I have just remembered that I never posted the poetry I submitted as part of my final assessment for my Creative Writing module with the OU last year. I scored dreadfully, I have no idea why because personally I believe they aren’t too bad! They are about being visually impaired, the first takes a light-hearted approach, whilst the second portrays the darker side of being blind. Enjoy!
Mind’s Eye
I’d love to see your face again -
Your spots and wrinkles too,
To handwrite with a pen,
Or draw an entire zoo.
I think I would find it strange,
Taking in all the views,
I wonder if everything’s changed?
I really don’t have a clue!
Oh it would be nice to sit in bed,
And read a paperback book,
The Braille ones are as heavy as lead,
And where to store them, I’m stuck!
In my world everything speaks,
I’ve got gadgets and gizmos galore,
So being blind isn’t that bleak,
Honest, the deals not that raw.
I don’t have to see the gory things,
Like spiders, blood and sick,
There’s no pressure for me to spread my wings,
Or do anything real quick.
It would be amazing to see once more,
Even just for a day,
But I appreciate having seen before,
And I’m happy either way!
Line Count: 24
Cornered
Placed in the corner of a room,
They always think I need to be sitting down,
It’s my eyes that don’t work,
Not my legs I rage inside!
They all break into epic laughter,
At what I have no idea,
Invisible in the corner,
Unable to share in the joy.
I want to get up and go,
Go home or mix in the crowd,
But I’m too scared to move from the corner,
Because I can’t see what’s around.
The music begins to boom,
My ears are now blinded too,
Feeling more trapped in the corner,
I long for a knight in shining armour.
A muffled voice calls my name,
Relief, as I’m not forgotten after all,
I start a conversation,
But it turns out I’m just talking to the corner.
Line Count: 20
Total Line Count: 44
Monday, 15 April 2013
Saturday, 30 March 2013
Victa Weekend No.2
Last week I was at another Victa weekend and had another great time. I didn’t arrive until the Saturday morning, as I saw One Direction live in concert the night before. This meant I missed rock climbing, which I love to do, but at least it wasn’t an activity I haven’t tried before.
I was a bit gutted that as soon as I arrived I found myself on wash up duty, when I hadn’t even eaten the breakfast! Talk about bad timing! The first activity of the day was cup cake making and we had to work with someone we hadn’t met before, which wasn’t many people for me. I’m not really the baking type, but everyone loves to eat the raw cake mixture right?! Anyway, somehow me and my partner won the great Victa bake off and got £25 worth of iTunes vouchers each. This is lovely, only I don’t own an iPod, ipad, ifone or any Apple product, as they are way too techy for me!
I can only describe the weather as blizzard conditions, as we trudged out in the snow for aqua zorbing. I was quite excited about this activity, although scared at the same time. You are stuffed into an inflatable ball and pushed onto a lake where the aim is to try and stay on your feet and run around like a hamster! I didn’t really stay on my feet and had images of the ball bursting at any second with Calvin desperate to pounce on it, but it was good fun. A very strange feeling.
The evening was spent at the pub where we had a poor tasting meal in my opinion, but lots of laughs were had. When we got back to the centre, I pushed the boat out and stayed up until 2.30am. Usually I’m in bed at 10pm at home, call me a light weight or boring, I don’t mind!
Sunday was meant to be spent tandem cycling and white water tubing, but the snowy conditions meant they got cancelled. Instead we went to the Snowdome and did sledging on tea trays! I crashed a few times, rolled off a few times and got stuck halfway down the hill on occasion (I think from being too light), but this all contributed to the enjoyment.
The final night was spent doing awful karaoke and I was in bed by 11, as I fell asleep in the living room! Late nights and me just don’t mix.
Overall, it was nice to see people I had met previously, meet new lovely people and try activities I hadn’t done before. The atmosphere always has a relaxed edge, which makes the weekend even better. I’m running out of superlatives, you get my drift!
Fun fun fun!
