Please help I'm visually impaired Archives

Soundball Tennis at Shoreham is special

27th January 2017
by cliff

Soundball Tennis at Shoreham is special.

The normal arrangements are that it is an indoor sport, whereas we can enjoy it as an outdoor sport with fresh air, none of the noise associated with sports halls (squeaking shoes, screams from Badminton players, rock music from the climbers on the indoor walls, etc.)

We have found and initially we prefer the slightly firmer BUZZBALLS which re made in England as their flight is truer than the normal Japanese balls. We have since progressed via red balls, orange sot andgreen spot balls to the normal yellows.

The company making them work with 23″ rackets so so do we. We have found that the Japanese balls do not survive heavy usage particularly with the longer 25″ and 27″ rackets. For yellow balls we now use 27″ rackets.

We use the ‘orange ball’ court because it’s appropriate for the shorter rackets. Nowadays we use a full size court. Net height is set at 80cm.

For a video of the indoor version look at Metro, indoor Soundball

I set thus up because I wanted to be able to play at a court I could walk to from home and enjoy peace and quiet. By joining Sussex County Lawn Tennis Club as a member I could enjoy the club facilities at any time. Thank you.

Today we have two visually impaired players and three helpers. Most of us were starting tennis for the first time and nobody could see any of our mistakes.!

Two years on and our effective vision is much better and we are all fitter and healthier.

Come and join us.

My “Please Help” Card, It’s wonderful

30th August 2015
by cliff

My “Please Help” Card says “Please help. I’m visually impaired.” and it’s wonderful.

I no longer have to say anything about my situation, I show the card and ask my query as if I was completely normal.

Absolutely Adult to Adult – “I’m OK, you’re OK.”

I must give you my example from yesterday. I had booked two tickets for the Barbar v Samoa Rugby Union match at the Olympic Stadium and unfortunately my carer couldn’t make it. Do I go or not?

I have used my Yellow Card on many occasions and knew it worked but this would be extraordinary. From Shoreham By Sea to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, East London and return. Let’s see when I used it:

1. At Shoreham Station when buying my Travelcard,, just as an alert that I may appear slower than I am.

2. At Brighton Station when asking a station official time of the next train to London Bridge (as there are huge destination boards showing just that information.

BUY ONE NOW, click here.

3. At Bank Station to ask a DLR (Docklands Light Railway) official for a train to Stratford.”Next one, change at Canary Wharf”.

4. At Canary Wharf, a DLR railway cleaner for the next train to Stratford.

5. At Stratford, well you can see the Olympic Stadium but how to get there, I asked two PCSOs standing together, through the tunnel over there, right to the end and then into the Westfield Centre and take the escalators to the second floor”. (I wanted an Italian restaurant for some lunch. )

6. At the end of the tunnel I couldn’t make out thee arcade with the escalators, (actually I couldn’t see an arcade at all) so I asked another PCSO and he looked and then said “I could use a walk, I take you over there myself. ” straight to the escalators.

7. Up two flights of escalators and nothing but clothes shops, but no Italian Restaurant. I selected a shop selling expensive watches and asked and a delightful young man gave me a smile to warm your heart and said “Up there to the left is “Strada”.

Success. half way, time to relax a bit.

BUY ONE NOW, click here.

8. I showed the waitress my yellow card as I can’t read a menu.I had chosen an Italian restart as they always have Gluten Free pasta. But No. Not Strada. We settled on salad with cold poached salmon. Just right.

9. Out of Westfield was straight forward as all the stewards were directing people to the Olympic Park so my next use was with the first Olympic Stadium steward who then read my ticket and directed me to the Block I needed. It’s wonderful indeed.

10. Up the stairs into the Stadium and I realised my ticket was not up in the Gods but higher still. Pulled out my card to ask if there might be any empty seats and he immediately put me in row 30 rather than row 56!

Well the match was a trifle difficult as my “Blodge” more than covered the whole of the area of the rugby posts and if I turned my head to look at the screen the same problem occurred. I learned that I would be OK if next time if I sat in the expensive seats in the middle and also if I set up my smartphone to listen to the radio commentary.

