| Gelert's profileAn experiment in normali...PhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
January 22 Goodbye to Heath LedgerIt all seems so glamorous and exciting - acting, Hollywood, all that. Underneath though, this happens all too often.
Goodbye to a fine actor. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/actor-heath-ledger-is-found-dead/ January 21 Mutt and JeffIt's been a while, and while it still may be curtains; For now, a story of ears:
Today was all ears. First mine, which have been playing up recently. Everytime I swallow they go 'SQueeeeshcwekl', and worse than that, I've found myself staring at the kids in class with a glassy expression when they've clearly said something, then had to lean forward and say
'Eh? What? Can you do what...?' while cupping my ear like a baby chick.
Obviously it's caused amusement - with some wags enunciating clearly and loudly for my benefit (little gits). Despite ruinous amounts of medication - including a daily inahler of some malodorous, nasty tasting stuff reminiscent of drugs dripping down the back of your throat via the nasal passages (but without the effect) - nothing has helped, so off to be tested.
The nurse stuck a pair of aircraft earphones over my nut and snuck behind me (no doubt to secretly admire my butt), while playing sounds into my ears one at a time. Now me, I'd have chosen birdsong, or perhaps some faintly erotic cooing, but no. Just a series of diminishing bleeps that I had to acknowledge with the tap of a button. At one point, my thoughts crept away to brighter shores, and realising I must have missed a bleep or two, I punched the button a couple of times as insurance, which may or may not have explained the strange blip in the results pattern.
I have to see my doctor on friday to receive the diagnosis, but the nurse assured me that it seems fine, apart from one odd bit of patterning... heh.
Later on, I had to drive the mother up to the same place to have her wires re-routed (the sister who was going to do the lift being away.) The same nurse eyed me strangely, obviously wondering if I had some bizaare aural fetish which had now spread to acquiring an older woman to toy with, and pattered away. She will see that the mother has been deaf since her thirties, and is now, without assistance, able to hear almost nothing. She was there to be torn bodily from her old hearing aids which are held together with string and chewing gum, and acquainted with the digital age despite her resistance.
I had the faithful i-pod on hand as ever when forced to endure hospital surroundings - the only other entertainment available being copies of SAGA magazine and some admittedly rather fetching artworks featuring the inner workings of the ear, and a poem I liked a lot but didn't write down sadly or I'd share it. My music selection seemed to trouble an old lady who appeared to resent me 'ruining my ears' while hers were so ungratefully malfunctioning, and I was jerked out of a pleasant reverie by the arrival of an old man who sat - no - flumped himself down next to me and started an unnecessary battle for the armrest. I say unnecessary because I just want to prove I can spell it right and impress you. - No, I say unnecessary (there, aren't I clever?) because there were about forty chairs in that waiting room, serving six people, so my question was - Why? Why did he come and squash in next to me and then try to battle my arm off the armrest and breathe onion all over me while I was trying to listen to Radiohead? Perhaps he too resented this treatement of my ears. Perhaps he wanted them for himself, who knows.
Either way, when the mother came out, it was to find me partly submerged beneath this old, but very large man refusing to give up my armrest. She was fuming about the 'damn digital doohickeys' and telling me they couldn't tell if they'd be any good until she had her ears irrigated, which put me in mind of farmers (don't ask). I then endured a hideous bun in the hospital cafe (I'm sorry but I can't enjoy food while surrounded by worryingly ill looking people and depressed looking visitors). I checked the bun over for evidence of MRSA then looked at the ceiling rather than the man on the table next to me who had sprayed his head with some of that fake hair stuff:
This guy wasn't that old, but had a biggish bald patch and the rest of his hair cut to a number 1. The problem? If you see a white man, with a black bald patch, what are you to think? Either he hadn't sprayed on enough of the stuff to make it look like some sort of hair, or he'd had shampoo in his eyes and reached for the car paint by mistake (no, I don't know why it would be in the bathroom either). I was in danger of laughing, and so we exited quickly, I ejected the mother on the doorstep and felt the glorious freedom that comes when you are having time off work that you didn't know you'd have.
I took a train to a nearby town and bought some dvds and a couple of books. Ooooh, don't I know how to live eh?
Well, that's it. Its the first time I've felt like adding anything to the blog for quite some time, so you'd better appreciate it. You may also notice bits of the blog are missing - prolly not - as I was in the middle of dismantling it limb by limb.
THIS is so beautiful, it takes my breath away, and I wanted you to see it too. It's Space courtesy of the HUBBLE TELESCOPE. Marvel. Be at peace:
|
|
|
