When questioned about how my voice sounded within the carefully controlled conversational precincts of a soundproofed room three weeks ago, I managed to overlook a slight elephant man ‘schhhhhhh’ quality to my pre-palatal fricatives (any sound made with your teeth touching, to you and me). It was quite amusing the first few times I said ‘educational changes‘ at work, but it soon wears off…
Yesterday’s audiological optimism was extremely short-lived. I wondered where my footsteps had gone as I walked down the corridor on my way out of the hospital, and once I got home and turned the telly on, it was rather apparent that despite John’s best efforts yesterday, any remaining amplification in the ever shrinking bands available for voices had gone too. I reminisced briefly over the giddy excitement of turning the tv down for the first time ever after first getting the Siemens in January, and then promptly went into a petulant sulk which lasted for most of the evening.
The students are on holiday but I thought I’d give it a second chance this morning. Sadly the boiling kettle no longer sounds like a DC-10 taking off, the children’s voices in the playground opposite are gone, the office clock is silent and the computer keys don’t rattle cheerily any more. A brief accidental burst of the fire alarm didn’t even wake my beige bte friend from its slumbers, so me and it have parted company for the first time in three months.
On the upside, I’ve got somewhere to tuck my unruly tufts of hair once again.
The Cookie Bite Chronicles 