I was a bit gutted that as soon as I arrived I found myself on wash up duty, when I hadn’t even eaten the breakfast! Talk about bad timing! The first activity of the day was cup cake making and we had to work with someone we hadn’t met before, which wasn’t many people for me. I’m not really the baking type, but everyone loves to eat the raw cake mixture right?! Anyway, somehow me and my partner won the great Victa bake off and got £25 worth of iTunes vouchers each. This is lovely, only I don’t own an iPod, ipad, ifone or any Apple product, as they are way too techy for me!
I can only describe the weather as blizzard conditions, as we trudged out in the snow for aqua zorbing. I was quite excited about this activity, although scared at the same time. You are stuffed into an inflatable ball and pushed onto a lake where the aim is to try and stay on your feet and run around like a hamster! I didn’t really stay on my feet and had images of the ball bursting at any second with Calvin desperate to pounce on it, but it was good fun. A very strange feeling.
The evening was spent at the pub where we had a poor tasting meal in my opinion, but lots of laughs were had. When we got back to the centre, I pushed the boat out and stayed up until 2.30am. Usually I’m in bed at 10pm at home, call me a light weight or boring, I don’t mind!
Sunday was meant to be spent tandem cycling and white water tubing, but the snowy conditions meant they got cancelled. Instead we went to the Snowdome and did sledging on tea trays! I crashed a few times, rolled off a few times and got stuck halfway down the hill on occasion (I think from being too light), but this all contributed to the enjoyment.
The final night was spent doing awful karaoke and I was in bed by 11, as I fell asleep in the living room! Late nights and me just don’t mix.
Overall, it was nice to see people I had met previously, meet new lovely people and try activities I hadn’t done before. The atmosphere always has a relaxed edge, which makes the weekend even better. I’m running out of superlatives, you get my drift!
Fun fun fun!
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Olly and One D
Last month I went to see Olly Murs at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham. There’s something about Olly when you see him on TV that says he’s a nice guy, but to be honest I didn’t have very high expectations of his concert prior to going. His current album is good, although not amazing and when you are a solo artist, it is much more difficult to command the stage. I like his music though, so thought I would give him a try.
To my pleasant surprise, I really enjoyed his show! He came across as a very genuine, down to earth, cheeky chappy. You could tell he was loving performing. Olly not only sang and dance, but played instruments too. I was very impressed and entertained throughout.
Last Friday, I saw another X Factor act, One Direction. I am fully aware of the fact that I am far too old to like the band, as everyone who knows me teases me for liking them, but their music is amazing! There are not many albums you get where you actually appreciate every song. I’m not going to lie, I was stupidly excited about seeing them at Birmingham’s LG Arena.
I am a bit of a concert veteran now, so thought I knew what to expect. However, nothing could have prepared me for the One Direction fans, who I can only describe as mental teenagers! Gigs are usually loud, but these girls took the word loud to a whole new level! The band weren’t even on stage and the fans were going wild at every music video played, even the adverts! I don’t know if it’s because I am at the ancient age of 24, but I was quickly finding the fans irritating and hoped they wouldn’t just scream through the whole concert, as I genuinely wanted to listen to the boys sing!
When One D came on stage, I was immediately disappointed. They must have turned the sound up to its maximum to account for the loony fans, which meant the vocals were drowned out and you couldn’t really understand what they were singing. The sound was better on the ballads, but every upbeat song was muffled. When the boys went to get changed they played a video and I have no idea what it was about, as the crowd just screamed all the way through it. I guess One D didn’t particularly need to interact with the audience with them going insane at everything, but I wish they had managed to say more than ‘Birmingham’ ‘we love you Birmingham’.
My conclusion was that the boys need a break and the fans need their heads’ testing! I can’t imagine what it must be like for them having to deal with those crazy girls 24/7. Sort of feel sorry for them! I thought I would love their concert, only I don’t think I’ll be rushing back until their fans grow up. Still love their music of course.
I’m next seeing The Big Reunion Tour in May. At least the fans there should be my age, I am so excited about being able to re-live my youth!
To my pleasant surprise, I really enjoyed his show! He came across as a very genuine, down to earth, cheeky chappy. You could tell he was loving performing. Olly not only sang and dance, but played instruments too. I was very impressed and entertained throughout.
