Week 24/2025: Hearing trials and a day off
Week of 9 June 2025
Holidays and hearing
This post is wholly researched and written by me. I do not use AI in my writing. I will always bring you my stories in my real human voice.
A day off
Thanks to the people who make public holidays, we had Monday off for the King’s birthday holiday which isn’t the current king’s birthday but is the birthdate of no one in particular.
According to 7 News, until 1936, the monarch’s birthday holiday was celebrated on the monarch’s actual birthday, and had been since 1748. After King George V died in 1936, the UK decided to pick a permanent date and they picked a date kind of close to KGV’s birthday on 3 June because it’s summer and they’d have nice weather for the birthday parade.
Or, because it’s England, maybe a better chance of having nice weather.
So I guess Australia, except Queensland and WA, just copied whatever the UK did since their monarch is technically our head of state and I guess it’s the last public holiday between Anzac Day and Christmas (unless you count those funny little regional show days dotted all over the place in Tasmania), so yeah, okay.
It would be cooler to have it on the Winter Solstice day though.
But it’s a day off, I’ll take it.
Thanks, Kingie.
Hearing trials
This week I went back to the audiologist for my first hearing device trial.
A quick recap about this. My audiologist suggested hearing aids might work as a way of better managing my hyperacusis—which means I hear and react more strongly to sounds that don’t bother most other people— and my tinnitus, which has been steadily getting worse and is driving me up the wall.
The idea is that these hearing devices, hearing aids, if you like, are set to take the edge off the noises I react to without quieting quieter sounds, or leaving any gaps in my hearing, which could cause my brain to ramp up the tinnitus even more.
It sounds like a very delicate balance to have to set up.
I had this one from Wednesday until Monday, and it was hard. The first day I struggled with keeping the devices in place when I was wearing a mask with ear loops. Especially on my right ear, which has some weird shape and it kind of squishes up when I wear a mask, so trying to keep a hearing aid in place was impossible. I ended up with about five hair clips trying to keep the mask strap in place and it still didn’t work!
Day 2
On Day 2 I had to bring out the intense duckbill mask with the head straps because the earloops were so irritating. I ended up having to go back the audiologist to get the devices adjusted because the little ear piece things still kept falling out. More adjustments over the weekend and, of course, when it came to wearing my glasses, it just didn’t happen. Neither the glasses or the devices sat properly.
And I really don’t think they even did anything to settle my hearing.
So we’ll see how the next one goes next week.
Back to back
As well as all of this, just to make things a bit more fun, my back injury which moved into my hip seems to have become something that other people I’ve described it to have said ‘sciatic nerve’.
Great.
Walking is painful. Standing is painful. Sitting on some chairs is painful and others are not. Sitting on the floor is not painful. Lying in bed is not painful. But I believe the recommendations are not to lie in bed all day. So I’m doing my exercises, some stretches that I think should be okay and don’t hurt, and I have appointments with the doctor and the physio lined up for next week.
Habit tracker
Existing habits
- Go outside first thing (7 days): 6/7
- 15 minutes morning exercise sequence (7 days): 5/7
- Hip exercises (5 days): 4/5
- Walk (7 days): 2/7
- Walk 8,000 steps (7 days): 4/7
- 9.00 shutdown & dim lights (6 days): 4/6
- Evening routine (6 days): 4/6
New habits
- Fill water bottle in the morning (4 days): 4/4
- Carry a notebook with me when I walk (2 days): 1/2
- Mid-day journalling (7 days): 2/7
- Thinking time (2 days): 0/2
- Read aloud (7 days): 7/7
Summary of the week
Some positive things
I liked watching the waves on the beach on a winter’s day.
I found a free room to do my exercises in the middle of the day at work.
Getting ready for work on Wednesday, I thought there would be no chance of catching the 7.39 bus, and I’d have to catch the 7.57 that I hate because it’s always late and full of school kids. I checked the Metro app to see what time it was supposed to come, and the fancy new bus tracker was working for the earlier bus, which it said was still six minutes away. I had time to get to the bus stop and catch that bus without having to wait, and I avoided the ‘school’ bus. Yay!
I got access to a live streamed concert from one of my favourite bands and the time zones played nice so I could watch it.
What did I learn this week?
Bathos: a sudden change from a beautiful or important subject to a silly or very ordinary one, especially when this is not intended.
I googled examples and there were a lot from books, movies and tv shows I don’t know, but finally found this one from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
“You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.
“Why, what did she tell you?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t listen.”
Obviously, this was intended, because that’s how Douglas Adams writes. But I get the idea.
What did I notice this week?
When the cloud looks like the window.
What was the best thing this week?
I went with the LGBTIQA+ employee reference group from work to see the Queer As Art exhibition, HEAR US, SEE US, KNOW OUR NAMES.
Before this week I didn’t know anything about the queer artist collective, QUEER AS ART. I learned that their aim is to
- enhance the presence of queer visual art in the Tasmanian community and art scene
- counteract the isolation felt by queer artists and members of the LGBTIQ community in general
- support its member artists, established and emerging.
There was some fabulous art in the exhibition and a couple of artists I recognised from other exhibitions.
Here’s a couple of my favourite pieces.
What am I reading this week?
- Into the Woods by John Yorke
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- What is Poetry? by Michael Rosen
What am I watching this week?
- Masterchef Australia
- Resident Alien
- Doctor Who ‘Kinda’
- Stranger Things Season 2
- The Survivors
What am I listening to this week?
- Spacemakers Podcast Season 3
- Spacemakers Podcast Season 1
About The Author
