Stories

An Ear Full of Wax

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Last Friday, I woke up in the morning with my right ear muted. I had no idea what caused it – I only know that there was something wrong with it. Sound was really soft in that ear. I initially thought that it would go away after a few hours, but nothing changed. In the afternoon, I visited a doctor who had a look inside my ear and told me that it was blocked with wax. Strange. Especially since my left ear was clear, and I had been cleaning both the same way ever since I was young (using cotton buds).

He recommended that I visit the pharmacy to pick up some drugs to soften the ear wax in the ear so that it can be washed out. I listened to his advice, so on Friday night, the whole of Saturday and Sunday, I kept using the ear wax softener. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. There were occasions when yawning would bring temporary relief to my right ear, but a few seconds later, it was back to being muted.

I was getting really annoyed by it, so when Monday came around and it wasn’t any better than it was on Friday, I decided to pay an ENT doctor a visit. He plopped me down onto a chair after I explained the situation, and he turned on a monitor in front of me. First he stuck this microscope into my left ear to see if it was fine – it was. Perfectly clean. No traces of wax stuck inside my ear hole. At this point, I was thinking to myself – what if there was nothing in my right ear hole and it was just damaged? Would I have to spend the rest of my life being deaf in one ear?

Boy, was I relieved when he plugged the camera into my right ear to show me what he suspected it would be. And boy, was it disgusting. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the inside of your own ears before – for me, it was an eye-opening experience. I wouldn’t recommend you google it but I won’t stop you if you want to.

The doctor told me that my right ear hole was clogged, so he used a tiny vacuum to suck the wax out of my ear. It didn’t hurt, but man the sound was loud, and the feeling of the vacuum pulling the wax off the walls of the ear hole felt very uncomfortable.

After the whole ordeal was over (I think it took less than five minutes – shorter than the amount of time I had to wait to register at the front desk), it wasn’t clear that my hearing was back to normal. I had been so used to the muted right ear for the past three days that I think my brain just ignored whatever sound that was picked up by my right ear.

What a way to end the year (with another visit to the hospital). Heh. Since that day, I’ve decided to change my ear cleaning methods – no more cotton buds for me. Using your towel to wipe the outside of your ears after showering is good enough, apparently. So that’s what I’ll be doing from now on. Hopefully I’ll never have to experience a blocked ear again.

Music and Memories

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Today, I was wondering about how why music can evoke such vivid and powerful memories, so I did a quick search and found this article that I found very interesting. TL;DR: our brains are better at recalling memories when we have something to guide it with i.e. music. It is why we learn through songs as children (remember A-B-C-D?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHG2oizTlpY

One of my most vivid music-related memories – even though it happened so many years ago – was my first dance with a girl. It was way back when I was in GIS, at a school dance. Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On was playing while I was standing by the side of the hall, like a chump, working up the balls to ask my crush for a dance. I managed to do it halfway through the song, after the first chorus, so I only got to dance with her for the remaining half. I was elated that night. Probably the happiest I had ever been up to that point in my life. And now, whenever I hear that song, memories of that night come rushing back, and I can’t help but smile to myself like an idiot.

Another song would be Aaron Kwok’s Dui Ni Ai Bu Wan. I remembered loving the song as a kid. I sang along to the chorus (because I didn’t know any of the other words) every time I heard it on the radio or TV. But that’s not all. There was one time, we had some relatives over, and for some reason I had agreed to put on a show for them. I remember before the performance, I spent a few minutes in the bathroom styling my hair with a comb and some gel. I don’t know why I did it – I wasn’t even dressed nicely. I probably had on some home clothes or pajamas but it didn’t matter. My mom put the song on and I danced my heart out. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t good, but I received applause for trying.

Where’s your mama gone? Where’s your papa gone? Middle of the Road’s Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep evokes memories of a time when my late uncle was still around. He used to take me and my elder sister out all the time and we’d always be listening to songs on the radio. That song was one of the few songs we could sing along to. One of our favorite pastimes would be sitting through those drive-thru car washes. There was just something magical about high pressured water being blasted at you while you were protected behind glass. And then all the washers spinning around wiping the car dry. I also fondly remember watching those little orange balls spinning around at pump stations whenever he had to fill up his car with gas.

Isn’t it interesting how music and memories is an alliteration as well?

Cellphone Memories

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It’s hard to get lost anymore. I remember back in the days when we didn’t own GPS devices or have smartphones, finding a place you hadn’t been to before being such a daunting task. You’d have to ask for landmarks, which roads to use, and so on. You’ll even get traffic information to help you plan what time you should leave home. Last time we’d have to meet at a common point and convoy together to a destination. Now, we just look it up on the internet and send the address to people. They’ll find a way to get there.

Before cellphones, we’d have to schedule appointments using our home phone and head to the meeting point at the right time. If a person was late, there was nothing to do but wait around because there was no way to get in touch with them once they left home.

I remember making phone calls to home using a payphone in school to inform my mom I’ll be home late. Sometimes the payphone wouldn’t accept my coins and I’d have to run around scrounging for change from other people or the canteen. If the phone call was unanswered, I would have no other way to inform her.

That was solved when my parents got cellphones, but I remember they charged like a ringgit a minute, so calls would frequently cut off because I didn’t have enough coins. That was partially solved with phone cards. I don’t remember if they could be topped up or you had to replace them. Either way, most of the time I was stuck with coins.

I remember my first phone that wasn’t a hand me down – the Nokia 3310. Man, that phone was the shit. I think I used it for five years. Snake 2 all day, every day. I was also a fan of customization back then, with phone shells (you literally replaced the plastic of the phone, you didn’t use phone covers to customize your phone back then). I swapped batteries and even changed the LED colors once.

I guess you could say I’m a big fan of customization. That trait has carried on with me throughout my life, manifesting in different forms. Now it’s the homescreen for my Android phone, cosmetics for Dota 2 heroes and keycaps for my keyboards.

The first time I was mugged, I lost my Nokia 7610 – my first color screen phone. It was a hand me down from my sister. I only had it for about a week before the mugging incident. That event traumatized me for a bit (I was constantly looking over my shoulder every time I was walking in public and crossing roads so I didn’t have to walk past strangers). I liked that phone. I enjoyed listening to music and playing games on it. It made Chinese New Year gatherings less boring.

My first smartphone, the HTC G2, was stolen from me. People like my phones? Or thieves aren’t very choosy. I’m not sure. Fortunately my phones haven’t been stolen from me in a while, and I hope it remains that way.