Good Morning + what are you up to today and how is your weather

I had occasion to visit the E.N.T. department some years back. Before those with hearing aids were looked at by the doctors, the nurse lead patients aside and shone a light into their ears. I heard her say to a few people that the hearing aid was OK and that it wasn't any wonder they couldn't hear as well as they could with that much wax in the ears.

I'm sure that won't be the case with you Alan but the above was just brought to mind by your post.

Mrs Mal is profoundly deaf and has been since contracting meningitis as a child...she does remarkably well by lip-reading... most people never guess she has no hearing
I cannot hear sounds in the higher ranges like bird song etc and have a Specsavers hearing aid that is totally useless for the job of correction and sits in a drawer gathering dust

Well done Mrs Mal for handling the condition so well.

I'm OK with hearing (apart from tinnitus). Person to person I can hear with no problem but if I'm in a crowded room with lots of background chatter, I have trouble hearing people talking to me.

I'm similar to you Mart, in the pub sometimes it seems as though I can hear all the noise behind me but not what friends in front of me are saying.

Sunshine and showers promised later, 19°C

I once made the mistake of going to Specsavers and like you Malcolm, had nothing but problems with them.  I soon realised that the staff were dispensers and not audiologists - they simply did what the computer says with no ability to fine tune them to suit your unique needs.

I went to a local private hearing practice in 2017 and they sold me some Oticon aids costing £4,430 a pair on a month's trial. Whilst they were better that the Specsaver ones - the improvement was marginal and I returned them after 10 days and got my money back (after quite a fuss).

I have been a member off the Hearing Tracker Forum (https://forum.hearingtracker.com/) for a few years and have thereby kept abreast of hearing aid developments.  3 years ago Phonak, a leading hearing brand based in Switzerland, launched an aid called Phonak Marvel which was receiving virtually rave reviews and many positive posts on the form by members who had purchased them. It was one of the first to have bluetooth that would connect to an Android phone and had integral rechargeable batteries. Phonak tend to be ahead of the pack in technical developments but are not the cheapest. 

At that time the only outlet for the new model in our area was Boots Hearing who happen to employ audiologists, not just dispensers, and in Jan 2019 I went there for a hearing test and bought a pair of Marvel 90 aids costing £2,950. They were a revelation and for the first time I could clearly hear my mobile phone and the TV connecting via bluetooth. 

2 years later I need some adjustments as my hearing has deteriorated slightly - but covid lockdown prevented it and only now have I been able to get an appointment.

The Boots audiologist conducted a thorough hearing test and confirmed my hearing had deteriorate at high frequencies and that I need more powerful receivers (miniature loudspeakers) in my ears which she fitted FOC and retuned the aids to suit my current hearing loss.

It is early days yet to confirm the improvement - it takes a couple of weeks for your brain to adjust - but I can already hear better. So much so that when I met up with Libby after leaving Boots in a Solihull shopping centre they were conducting a fire alarm test and I could hear her talk to me against all that racket.

As an aside - I half expected to have to buy new aids - Phonak have brought out a much more advanced aid called the Phonak Paradise - but the audiologist was confident she could tweak my present ones to meet my needs. I have my fingers crossed but it is looking good.

Good morning - much cooler today and with rain forecast all day !!

Good morning - Sunny but cooler this morning. No rain is expected until tonight. Allotment later I expect.

morning all
its   like winter unbelievable after  all that sunshine

Sunny here but rain forecast later

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Good morning/afternoon/evening/night to all my forum friends.
It’s not too bad at the moment today at 17c here in Colwyn Bay North Wales.
Chance of lots of rain later though.
Yuck!


If you want you can look in at our live CCTV camera which is located just above our patio door, and see for yourself!
Looking down towards the sea:

Shared Live Stream | Nest

If the camera is off then please try later.
Wifey doesn’t like the camera on while we are snogging on the swing! 

Just Kiddin’! 

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Good morning - cooler again today and with heavy and persistent rain forecast all day !!

Good morning - Dry at the moment. It looks like the really bad weather that was forecast for around here hasn't materialised. Time yet I suppose.

Good morning -Cloudy and cool today with threatening rain

G'morning. It must be quite cool this morning the heating came on. It appears we had a lot of rain overnight but it is bright but cloudy at present.