alex-thynne’s ramblings and randomness microBlog

I find, as I have gained more friends from using email groups and skype, as well as joining organisations for blind and partially sighted people a disturbing fact that so many blind people are forced to live as virtual prisoners in their own homes when they live with family. Some younger people may not necessarily receive the support that some older blind people did, when they went to special schools, as the trend is towards inclusive education. The rehabilitation centre, or whatever you call it in Torquay has gone and with an ever increasing difficult economic climate, it seems that many of the societies for blind and partially sighted people are facing a threat to the continuance of many of their services, including the running of resource centres and facilities for teaching home skills to their clients such as cooking and other living skills. I am becoming increasingly concerned that newly blind people, and children blind from birth or at an early age will face an ever increasing uphill struggle in gaining skills for independent living.

When life ought to be improving for us, it would appear that the contrary may well become a reality in the near future. The problem is, I don’t see what the way ahead is.

Well since the last time I put anything in here, my sister Chris is now in Australia with her daughter in Perth. What a time to go out there, it’s Winter. Summer seems to be on its way to the UK at last, the month of May has been cold and miserable. my blind-catholics email list trundles along as it always does, it’s much quieter than it used to be, following the departure of a couple of members who most probably will end up in the liberal catholic church of America, or possibly another group, an offshoot of the old catholics. Maybe I should put different subjects into separate entries, but I can’t make up my mind yet whether or not to do this. Well, I’d better shut the machine down for a while to give the old girl a rest. Why a girl? Maybe the subject of another blog entry. Oh and while I’m writing, it is the last double feature episode of 24, which is broadcast on sky 1. The describer has to be better than the stand in we had to put up with last week. Well, that’s it for now but I’ll be back another time, if nothing else, to explain why a computer is female.

Well, I have to say that I really do enjoy facebook allot. There are too many blind people saying that it isn’t accessible, well it is, if you have a bit of patience with it, and if you decide to use the facebook mobile site. There are also a few groups on there that blind and partially sighted people have done to bring to the attention of the wider facebook community some of the accessibility issues still there. I find sometimes that the links don’t always work when I want to get within an application such as pet pups, and again, I have discovered that jaws version 9 is better generally on the site than version 10 is. It would be interesting to know how many of the jaws techies and geeks are on facebook and use other social utilities such as twitter, bebo, myspace, and so on.If anybody is really interested, I will post more on the groups I have joined on facebook, but until then, I hope if somebody reads this and wonders whether it is worth creating an account there, I would say yes it is. I started because my local pub has a group on there, the Carlton Tavern in Chester, and since then a number of my blind friends have turned out to be there. Don’t just stay within blink nation, try other social networking sites as you never know who you will discover are already on them who you come into contact with regularly via email lists and your various skype or messenger contacts. Have fun.

well it’s 2009, and it’s actually proper Winter weather. Dry, cold and often frosty by night. I used to love new year when I was in my 20’s and 30’s but it just doesn’t feel the same anymore. Allot of people I know didn’t’ go far or do much this time and stayed local or didn’t go out at all. I’m also not really a person that sets resolutions at new year as I don’t keep them. All I know is that I will do the best I can for my friends and be there if I’m needed. Today the catholic church in England and Wales celebrates the feast of epiphany, transferred from Tuesday. It is my sincere wish that I can bring Jesus to the people I meet in my everyday walk wherever that is. So until the next time I get around to writing something more substantial, possibly a rant, it’s goodbye for the present.

well I think it’s about time I put something down here. I attended the audiology department of my local hospital with my sister yesterday. She has a significant hearing loss and had to go there to have a second hearing aid programmed, she hasn’t had a second one before. What appalls me is that so many NHS trusts appear to deal differently with patients who have a hearing impairment. I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the way the staff dealt with my sister. The person she saw I thought was very helpful, compassionate and thorough with her. She now has a new world opened up to her, there are sounds she has never heard before and can now hear standard doorbells, something she had not been able to before. The latest digital hearing aids seem to be so much better than the analog ones she previously had, and the new digital ones can be programmed while she waits with the audiologist.

Well, my first attempt at a blog entry, and I write about someone else. I’ll think of something to say about me, the next time I feel an uncontrollable urge to put something down, so for now, take care anyone who reads this, god bless.