Day 3 - quiet versus busy
Woke this morning and after breakfast, I tried out the same videos on YouTube as I tried yesterday. No obvious difference but I did stumble across this beauty: Rag'n'Bone Man - The song is called 'skin' and his voice is so gorgeously rich at the start. No instruments for the initial bit, just his voice and it sounded almost as I remember it, just with that tinny undertone.
It was much colder this morning, frost had settled upon the cars and so I ventured off to Longton Nature reserve to investigate the birds. Investigate being the word an elderly gentleman used when he spotted me stood stock still by the water, waiting for something. "Investigating the birds, are you?" I think he said. I replied that I was listening out as I had a cochlear implant. I'm not 100% sure I heard everything but the gist of it was: was it under my skin? Was it very strange? It was at this point I heard what sounded like something dive bombing. Turned out to be a gaggle of mallard ducks bullying each other and ducking beneath the water. Their wings made a soft 'whomp whomp whomp' noise in the air, and I watched a single goose squawk loudly and impatiently as it proceeded to chase after a green/black duck. I'm not sure I heard the splashing water clearly but I must have heard something as every time I heard something, I looked up and saw birds, ducks and geese. It was pretty cool, in both the literal and figurative sense of the word.
Once I'd heard enough of the ducks, I headed down the path. It surrounds a huge pond and leads back on itself to a car-park. This part of the visit was more or less silent. I was relieved to note that my feet made quiet steps, and that the leaves sounded nice and crisp if they were dry, and squelchy if they were muddy. I kept peering into the trees and all of a sudden came a really clear twitter. Looking up, I saw a black bird which flew as soon as it was spotted. A little further down the path another sound, high pitched but different. I looked around and saw a bench and on that bench was a robin! It chirped and then flew off. It was so lovely to hear such a piercing sound so clear and loud to me, as I've always had to concentrate to pick them out. I think the sounds were 'normal' but perhaps it it just 'high pitched' and at the same pitch? I know birds have different sounds so I think repeated visits will help sounds to come out more. At one point I actually jumped because a bird flew out in front of me and in doing so made the oddest shrieking noise. I was aware from where I stood, that if I looked out into the far ends of the pond, I could make out the ducks disturbing the water and air around them.
Returning to the car-park took me past a road, up to that point, the experience had been silent with pinpricks of sounds. The cars seemed to fill the air with a low hum that increased and decreased in volume as they passed. I highly recommend a similar experience to others that have been switched on. I spent yesterday bombarding myself with music and quite complex noises, so it was intriguing to detect and actively look for simpler sounds in the environment.
This afternoon I tried out the opposite environment, I went into the town centre to get some early Christmas presents plus a birthday present for a pal. Plus stickers for my class, I'm back at school tomorrow, yikes! It was a nicer experience, walking around town, as up until now, it has seemed very quiet but town was packed with people and I didn't feel as if I was walking in a bubble anymore. As I passed people, I was aware of their voices, although I had no idea what they were saying, I could tell the deep male voices apart from the women's. I could make out parts of what shop assistants said to me and all in all it was a nice experience. Usually I don't like the town centre because it is so noisy but today it was nice and quiet. Perhaps my hearing aids have over amplified sounds beyond what is normal for everyone else?
Sounds I heard in town
* People's voices (mostly indecipherable) as they passed.
* Footsteps, particularly high heels.
* Cars passing.
* Various beeps from machines in stories.
* The sliding doors were squeaky.
* There were many others, but what was noticeable was the overall sense
of the environmental sounds, I didn't feel surrounded by silence.
I've got a huge headache, and the magnet site feels odd, a bit like it's burning so I'm going to take a break now.
It was much colder this morning, frost had settled upon the cars and so I ventured off to Longton Nature reserve to investigate the birds. Investigate being the word an elderly gentleman used when he spotted me stood stock still by the water, waiting for something. "Investigating the birds, are you?" I think he said. I replied that I was listening out as I had a cochlear implant. I'm not 100% sure I heard everything but the gist of it was: was it under my skin? Was it very strange? It was at this point I heard what sounded like something dive bombing. Turned out to be a gaggle of mallard ducks bullying each other and ducking beneath the water. Their wings made a soft 'whomp whomp whomp' noise in the air, and I watched a single goose squawk loudly and impatiently as it proceeded to chase after a green/black duck. I'm not sure I heard the splashing water clearly but I must have heard something as every time I heard something, I looked up and saw birds, ducks and geese. It was pretty cool, in both the literal and figurative sense of the word.
Once I'd heard enough of the ducks, I headed down the path. It surrounds a huge pond and leads back on itself to a car-park. This part of the visit was more or less silent. I was relieved to note that my feet made quiet steps, and that the leaves sounded nice and crisp if they were dry, and squelchy if they were muddy. I kept peering into the trees and all of a sudden came a really clear twitter. Looking up, I saw a black bird which flew as soon as it was spotted. A little further down the path another sound, high pitched but different. I looked around and saw a bench and on that bench was a robin! It chirped and then flew off. It was so lovely to hear such a piercing sound so clear and loud to me, as I've always had to concentrate to pick them out. I think the sounds were 'normal' but perhaps it it just 'high pitched' and at the same pitch? I know birds have different sounds so I think repeated visits will help sounds to come out more. At one point I actually jumped because a bird flew out in front of me and in doing so made the oddest shrieking noise. I was aware from where I stood, that if I looked out into the far ends of the pond, I could make out the ducks disturbing the water and air around them.Returning to the car-park took me past a road, up to that point, the experience had been silent with pinpricks of sounds. The cars seemed to fill the air with a low hum that increased and decreased in volume as they passed. I highly recommend a similar experience to others that have been switched on. I spent yesterday bombarding myself with music and quite complex noises, so it was intriguing to detect and actively look for simpler sounds in the environment.
This afternoon I tried out the opposite environment, I went into the town centre to get some early Christmas presents plus a birthday present for a pal. Plus stickers for my class, I'm back at school tomorrow, yikes! It was a nicer experience, walking around town, as up until now, it has seemed very quiet but town was packed with people and I didn't feel as if I was walking in a bubble anymore. As I passed people, I was aware of their voices, although I had no idea what they were saying, I could tell the deep male voices apart from the women's. I could make out parts of what shop assistants said to me and all in all it was a nice experience. Usually I don't like the town centre because it is so noisy but today it was nice and quiet. Perhaps my hearing aids have over amplified sounds beyond what is normal for everyone else?
Sounds I heard in town
* People's voices (mostly indecipherable) as they passed.* Footsteps, particularly high heels.
* Cars passing.
* Various beeps from machines in stories.
* The sliding doors were squeaky.
* There were many others, but what was noticeable was the overall sense
of the environmental sounds, I didn't feel surrounded by silence.
I've got a huge headache, and the magnet site feels odd, a bit like it's burning so I'm going to take a break now.
Comments
Post a Comment