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Tuesday, 3 April 2018

DIARY OF MIDDLE CLASS SIGHT HEARING BY FIONA CUMMINGS @FionaPefi


Today we have something that is much needed for all sorts of reasons. Something I have missed so much for the past six months. Something that calms me down and gives me what I need. Something I really hope will stay.

Sun.

 

 I used to say to my Husband I would love to live in Sweden…. At this point I must tell you, I have never been there. He always said to me, it’s too dark which I found so funny coming from a person who is blind. But I know what he meant. Dark as in winter. In those days we got seasons in England. Four per year. Now there are two. Winter and summer. Last summer was really lovely we got five out of seven really nice days in a week. But our winters are lasting half a year now. And they are truly depressing just as I wouldn’t like all year to be full of sun. There’s nothing cosier than to sit in front of a fire with the snow or rain beating down on our windows. Feeling all warm and toasty and with the knowledge that there is a glow from not only the fire but an orange lit lamp! But six months of it?

 

So, it’s 14 ° out there, I say out there as it’s not warm enough for me to sit in our garden yet but here in the conservatory, it’s warm.

 

My Husband is back at work he has had loads of time off because he had to use up his holidays before April. I think he has only been at work eight weeks this year.  But now it’s all go. Into his new roll loads more work for him for sure.

 

My Son is in our gym… a messy garage. It really does need sorting out. Everything is too heavy for me to move and that is the question, where to move it. It’s mainly garden furniture and until we clean the back yard with the pressure washer, we are not putting anything out there.

 

I’m going to get my sitting room decorated at the end of the summer. I know this seems crazy as we are not even the start of the summer yet, but the guy we are getting the same one who did our staircase and landing, is fully booked until then. Right now, it has wall paper which my Husband hates so it’s coming off. I personally love paper. It’s homely but my Husband is practical and wants paint. So, back to the dreaded paint shop. This time what colour? Well I have thought and thought and as I have said before, I am forgetting colours and my idea of colours isn’t my neighbor’s idea, and certainly not my Sons idea. Same name on the tin but I get totally different descriptions. I realize that colours is indeed a matter of visuality what the person sees, like art, you look at a picture and depict what you make of what it’s meant to represent. I suppose I only learned that since I have lost my sight and it didn’t come immediately.

 

If you remember my kitchen, I wanted a very pail orange like a dish of orange segments with cream poured over the top. Well, I got according to my Boy Wonder, peach and my friend said nectarine and another said a mustard then we had banana, lemon and finally mid orange. So, what the heck I have ended up with I really don’t know and have learned not to care. The stress isn’t worth it. The best and most complimentary description was it’s very Mediterranean looking. Sounds nice, right? Haha,

 

So, I think for my sitting room, I will go with what I call, a dark apricot. I have black sofa’s and a black piano and the wood around my white marble fireplace is black. So, I feel a warm apricot will look nice.

 

It’s just getting it now. Stress dot com. I write dot rather than., because my Bloggets who have screen readers wouldn’t get the joke.

What do you mean what joke?

 

The start of the year has been full of stress for us as a family. Firstly, with life, then my Husbands job and now our Son. Loads going on.

 

Even down to a gift for Hubs Dad’s birthday everything I suggest I’m told he won’t like, so everything my Husband suggests I ask him when will he use that? I mean, he’s 80. He doesn’t really have hobbies apart from his caravan. He was so grateful for something we bought him for Christmas, but we can’t get him that again. It was clothing. He gets the same thing every year from us. It’s practical and quite easy for us to get. A bottle of whisky and a fleece jacket which he loves. It’s something he wears all ear. Until it’s time to buy him the next one. Bless him.

 

I wanted to go and see him for his birthday but have been told that’s impossible too because of well, stuff. So, I think a nice birthday card will be sent.

 

My friends Husband who took ill last week is out of hospital and he’s fine. And remember last year a lovely Blogget who had heart problems, and she was so ill I really feared the worst, well she is doing amazing too. So, all good there.

 

I’m going to attempt to write this love story today, my dear friend Louise said she can’t imagine me writing this as she thought it would be my autobiography that I would try to write firstly or children’s stories. Well, hold onto that thought as it still could be. Personally, I can’t see me having success with a love story, it’s so not me but as a respected author has asked me to do this, I shall try as I trust him. After he reads it, he may be asking me to scrap the idea. Haha. I love a challenge, well, a writing one.

 

I have a huge cut on my forehead. It’s so painful. I bent down yesterday and hit my head off a worktop in my kitchen. I haven’t done that for years. Well, two years. Again, that is something you learn. When you first start to lose your vision it’s something that you do so much of. But now I have learned a little more about the blind world and how people manage. I have learned to listen for furniture for example. I know that sounds silly I’m even learning to look out for open cupboard doors. There’s nothing worse than walking into one of those especially one that is head height. The corner is perfectly positioned to stab you in the face. If you are as tall as I am that is.

 

Tips on how not to knock your head on something like furniture whilst bending? If you can bend at the knees, this will keep your head straight. Personally, I hear where the furniture is, but if you are still learning that, then before you bend, put your hand out to feel how far you have before you hit something. Then bend slowly. How do I listen for furniture? The air changes. It becomes quieter. Or if it is tall furniture not to walk into it, the air becomes warmer as in a cosy sound. Oh, it’s so difficult to describe unless you start to really take in your sounds. If you have sight, this is really hard to do because the natural thing to do is look where you are going. It’s not that my hearing is better than someone who can see, this is a myth, it’s just I use my hearing like you use your vision. If you are out and about, and you are coming up to a wall, the wind or breeze will stop. If it’s a tall wall. You will be protected from the wind. Or at least sound of cars in the distance behind the wall.

 

If there is a parked car on the path, something I beg you drivers to think about before doing so, as most times we have to go off the kerb onto the road to get back on the path. This obviously is dangerous because the on coming cars may not see me as the parked car is blocking me. But most times I can hear when I am coming to a parked car as again the breeze only blows chest level. Below that, there is no air. As the car blocks that. And blocks any sound it’s weird now I’m trying to explain. You know when you start something and you end up asking yourself why did you bother? Oh, shall I delete all the above?

Naha.

 

My Son is talking to me whilst I’m writing this. All about how much protein he should be eating per day and how many followers his friend has being a vegan and his muscles how large they are right now… So, forgive me I shall go and try to be interested in his conversation. When he talks to his Dad they have interesting chats about the universe and politics. Me, I get muscles and protein. He has just informed me he’s middle class because of his Dad. Hahah. Well Hub will be happy to know that.

 

Well people write to me and say they enjoy insights into my world, you have certainly got that today. I write as it happens. Smile. OK a talk to the Boy Wonder and then some housework then cooking tonight’s meal and finally I will try to write the start of my love story. Then I have an article to write for an online magazine. Oh, and finally, my Son has asked me to think about what to buy for his girlfriend for her birthday coming up in a few weeks. But not what to buy from me, but from him? Hahahahahaah. His middle-class upbringing hasn’t taught him how to buy gifts I guess.

 

     

 

 
 

 

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