E-Postcard from Austria

Dear Friends and Family,

Hereby I am in Austria on 2 week holiday, spending time with my Parents and of course my first experince on the slopes with the Cochlear implant. I must say it had been a surreal time!

On Saturday morning of 24th January, Very early I say! I went to Southampton Airport, it's a very small airport which is a bonus because I could hear the tannoy almost word to word!!! no jumbled garbles! When my flight were anncounced to be boarded some 20 mins late! It said "PASSEGERS OF FLIGHT NUMBER xxxxxx TO SALZBURG PLEASE PROCEED TO THE BOARDING GATE 7" I was dumbfound when I heard it! I was sort of expected what to listen for but weren't expected to hear the whole thing clear as day!

It was small and quiet plane, Not full plane more of half full plane of 70 or so people. Behind me was a little boy, as I noticed that his father who were sitting next to him had been reading DR Who to him and showing posters of those sci fi robots etc. Later perhaps halfway through the flight, I heard whisper "lady" then again then a small hand reached to my shoulder obviously he wanted to say something. I had my hair down, the coil tucked under my hair but sometimes my hair slides, the coil can be exposed. The little boy of about 4 or 5 said "what is it on your head?" I thought of DR who... I said "I am a cyborg" his eyes were wide as saucers and went "wow!" So I took it off and showed him, explained to him and his father what's it is. I had made a friend for the rest of the flight! I haven't yet spoke to a small child since I had the implant, and here on the plane is me and him chattering away about Dr Who!.

When we made to my parents, they had made every effort to make the house less Echoy, It is still echoy but so much better than it was in October which I was unable to wear the processor during the time we were in the house. This time I had worn the processor all the time. I am so glad of Sarah my audi made a quieter programme of my usual program which I was able to use in the house more comfortably. And the usual program when I am out and about.
I had heard alot of new sounds. When skiing I could hear myself over the snow and Ice. I also heard other people skiing while I was on chair lift. In Nassfeld at halfway point there is a huge boom boxes that blast out music (I don't know how people can eat next to them!) I could hear it up some 1000 meters away!
With 1.5 meters already compacted in the garden (above 2 meters up on the ski slopes)We still keep getting fresh blanket of snow on daily bais. Some of the days it had snowed so much the visiblity were quite bad we couldn't hardly see. On sunny days (only two of it so far!) I had blast down the mountians feeling alot more confident since i can hear people behind me. I also had started to wear helmet due to that if I fall I wouldn't want the skis to hit the back of my head especially since I have the implant lodged on my skull and wouldn't want reimplant. Prevention is better than cure!! I had few trials and errors wearing the processor and helmet! On the first day of wearing the helmet with the sunglasses, I found out that the sunglasses arms a bit too thick and it was causing sore skin just below where the implant lies so tried the extra padding on the 2nd day but it keeps pushing the coil off so I ripped the padding out, tried the Helmet/goggles/no extra padding it has been great since! so I have found the solution.
I had been taking pictures, i heard different types of clicking on the camera! I didn't know they do different sounds!...
Since it had snowed so much my parents house is huge and needs the paths cleared often so we won't get snowed in! I had been helping my father snow shovelling resulting few blisters in my hands! It had been fun. One really heavy snow day instead of skiing we went to Ikea 40 mins away for few things for their house, on the way there the roads wasn't too bad. On return trip the snowfall was getting heavy the motorways were getting covered in settled snow of few cms or so, you would have thought gritting but they used huge snow ploughers (one on each lane) every 5 kilometers or so causing few Tail back of traffic. Over night it snowed another 4 inches and another snow shovelling session before we could go skiing.




Before my arrival my mum had twisted her ankle so were confinded in the house for few days doing ironing, sewing, etc. I was on the computer one evening playing games, I heard gentle swishing "swish swish".... I looked for the sound... it was my mum ironing! She looked at me in amazement and said "this is so quiet!"
I also had few phone call practises to Blighty, One to my Aunt Jackie who was blabbing after few sentences as she couldn't contain her exticement for speaking to me on the phone! One to my Brother on his 30th birthday, he was quiet as mouse and needed to speak up (tut tut)!!! 2 to my beloved nana, hers was the best of all as I was able to pick out ransom words, she spoke very clearly... Me thinks start annoy her with phone calls when I get a new phone.

For those who doesn't know what the coil is it's round thing with magnet in the middle that sticks onto my head.


Auf Wiedersehen for now... A picture of neighbour's sweet cat Stella aka a little Bandit.....She was up our tree eating the bacon rinds left out for the birds and The sunset from my parents house. Enjoy.