E-Audio Books

For years I have been avoiding the topic.

I realise now this was because on needing a whole new set of clobber, whether from the RNIB, my local library and other sources.

Ib the event I have chosen twome-audio apps Amazon Audible and NBL ( local library).

Both apps now sit on my smartphone. Inevitably the chargeable one has a greater far greater selection.Traditionally I always read thrills and adventures  and I read then fast. So I have set the speed at  1.4 ( newspapers I listen to at 3 and its easy to repeat a paragraph.) 

Absolutely fabulous, 

With Audible you get:

You can return books and get a credit.

200,000 books

2 levels: £7.99 for 1 book a month (£69.99 annual); or £109 annually for 2 books per month.

Cancel at any time and you still keep your library.

Download your book and later remove from your device.

There is a wish list facility.

And you get special offers.

All from an app. no other technologies, no other batteries, no other things to carry, no new account just part of Amazon.

I have upgraded to 2 books per month, approx £4 per book.

Absolutely fabulous..

For carers and friends

I have just added this to the 4.1 Helping carers to cope. Read more.
We, sight-impaired people, cannot see a smile, or a wave of the hand, or “catch someone’s eye”, we cannot recognise a person’s face.

Every time there are people they are all, each one of them, strangers to us until someone says “Hi Bill” or Jenny or Cliff.

We cannot be proactive as any one we approach could be a total stranger.

We cannot start the communication, if you don’t start it then we don’t exist. We are just ignored…

 

And so we press on.

Cliff’s on-line Booklet “Winning against AMD”

Winning against AMD.

 

A practical plan. Written (and typed) by Cliff Jenkins.

Published December 2018.

Based on his experiences during the nine years since Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) struck him. He now has no central vision at all and he also has wet AMD in his left eye.

Dedicated to all those who suddenly realise ”There is nothing anyone can do.”

 

Contents

1.Introduction, the objective is “winning.” Read more.

2.Action Plan Summary, sub-chapters 2.1 – 2.10. Read more.

3.Protect your eyes. Read more.

4. Surviving everyday life. Read more.

   4.1 Helping carers to cope. Read more.

   4.2 Carers can care too much. Read more.

   4.3 Using a White Stick. Read more.

   4.4 Personal Highs and Lows. Read more.

Appendices

Every WIN is important.

We really can rebuild our self-reliance, resilience and our self-confidence.

…………………………

Winning against AMD – Age-related Macular Degeneration                                                  

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EPSTENNIS _ Tennis Especially for the Partly Sighted

EPps Tennis ceases at Sussex County LTC

To all members of Sussex County LTC

To the Main Committee

To the Secretary

16th February 2019

 

Dear Sir,

Thank you for the pleasure and enjoyment you have brought to partly sighted tennis players over the last four years, through your concession for carer volunteers.

Regrettably in a brutish and brutal manner your club withdrew this concession with peremptory demands with little notice and no reasoned explanation or discussion.

All our carer volunteers immediately resigned and our partly sighted players have had to follow them. The Eps Tennis group has therefore ceased to exist.

I too have now joined the exodus and will not renew my membership. I will therefore stand down from the Main Committee.

If the situation should change I will be happy to rejoin.

Yours

Cliff Jenkins

——

EPSTennis

Tennis especially for the Partly Sighted

Dedicated to Val, a girl I met at the Macular Society Annual Conference, who would love to take up tennis again, and all the hundreds like her.

Benefits for everyone. You can enjoy, you can achieve, you too can sharpen up and improve reactions:-

 

  • Improved effective vision, improved focusing.

 

 

  • Reduced weight.

 

 

  • Becoming fitter, developing better maneuverability, better flexibility and better balance.

 

 

  • Fewer slips, trips and falls.
  • Better spatial awareness and faster reactions.

 

 

  • Improved concentration.

 

 

  • Extra joy of recovering a lost element of life, a real WIN.

 

 

  • Making new friends and having a laugh.

 

 

  • Sheer joie de vivre..

 

 

  • And it’s Fn.

 

Come and join us.

We are partly sighted tennis players and we are looking for other partly sighted tennis players. Come and join us. Rekindle the enjoyment you used to have.

We play two or three times a week and we play on normal courts, with normal balls, rackets etc., and we have an extra bounce.

Starting with Sound Tennis which is why we adapted their rules to normal tennis, but wanted to play outdoors and to play normal tennis as everyone else does.

We have various eye problems including Glaucoma and AMD. We are a friendly, sociable bunch who laugh about our experiences! The cost is only ten pounds a month.

Ray’s Comments:
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant, good fun. Everybody gets on well with each other and we’re all getting better month on month, a great crowd and we enjoy beer afterwards.”

RULES

The rules are very simple.

The rules for EPSTennis are absolutely identical with the original rules being used for Sound Tennis internationally and on the formal LTA Tennis Rules.

Compared with the LTA Rules all we have extra is the exchange of alert before serving;  “Ready?”, Response “Yes”, and response “Play” (all clearly, audibly and promptly) followed by the serve.

The only other rule is that partly sighted  players are allowed a second bounce when the ball is in play, whether as a result of a serve or in the course of play.

Normal etiquette of calling whether a ball strikes “in” or “out” needs to be followed and calls made clearly, audibly and promptly.

Very recently we have started using ultra bright yellow balls and we have settled on the Wilson Australian Open balls as used by the LTA.

