June 16, 2006

Mrs Zeds wants to be a midwife.

But - as is typical of anyone associated with Zeds - she's not having much luck.

She's passed all her exams and all that, but Scouseville is the only area of the country where there isn't a dire shortage of midwives, so it's literally a case of dead (wo)men's shoes.

In the meantime, though, in order to keep her mind active and to give her extra options (both for general employment and in midwifery, should such a skill be an added asset) she's been learning sign language.

Tomorrow, she takes an exam (I should know which exam, but I don't, obviously, because it doesn't directly involve me *cough*) which will hopefully result in a certificate to recognise all the hard work she's put in over the last year.

In preparation for the test, she spent yesterday morning at one of our local colleges having a voluntary refresher session with her lecturer, who is deaf and dumb.

Mrs Zeds and three other students spent three hours talking, debating and even joking entirely in sign, with not a word, groan or mumble spake.

Until the end, anyway.

When their completely deaf and dumb lecturer said, out loud: "Good luck on Saturday morning. It's been a pleasure working with you all."

After a few moments of stunned silence, one of them said: "You didn't tell us you could speak."

To which the lecturer replied with a smile: "Well, none of you ever asked."