Hi all,

Sorry I haven’t posted lately! I must try and post more!

The major update is, work has been hectic! I am now organising a Christmas Shopping Evening in November, in aid of the charity I work for and my to-do list hasn’t got any shorter!

The other day D and I went to a Voluntary Sector event to promote the Charity and its services, it was a rather quiet event. Although, there was one lady from Deaf Connexions who I had a lovely long chat with! Her sons are deaf and have Treacher Collins Syndrome, and it turns out that my mum used to be their Beaver Scout Leader! Small world eh! I will be in touch with her soon, as she is involved within the deaf club,which I haven’t got round to visiting yet! I’d love to meet her sons too! She was also talking about learning BSL, and like you may know, I’d love to learn, however I can’t really afford it. She told me that if I ever learnt Level 1, I would be very welcome at their weekly coffee mornings! How lovely!

I have been struggling at work with the marketing side of the job, which involves making phone calls. I’ve been wanting to contact people and companies, I get fed up with emailing and sending letters as most people don’t reply quick enough! As I can’t use the phone, I’ve been trying to look for alternatives… nevertheless, they all look fairly similar to my old clunky boring Text-type-phone thing, and it’s embarrassing! All these fancy new smartphones and modern handsets are available, but nothing new for deaf people- it’s a shame. I was tweeting about this, and someone told me about this ‘Next Generation Text Relay’ app which can be downloaded onto smartphones. I think this is a brilliant idea, but I don’t know if it is good though! I am waiting for a company phone so I can see if it works, and I will definitely write a review about it. I do have Access to Work funds if I really have to get one of those ancient textphones!! If anyone else knows of any technology that would be suitable, please do let me know!

Travelling to and from work by train has been improving lately. I’ve noticed when I show my Disabled Person’s Railcard to the conductors, they tend to look at me when talking and they become so friendly! It’s a nice feeling, knowing they have some awareness! I was just scrolling on my Twitter the other day and I came across a tweet about Disabled Person’s Railcard Users being able to get up to 30% off certain hotels around the UK! Worth a look: http://www.openbritain.net/offers/holiday-inn-offer.aspx

Also speaking of Twitter, Stagetext are launching the first ever #CAPaware week… stands for Captioning Awareness Week. It is being held on 9-15th November, so I’ll definitely be getting involved, and I hope fellow deafies will too! Captioning is a big issue at the moment, particularly with the #subtitleit campaign, but also in theatres and museums. Click here for more information: http://www.stagetext.org/reviews/deaf-deafened-and-hard-of-hearing-groups

Last weekend was also a busy one! I had a stall at the local Crafts in the Gardens event and fair to say we were so busy that we didn’t have a moment to eat or drink all day! I’m so proud of myself because I managed to keep up with serving the customers, and I can’t recall a moment where I struggled to communicate! When I had a spare minute, I went round all the other stallholders to ask for their details for my Shopping Evening, and I was very pleased for building up the confidence to talk to other stallholders.

Later that evening, my grandparents had their Golden Wedding Anniversary meal at a posh hotel nearby and it was a lovely evening. I was a bit worried that I was going to be left out in group conversations, and most of the guests were their friends, so I wouldn’t really know what to talk to them about. The meal went very well and I was speaking to a lovely lady next to me! Turns out they weren’t so bad after all! The only problem was, the waiter… he looked about my age and it was a bit embarrassing because we couldn’t understand each other when he asked me what drink I wanted… My mum had to step in, which I can’t really argue about because it does ease the awkward silence, but it is a bit embarrassing! Oh well…

I was looking through some deaf groups on Facebook and came across a very interesting post about Deaf History. Did you know that Princess Alice, Great-Granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was deaf from birth?… Click here for the post! – Fascinating!

My scrapbook for this blog is coming along nicely, I intend to post a few photos of the best pages soon! I hope that it will be a great keepsake for all my successes and memories from creating this blog, which I can use in a job interview for anything deaf related!

I have still been in touch with a lovely girl called Evie, we seem to have a lot in common with our deafness! Please do check out her blog (which I inspired her to create!) https://deafinately.wordpress.com/ – noticed a little mention in her latest post, thanks Evie!

I have been thinking lately, about whether to introduce a monthly deaf-related guest blog? I figured it’s a great way to introduce other bloggers and deaf-related charities and businesses… what do you think? If this is something you’d be interested in, please feel free to contact me!

Take care,

Love E x