If we have an odd number of players whether three, five or seven then we cycle play round so that nobody is off court for more than five minutes. It also has the benefit that each individual player partners every  other player.

Just like us you can enjoy, you can achieve, you too can sharpen up and improve reactions:

-Improved effective vision, improved focusing.
– Reduced Weight.
– Becoming fitter, developing better manoeuvrability, better flexibility and better balance.
– Fewer slips, trips and falls.
– Better spatial awareness and faster reactions.
– Improved concentration.
– Extra joy of recovering a lost element of life, a real WIN.
– Making new friends and having a laugh.
– Sheer joie de vivre.
– And it’s Fun.

cliffofyoolaa.co.uk@gmail.com

Barry’s comments:
“I had major sight loss about two years ago. At the time I was quite active playing tennis five times a week, cycling, and driving. All this had to stop abruptly and I thought I would never play tennis again in any meaningful way.

It was a big change and a time to take stock and adapt to a different lifestyle. I had become unable to do many of the things in my life that I had been accustomed to doing & enjoying. On the positive side I was still fit.

I visited the Sussex County to try to play on normal tennis courts using standard tennis balls. I liked the idea but I made no assumptions that I would be able to play but I was going to try and do my best.

Everybody was very helpful and welcoming. I felt no pressure, or embarrassment or mild humiliation when inevitably made ‘fresh air’ shots !

I came away from that first visit with a feeling of connection and invigoration. With memories of the few times I actually solidly hit the ball, and no memory of the many misses and miss hits.

Since that first visit four months ago I think I have begun to adapt and improve my tennis in many ways, and it is an ongoing learning experience. I am also getting fitter to play better, the reflexes and muscles are remembering and learning.

The joy and satisfaction I now experience playing partially sighted tennis also connects me to how I used to feel playing tennis for all those years before. It has made a positive difference to me on many levels, and I actually feel that I am playing normal tennis with the option of an extra bounce!

I know personally how much this special tennis has benefitted me so, I am very keen to spread the word to all the people who would like to come and take part.”

 

 

CARERS can care too much.

CARERS can care too much.

 

The role of being a carer is difficult. They can be over-protective, over-careful whereas they just need to be supportive.

They want to help so much and are distraught at seeing the trouble their loved one is having. They rush to do it for them.

Conversely they might laugh at their paltry efforts or even laugh at the very idea.

If we are going to get our self-reliance and self-confidence back we need to continuously test our limits, test our skills, test our capabilities and even test our courage.

Courage here means to go into a room full of people when you know you won`t recognise  anyone. Words like determination, stubbornness, and a refusal to be beaten come to mind.

Occasionally we will get it wrong and cover the table in tomato sauce, or pour too much tonic into the gin. These don`t matter but we need to develop our resilience and ignore any embarrassment. And then ask for another gin!

My long-suffering wife has had to watch me go out alone knowing I have difficulty crossing a road safely, that I can`t read signs, street names or temporary notices. She eventually accepted that I had to work it out for myself.

My particular worry is for the carers who cause their loved ones to become utterly  dependent on them. It can be accidental but sometimes not.

Carers can also be thoughtless:

 

  • Being taken one way and brought back another (which means we won`t have learned the route).
  • By putting things in a new place, (Oh, horror of horrors).
  • By expecting us to know what they bought and where they put them etc.

 

 

So what, we love them and are delighted to have their help when needed.

Inspirational Speaking – MOJO Regained, by Cliff

“MOJO Regained”.

It`s taken nearly ten years, from a disastrous point of utter depression. 

NOW I CAN

  • Do the allotment.
  • Use a computer.
  • Use a smartphone.
  • Keep up-to-date.
  • Play Mahjongg.
  • Play Scrabble.
  • Eat well.
  • Play tennis.
  • Helm a racing yacht.
  • Go for long walks.
  • Update my own website.
  • Cook my own dinner.
  • Go to the cinema, theatre etc.
  • Enjoy music.
  • Have a laugh and
  • Be an effective speaker.

I had to develop a new way of doing each of them.

Key moments:

  • Getting to York.
  • Climbing the Clwyds.
  • Playing tennis again.
  • Making my vision better.
  • Taking the helm.

So please contact me and we can arrange an inspirational talk specifically for you.

AMD progress 2018

Well it`s been a full year.

Our AMD support Group in Shoreham is running and now has about fifteen members.

Five years after joining Sound Tennis some of us are now playing outdoors at the Sussex County LTC and using normal yellow balls on normal tennis courts.

With my wife we are still really enjoying our allotment actively running it throughout the year. We have leeks, sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli growing well.

I have noticed a gradual move to primary colours with good contrasts with green.

We enjoy the large print Scrabble.

I`m pleased to say that along the routes I use that the paths all not clear of overhanging branches, so its easy to make up my target  step goal particularly with watering the allotment.

Finally I have recently joined Sussex Sailability and taken up sailing again; an exciting physical and mental challenge as I relearn how to make the yacht go faster so that we can win races!

(For new readers, I am Registered blind as I have total loss of central vision and this coupled with Wet AMD in my left eye. It all started about eight or nine years ago)

It would appear that we have 65000 cells normally in use in each eye but only 6500 for peripheral vision. Wit two eyes combined this arithmetically means that we only have ONE per cent of our original vision.

As tine goes on I find I am more prepared to do things that I thought were impossible.

Soundball Tennis at Shoreham is special

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

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

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.

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