I am amazed and delighted to have been nominated for a blogger recognition award.  How great is that?  I’ve been nominated by Laura Lowles at The Invisible Disability and Me.  THANK YOU, Laura.  Laura started her blog after being diagnosed with sudden hearing loss in her twenties.  Her blog posts cover a myriad of topics, including the fitting of her cochlear implant and experiences with it since.  There are also posters, links to useful organisations and much more besides.  You can find Laura’s blog here.

There are some rules for accepting the award, including saying something about why you started your blog and giving a tip or two to new bloggers.

I started More Than A Bit Deaf six months ago after about a year of indecision.  I have always loved to write and, since my hearing loss has worsened to really quite significant levels, I felt I had lots to say about different aspects of deafness.  A blog seemed like a good idea – in theory – but the idea of putting personal stuff on the internet was quite scary.  And could I cope with the technology?  People who know me know that I’m not the most computer literate person in the universe, but I got some books out of the library and had a go.

Actually there was more chance to it than the last paragraph suggests.  Do you ever make ridiculous pacts with yourself about whether you’ll do something?  One day in the “shall I, shan’t I” period I was driving home with the dog after our walk.  Turning into the High Street I said to myself “if there is a car parking space outside the library I’ll get the books on blogging” – and there was!  So now you know I am completely crazy and you’ll never read the blog again, but it’s true.

A huge thank you to the many people who have been so supportive of my efforts.  I’m very glad I plucked up the courage and wrote the first post.

Advice to new bloggers?  Don’t trust there being a parking space outside the library.  Seriously, I would say just do it.  What is there to lose?  In all likelihood you will make friends, find other fascinating blogs and really enjoy yourself.

You are also meant to nominate fifteen other blogs for the award.  I’ve failed dismally at this.  Before I started More Than A Bit Deaf I rarely read a blog and, although I’m rapidly finding other blogs I love and follow, fifteen is too much of a stretch.  So here is my list of blogs I’d like to nominate.

The Limping Chicken – the biggest deaf blog in the world, lays eggs every week day.

I’d never heard of Charlie Swinbourne’s blog, the Limping Chicken, until I started blogging myself.  I can’t be the only one, in fact I know I’m not the only one because my two closest hearing loss friends hadn’t heard of it either.  Charlie is a film-maker and journalist who describes the Chicken as a news and opinion website.  He is Deaf and grew up in a Deaf family.  Quite a lot of the content is about Deaf culture and that has been part of its appeal for me, because it is a world I know very little about.  But he also carries posts by adult-onset hearing loss people, like me, and indeed has included one of my own posts, for which many thanks Charlie.

If you want to know the news about the deaf world, and to be entertained and have your thoughts provoked – read the Limping Chicken.

Living With Hearing Loss

Shari Eberts is a US blogger who writes regularly about all aspects of living with adult onset hearing loss.  Living With Hearing Loss is less of a personal blog (although her own hearing loss story is firmly woven into it) than a series of very practical hints and tips on every situation you can think of.  Shari set up the blog as part of her ambition to act as an ambassador and campaigner about hearing loss.  She’s a role model for all of us.

Teresa Garratty’s posts on the Limping Chicken

So far as I can tell Teresa only posts on the Limping Chicken (??).  Her posts are often laugh-out-loud funny and specialise in a sort of cartoon format with lots of wacky illustrations.  Try “An article that’s not about the EU referendum thing – honest” or “The Ten Stages of Tinnitus” or…..any of them really.  Click here.

The Happiness Project

You either like self-improvement books or you loathe them.  I’m a sucker for some of them myself.  I avoid the ones that claim you can change your life completely in seven days but Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project isn’t like that – she focusses on things you can do over time to make yourself feel happier, more content, more fulfilled – however you want to describe it – including choosing and carrying through on challenging projects (like this blog was for me).  There is a blog (hence the nomination) but it is two of Gretchen’s books I particularly like (The Happiness Project and Happier At Home).  They aren’t written for people learning to live with hearing loss but I find that there’s a lot in them that is really helpful if you are.  We need positives to counteract the negatives more than most.

Lost in Lyon

Moving away from deafness now – I’m fascinated by the way that cultures so close to each other geographically and so similar in many ways can be so utterly different in other ways.  I find it a useful antidote to “we always do it this way” thinking.  Lost in Lyon is a blog exploring the myriad differences between a Brit mindset and a French mindset, seen through the eyes of Emily, a British woman who moved with her husband and family to a village near Lyon in December 2013.  It’s often funny, always interesting and very well written.  Find it here.

So thank you again, Invisible Disability, I’m pleased you liked More Than A Bit Deaf.

PS The rules are…..write a post…..acknowledge the blogger who nominated you…..give a brief story of how you started blogging…..give two pieces of advice to new bloggers…..nominated 15 deserving bloggers.  All done!