AND so the return trip. I made a fundamental error I did not precisely retrace my steps from the stadium to the station.

11 and 12 got me over the bridge into the station.

13. Another PCSO got me on the Jubilee Line direct to London Bridge.

14. The last time I was in this part of London was before they built the Jubilee Line! I turned to a delightful passenger showing my card and said that I didn’t know the Jubilee Line and couldn’t read the Tube Maps. She explained that he train actually went direct to London Bridge. Her father also has AMD and I think she said that he runs ten K every day! Notwithstanding that I gave her my card so that I could introduce him to Soundball Tennis.

15. At London Bridge Station I went to the barrier staff to find out the platform no, of the next train to Brighton. What a fantastic trip.

This may not necessarily be what Brighton and Hove Buses had in mind when they decided to produce the Yellow Cards, but I wouldn’t have done it without the confidence their cards give.

So multiple thanks for the freedom the Yellow Card has brought me.

Thanks also to so many friendly and helpful people. What a lovely world we are fortunate enough to live in. AND they were all smiling.

BUY ONE NOW, click here.

………………………………………………….

September 2015

It’s so good my card wore out, so I’m having some made. I can give them away, give them to people who need them….. I might also sell some!

BUY ONE NOW, click here.

Oil and Water. Sighted and unsighted meeting

29th August 2015
by cliff

OIL and WATER? Sighted and the Unsighted

Are we troglodytes?

I think there is a natural collision which makes it difficult for non-sighted people to join and work with sighted people.

The differences that need to be circumvented:

travelling to a venue i.e. public transport plus walking or car
Getting to a regional meeting locally when the bulk of the public transport links to a hub, like a star formation whereas by car anyone can go across in any direction
counting out change
recognising a face more than five feet away
seeing a smile or a scowl, seeing a laugh
reading the minutes, accounts, letters etc in a meeting
making notes and diary entries
finding the toilets
pouring a glass of water, white wine or a gin and tonic or even milk into a white cup
completing a form
reading my debit / credit card details to key them in or to dictate them
reading non-verbal signs and body language
reading a noticeboard, a label, numberplate, bus tine-table

An endless list, all minor even un-noticeable and normally inconsequential..

Any one of these is taken for granted by the sighted and leaves the unsighted totally at a loss.

AND, my proposition, is that every instance gradually adds to the frustration until the pressure is too much or exhaustion takes over.

Either Explosion or Exhaustion.

……………………

September 2015

What a superb weekend, organised by the Macular Society. There were probably sixty ‘unmsighted’ people there.

Y you can relax in each others company because you largely have the same experiences and togther you can laugh about them. Also suddenly the ‘unsighted’ out-numbered the ‘sighted’.

Oh! The luxury of finding others who can read, but only three paragraphs. Then it’s trashed.

I hate the people who cannot write concisely, who pad everything out so it seems more important and the ones who write long inconsequential introductions.

Umpire for an hour or two once a month, trial basis, coaching provided

27th August 2015
by cliff

Shoreham Soundball Tennis

Umpire and two player volunteers needed
Coaching and racket provided.
an hour or two, once a month
On a Monday evening
We want to get better and to win some matches and tournaments.

We have difficulty seeing the ball, the racket and the net let alone seeing the lines so we need feedback, we need to know if the shot was in or out.

We provide our special balls and 23” rackets, using an orange-ball court.

Please call Cliff Jenkins on 07582 902 922, email cliffofyoolaa.co.uk@gmail.com or
Come and see for yourself
from 5.30on any Monday in September
at Sussex County Lawn Tennis Club, south end of Kingston Lane, Southwick, Shoreham by Sea

Shoreham Soundball Tennis started

14th May 2015
by cliff

Shoreham Soundball Tennis started on 15th June 2015 with our first coaching session.

The fabulous benefits of tackling Sound Tennis include:

Sharing the improvements and the frustration with others

Having a beer afterwards

Making new friends, all like-minded people

Joining in the fun of ‘away’ matches

Getting out of the house frequently

Trying something NEW

Improving Fitness

Improving Visual Acuity – stretching the brain

Losing weight

Helping others

Learning / relearning old skills – muscle memory

Opening yourself to further challenges

Sheer Joie de Vivre, Slf-confidence, and “I CAN”

So what are you waiting for?

