheads, are portrayed more frequently than hearing impaired or deaf people. The media isn't proportional to the general population. Not that that's surprising - the media typically only shows good-looking, white, non-disabled people. That's Hollywood, get used to it. The media isn't reality.
So it's always a pleasent surprise when I am watching TV and a minor character is deaf, or I pick up a book and one of the characters is hearing impaired. What's even nicer is that it's not made a big deal about. Some people have hearing difficulties. It doesn't define us. It's just a small part of who we are.
I picked up a book in the airport the other day. A chick-lit. The synopsis said it was a book about the relationship about a mother and her daughter. I started reading it, and it turns out the daughter is hard of hearing. I loved that it wasn't made a big thing of, it just was.
I was reading one of my monthly magazines, DIVA, and in it there was an article about singsong performer Fletcher (look her up on youtube, JaynieF). She's deaf and signs at different musical events (one example; one of Ronan Keating's concerts).
One assumption is that deaf people don't enjoy music and have nothing to gain from it. People like Fletcher and Lee (check out lovesbth on youtube) prove this is wrong. We do enjoy music (though admittedly not all deaf people, as some believe it's part of the hearing world and should be kept that way).
But I'm going off on a tangent. I was just thrilled to see an article about her in what is a pretty high-selling magazine. It's nice to know that we aren't being ignored and kept in the dark like old days. We're going mainstream baby!
Deaf Girl
Now look at the media. Look at magazines, books, TV... Other minorities, such as redheads, are portrayed more frequently than hearing impaired or deaf people. The media isn't proportional to the general population. Not that that's surprising - the media typically only shows good-looking, white, non-disabled people. That's Hollywood, get used to it. The media isn't reality.
So it's always a pleasent surprise when I am watching TV and a minor character is deaf, or I pick up a book and one of the characters is hearing impaired. What's even nicer is that it's not made a big deal about. Some people have hearing difficulties. It doesn't define us. It's just a small part of who we are.
I picked up a book in the airport the other day. A chick-lit. The synopsis said it was a book about the relationship about a mother and her daughter. I started reading it, and it turns out the daughter is hard of hearing. I loved that it wasn't made a big thing of, it just was.
I was reading one of my monthly magazines, DIVA, and in it there was an article about singsong performer Fletcher (look her up on youtube, JaynieF). She's deaf and signs at different musical events (one example; one of Ronan Keating's concerts).
One assumption is that deaf people don't enjoy music and have nothing to gain from it. People like Fletcher and Lee (check out lovesbth on youtube) prove this is wrong. We do enjoy music (though admittedly not all deaf people, as some believe it's part of the hearing world and should be kept that way).
But I'm going off on a tangent. I was just thrilled to see an article about her in what is a pretty high-selling magazine. It's nice to know that we aren't being ignored and kept in the dark like old days. We're going mainstream baby!
Deaf Girl
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