Piano Sounds

I’ve started playing the piano again. it's totally weird and wonderful, with a bit more emphasis on the weird at the moment!

When I had the spectra body worn Cochlear Implant, I got a really good sound with the piano. When I was upgraded to the newer 3G BTE fo the N22 (read OLD Implant), the piano never really sounded that good after that, not as good as the body worn anyway – I have no idea why this was.



Now with my new Freedom implant, the piano sounds good again – more like I got with the old spectra – there’s a resonance back that wasn’t there with the BTE. Everything sounds normal and in pitch. A scale sounds as a scale should. However once I reach the keys an octave from Middle C and upwards, it sounds like it’s playing another octave higher than again that which is really weird. So midtones – wonderful, go too high, and it sounds tinny and octave higher than it should. Still in tune though which is quite weird.

I am noticing when I make mistakes now – which I didn’t with the N22. I get that clash – much like I know if I’m out of tune when singing. This is definitely a first. Previously with my old implant, I knew I had made a mistake as my fingers on the keyboard knew I had made one, but I couldn't hear the mistake at all, which was really frustrating. Hopefully this will mean I can once again improve on my playing and go back to some more complex pieces. Time will tell!

I’m still singing in tune with this implant so I’m rapt. The cats are still trying to stop me singing by putting their head in my mouth occasionally though. They obviously have no music appreciation!!

I have my 2 months tune-up/mapping with Ellen and Gayle on Tuesday morning 3rd June, and I’m sure they’ll get it perfect for me!!! They’re good like that!! No pressure - absolutely none (Glare!) I want a twang free sound, and perfect pitch for the piano. Thats not too much to ask is it????

So everything is still improving – but I still don’t like phones. I answered the phone this afternoon – and put it up to my wrong ear again, and wondered why I couldn’t hear anything!! Duh! Double Duh!! I’m no longer blonde so I can’t blame that anymore. When I realized the gaffe – I put it up to the correct ear, and was hearing perfectly okay – but as soon as I misheard one single word, I said ‘oh I can’t take this call because I can’t hear on the phone – you’ll have to txt me’. All because I misheard one single word. The person on the other end (stranger), must have thought I was nuts! Probably wouldn’t be far wrong! I don’t know if I’ll ever feel comfy with the phone again, I simply hate them with a passion. Email, TXT, Skype TXT and MSN are far better options. I CAN do it – I just don’t LIKE it.

But hey - there are plenty of things we dislike in this world, and the only way to overcome them is to keep on trying. So I'll keep on trying!!

Cheers
Robyn

I'm Angry, Wild, and want to SCREAM with Frustration!

I HATE Power companies. Of all the companies out there I deal with, when it comes to deafness and customer service, power companies are the WORST.

My level of frustration is so high now, that I'm ready to take them to task publicly.

It all started like this...

Empower (yep I'm naming them), is the company that sends me my bills on a monthly basis. In the last bill they sent me a pamphlet 'Would you benefit from the Empower Low User Plan?' The pamphlet listed a few Q & A and gave an 0800 number to ring. I worked out that I would benefit, and so rang the 0800 number.

Now - I'm doing well with my implant, and can hear on the phone pretty well. I got the usual recorded voice messaging system and my heart sunk. But wait - I could follow the instructions.

"Press 1 if you wish to change to the low user plan"

Okay - 1

"Now key in your account number found at the top right hand corner of your last electricity bill followed by the # key"

Okay - I keyed in the ten digit number nad hit the # key.

"This is an invalid number, please key in your account number followed by the hash key"

Okay - I must have got it wrong. So I did it again, checked it all, hit the # key.

"This is not a valid account number, please key in your account number followed by the hash key"

Okaaaaay - I must have got it wrong again - so I did it again - checked it, and hit the # key.

"this is not a valid account number, please key in your account number followed by the # key"

WTF???? I looked all over my invoice - that was the only account number listed at the top right hand corner. There are no other account numbers. I did it again.

"This is not a valid account number, please key in your account number followed by the # key".

I hung up. Started again. Same result. My blood pressure was beginning to rise.

Found another 0800 number for Accounts enquiries. Rung that.

Listened to all the options - found general accounts enquiries, press 3.

3

"please key in your account number found at the top of your last electricity bill"

I typed it in. Oh my - it got through that time.

"now type in the four digit number (mumble mumble mumble"

Looked all over my bill - no four digit numbers. I obviously took too long...

"now type in the four digit number (mumble mumble mumble on your last electricity bill"

Okay - a four digit number on my bill - nowhere to be found. Nothing. Nada.

"now type in."

Okay okay - shuddup. There's no four digit number on my bill. I hung up again.

Ahhhh - I can ring it again and see if I can find the message to a real person. Rang the accounts equiries number again.

