I am back in Blighty

I had lovely relaxing holiday. The weather had been kind, the mountains had snow caps which had disappeared by the end of the week! We had been stuffed with glorious food cooked by Dad and Mum, all the vegetables we had were from their garden and it was delicous.
Sadly I didn't have much pratice with my Ear as I call it, the house they had "semi built" it was rebuilt internally with thick insulation to ward off cold winters, the house is being redecorated beautifully, they had No carpets, No curtians, no soft upholsteries therefore the house is very echoy which I experinced alot of problems trying to block that out after 3 days I got quite stressed so decided it was best not to wear the processor in the house. It's a pity as I really want to do some listening practies with my parents. My dad, still worries about talking to me, he was afraid about how he would sound, when he was talking normally to the family he sounded lovely and soft. He's the type of person that is difficult to reassure it's okay.
My mum sounds amazing (and dad) their voice is clearer and crisper, I used to tell mum to lower her voice when i had the hearing aids it sounded distored high pitch but now i don't need to and often tell her off for whispering, Ha ha! Very happy about this. My brother is clearer too, he is passionate talker, when he talks about something he gets quite excited and talks clear and a little bit louder than normal but in the house although it doesn't sound loud to me, it sounded booming as if i was standing next to 6ft high speakers. It was outside of the house that i don't have problems, I heard crickets! whay hey, they do make high pitch rubbing sounds.. quite tuneful! Tractors (they live near alot of farms), chain saws. Although in the first few days, I heard people talking in other room, people walking on wood floors.
We went to Venice, in Italy (long drive!) it was beautiful, I didn't realise it's actually City of water, there were so many bridges to cross. When we went to St Mark's square it was full of people, pigeons, I could hear them cooing. The Piazza San Marco got bells. When it stroke at 12 and my mum asked me if I could hear something (she didn't say what it was so I had to listen and think), and it was the bells!!.
We did alot of walking, mainly up the mountians where we used to ski, I didn't realise it was so steep without the snow!
As it was nearing halloween, In Austria they are big about halloween like America. I got to carve my very first pumpkin, the pumpkin was also home grown! I enjoyed it so much, My dad also saved the remains of juicy pumpkin for delicous Soup few days later.

My first pumpkin! As you can see i have included the CI!

While we were on holiday we recieved some news from my Grandfather, He had sadly lost his sight in his left eye to blood clot. He's 89 this coming sat and done amazingly well with living independantly and looking after grandma who is diabetic, blind, with limited mobilty. His sight will not be recovered and they are monitoring to preserve his right eye. I wish him well and hope that he'll stay healthy for long as possible. The rest of the family and i are having birthday lunch to celebrate his 89th birthday on Sat.
It was sad to come home, Mum and dad are counting the days until 22nd dec when they will be coming back to UK for Xmas.

Picture of my processor 3 months after the operation and 2 month postactivaction. I had pink Mic cover as October is breast cancer month also I like it! My shaven hair is now approx 2 inches long and yes it grew quite quickly. Altogether with hair down or in pony tail it's barely noticeable!