Thank you so much for your emails. One email today touched
my heart one made me laugh and the rest gave me strength to carry on writing my
blog. Thank you again.
A wonderful writer someone I have such high regard for told
me today she reads my blogs. When I read her work, she has such an impact on me
that is much needed and for her to say she takes time to read my blogs is
amazing. Thank you, dearest Nancy.
So, today, it’s lunch time and the sun is shining but it’s
really cold outside. My Husband has been working at home this morning but left
to travel an hour away just before lunch time. I always get anxious of him
travelling he’s so brave. He’s meeting his boss today for his review. His
review takes over two hours… heck, how? Haha. I’m not from that world so I guess
I’m not even going to try to find out.
You know when you think you are a day further into the week
so the weekend is closer and then you learn you are actually one day out and
the weekend is in fact further away? Yep, that was me before.
Do days really go faster when you get older? I think years
do. But the days seem so long still. I remember when I was at boarding school I
so badly wanted home time to come around. I hated school. It was cold and scary.
The beds were itchy and thin carpets were on top of bear boards. Then there
were the exposed floorboards that creaked as someone passed our dormitory during
the nights. Oh, even then I couldn’t sleep. We had, at least rumours told us, ghosts,
I think the first school, she was called the grey lady and the pink lady at my
next school. The pink lady was in the wash room that was so far away from any
voices and far too far for my liking to have any screams heard.
It was up to me and my best friend from school Mandy to do
the weekend washing. For us girls and the boys. We even had to match all the
boys socks up the ones who had their names sewn into them. Then, lay the
matching socks in a neat pile, on their beds. We did the cooking for them too
at weekends. At tea time anyway, they came to our part of the so-called house
and ate their food after a day out somewhere whilst we washed dried and even
ironed. I have written before about how the boys had a football area and a
field then indoors they had a games room and we had a girl’s lawn, where the washing
line was, haha, and a cracked old carpark with a chalked hopscotched section. Oh,
and some wooden benches to sit on. Inside we had a TV room where the
housemother sat. and wait for it, smoked… Gosh, that so wouldn’t be allowed now
days, would it? I mean, smoking in England is not allowed even around adults in
public places let alone where there are children. As for girls doing the
washing and cooking? Hmm… It would be boys now and girls would be doing a course
on engineering. Smile…
My Husbands school he was invited to the heads office many
times for a drink of whisky before his school day… hahahah. It’s not really funny
but more like shocking… Funny thing Hub loves whisky still.
Our first school where Hub and myself met, had nothing
outside apart from an old treehouse that was so old one day someone fell
through the roof of it. Still though a hammer and nails it was good to go… We
also had a stone pipe. God knows what once flew through it, but it ended up in
our play area for us to crawl through it. I don’t remember many of us doing
that oddly enough. Then Hubs Dad who was on the board told our head that it was
shocking that we had nothing to play on inside or out, so a rocking horse was
provided that used to be my Husbands and outside Hubs Dad and his pals made a pyramid
from logs. I have written before that was where Hub and I as children used to
kneel down thinking we couldn’t be seen, have a quick innocent kiss and run
back to play with our pals in the school grounds. There was a seesaw made that
was a long log with handles on the end. Gosh, it was so dangerous. Especially when
one of the kids used to jump off from a high and whoever was on the other end
would come slamming to the ground. There was also a hammock and all these
things were build on concrete. To get to them, you went down a hill that had
nettles growing knee high. Our first
school was an old Victorian house full of steep steps and an enormous what I guess
we would all call an orangery, now days, again steps without a rail to hold
onto something that just wouldn’t happen now days. But, friends of mine
including Hub are really confident with steps and so on and I reckon it’s
because of school. Hubs second school was the same where as mine was a bit more
modern. Not in furniture and soft furnishings but buildings. Having said that
the girl’s lawn didn’t have a rail and there were about five or six steps to get
onto it. But the rest of the school was quite safe. Just the house staff we had
to watch out for. And I am amazed that some of them haven’t had their names in
headlines as they head to court.
I really hope that the
few boarding schools that remain for VIP’s, have now changed to when I had to
go many years ago. I know that private ones will be fine, they have to be, but
in those days schools for children who were either blind or like what I was,
partially sighted, they weren’t good. Now days most children with visual impairments
go to schools for every child. And they make allowances or changes for the kids
who need it. Then I do wonder how much freedom do those kids have? We sadly
live in a culture of suing society now. I have heard of children who at break
times have to stay in doors or stand next to a classroom assistant. That isn’t inclusion for sure more like
exclusion!
I know that Guide Dogs and the RNIB do a lot of work to make
sure our kids are included in every day school and I for one am glad that there
are fewer schools now for children with either no vision or poor vision. It’s
bad enough not being able to see properly or at all, but to also not have your
parents at the end of a school day is cruel. It certainly leaves some people
with terrible effects throughout their lives.
I wish I could write blogs that showed people that those of
us without sight or who have poor vision who’s eyes just don’t work, our brains
do. I also wish I could show people that we are just like them. Seriously,
these courses that people go on to show volunteers just how to so call walk
with us, oh, I cringe. I would love to
run those courses because I wonder if three things, one some of the people who
go on these courses actually run as soon as they are over, as they have put too
much responsibility on their shoulders and two, those who do the courses how
much information do they take in? in my opinion/view, those I know who have
gone on the courses, are the worst people to walk with. My friends who haven’t been
on the courses, who sometimes forget to tell me if there is a step, this is if
I’m not with my dog or cane, are so better to be with, why? Firstly, because
they are natural. We feel normal when with them. I don’t want to be different
to them and I don’t want my friends to think I’m different to them. My friends often
say they keep forgetting I’m blind. Good, job done. And when I know my friends
are relaxed, I am. If I think they are tense because they are trying to
remember everything they were taught, then I can’t take in the day and time
with my friends.
The basics are great to know. For example, let us know which
way the car is facing, always a good thing… put our hand on the back of a seat,
so we know which way to pull it out from the table letting us know without
showing us the table where it is, and which way the seat is facing. And, just
say if it’s a skinny gap to get through and if steps ar up or down and if there
are more than one… if a parent walks with their child or partner hand in hand,
they know how to get through gaps or crowds so we are the same as you. Just walking
with you.
The third reason I would like to run one of these much-needed
volunteer courses is because I want to let you know if it’s just our eyes that
don’t work, really the rest of us does.
I have a couple of
friends whenever they take us anywhere they always want to park just outside a
door of where we are going. Why? We can walk, as long as they are happy to let
us hold onto their arm as they are not too fussed about us having our dogs with
us… otherwise we wouldn’t need their arm. If we are going to a busy town then I
understand we need to be outside a door it would help so much but not so much
for a quiet place I love the walk from the car to the door, I mean, it’s
normally about a two-minute walk… the funny thing is, we are fifteen years
younger than them. Perhaps they are
stressed or worried about the responsibility of walking blind people… well, you
are not walking us, we are walking for ourselves and if we trip unless you have
not told us about a step, it’s our fault and if we do fall we are not going to
take you to court. You may fall, I mean, you are getting on a bit, haha,
imagine if I was to say that to them? “You best park close to the door because
I don’t want you to fall or for your Arthritis to inflame. Or, for your heart
to be overworked.”” We wouldn’t say that. I do wonder why we have to be thought
of as different. I mean one day, you could have poor vision or no vision at
all. Most people these days are not born with poor eyesight, they develop it
later on in life, and I know you wouldn’t want to be treat differently!
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