Last Friday, I saw another X Factor act, One Direction. I am fully aware of the fact that I am far too old to like the band, as everyone who knows me teases me for liking them, but their music is amazing! There are not many albums you get where you actually appreciate every song. I’m not going to lie, I was stupidly excited about seeing them at Birmingham’s LG Arena.
I am a bit of a concert veteran now, so thought I knew what to expect. However, nothing could have prepared me for the One Direction fans, who I can only describe as mental teenagers! Gigs are usually loud, but these girls took the word loud to a whole new level! The band weren’t even on stage and the fans were going wild at every music video played, even the adverts! I don’t know if it’s because I am at the ancient age of 24, but I was quickly finding the fans irritating and hoped they wouldn’t just scream through the whole concert, as I genuinely wanted to listen to the boys sing!
When One D came on stage, I was immediately disappointed. They must have turned the sound up to its maximum to account for the loony fans, which meant the vocals were drowned out and you couldn’t really understand what they were singing. The sound was better on the ballads, but every upbeat song was muffled. When the boys went to get changed they played a video and I have no idea what it was about, as the crowd just screamed all the way through it. I guess One D didn’t particularly need to interact with the audience with them going insane at everything, but I wish they had managed to say more than ‘Birmingham’ ‘we love you Birmingham’.
My conclusion was that the boys need a break and the fans need their heads’ testing! I can’t imagine what it must be like for them having to deal with those crazy girls 24/7. Sort of feel sorry for them! I thought I would love their concert, only I don’t think I’ll be rushing back until their fans grow up. Still love their music of course.
I’m next seeing The Big Reunion Tour in May. At least the fans there should be my age, I am so excited about being able to re-live my youth!
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Action Weekend
On Friday 8 March to Monday 11 March I went on an 18-25year old weekend with Action for the Blind. We stayed at the Windermere Manor Hotel in the Lake District and despite the arctic conditions, I had a great time.
The event was heavily subsidised by The Big Lottery fund, meaning for accommodation, food, activities and travel (they paid for my train ticket), I only had to pay a nominal £50.
I had never been away with Action before, so as with anything new I was a little unsure of what to expect, but prior to the weekend some of my anxieties were silenced, as they sent out countless emails. They also set up a Face Book group giving participants the opportunity to get to know each other before the event, which was a good idea, only I think everyone found it a bit socially awkward trying to interact with strangers! Personally, I was making judgements about people in my head, eyeing up who I thought I would like and who I wouldn’t!
Friday:
After sprinting through New Street with Calvin and the assistance guy to catch my ‘impossible’ connection, which I caught with a good minute to spare, I had quite a relaxing train journey up north. On arrival at Windermere several of us were on the same train and were promptly met by Action staff and escorted to the hotel.
Once everyone had arrived, brief introductions were made and one thing I learnt was that the staff made it very clear that they wanted everyone to be as independent as possible in order to gain the confidence to re-visit the hotel at a later date unsupervised. I am not sure why this panicked me, I am fairly independent and have been away with visually impaired friends to unfamiliar places loads of times, but something in those words caused me to secretly stress inside. We were split into small groups for a mobility session and I prayed Calvin was paying attention because the hotel felt like a rabbit warren to me! I had no intention of revealing this to anyone though, as nobody else was openly fretting!
Before dinner we had the chance to go swimming in the hotel pool. Some children were having swimming lessons at the time, so we were restricted to a small section and to my amusement we all just kept swimming into each other! A couple of us used the sauna afterwards where we met Mr Romania (one of the waiter’s at the hotel) who would become a somewhat strange, yet comical addition to the weekend.
After dinner, a quiz and bingo were organised in the bar. Somehow we ended up having a girl’s only team and named ourselves ‘The Ladies of the Manor’. I love a good quiz, well anything competitive really and was certain we were going to win...but we didn’t. Brushing that to aside, bingo was up next. I had never played Braille bingo before and embarrassingly spent the first game asking for help, as I couldn’t read my numbers not realising that I had the card the wrong way around! I had my card the correct way around for the subsequent games, not that it made any difference, as I didn’t win anyway.
