The Story So Far...

Well, It's been 42 hrs 50 minutes since the experience began and yes this is the first time I've had a chance to sit and write my blog!! It has just been so busy and to reiterate what Lucy has said on her blog, I AM ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED!!!

So I thought I'd pick out a few of the "highlights" (or possibly some "Lowlights" of the experience so far)....



THE TELEPHONE CALL (Friday , approximately 4.15 pm)

Well... only a few minutes into my experience and I'm in the office when HORROR the telephone rings and I'm the only one there to answer it! For a second I paused and asked myself "do I answer or not?". I decided (either bravely or stupidly given the amount of time I'd been using the communicator - not sure which) to take a chance and have a go at answering it. I quickly fumbled around trying to remember wher I'd stored my telephone phrases, found the page on the communicator, grabbed the telephone receiver, fumbled around again trying to remember how to turn on the speaker phone and finally (just in the nick of time) answered the call!! By this time I was quite stressed out. However, I managed to find the appropriate messages and fortunately the member of staff who had called me responded quite well to be fair - she wanted to put another call through but somehow during a long pause while I was mid message building, we got cut off! I'm not sure what happened but I'm pretty sure she DID NOT put the phone down on me! A few minutes later the phone rang again and I answered, again. This time it was reception asking if they could put a call through (presumably the same caller). This time I reluctantly said "No" as by this time I really didn't feel profficient enough to go through with it. Afterwards I felt so guilty and rushed round to reception with my communicator to apologise. The receptionist understood - I can only hope the caller did and I whole heartedly apologise for my incompetence and any inconvenience caused!

I think the telephone is going to be a difficult situation to master but I do want to try! I will practise today and try telephoning my dad!



THE TRADESMAN (Saturday morning)

I have been very surprised by different reactions to the communicator. On Saturday a tradesman came to the house. He had visited only a week before and had dealt with me as a speaker. I was very surprised that suddenly his manner was quite different. Although polite, he spoke to me with a louder voice, slowed down his speech and generally seemed to use much simpler language. He also turned to James (my husband) quite a few times instead of talking to me. I thought "I'm still the same person I was last week, the only difference is that I am using an electronic voice!". He was a very pleasant guy and I think he was unaware of this change of approach. However, it left me feeling nervous about other people's reactions.



THE ARGUMENT

Well, yesterday morning James and I had a minor disagreement! Trying to get your point across in a heated situation when you are using a communicator is extremely difficult and frustrating as the person (speaker) you are 'arguing' with has the upper hand. I tapped away furiously but just couldn't get my point across fast enough. Also when the other person is all fired up to argue their point they're not going to wait for you to get your point across. I ended up feeling extremely frustrated, angry and upset!



CHRISTMAS SHOPPING & THE PUB (with Bruce, the college website guy)

Yesterday afternoon Bruce came to do some filming for the college website. He had already been to Lucy's house so it was interesting to catch up on how things had gone there (see Lucy's blog). He told me that it had been very positive so I felt less nervous about going in to town and using the communicator. We did a bit of filming and talking about my experience so far (this should be on the college website http://www.natstar.ac.uk/ soon!) then went into Kidderminster. We managed to do a bit of filming of me buying some wrapping paper from a market stall but couldn't do any filming in major high street stores due to permissions. However, I still managed to use my communicator to purchase some vouchers from a leading computer games store and make a purchase from a leading ladies fashion store. We then went to my local pub and Bruce filmed me ordering drinks. To my relief people treated me pretty normally and some e.g. the market trader, seemed interested in what we were doing. I managed to give out one or two cards out with our background information on it. All in all an ok experience.



THE CHRISTMAS DO (Saturday night)

Last night we went to my husband's work Christmas do! I was especially nervous as I hadn't met any of James' colleagues before and was worried they would find it difficult to talk to me! It felt slightly strange to start with and some people commented on how it affected the conversation e.g. "The pauses feel awkward.. you feel like you need to fill them" and several people said they were aware they were slowing down their speech and doing a lot more gesturing than usual even though they were aware I had no problems understanding them. I thought it was good that they were aware of this and were reflecting on the experience themselves. A lot of people introduced themselves to me and seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing and why. Having the display on the communicator was useful in this environment as the music was very loud so the speech could not be heard. However, I had to be careful I didn't make my message too long as the beginning would disappear off the screen. This was a bigger problem with prestored messages about Star Appeal. I try to use shorter messages for everything else - you really change your language and prioritise what you say a lot more!

Every one was extremely generous and I managed to secure a bit more sponsorship! They even put on a raffle in aid of the Star Appeal! I stood up to make the draw and put my communicator up to the microphone to tell everyone a bit more about the appeal etc. If any one had said I would have had the confidence to do that I would not have believed them! We raised another £64 towards the appeal. THANKYOU TO EVERYONE for your warmth and generosity!!



... well, that's enough of my ramblings! I am going to have a well needed rest. I feel mentally and physically shattered today!!