AND It’s easy to play “Sound Tennis” if you’ve been a player no matter your standard. Besides nobody can see your goofs. (We’ve all got the same problem.) You’ll soon get into the swing of it.

Go online for ‘Sound Tennis Sussex’ on YouTube and you can see(!) how easy it is(?) Our oldest player is over ninety so there’s no excuse. In the video the first chapter shows B1s, so see them compete…. it’s almost unbelievable. (To keep it fair, they all wear eye-masks, no sneaking allowed.)

There are groups of Sound Tennis players all over the country enjoying themselves, so get out and find them. If you can’t, then email me through the “Contact Us” form and we”ll see how we can help you sort it out.

We also joined in the National Championships in Newcastle in May and are looking forward to more get-togethers including overseas activities.

Love 15

Cliff

Shoreham Soundball Tennis started on 15th June 2015 with our first coaching session.

TaRRa

Cliff

BTW Carers can play as well, so everyone can join in the fun.

What Music means for me

27th January 2014
by cliff

Mmmm!,So the Open University and Royal College of Music have launched the Lstening Experiences Database to try to understand the relationship between composers, performers and listeners.. I think that is much too facile. Take me for example….

NOW Listening to Scott Joplin piano rags. Three styles… The Stuart and Bradley James, the man himself and the music for the ballet Suite Elite Syncopations. All started by buying sheet music at a church Jumble Sale. Wonderful.

A crazy mixture of music experiences.

Now its WOAD...very modern. Powerful guitars.

1170 tracks on my tablet, 2200 on my main computer, most recently from Amazon and Spotify. Prior to that vinyl transfers to dpigital plus CDs.

Started with singing church music then learning to play the piano plus Scout campfires and Gang Shows plus the school choir (Walpurgis Night)

Winning piano competition …. Splfeggio. Marriage of Figaro TV broadcast from Big School.

My sudden interest inreacting to the ideaa of the database was caused by a brilliant concert. Berlin Philharmonic / Simon Rattle/ Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3 / Lang Lang. Four. Geniuses. Wonderful. The camera work was superb.
NOW listening to it (Prokofiev) and the studio sound is even better.

Also over the last three years ballet from the shoi…..Soshtakovich,Tchaikovsky, Katchaachurian, Stravinskiy, Fuare, Mikus, Delibes, and also Brubeck Linchbury

Then here is West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Mamma Mia! With each of these I became emotionally engaged.

Now Its Raining Men

TIMELINE

1947 Wind up gramophone with Puccini Madame Butterfly, One Fine Day. Then Sunday School and hymn singing starts. AND Frere Jacques, Sur le pant D’Avignon,
Allouette, gentile Allouette,
1948 Started to learn to play the piano, Schubert Mozart Chopin, Bach,
1952 Watched Mikado and other G&S a other amateur operetta’s
1953 Coronation marching bands plus later Military Tattoos and also Colliery Brass Bands,… The Post Horn Ga!lop.
1956 Stopped learning piano. Saw Ruxolf Nureyev dancing Le Corsaire.
1957 Mi!itary band for Queen Sout marchpast at Windsor Castle; Carol singing; Dancing g Rock and Roll,skip Jive; Country Dancing
1858, Week of Operas at the Alec, standing at the back.
1959 Abide with me. family funerals.
1966 Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring at our wedding; Vacationes enan Mallorca… Hava Nagula
1968 Rumania Circocilia and folk dancing
1976 Songs sung in Mandarin, extraordinary, so melifulous
1980 Singing the Marseillaise as we sail into a French harbours. Yacht club Dinner Dances for jive, rock and somtimes even a quick step, waltz.
2010 Found ballet again.Bright Stream, Spartacus, Le Corsaire, Concerto (BRB),
2014 Concert Simon Rartle , Lang Lang, Prokofiev Piano Concerto 3 with Berliner Philharmonic. Bought the down!oad from Anazon.

Stopped Spotify subscription.

Now Spirit in the Sky

Star Wars, Gladiator. Happy Feet animation ballet, Fantasia animation ballet.