Feeling slightly disgruntled at my losing ways (I am a sore loser), I went to spend Calvin in the designated spending pen before bed. As I opened the gate to put him back on the lead, he legged it! I must have been calling his name for what felt like an eternity, yet there was no sign of him. I had flashes of him being run over in my head and was ready to crumple to the floor when he casually comes sprinting back after his adventure. I think the hotel is well enclosed, but I didn’t know this at the time. Once I got back to my room (which thankfully I didn’t have to share), I am not ashamed to say I sat on my bed and allowed a few tears to roll down my cheeks, wishing I had never come on the weekend and longed to go home. It is one thing to look after yourself and another to look after a loon of a dog too!
Saturday:
At home the first thing I do every morning is spend Calvin. I was tempted to make him cross his paws until I could go to the pen with the other Guide Dog owner at breakfast time, but felt guilty, so ventured out in my pjs. I am not sure if Calvin had developed amnesia over night, but we spent ages trying to find our way out of the hotel. He kept taking me to people’s bedroom doors instead of the doors to get to the stairs and then outside. Being unfamiliar with the layout myself, I did feel a bit helpless. I am not sure when or how, but a set of stairs appeared through a doorway and I thought we were sorted. However, in my half asleep state we reached a door to go outside, which I don’t believe was the same door we used to walk to the pen. I had no idea where we were, I hit a railing and noticed that there were bushes behind it, so I told Calvin to just do his busy in the bushes whilst I kept him on the lead! I think this makes me a bad person, I was relieved I didn’t have to worry about losing him though!
That morning the weather was beyond grim and we were given the choice of either doing canoeing or rock climbing indoors. I got out voted, so canoeing it was. I think I enjoyed it on reflection, I definitely didn’t feel like I was having fun at the time with my hands and feet feeling like they were ready to drop off at any point! The weather didn’t bother Calvin who I heard caused a suitable amount of mayhem, I expected no less! Apparently he went for a splash in the lake, escaped into a field of horses and point blank refused to be put back on his lead when he was having a blast.
The afternoon was spent doing workshops on funding, campaigning and education. When I applied for the weekend I thought it was going to be all social, so was surprised by the timetabled workshops. Nevertheless, it was interesting to hear other people’s experiences that we perhaps wouldn’t have spoken about otherwise.
In the evening we went to a Chinese restaurant and went to the pub afterwards where half the group stayed for the remainder of the night and the other half, including myself went back to the hotel bar. It was nice that the group split in two, as I had the opportunity to talk to others I hadn’t had the chance to before. I made sure someone came out with me that night to spend Calvin before bed, just to ensure I didn’t have to go through the previous night’s trauma! Of course it was fine this time though.
Sunday:
I had figured out that they close the doors late at night (3 sets between the stairs and my room) and leave them closed until a certain time in the morning, which I think may have baffled Calvin and me the day before. So now I had that all worked out, I had no problems navigating my way around the hotel and can stop boring you with that! The morning was spent doing a hand massage workshop and then we had a long workshop on ‘the wonderful world of work’. We had two options in the afternoon, to either go for a walk ‘on the wild side’ or stroll into town. I wasn’t really up for letting Calvin get muddy, so made the slightly selfish decision to go into town.
Although initially hard work to begin with, I really enjoyed working Calvin in a new place and especially on our way into town. You can’t beat the feeling of striding out down the street. Calvin and I stopped at every curb to wait for the others to catch up and see which way to go next. I wasn’t even walking at full speed with him and still we must have been walking four to five times faster than everyone else. We went into a little boutique shop, which had lots of inspirational quotes printed on various items to buy (I will put my favourite at the bottom of this post) and then collapsed in a cafe aptly named ‘Lazy Daisy’. I can only describe the hot chocolate I had as heavenly! It was regular hot chocolate with vanilla, cream, marshmallows and I even got a chocolate spoon to stir in and it melted away! I’m not sure if I appreciated it more because being a dedicated athlete and all that, I don’t really have chocolate these days or whether because it was so bitter outside, the hot drink was exactly what I needed. Either way, it was lush!
