Hi there
A CD is playing downstairs. I don’t know it’s on and there’s no way I can hear it whilst upstairs. So how can I come downstairs humming it?
It happens every time – different CD’s. I call it subliminal hearing. It is instinctive, below the level of conscious thought. Maybe we used it to protect ourselves at one time and it has fallen into disuse. What do you think?
Have a great hearing week
Debbie Jeffrey
‘Join That Conversation’
Hello everyone
Sorry to have been away a while. I almost had a job in France but whereas the English will go to desperate lengths to employ someone who has arrived penniless from somewhere else and must be given every consideration, the French prefer to employ their own citizens. It’s frustrating!
Of course the other, equally likely reason is that I could not understand some of the words the Indian woman said in English. Her French was much easier to understand; it was a more open accent.
The workplace being near the sea, I told her my hobbies were skiing in winter and shopping in summer. I meant to say sailing which is ‘voile*’ but my brain got stuck on ‘vent*’ which means ‘wind’ and I stretched it to ‘ ventes*’, which is shopping.
“Oh well,” as one of my children used to say.
Following some fiddling with phone sockets and swopping to a phone with buttons big enough to see from India, (which is why I hadn’t been using it), I waited a whole week for a call. Then I rang the UK agent. We set up the response to come in the following morning, in spite of the email promise the Friday before from India, which had been delayed.
I guess they knew about my ears. I guess they knew about my amplified phone. What they didn’t know, is that it’s an old one, designed more for people without hearing-aids. The telecoil is in the base of the handset – uh – a bit far from the ear. (For the uninitiated, the telecoil communicates with your hearing-aid when you switch it to loop system and makes the sound clearer).
No call all morning. At 12.15 p.m., I picked up the phone to make a call. Odd, no dialling tone. I asked son to scrabble under desk to investigate why and he came out looking rueful.
“You can’t make calls without this plugged in, Mum.”
The phone wire had come out of the wall. I rang the UK agent as I didn’t think I could possibly explain. A copout? Not really. Their emails were delightful salutations but when they had to say something unscheduled, they came unstuck. Besides who would believe me? I have decided it was fate and moved on.
If you want to hear words clearly, you need a phone with amplification and tone. No tone, no hearing people talking. If you get one with too much amplification, your ears will hurt and you still won’t hear. I used to let my customers try them out before buying, so ask your Audiologist before you go.
Best of luck
Debbie Jeffrey
‘Join that conversation’
English: Easter egg at the Palm Sunday fair in the Village Museum, Bucharest (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hello
On a light-hearted note, some days you can’t win for a funny reason. You’re lip-reading your best friend, because that’s what you do and suddenly you lose the conversation entirely. The word ‘sempre’ gave it away. She’s Spanish, the other girl in the conversation was Spanish and she had slipped into it when I wasn’t looking.
I grinned, couldn’t help it. There was no way I could have understood. Yay! I almost burst out laughing!
Try this on your nearest and dearest.
“Try saying ‘Easter Egg’ in the mirror. Now just mouth it. Switch your voice off if you can. That’s really difficult. 
“
If someone else can lip-read what you’re saying (without you telling them) I’ll eat my hat. Better make it a chocolate one.
Happy Easter Sunday.
Debbie Jeffrey
‘Join that chocolate conversation’
French language McDonald’s door sign (Photo credit: mechanikat)
Friends are surprised by the idea of speaking another language. Hearing does not come into it as I forget about it. At that moment, I am free and the key is to keep that feeling going.
Life throws obstacles at us to keep us interested. To tweak that slightly, I think it’s the brain at work. It can only act on what you think about and every time you look at something more than once, it looks for evidence to back up your thoughts. You become more interested and suddenly you’re acting on it. When everything seems to be going wrong, the more you think about it the worse it gets.
So tweak it. Something is going to catch your attention. In my case it was going on a skiing holiday to France. I got lost, but boarded a bus and could chat in French to the bus driver and half the passengers! None of them knew the place I was looking for, but there was a Tourist Office near one passenger’s stop and she took me in there. They were instantly disapproving, but it turned out to be because I was wearing ski boots indoors. If you’ve ever worn them, you’ll know it’s difficult to forget legs bent forward in a reinforced boot to mid-calf and less a walk than a kicking lollop. I wondered if I would hear them and they were worried about their floors! The holiday company was not in the directory and in the end I got the bus back to where I started. The Ski Rep rang back as I was on the way to my first sit-in at the ski hire shop and gave me landmarks for the ten-minute walk. Problem solved. Oddly it was harder to follow directions than to speak French. I had the best holiday ever and I found myself applying for jobs with French.
At any point in my adventure I could have changed my mind and gone off on another path. It was not the right or wrong way; it was just a path. When relaxed it was easy to hear and communicate. Not fighting the issue was the best chance of finding the way home.
Things happen, accidents or otherwise to break up a life and it is difficult to take the next step. It may be slower but I am convinced that thinking about happy times, happy people, art, music, places will create happy memories. You can pull those out any time and think about them: instant happiness creator.
Happy Easter
Debbie Jeffrey
‘Join That Conversation’
I love language, writing it and hearing it. Often people are surprised. Why? Does a sight issue rule their lives? You could say it depends on how much you can see or hear.