"If you would like to speak to a real person press whyine"

Hmm is that a one or a nine? I pressed 1.

"if you would like to speak to a personal assistant press whyine"

Ok - 1 didn't work - I'll try 9.

"if you would like to speak to a personal assistant press whyine"

By this time i was looking all over the phone handset for clues what 'whyine' could be.

"if you...

Shaddup - I hung up.

I've just flung off a really rude angry email to them, from their website about the appalling system they have where one cannot get hold of a real customer service person, that they have no customer service, and that I'm now considering changing to a company where I can actually TALK to a real person.

Meantime - I'm still being charged on the high user plan, so I'm paying more than I should.

I'm sooooooooooooooo wild, angry, I think I will go and SCREAM with frustration!

Cheers
Robyn

I am no longer blonde!

Yep - I went dark overnight. Better than going gray over night that's for sure. The bottle said Golden Brown. I'm now just a slightly lighter shade from my Seal Burmese. Twins.

My burmese is quite bizarre. Being bizarre is a prerequisite in this household. Her bizarre behaviour is to sit on your head. When she does this on my head now, she'll be totally camouflaged. Which is probably a good thing as we don't want to give visitors the wrong idea!!

Anyway - now I'm a lovely dark brown, there will be no more blonde moments. No longer will I do stupid things like those listed here. I will not dribble, or lock my keys in the car in a remote place, or do all those stupid things like that I did in 2007. I'm brunette - brunettes don't have blonde moments - heck, they don't even have brunette moments - they're sensible, calm, and never put a foot wrong.

I look forward to my calm sensible brunette life, I know it's okay as it's already been 24 hours. So far so good...

Cheers
Robyn

When Will We Ever Learn?

News on TV today is that Iceland is resuming whaling. Iceland's government is allowing 40 Minke whales to be hunted, ending a temporary halt to a practice which has angered conservationists.

The head of a local whaling association confirmed that fishermen on three whaling boats were preparing to go to sea from Thursday.

To say I'm disgusted is an understatement.

These big creatures of the sea do no harm to anyone. They are intelligent giants of the sea. Their breeding takes years, so killing them means many years for the recovery of their population numbers.

About two years ago I visited a beach up north where something like 40 pilot whales were stranded. I got there too late to help, and many of them died, but some were refloated and herded back out into open water. I had my camera with me...

Here the ones that didn't make it, are all lined up in a row ready for burial.

The area was cordoned off to keep people further away so the workmen could work without hurting anyone. I asked if I could step into the cordoned off area to take photos and I was given permission.

While taking photos, I felt like an intruder. One doesn't take photos of funerals do they? I felt very out of place, but I persevered and am glad I did.

Tying the canvas rope to secure the dead Pilot Whale

Lift Off

On it's way...

to be buried in the sand dunes along the beach a bit in an area that is not so busy.

The others lined up waiting their turn.

Even in death it still manages to smile.

There is no beauty in killing such magnificent creatures of the sea. There is no real reason for killing them for food or cosmetics. There are plenty of products available to use instead of whale.

When will the human race wake up? I give $100 per year to Greenpeace to help the fight against whaling. Do you? Would you?

Recognising Country Sounds with the Cochlear Implant

I'm trying to relearn all the sounds again that I had learnt with my first implant, before it stopped working. I'm finding it hard and frustrating at times because of the twang that I am still experiencing, however every now and then I will notice a huge improvement. It obviously improves over time, imperceptibly, then suddenly I'll be in awe of what I'm hearing.

I had the pleasure of spending the day out in the country at my friends place yesterday. They live only 20 minutes drive from me, yet have 8 hectares of land, and all around them are other people who have about the same amount of land. It's a beautiful spot and yesterday was a beautiful day, so after lunch we went for a walk...

Shared driveway to the other lifestyle blocks.

I was interested to see what I would hear with my implant, and whether I would recognise them without being told. All up I did very well. One of the biggest things I noticed that I was able to hear my friend talk to me as we walked along, without having to lipread her. I couldn't do that in noisy situations in the 'burbs' where there is traffic, but out there was perfect. The only noise around was the sheep..


The Goats...
To be perfectly honest, I couldn't differentiate between the sound of a goat and a sheep. All sounded like an American going aiiiiirrrr with that midwestern twang I still have.


The chooks..
The chooks were friendly but didn't give me any sound.

But then this little bird in its high pitched chatter turned up...
I heard him first before I saw him, and eventually his flitting caught my eye and I managed to get him on camera before he went. Thats when it hit me. I HEARD him before I saw him. I hadn't been able to do that for a whole year. And once I had seen him, I recognised his chatter for the rest of our walk, although he didn't give me another opportunity to take his picture. This little bird is a New Zealand native fantail or Piwakawaka in case you're wondering.

