LeanneBennett.com

I have almost no voice.

You don't realise how important a voice is until you don't really have one.

I had some surgery a few months back that affected my throat, and my voice has never been the same. As my voice is now rough and very quiet, I struggle to be heard some days. And it's hard.

Today was a bad voice day. It happens. I managed to do what I had to do at work, but I've had to repeat myself many times today, both in person and on the phone. And then in person again when I got home, because I'm harder to hear sometimes after a long day at work.

And well-meaning people often ask me if I have a cold and tell me I sound 'terrible'.  I understand their concern and their kindness, but it's hard sometimes to be told just how badly you sound.

I don't know if my voice will ever completely come back. (Some days are pretty good, and others are quite bad, so it's hard to know.) And the doctors I've seen about it aren't sure either -- they're doing tests to see if they can help, but we're at the beginning of that process. I'm coping, and most days I'm okay with it, but sometimes...

It's really hard when you can't be heard. 

So this is my 'voice'. And on my blog people can 'hear' what I have to say. Even if it's only a few people, writing here gives me a way to say very clearly whatever I want or need to say.

So, to anyone reading this, thanks for 'listening'. :-)

I had to do a job this afternoon onsite, so I was out of the office. I haven't been out of the office much recently so I was looking forward to it. However, my voice was quite hoarse today, so I figured I'd just have to be careful how much I spoke, in an effort not to make it worse.

So I get onsite and the guy I was meeting was someone I'd done work for before. But I'd forgotten that he doesn't hear that well. I said a couple of things, and he mentioned to me that he his hearing loss to me. Oh dear. What could I do?

Cue 4 hours of me trying to speak and him trying to read my lips. It was definitely interesting!

We managed but it was a bit of an ordeal for both of us. And we did discuss it several times and just had to laugh about it.

Oh well, at least he was a very good sport about the situation, and we managed to get the job done. So I'll call that a good day. :-)

I recently got an iPhone 4S. 

Now to be honest, I was perfectly happy with my iPhone 4. I saw the blurbs and bits about the 4S and, even though it was very nice, it didn't make me want to upgrade. Until...I saw...Siri. IN ACTION.

My husband got an iPhone 4S before I did. He was trading up from a 3GS, so it was definitely worth it for him. I looked at his phone and thought, "Yes, it's very much like mine." And then he started to play with Siri. 

I know that a lot of people are already thinking, 'Dweeb', but you don't understand. I NEED this thing.

As I've written previously, my commute is quite long. Even after my 'Geographical Cure' move closer, it's still a long way to work and back. And I quite often drop off and pick up my husband on the way to and from. Plus I have childcare to think about as well. This means I need to stay in touch, on the go, on the move, long before I arrive at my destination or points in between.

So I NEED Siri. 

And it is Siri I need. I've tried other voice recognition programs. Either they didn't work at all, or they didn't understand me, or they didn't work with my headset, or usually, any and all of the above.

So I got myself an iPhone 4S. And it's wonderful! And it has Siri.

So now I can text, email (although Siri refuses to read my emails to me because I have too many in my inbox -- my bad! However she will happily send an email.), call, look up contacts, set reminders and so forth all on the go. I can let my husband know when I'll be arriving, check on my boys to see if they've arrived home and are okay, let childcare know when I'm running late -- it's great!

There's just one problem. I'm too American for British Siri, and I'm too British for American Siri.

I started out with British Siri but he didn't get me at all. I was repeating myself 15 and 20 times, and still he'd say, "Leanne Bennett, I don't understand that." *sigh* Very disappointing.

So I mentioned this to my husband, and he replied, "Of course, he doesn't understand you. You should be using the American one." Oh! Okay.

So I changed to the American setting. Now admittedly, American Siri is much better, but she still misses here and there, sometimes several times in a row. And I've figured out why -- my pronunciation is often too proper for American Siri. (No offense to Americans, especially as I am one, but these folks over here have us beat, hands down, in the pronunciation game.)

Today, for example, I was trying to text my husband to say when I'd be picking him up: "5:40 p.m." 

Siri reads me my message back to me, saying something like: "I was for Jim."

I try again: "5:40 p.m."

Siri: "Hi 4GS."

Huh?

I try again: "5:40 p.m."

Siri: "I'm not sure what you said there."

I try a few more times and she misses a few more times. 

After calling her a few rude names, which I'm guessing she didn't hear, since she didn't answer, it hits me: I'm saying, "Five For-Tee Pee Em". This is my apparently posh-speak for 5:40. Fine. For me, at least. However, what Siri needed to hear was, "Five For-Dee Pee Em." Ameri-speak. Ahhhhhh, okay.

So I tried it.

And Siri immediately responds: "5:40 p.m." (pronouncing it 'For-Dee', just like I had) 

Hooray! She got it! So all I have to do is speak a little less carefully, and drop my end consonants where possible, I suppose.

Siri: "Shall I send it?"

Me: "Yes!"

Siri: "I'm sorry, Leanne Bennett, I didn't get that."

*sigh* -- Well nobody's perfect. But (when I speak 'properly' for her) Siri is pretty darn good. I just have to be careful to remember to speak her (American) language.