In hearing, you lose a tiny bit in the high notes and suddenly the edges of words do not sound as sharp. If you have just been diagnosed with a hearing issue and someone has arranged for hearing-aids, it is the start of an adventure. You will hear things you have not heard in years, like birdsong. 
When you clap your hands over your ears and ask your family to please switch off the fridge, be ready for argument! It’s hard but try and relax. Stay away from the fridge as much as possible for a few days. (I can see this would be impossible for teenagers.) You will learn to tune it out. People with ordinary hearing do that automatically. Be prepared for them to be disappointed. They think your fantastic digital hearing-aids mean you are a superbeing, so when you complain about noises their reactions are the following:
a) The hearing-aid is not working;
b) It did not fix the hearing issue;
c) They have failed you in some way.
Reassure them as well as yourself. It takes a month at least to get used to them. A colleague was on the point of taking his back after two months and then it was suggested he try the ones he had before.
“I had no idea.” He said. The aids were in and out of his ears in two minutes, back forever in the box.
“Can I have that in writing?”
We never did get his comment in writing but he did see the point. You don’t realise what you have until you don’t have it any more. He persevered with the hearing-aids and even took his life into his hands. He went into the bank. He went through the rigamarole of having the loop system switched on and went to the loop setting. He said it was so peaceful without the background noise. He was so pleased that people in the office, who have ordinary hearing, are envious. An advantage. Yippee!
Have a great week!
Debbie Jeffrey
‘Join That Conversation’
Hello
My grandparents have had oil central heating for forty years. The boiler still works the same as it always has, according to Granddad. Grandma insists she can hear it rumble at night, even though she is not wearing her hearing-aids. That is interesting in itself as Granddad has worked out that the system does rumble at a certain time in the morning. it always wakes her up.
On the other hand, Granddad reckons the rumble calms his tinnitus. Instant marital discord!
Grandma goes downstairs to switch it off and Granddad, he switches it back on! The only thing that I can suggest is Charley the Sleeptime Bear from Sound Oasis in the US. It is made for getting babies to sleep yet works brilliantly for tinnitus. We renamed him Tinnitus Ted but Granddad is still refusing. The purple lavender beeping machine has also been refused. Any suggestions? All gratefully received!
Heartfelt thanks
Debbie Jeffrey
‘Join That Conversation’
http://www.hearingwellbeing.com
Hallo
The quick answer is yes. If you have to concentrate very hard on hearing, your body will put its energy into that. If the body gets no help, it will start to wear out. Your ears won’t drop off physically but the level you can hear today will not be as good in 2/5/10 years’ time. It varies.
The main side effect is exhaustion. Besides, to the ladies, wrinkles anyone? We have all seen people who screw up their faces in concentration. It’s because they cannot see or cannot hear. Look at actors. They must forever be concentrating on Directors standing at least 10 metres away, too far to lip-read.
If that’s not an advert for hearing aids, I don’t know what is. Life is hard enough without putting added pressure on yourself. When you have them, the relief is enormous. And for guys, worried about hearing-aids being seen, ninety-nine percent of people speak to your face. There is no way that you can help the other one percent.
Have a great week.
Debbie Jeffrey
‘Join That Conversation’
Alpine snowboarder (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hello
A friend rang up with earache after we went out walking yesterday. I felt hugely guilty but it is a bug that her daughter has just had and she didn’t think she had caught it. When we were walking, neither of us wore a hat. If we had been in a place with snow on the ground, a hat would have been something we would do. Ears like to be warm. Think of the snowboarder in the previous post:) .
Relate that to tinnitus by wondering if we don’t think about it, will it go away? When you next think about it, tell us. If you never do, that’s great. It will have worked for you.
Have a great week.
Debbie Jeffrey
‘Join That Conversation’
“What’s wrong with ironing?”
Student son looks at me blankly. I can see the thought revolving in his head:
‘What is an iron? Is it relevant to me?’ Answer: No. Dismiss mother ramblings.
“It’s good for the ears.”
He is out of the door!
The action of the arm and shoulder moves the muscle or tendon that goes up the neck and behind the ear. If you reduce rigidity in the ear, you might reduce the ‘echo’ that is tinnitus. A wild theory, a what if scenario, admittedly. The bad news is that is good for men as well as women.
Exercising ears is good for us. If that bone behind the ear gets very hard, the hearingwellbeing theory is that hearing will deteriorate. It has no basis in scientific fact, but that might be because no-one has posed the question.
To keep bone tissue a bit softer, massage it very softly in tiny circles or preferably, get someone professionally qualified and gentle to do it for you. It is bone so it will be hard, but my Aston-Patterning instructor, 5-year degree course on muscles, tendons and skeleton, reckons that a body kept flexible lasts longer and in comfort. I believe in that. www.paulhb.com That is him for UK students. It was founded in the US.
Happy Ear Week!
Debbie Jeffrey
Some things can be taken with a pinch of salt and some are worth thinking about.
This morning I read about ego distracting from a goal and about how you find joy by leaving your comfort zone and reaching out to others.
What can we do to make a difference? And is that what life is all about?
Is hearing a distraction and should we just be getting on with it?
