We’re both “normal”

We are both “normal”.  But of course you know that already, don’t you? 

We are however, talking about our hearing.  Received a phone call the other week which asked “anyone in the household over 50?” Here we go, I thought, what is this person trying to sell me?  It turned out it was a call from National Hearing Care and they were offering free hearing tests, and the young lady told me these tests were funded by the Government.  So we duly went down to the clinic to have our hearing tests done.

My turn was first and the audiologist explained what would happen.  I sat in a sound proof booth and a range of very soft high pitched noises are played through the head phones, with each ear tested separately.   Press the button each time I heard a noise, I was told.  The sounds were extremely quiet and got softer and softer, disappearing, then coming back again.  Did I miss the ones in the middle, I wondered?  At the end of my test the audiologist explained the results to me.  I was well within the normal range, with just a tiny bit of hearing loss, probably age related.  Whew……it’s good to be normal.

Then it was Robin’s turn to be taken away and shut up in the sound proof box.  Being an inquisitive soul, I asked the receptionist to tell me about the free hearing test programme, and where they got our details from.    It turns out that National Hearing Care is a commercial operation (from Australia) and the tests were not government funded at all!  She was horrified to hear that I had been misinformed by the call centre and contacted her manager straight away.  As for the telephone calls, these are randomly dialled through a computer programme, and the call centre staff speaks to those who answer their phone.   Only the initial hearing test is free of charge, and any further tests or hearing appliances come at a cost.  Just as well I made enquiries, I think.

Robin’s test came back within the normal range too.  So it is nice to know we are both normal.  The only deafness he suffers from is “marital deafness”, but then, don’t all wives have this complaint about their husbands?

 

Are you listening Robin?