Did I tell you that it was a glorious winter day. Not a cloud in the sky. I mean - this is Auckland - land of grey winter skies. Except not this year. I have proof...

Just here I saw a wild rabbit and a pukeko but they were too far away to get to with my lens. I willed them to come closer, but my will wasn't working properly yesterday!

The weather is making everyone happy and joyful - including the animals. I have photographic proof of this too..
You can see the bigger version of this in my other blog. He's just panting, but he did bark a little, and I definitely heard it as a bark and nothing else. In case you're wondering this little imp is a cross between a Jack Russell and a Silky.

I just love these country letterbox scenes you come across out here. Always in a bunch, and lots of different colours usually. I feel compelled to paint one of these red! Photographically the image would be better if one was bright red. I think it should be compulsory for there to be at least one red letterbox amongst any group, all over the country.
I wonder if I went back with a paintbrush I could get away with it? 'I'm just painting the town red' would be my answer!

No country lifestyle block scene is complete without the miniature horse. It didn't make a sound - but it's very very cute. Probably can't make a sound while it had it's muzzle on. Makes me wonder if it has a tendency to bite! Small things are usually ferocious to make up for their size.

Going back to the house we were greeted by Scuppers asking us WHERE we had been, without HIM??! This is the cat I rescued from a neighbour 2 years ago. He looks well and healthy, and is not related to the kitten I rescued this year, even though they're the same colour.

He's rather gorgeous don't you think? Very friendly - and loves it out here in the country. When I arrived he was playing Cat and Mouse. An hour later he was still playing with this tiny mouse so we rescued it - not a mark on it. The mouse was very relieved to get back to the wild, and we had one grumpy cat for its toy being taken away from him. But he was only grumpy for about 2 seconds..

Finally it was time to leave. I had to go via this road. It was so beautiful, and the light fantastic, I nearly hightailed it back to my friend to tell her I was moving in. Who wouldn't want to live in a place like this?

Don't forget to check out my photography blog over at this link

The Deaf in China

I was having an interesting conversation with my students from Hong Kong and China recently, about deafness. She told me that they never see any deaf people in Hong Kong or China. They didn't know why, but they just didn't.

I had a wee laugh over this initially because what do 'deaf' people look like??? We dont exactly standout a crowd.

But the conversation made me curious about it. So over to my trusty google button to find out numbers. Numbers of deaf people in Hong Kong is 'unknown'...

Hong Kong
Number: : Unknown. In 1982-1983, 1880 moderately- to severely-hearing impaired children were enrolled in Hong Kong schools or other programs.
Prevalence: Audiometric screening programs in schools suggest the rate of profound deafness (defined as greater than 90 dB) among Hong Kong children is 30.3 per 100,000; the rate of severe deafness (defined as between 56 and 90 dB) appears to be 50.14 per 100,000 (1983).
-- (Gallaudet Encyclopedia, vol.2 p.73.)

However, number of deaf people in China seems to be quite considerable..
According to the China Disabled Persons' Federation website, China has approximately 21 million people with hearing loss out of 60 million disabled.

Well they do have a large population, but I was surprised how easy it was to get information like for China, when it was difficult to get Hong Kong. I had expected the ease of information would have been the other way round.

The website for Chinese Deaf culture was quite interesting. Explanations for their sign language and how it is based, the current research that the chinese are doing for the deaf. And the most interesting .. 'Tonal rehabiliation for cochlear implants'. Very interesting, because...

Chinese language is very tonal, especially Mandarin. The tone of a word is everything - a higher pitched tone will mean one thing, and a lower something else. So how do hearing impaired, and profoundly deaf people without sign language get on? Tone is something that you can't lipread. I was also informed that the Cantonese language rarely moves lips. I wonder if Cochlear Implants help with this a little, a lot, not at all?

If anyone reading this knows anything about this topic at all, please leave me a message as I'm very curious.

Cheers
Robyn
aka Curious George :)

Bilateral Implantation

A close friend of mine just had bilateral implants a month ago. He was brave enough to get them done at the same time. He was switched on yesterday, and has written his first blog.

Steven came and visited me about three years ago from San Francisco, and I took him around to various places in New Zealand. We laughed for the full three weeks he was here, with all sorts of hilarious things happening to us (well - to me in particular), including me jumping of a boat onto the sand with my hands in my pocket and landing face first as I sank quite deeply then tripped, and going away to Rotorua and finding I had packed a pair of sandals, they ended up being two different pairs of the same foot - useless!!

I look forward to meeting up with Steven in San Francisco in July.

Anyway - go and read his blog and his experience of switchon here.