My buddy doesn’t care

Friendship.

When times are rough, it is something that can be realised, discovered or lost.

One friend, my dancing buddy, has been most forgiving of the silence.

Colouring-in for grown-ups

A while back I mentioned changing my zebra stripe Nucleus 5 processor covers to tiger stripes, by colouring in with a waterproof marker.

Last weekend, my waterproof markers got another work-out.

Save the last dance

I tend not to blog about the things I’m disappointed about, as I try to stay positive and put them behind me.

It’s why there was never a blog about the group anniversary dinner I went to a week and a half after switch-on.

I had a great night, and coped OK with most of the group discussion, even though the restaurant was very loud.

What I'd been disappointed about was the music.

Music improvement for CI users (the Bionic Ear Institute)

I never used to know East Melbourne all that well, but I seem to be spending more and more time there!

The little pocket I'm spending lots of time in is known as Melbourne's 'hearing precinct'. It includes the Eye and Ear Hospital, the Melbourne office of Cochlear and the Bionic Ear Institute. There's more to it than that – it also includes the offices of my surgeon, and nearby is the hospital where I had my operation. There are probably a zillion other 'hearing' connections I haven't discovered yet, but these are the ones I know of so far.

It sounds really corny but I get so excited when I see the street sign for Bionic Ear Lane! I peer down it excitedly, half expecting Professor Graeme Clark himself to come scuttling along, deeply focused on another amazing brainwave of his. 

Stranger danger!

‘Don’t talk to strangers!’

They drilled that into us as kids, didn’t they? Our parents, teachers, older siblings … I still hear their voices in my head.

As we became adults, we developed the instincts that let us choose which strangers were OK to talk to. And then we were able to go one step further and decide which strangers we wanted to talk to.

Waiting for Godot!

Over the weekend, Jase and I went and saw Waiting for Godot, the two-act play famously described as one 'where nothing happens – twice'.

I studied this play at university and it remained a favourite of mine for much the same reasons as everyone else – you can read into it what you will, and apply its symbolism to your own life. (Let's describe it as a high-brow version of Dr Seuss' Waiting Place, for those unfamiliar with it!)

Piano score

One of my favourite all-time quotes is by Victor Hugo. He said:
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent."


I've been very silent on this blog about what music actually means to me. And should I tell you my complete musical 'story', you'd be reading for days. ;-)


Let me just say that there are some childhood dreams we leave behind, and others we are tied to for some inexplicable reason. For me, one of the dreams I couldn't leave behind was my desire to pursue the piano.

Elevator capades

My dearest work colleagues, and anybody else who works in my building … did you ever see me 'texting' somebody while in the lift, or fumbling around with some settings on my mobile phone?

Sorry to say, but I was bluffing.

Hunger for sound

The office I work at is far too quiet.

It’s not, really. I mean, all the sounds I heard today, on my first day back after the six-week journey, were amazing. It wasn’t so long ago that I was longing for these simple sounds. Elevator commentary. Kitchen chats. Bluff-free conversations with my colleagues. Problem-solving via face-to-face chats instead of carefully drafted emails.

I heard all that today.