Then there is exquisite playing eg Nigel Kennedy, Vanessa Mae, Kyung Wha Chung, Julian Lloyd Webber, Rachmaninov, Bernstein, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley,

And La petite Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, Esther Ofarim, The Carpenters, neil Diamond,

So for me music comes in all shapes and sizes. There are composers and performers and listeners. There are a!so extemporisers ( both jazz and church organ introits) and amateur performers, including karaoke, plus active, participating listenrs eg dancers,skaters and then sedentary listeners. People wander across a few, many or all categories.

My preference is now the combination of people interpreting music in all forms whether skating or stage dancing or ballet or The Prottopopovs, Torville and Dean, Kenneth Macmillan, Frederick Ashton, even the choreographers on Strictly Dancing.

For me for the future I need to crack, the problem 9f sheet music for my digital piano and / or to learn the auto-backing in the CDP 220 and create my own music.

NOW listening to Liebestraum by Liszt

AND the good news is tioday’s break-through because rather than waiting to try to get Musescore.org on my (Ubuntu) computer I decided to adopt a more classic approach by getting a music stand and drilling a hole through my desk so tht the music is directly in front of my eyes. I mmediately rang the RNIB muusic Team to request a copy of large print score for Brahms wltz in A Flat. Let’s see how I get on.

A look back at Snowdon.

27th December 2013
by cliff

It was only when I started looking at Google maps that I realised just how much of Snowdonia I have tramped across. The Glydyrs, the Carnedds, Tryfan and of course Snowdon. I remeber vividly one January, the gale-force blizzard we survived during my mountain-leadership course!

So fifty or so years on and with my poor eyesight I thought I’d better get there whilst I can still see. So the task was to get there, to see what I could climb and then to get back again.

My route was by train via, I think, John o’groats and all points west to Bettws-y-Coed and then by Sherpa bus to Pen-y-Gwryd. I stayed at the same hotel as Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensng used when preparing for their successful ascent of Everest. Indeed my route would take me directly above the cliffs that they practised on.

I was fully prepared and equipped for the worst weather and of course it was beautiful – I bought a hat!

Of the four paths from the car park at Pen-y-Pass, I selected the most southerly route as it was the most exciting and most beautiful and indeed the least used.

It was all just as I remebered it. Breath-taking, in more ways than one, Hard work and womderful mountains,

You climb up over and dowmn the Clwyds, at about 2700 ft, and then climb up again to Snowdon.

Starting from the Miners’ Track, I branched off and followed the southerly track. Iwalked up and climbed up over the Clwyds and along the knife edge ridge that I remeber so well. It was just as if I’d been there just last week.

In the event during the descent my thighs couldn’t cope with the jarring from several hundred missed foot steps and I limped down my escape path. I spent the next day hobbling and limping between the the bar, the garden and the restaurant on a abeautiful sunny day overlooking these gorgeous mountains. I marked out a flat route, a lap of about a thousand yards which I walked probably eight or ten times and gradually my legs recovered.

I duly returned home (not quite as tame as it sounds.)

An exciting trip to do on your own, maybe a daunting trip if your eyes are out of focus and you’ve lost your central vision. As Gavin a friend of mine says ‘Well. I took some photos and I can now see where I went’.

I have a wonderful shot of the knife-edge that I wanted to see again and of the raw beauty of these wonderful craggy mountains.

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS and even better for having done it all independently.
10th July 2013
……………………….
27th December.
Six months later I can now see that this expereience has worked wonders for my self-confidence, proving my self-reliance and restoring my self-esteem.
Cliff

………………………….

If this article has been of help to you, I’d love you to say thanks by making a small donation to JustGiving for the Macular Society. All the monies route directly to the Macular Society, particularly for research into a cure.
Thank you very much,
Cliff.

Age Related Macular Degeneration

28th August 2013
by cliff

Updated 28th August 2013 Still battling on. Suffered a couple of setbacks as the doctos gave me some rablets for High Blood Pressure and they may have been too successful as my eyes suffered. Nine months on my eyes may be recovering. Still I thought you might like this link to hear what an eyecare professional comment on the Macular society.