After dinner was disco and karaoke night. Personally, this was my favourite activity. By this time in the weekend we all knew each other much better, the conversation flowed more easily and we could generally have a good laugh. I was always going to do karaoke, but wanted a few people to go first. I ended up doing Barbie Girl with one of the male participants as my Ken, only I think he got stage fright or something, so it was more like a solo. If you fancy a giggle, one of the girl’s recorded it and posted it to Sound Cloud just click here.
Monday:
We had a technology workshop in the morning, which confirmed my impatience of touch screens as we had the opportunity to try out different tablet devices. We were all on the same train home, getting off at various places to catch our respective connections. All in all it was a hectic, but enjoyable weekend where I met some genuinely lovely people.
Action for the Blind run various residentials throughout the year for different age groups. I would definitely recommend them if you are looking for a new experience or want to meet new people.
‘When it rains, look for rainbows and when it’s dark, look for stars’
The event was heavily subsidised by The Big Lottery fund, meaning for accommodation, food, activities and travel (they paid for my train ticket), I only had to pay a nominal £50.
I had never been away with Action before, so as with anything new I was a little unsure of what to expect, but prior to the weekend some of my anxieties were silenced, as they sent out countless emails. They also set up a Face Book group giving participants the opportunity to get to know each other before the event, which was a good idea, only I think everyone found it a bit socially awkward trying to interact with strangers! Personally, I was making judgements about people in my head, eyeing up who I thought I would like and who I wouldn’t!
Friday:
After sprinting through New Street with Calvin and the assistance guy to catch my ‘impossible’ connection, which I caught with a good minute to spare, I had quite a relaxing train journey up north. On arrival at Windermere several of us were on the same train and were promptly met by Action staff and escorted to the hotel.
Once everyone had arrived, brief introductions were made and one thing I learnt was that the staff made it very clear that they wanted everyone to be as independent as possible in order to gain the confidence to re-visit the hotel at a later date unsupervised. I am not sure why this panicked me, I am fairly independent and have been away with visually impaired friends to unfamiliar places loads of times, but something in those words caused me to secretly stress inside. We were split into small groups for a mobility session and I prayed Calvin was paying attention because the hotel felt like a rabbit warren to me! I had no intention of revealing this to anyone though, as nobody else was openly fretting!
Before dinner we had the chance to go swimming in the hotel pool. Some children were having swimming lessons at the time, so we were restricted to a small section and to my amusement we all just kept swimming into each other! A couple of us used the sauna afterwards where we met Mr Romania (one of the waiter’s at the hotel) who would become a somewhat strange, yet comical addition to the weekend.
After dinner, a quiz and bingo were organised in the bar. Somehow we ended up having a girl’s only team and named ourselves ‘The Ladies of the Manor’. I love a good quiz, well anything competitive really and was certain we were going to win...but we didn’t. Brushing that to aside, bingo was up next. I had never played Braille bingo before and embarrassingly spent the first game asking for help, as I couldn’t read my numbers not realising that I had the card the wrong way around! I had my card the correct way around for the subsequent games, not that it made any difference, as I didn’t win anyway.
Feeling slightly disgruntled at my losing ways (I am a sore loser), I went to spend Calvin in the designated spending pen before bed. As I opened the gate to put him back on the lead, he legged it! I must have been calling his name for what felt like an eternity, yet there was no sign of him. I had flashes of him being run over in my head and was ready to crumple to the floor when he casually comes sprinting back after his adventure. I think the hotel is well enclosed, but I didn’t know this at the time. Once I got back to my room (which thankfully I didn’t have to share), I am not ashamed to say I sat on my bed and allowed a few tears to roll down my cheeks, wishing I had never come on the weekend and longed to go home. It is one thing to look after yourself and another to look after a loon of a dog too!
