Recharging my deafness resilience

Yesterday, I had an embarrassing deaf moment…

We were talking about Catchphrase – you know that game show in the 90s where people had to guess what well-known phrase the picture was depicting.

‘Who presented that?’ I asked, ‘Was it Roy Castle?’

Cue the first set of giggles as it was in fact Roy Walker.

‘Was he Welsh?’ I asked…

Cue hysterics as I was informed he was the most Irish man ever.

Cue burning cheeks from me.

I’ve always been proud of the fact that my lipreading skills allow me to tell accents apart – but with Welsh and Irish I often get muddled. Indeed, I once asked my dad if Terry Wogan was Welsh – he looked at me as though I was from Mars!!

But yesterday’s incident actually upset me a little bit. I felt like an idiot for the first time in ages because I was deaf. I haven’t felt that way since the whole ‘Enter your pin’ incident in Topshop when I kept saying No, as I thought she was asking me if I wanted a bag…

I hate looking stupid as a result of my deafness. I hate appearing blonde, seeming ditzy or at worst, plain ignorant. I hate that in that split second before those who know me remember my deafness, they think that, too. And I hate that complete strangers judge me on how I seem.

Well today if you bump into me, I will seem a bit down in the dumps. If you serve me in M&S, I will say ‘hmmm’ to everything and if there’s a conversation about Irish TV presenters, I will not join in, because today is Sulk About My Deafness Day. It has dual purpose – it gets my rage of my chest, while also allowing me to recharge my deafness resilience – I haven’t done this for a while, so it’s long overdue.

My batteries are charging – I will be back on form tomorrow.