I also need to tell you taht I’m now taking 80mg Lutein each day and whether it’s actually working or whether it’s told my brain that this is a serious problem and needs to be dealt with i don’t know but it’s not as bad as when I initially had the HBP pills damage.

By the way my left eye developed Wet AMD.

Updated 02022011 Lutein. I read somewhere about positive effects of Lutein. The test cases used 20-39mg per day and got positive results. I’m fairly well built and I need to get a result so I’m taking 40mg per day. I need to clear my eyes fo the gunk if I can. It seems to be working as I’m back to reading the paper, in the right light of course and it’s easier to use the computer and the Kindle. I’m scheduled for another eye test in early July. I’ll report how we get on.

Posted 11012011 Age-related Macular Degeneration.

I found I was suffering from dry AMD about four months ago. I also have a slight void in the macular muscle which is distorting my vision.

My optician, well his lady assistant actually, picked it up and arranged a fast appointment with my optician / ophthalmologist, because he has an OCT (Optical coherence tomography) machine. Yes, there was the build-up of dry AMD. He arranged an appointment with the local eye hospital but the specialists there couldn’t see any build-up and sent me forth saying there was nothing there “I can’t see anything wrong.”

I assume that’s why they also have an OCT machine, because it can ‘see’ better than the human eye. However their machine is fairly old and can only take a photograph of three slices across the eye whereas my optician’s is the latest and takes 127 photographs – forty times more detailed.

Suffice to say I got a new appointment at a different eye hospital, with the same result even though their machine was slightly newer, but it only takes a photograph of seven slices across the eye, so my optician’s is still nearly twenty times more detailed.

I’ve told my optician that ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king’ and he’s the king, also that he has already seen more in his patients eyes than the ‘experts’ have done.

As far as treatment is concerned there’ is no treatment yet for Dry AMD, though possibly lutein may help. I’m taking 30mg per day in the hope that it’ll do some good. Also I’m hoping stem cell treatment may be possible at some stage.

Meantime I’ve turned down the brightness of my computer screen; bought a Kindle; rebalanced how much time I allocate to the various tasks I ask my eyes to do and I’ve bought a Blu-ray player.

But it’s not looking good.

No driving at night; no clear view of a person’s face; no recognising people across a room (except by listening); no newspapers; no lip-reading;

As I said, it’s not looking good.

Cliff

DRY AMD – Winning The battle with AMD?

3rd November 2012
by cliff

DRY AMD – Winning The BATTLE with AMD?

I was furious that I had ‘lost’ my sight, with early 0n-set AMD.
DRY AMD – a catastrophe as AMD means I felt unsafe to drive, and unable to read and to write; …. and to cross the road, read destination boards, and worst of all to be unable to recognise faces

HoweverI have immense confidence in the power of the brain and I determined to get the brain to set up new synapses between the eye and the vision part of the brain. It’s just like a muscle, it needs training, eexefrcise and rest.

So I:
– concentrated on my best eye to shift the grey blockage out iof the way, using a wardrobe door handle to look at and to practice on, every morning for ten minutes. Later I got my left eye to come together with it.

– started taking Lutein, lots of it as in the optical profession they all use it… and the American studies seem to augur well and with no side-effects

– also added VitaminB12 supplement as this might act as a catalyst for Lutein and my count for B12 was very low (181)

– bought a Nexus 7 to go with my Acer PC, because it has brilliant PPI (pixels per inch) 213 0f them. (Now 300 in the Nexus 10 and 320 in the Nexus 4.) I worked with this and it now means I can read the news from Google, DT and all (Plus lots of other things eg email, documents,books, music,)

– use lots of ‘shut-eye’ to rest my eyes, land lots of green from walks in the park and in he country to ease them

– continuously congratulated the brain for any and every improvement no matter how small

DRY AMD – Winning The BATTLE with AMD? NO, but now I can read, write, watch TV, and read a destination board.

Is it fully corrected? No, I’m still fighting the battle and I’m looking forward to stem cell replacement in five or ten years time.

Cliff

PS. I also have Wet AMD in my left eye and the Lucentis (treatment but not cure)works for me though the stab of a metal shard into the eyeball is painful!!