My trip to London - and Stagetext!

In February amidst the rain and dull weather - I received a lovely surprise from a friend, Nicky who invited me to go to see War Horse at a London Theatre with her.

I hadn't had  the chance to venture to far since my operation so i thought it would aid building my confidence and also to test how I  cope with all the sounds and noises i have been learning  - London is the capital of England and a very busy place. So there would be lots of background noise and sounds that would be new to me.

I gladly accepted this invitation which was hosted by stagetext - for those who do not know much about stagetext. Stagetext is a charity who work closely with theatres to provide captions for shows - deafies alike me can follow what was being said. I hadn't been to a theatre for some years due to my inability of being unable to follow speech - so i kind of gave up going to theatre land! I have a performing arts background i did an A level in it ( i did the course as challenge when iwas severely deaf to see if I could achieve something hearing people could)- so you can imagine how excited i was! For those wanting to know more about these type of performances please click on the link http://www.stagetext.org/

Staying over with Nicky the evening before we travelled to London eased my journey - Nicky lived closer to London than I  - me and Nicky are old school pals so it did us good to have a good catch up. I think i corrupted her as I took my Kindle up to show her - shes a C I wear too with a Advanced Bionic Implant in only one ear and she loved it few days after she went out to buy one - opps sorry Nicky but it is a useful tool for helping with hearing  therapy.

Our journey to London began by catching a train to London Waterloo which was a bit eventful as we as deafies have to check and recheck the details. On most platforms they have an electronic display which shows the trains destinations - route and time it leaves . In the past this hasn't always been the case - trains do get changed or cancelled and you still have to double check. i cant hear the tannoys and never have done. Having two of us to do the journey helped as we could both double check everything before we got on the correct train - i usually develop a case of anxiety and panic when i find myself searching for the guard to make sure we really are on the correct  train ! Many a time in the past I've got on a train and ended up in totally the wrong destination so to us deafies its important we get it right ! This explains my dislike of travelling alone on a train.

Ive always struggled with noises on stations and hearing what the tannoys say were one of them- i didn't have high expectations of hearing them via my implant - i knew it may not always be possible to hear stuff i didnt hear prior - which in fact was still true in alot of cases.We still have to remember you cannot always cure hearing. The main factors i was pleased about was i could identify it was a tannoy and i could tell when a train approached - which in itself is quite important if you don't hear- tends to make you jump out your skin ha ha! 

When we approached London our next step was to encounter the underground tube trains - there were lots  of hustle and people rushing, people talking, probably footsteps moving - buskers singing as we walked by which was a bit hectic for my poor ears - i think they happened too quickly for my brain to identify.

However the turnstile beeps was something i was able to distinguish - which was a bit strange, they did sound warped to begin with but then became clearer.

 My audiologist did warn me it would at times be like this as my brain would begin to adjust to the new frequency's that they had opened further in my last mapping . The aim for this was to give me much more clarity to help the noises /sounds become much more defined - a beginning of identifying and discriminating - a huge part in my listening journey.

Our destination was to hit HOLBORN - the show was showing at the NEW LONDON THEATRE which was a stones throw from the station and very close to the Shakespeare head pub, we met together with some other deafies - this event was run by lovely Lydia Best who also acquired tickets for us.

The noises in the pub were alright - i didn't need to focus on sounds - all my friends were deaf so all communication was defined by good lip patterns and sign language - i love meeting up with deafies alike because its like a culture we bond really well and also have an empathy for each other. I think we were also excited about going to see a show that would be accessible to us.

I had lunch with Nicky and my friend Paul and we caught up on our news before we made our way down to the Theatre for the show.

I then bumped into more of my old school pals - it was good to see them and also share news before the show began.

The show was pretty amazing as a majority of it was very focused on the horse which was designed in a puppetry nature and was manoeuvred by a stage crew - it was incredible that  the horses tail moved - the mechanics mimicked real bodily functions - a real clever piece of skill and craft.

The captions in our seat were good for us - and we were able to follow the words and show quite easily - there however was an old guy playing a accordiam which did set my implant crackling of and lots of bangs demonstrating the war scene the show was based in - but i coped by flipping it of when needed. i know a pain but we all learn ways to cope with  the difficulties we have in life and this was one of my ways coping with  the static crackle i encountered.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and thank Lydia for her organisation as well as stage text for doing the captions - I really never thought id see a show again so it was a real treat. I special thanks to Nicky for the invite and Paul for spoiling us with lunch.

The day was very wet and windy so i ensured i wore my rain mac but at times i found my little microphone that linked up with my processor was falling of - especially in the wind. So i did some investigations on my return home and discovered an accessory called a huggie a piece of rubber that attach to any processor. I emailed my audiologist on my findings and she replied that they did have them at the Centre so sent me some in the post. A bit fiddly to put on the microphone aid and also put on my ear but well worth it - it stopped all that annoying bother of it slipping of - when windy when running .. some people report they dont have this problem - i do however have small ears so i guessed that would be something that would happen in long term future - id been OK up till now when the winds began blowing them off ha ha - but at least i solve the problem by a simple accessory.

Over all i had a busy fantastic weekend, was so delighted to enjoy the theatre again, meet some old pals and also experience some new sounds. By  the way i had to take a whole day to recover afterwards - i think all that listening whacked me out - but it was worth every moment - id do it again and hope to go back to theatre in the near so future  .

A special thank you to Nicky again for inviting me xxx