Hearing Diary

I'm keeping a diary of sounds as I can hear them

Dec 2009	Listening to my iPhone via the direct to processor cable <link>
December 2009	There must be something about this summer and the lessening of the drought. The cicadas are deafening. When I could hear naturally they could make a sound, en masse, which was like a pneumatic drill being applied to your skull! Now it's like they're bypassing the skull, going straight for the auditory nerve!! I have to scuttle inside or turn off the apparatus!
12-23 Feb	In Byron Bay, we stay at the Clarke's Beach caravan park. It's on the edge of Byron town and also a long swathe of bush along the glorious Tallow beach. This means there are birds galore [butcher birds, currawongs] and lizards [water dragons and at least one GOANNA]. There's also crashing surf 24 hours a day and wind - the Pacific Ocean is RIGHT there. Needless to say there's a movie [link], forgive the background noise, I think it's worth it.
8 Feb	More frogs. At Mother's for dinner and I heard the 'clock' sound. I remember when I was in treatment [and staying there] I was often woken by the cacophony of frogs in full voice. Sounded like hundreds of them then.
29 Jan	I was walking down the street, a couple of doors down and I heard the "clock" sound of a frog in someone's front yard - I think they have a little fountain. The nearest creekbed would have been half a kilometre [thats a lot in frog kilometres] away. Ho do frogs know? Can they smell water? Meanwhile the golden crescent moon hung low in the western sky. That was the appropriate end of that day.
11 Jan	More Higgledy-Piggledy bird action. Those butcher birds love to get together and have a sing-song. movie
2008
23 Dec	We went to a movie. I used the telecoil to tune-in to the cinema's sound system. I could make out 70% of what the actors said. With practice I can see it getting better! [Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen, we thought the cast of GClooney, J Malkovitch, FMcDormand, BPitt was fantastic and the film hilarious!]
17 Dec	Screeching cockatoos sound like screeching cockatoos. I hear they have a baby or two in the tree hollow - wouldnt it be good if I could hear that?!
11 Dec	I could hear something - a voice. Was it coming from next door? It was over there, just beyond the armchair. I could hear a womans voice but I couldnt make out what she was saying. Was the sound coming from somewhere or being generated via radio signals direct to the implant? I listened more. It was chilling. I called my hearing consultant, she could hear it coming from the computer. I listened. That was a relief.
5 Dec	Today I heard cockatoos screeching as they flew over. There's a dead tree that has a hole in it in the park. Often there is a single cockie sitting in there looking out. Whistling is starting to sound like whistling.
29 Nov	Today I heard the famed higgledy-piggledy birds - that deserves its own page [link]
21 Nov	Spoke on the telephone and heard what my father had to say - he had to speak clearer than usual but it happened!
20 Nov	Spoke on the telephone and almost heard what my father had to say - still buzzy! Attempted to hear the butcher birds which were [apparently] in the park. Could not.
19 Nov	Wednesday Met a cochlear contact at the noisiest cafe in Sydney and lived to tell the tale! We spoke at length over coffee and cake and gave the implants a good work-out. Head still spinning!
17 Nov	Monday Speech-reading [lip-reading] class - having the implant actually helped, because I knew what the instructions were from the teacher - before I had to lip-read those TOO! Everyone still sounds like they're using helium.
16 Nov	WENT TO A MOVIE and used the T switch on the speech processor [telecoil] - I can hear at the cinema but couldn't understand - they were speaking french after all! Luckily there were sub-titles as a matter-of-course I called some friends using VOIP [headset, no telecoil], sounded like they were talking thru a towel [why do people do that?]
14 Nov	Went to town - the bus was very loud I heard the Checkout Chick at Coles! Can't hear usefully on the phone - tried an iPhone in town. I can hear the voice but not the intonation - sounds mechanical I heard rain [saw lightning, but didn't hear thunder] Heard the Qantas A380 taking-off over Leichhardt.
13 Nov	Attempted to hear Higgledy-Piggledybirds, perhaps too high-pitched Cant hear myself whistling. Couple of women talking - they talk at the same time!
12 Nov	Lisa Simpson voices Noise at the Rowers' Aeroplane Birds sound like a ratchet Tinnitus: Women humming, otherwise smothered by implant