Saturday:
At home the first thing I do every morning is spend Calvin. I was tempted to make him cross his paws until I could go to the pen with the other Guide Dog owner at breakfast time, but felt guilty, so ventured out in my pjs. I am not sure if Calvin had developed amnesia over night, but we spent ages trying to find our way out of the hotel. He kept taking me to people’s bedroom doors instead of the doors to get to the stairs and then outside. Being unfamiliar with the layout myself, I did feel a bit helpless. I am not sure when or how, but a set of stairs appeared through a doorway and I thought we were sorted. However, in my half asleep state we reached a door to go outside, which I don’t believe was the same door we used to walk to the pen. I had no idea where we were, I hit a railing and noticed that there were bushes behind it, so I told Calvin to just do his busy in the bushes whilst I kept him on the lead! I think this makes me a bad person, I was relieved I didn’t have to worry about losing him though!
That morning the weather was beyond grim and we were given the choice of either doing canoeing or rock climbing indoors. I got out voted, so canoeing it was. I think I enjoyed it on reflection, I definitely didn’t feel like I was having fun at the time with my hands and feet feeling like they were ready to drop off at any point! The weather didn’t bother Calvin who I heard caused a suitable amount of mayhem, I expected no less! Apparently he went for a splash in the lake, escaped into a field of horses and point blank refused to be put back on his lead when he was having a blast.
The afternoon was spent doing workshops on funding, campaigning and education. When I applied for the weekend I thought it was going to be all social, so was surprised by the timetabled workshops. Nevertheless, it was interesting to hear other people’s experiences that we perhaps wouldn’t have spoken about otherwise.
In the evening we went to a Chinese restaurant and went to the pub afterwards where half the group stayed for the remainder of the night and the other half, including myself went back to the hotel bar. It was nice that the group split in two, as I had the opportunity to talk to others I hadn’t had the chance to before. I made sure someone came out with me that night to spend Calvin before bed, just to ensure I didn’t have to go through the previous night’s trauma! Of course it was fine this time though.
Sunday:
I had figured out that they close the doors late at night (3 sets between the stairs and my room) and leave them closed until a certain time in the morning, which I think may have baffled Calvin and me the day before. So now I had that all worked out, I had no problems navigating my way around the hotel and can stop boring you with that! The morning was spent doing a hand massage workshop and then we had a long workshop on ‘the wonderful world of work’. We had two options in the afternoon, to either go for a walk ‘on the wild side’ or stroll into town. I wasn’t really up for letting Calvin get muddy, so made the slightly selfish decision to go into town.
Although initially hard work to begin with, I really enjoyed working Calvin in a new place and especially on our way into town. You can’t beat the feeling of striding out down the street. Calvin and I stopped at every curb to wait for the others to catch up and see which way to go next. I wasn’t even walking at full speed with him and still we must have been walking four to five times faster than everyone else. We went into a little boutique shop, which had lots of inspirational quotes printed on various items to buy (I will put my favourite at the bottom of this post) and then collapsed in a cafe aptly named ‘Lazy Daisy’. I can only describe the hot chocolate I had as heavenly! It was regular hot chocolate with vanilla, cream, marshmallows and I even got a chocolate spoon to stir in and it melted away! I’m not sure if I appreciated it more because being a dedicated athlete and all that, I don’t really have chocolate these days or whether because it was so bitter outside, the hot drink was exactly what I needed. Either way, it was lush!
After dinner was disco and karaoke night. Personally, this was my favourite activity. By this time in the weekend we all knew each other much better, the conversation flowed more easily and we could generally have a good laugh. I was always going to do karaoke, but wanted a few people to go first. I ended up doing Barbie Girl with one of the male participants as my Ken, only I think he got stage fright or something, so it was more like a solo. If you fancy a giggle, one of the girl’s recorded it and posted it to Sound Cloud just click here.
Monday:
We had a technology workshop in the morning, which confirmed my impatience of touch screens as we had the opportunity to try out different tablet devices. We were all on the same train home, getting off at various places to catch our respective connections. All in all it was a hectic, but enjoyable weekend where I met some genuinely lovely people.
Action for the Blind run various residentials throughout the year for different age groups. I would definitely recommend them if you are looking for a new experience or want to meet new people.
‘When it rains, look for rainbows and when it’s dark, look for stars’
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
The Last Leg
I am not usually the type of person who enjoys comedians on TV, as I find the humour forced and the gags scripted. However, The Last Leg on Friday nights’ has become essential TV watching!
It is presented by Australian disabled comedian, Adam Hills who is a single leg amputee. He is joined on the panel by disabled journalist Alex Brooker and fellow comedian Josh Widdicombe and together they review the news of the last seven days. The Last Leg originally began when the Paralympics were on last summer, but I only caught it the odd time, as I was much too focused on watching the actual sports.
I particularly like their #isitok feature where the public can tweet in some politically incorrect questions. If you don’t have a life and in on a Friday night like me, catch it on Channel 4 at 9.30pm. It is seriously funny!
It is presented by Australian disabled comedian, Adam Hills who is a single leg amputee. He is joined on the panel by disabled journalist Alex Brooker and fellow comedian Josh Widdicombe and together they review the news of the last seven days. The Last Leg originally began when the Paralympics were on last summer, but I only caught it the odd time, as I was much too focused on watching the actual sports.
I particularly like their #isitok feature where the public can tweet in some politically incorrect questions. If you don’t have a life and in on a Friday night like me, catch it on Channel 4 at 9.30pm. It is seriously funny!
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Talking Freeview + Recorder
I thought I pretty much owned every talking product I needed to get by in life. Speech software for my computer, Talks on my mobile, talking scales, talking colour detector, talking alarm clock and of course my sat nav speaks too. However, only by chance did I hear that you can make your TV talk as well!
We have had a Freeview recorder for a good few years now and I guess it was a little frustrating not always knowing what was on TV and unable to play programmes when home alone, but I can’t say I was overly bothered. When our current system began failing, it just seemed logical to purchase the TV Onics talking Freeview + recorder.
Now we’ve had it for about a month, I wish I had gotten one sooner! It is actually great to know what’s on TV, set my own recordings, watch what I want when I want, have the ability to pause, fast forward and rewind TV knowing where I am in a show and best of all it was relatively simple to set up and is dead easy to use.
There is also a button on the remote control that allows you to turn on and off audio description. This is something I have always had an aversion to when I have briefly seen it in action, finding that it can give too much information and irritating that someone is talking over a programme. Nevertheless, I have been trialling it out on shows, such as Home and Away and Holby City, as well as the odd film and it’s growing on me. I am learning to laugh it off when it gives descriptions, such as ‘heavily tattooed Heath is doing such and such’, as I already know he has tattoos and the detailed information doesn’t really contribute to the plot. I suppose they are trying to help you build up a picture in your head of individual characters though. Audio description isn’t available on all programmes, but a surprising high amount seem to have it and you can know which ones have and haven’t from the shows synopsis.
No product is perfect and a couple of features that let this one down is that you can’t view your planned recordings in one go, the talking lady interrupts your programme to let you know when she’s starting to record a programme and more often than not it doesn’t just come on when you press the power button! Despite these minor issues, the benefits certainly outweigh the negatives.
The TV Onics talking Freeview + recorder can be purchased from RNIB, click here for more information.
We have had a Freeview recorder for a good few years now and I guess it was a little frustrating not always knowing what was on TV and unable to play programmes when home alone, but I can’t say I was overly bothered. When our current system began failing, it just seemed logical to purchase the TV Onics talking Freeview + recorder.
Now we’ve had it for about a month, I wish I had gotten one sooner! It is actually great to know what’s on TV, set my own recordings, watch what I want when I want, have the ability to pause, fast forward and rewind TV knowing where I am in a show and best of all it was relatively simple to set up and is dead easy to use.
There is also a button on the remote control that allows you to turn on and off audio description. This is something I have always had an aversion to when I have briefly seen it in action, finding that it can give too much information and irritating that someone is talking over a programme. Nevertheless, I have been trialling it out on shows, such as Home and Away and Holby City, as well as the odd film and it’s growing on me. I am learning to laugh it off when it gives descriptions, such as ‘heavily tattooed Heath is doing such and such’, as I already know he has tattoos and the detailed information doesn’t really contribute to the plot. I suppose they are trying to help you build up a picture in your head of individual characters though. Audio description isn’t available on all programmes, but a surprising high amount seem to have it and you can know which ones have and haven’t from the shows synopsis.
No product is perfect and a couple of features that let this one down is that you can’t view your planned recordings in one go, the talking lady interrupts your programme to let you know when she’s starting to record a programme and more often than not it doesn’t just come on when you press the power button! Despite these minor issues, the benefits certainly outweigh the negatives.
The TV Onics talking Freeview + recorder can be purchased from RNIB, click here for more information.
Friday, 11 January 2013
The Year of 13
One thing I do love about blogging is being able to look back and appreciate all of the events that have happened. I often wonder if I am too honest on here, but if I sugar coated my life, I would only create false memories and an inaccurate account of real life to others. I always find myself embarrassed when people say they read this blog, the most unexpected people say they do, yet there’s something quite exciting about people taking the time to see how my life is progressing.
2012:
Well, despite not making the London 2012 Paralympics, which meant so much to me, I am still going to proclaim that it has been one of the most amazing years ever!
Competing in the Olympic stadium against the best athletes in the world has to be my highlight of the year by far! Then sitting in that same stadium for both the Olympics and Paralympics was just epic. Having the games here, in our country, is something that will never be forgotten.
Regarding my athletics ambitions, I have no intention of quitting just yet. I am more than satisfied seeing my name on the IPC World Rankings for 2012, stating that I am No.2 in Europe and No.21 in the World for the T11 100m and No.5 in Europe and No.21 in the World for the T11 200m.
2013:
I feel it is going to be an important year for me both academically and with regards to my athletics. I am finally going to graduate, which I am delighted about, but hope I achieve the degree classification that best echoes the hard work I have put in. Then with my athletics, I am not aiming for the World Championships in Lyon, as I am learning how the athletics system works (only athletes who are funded are most likely to be taken), but I have my own personal targets I want to achieve. To give you a bit of an insight, one will be to run the qualification standard for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealths, but that is as much as I am giving away right now. I mean I would hate to set myself up to fail...that’s not like me at all (winks)!
One thing I can tell you is that I have this terrible hunger to fulfil my dreams and you just know I am not going to stop until I no longer have to dream! Hell, I know loads of people think I am deluded, but it really doesn’t matter what others think, you can really do that cliché of doing anything you put your mind to.
A massive thank you to everyone who reads these ramblings and also to everyone who follows me on Twitter! May 2013 prove to be everything you hope for and more!
2012:
Well, despite not making the London 2012 Paralympics, which meant so much to me, I am still going to proclaim that it has been one of the most amazing years ever!
Competing in the Olympic stadium against the best athletes in the world has to be my highlight of the year by far! Then sitting in that same stadium for both the Olympics and Paralympics was just epic. Having the games here, in our country, is something that will never be forgotten.
Regarding my athletics ambitions, I have no intention of quitting just yet. I am more than satisfied seeing my name on the IPC World Rankings for 2012, stating that I am No.2 in Europe and No.21 in the World for the T11 100m and No.5 in Europe and No.21 in the World for the T11 200m.
2013:
I feel it is going to be an important year for me both academically and with regards to my athletics. I am finally going to graduate, which I am delighted about, but hope I achieve the degree classification that best echoes the hard work I have put in. Then with my athletics, I am not aiming for the World Championships in Lyon, as I am learning how the athletics system works (only athletes who are funded are most likely to be taken), but I have my own personal targets I want to achieve. To give you a bit of an insight, one will be to run the qualification standard for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealths, but that is as much as I am giving away right now. I mean I would hate to set myself up to fail...that’s not like me at all (winks)!
One thing I can tell you is that I have this terrible hunger to fulfil my dreams and you just know I am not going to stop until I no longer have to dream! Hell, I know loads of people think I am deluded, but it really doesn’t matter what others think, you can really do that cliché of doing anything you put your mind to.
A massive thank you to everyone who reads these ramblings and also to everyone who follows me on Twitter! May 2013 prove to be everything you hope for and more!
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