Last Christmas at SRSB - Amy

Christmas at SRSB is always fun, with lots of things to do for clients, supporters and volunteers. I bet the staff have a bit of a party too! 

Last year was a pretty rubbish year for me health wise so I had to take quite a long time off from the blog. By Christmas I was just about ready to come back and see everyone again. So I decided to go to the volunteers party and to one of the Christmas lunches. I was really nervous before the volunteers party. It sounds a bit silly but it had been three months since I had last been to SRSB or seen anybody from SRSB.  I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go, but I knew I would enjoy it when I got there. It was just my brain confusing me with negative thoughts as usual. I always used to follow these thoughts because they say you should always go with your gut instinct. I have learnt over the years that my gut instinct seems to be faulty. So I do the opposite! I am better off for doing it that way. As I expected, my gut instinct was wrong. I did enjoy myself. There were friends, food, music, coffee and Christmas sparkle. What else could I possibly want? I got lots of hugs and people saying they were glad to see me back. That always means a great deal to me, feeling loved and wanted and missed if I’m not around. So I left the party feeling very happy and excited to start work again in the new year. SRSB is such a lovely, friendly place. I always leave feeling warm and happy. It is just one of those places that you walk in to and instantly you feel the love, you feel welcome and you feel at home. There aren’t many places where you get that feeling. Especially when you are visually impaired. You are never made to feel awkward or different. Sight loss is our way of living here, it’s how we function, it’s how we work, it’s what we are respected for and we are always made to feel normal. As if there is no different, as if the outside world doesn’t exist. 

When I came for Christmas lunch I arranged it well so that I could go in the same day as some of my friends. There is always a Christmas tree in reception and they have Gerry Kersey from BBC Radio Sheffield to come and switch on the lights. They make it an event every year and have a few songs and a bit of a get together. When you go through into the dining area the room looks huge with a very long table. It’s a bit noisy and scary at first but I got used to it. The table was set with Christmas table cloths and crackers and napkins. All very festive. The arts and crafts group had made some decorations for the walls. The meal was cooked and served by mostly volunteers. They will have had so much hard work to do even just on one day. There is a Christmas lunch every say for five days so they must have been exhausted. They did a brilliant job though.  They have a raffle on each day and I won so many prizes I felt really guilty about it. I offered some of my prizes to people but nobody would take them! I thought about sharing them with everyone in the office but the only one I could really share was the selection box and that was mine!  Sorry :-) I heard that the day before I went, some of the Sheffield Wednesday players visited SRSB, so you never know who you might bump in to. 

Being in such a friendly and festive environment really cheered me up. It felt like I hadn’t been away and I was really looking forward to starting volunteering again in the new year. 

Now I am back and can’t wait to hear from you and all about what you have been up to recently.  Please share it with us so we can use it on the blog.  Email us at blog@srsb.org.uk  Alternatively you can speak to Jane or me, Amy, in the Mappin Street Centre. 

Looking Forward to Summer! - Graham

A few years ago I invented a completely new ice cream treat and have been having it ever since from Mr Ronksley our local ice cream van man...

Based on the fact that the 99 cornet is an intrinsically flawed design, fantastic at first but turns into a bit of an anti-climax at the end with just a bit of dry cornet that usually gets fed to the dog....

Well NOT ANY MORE!

I started asking Mr Ronksley to slot the flake down the inside of the cornet BEFORE topping it with the ice cream and sauce etc.

It is a winner. No more anti-climax. Instead, a 'hidden surprise'.

I have been having this now for a few years and have at least 2 other converts (the grandchildren) but other than that, the world has carried on as if this amazing invention doesn't exist...

Then... My daughter dropped me round a small bag of the new lower sugar Cocoa Pops to try and I had an even better idea than the 'Hidden Surprise'.

I dipped my chocolate ice cream 'Hidden Surprise' into the cocoa crispies and they stuck to the ice cream. It looked good, so I dipped it again and rolled the edge in them as well.

Amazing doesn't even cover the result... The 'Cocoa Pop Chocolate Hidden Surprise' knocks everything else out of the ball park...

Trust me... ITS THE FUTURE!!!   SPREAD THE WORD 

My Experience at Tramlines in 2018 - Amy

In July last year I had a very special few days. If you have read my other posts you will have noticed that I love a bit of public attention. I love putting my writing out there, I love being out and about doing things for SRSB and I love being on the radio.  You could say I’m a bit of an attention seeker! 

I had the opportunity to go to the Tramlines Festival. This is a big music festival in Sheffield that has grown bigger and bigger over the years.  Being a visually impaired person, when I think Tramlines, I think scary, daunting, extremely busy and very cramped. I have never really had an interest in festivals, but SRSB had been given some tickets from Tickets for Good. The tickets were weekend passes, which is extremely generous of them. I was also told that BBC Look North were interested in talking to whoever had the tickets.  So how could I refuse?  A free visit to Tramlines and my first opportunity to be on the telly.  As Tickets for Good had given SRSB two tickets, the other ticket went to Simon, a client of SRSB and motivational speaker. We were both able to apply for carers passes, as we both needed somebody to go with us. Simon took his wife and children, and I took my friend Chloe. Jane from SRSB also came with us. 

A month before the festival we had a meeting with Sarah and Cathy Booth from Look North. This was to discuss plans for filming and to become more aware of what they wanted from us. Sarah and Cathy were both really lovely and friendly. 

The day before the festival, filming started.  I was so nervous.  More nervous than I had been on the radio. When I got to SRSB, Simon had started his filming. When it was my turn I was thinking, I don’t want to do this!  But I did really. My job was to sit and pretend to work on the blog on a computer. I just scrolled through the blog and then did some typing. They said the first word had to be Tramlines, but then I could write whatever I wanted. So I just wrote whatever was in my head. Tramlines, Chloe and how I knew Chloe.  We then did an interview.  I got to wear one of those little microphones! My first question was, “what did you have for breakfast?” Random question, but they said it was to check the sound. The next question was “what is your name, and how do you spell it?”  Everybody does struggle with that one. It’s Rollitt, the o, is pronounced like it is in “on” But because it is spelt Roll, many people think like sausage roll.  I have even been called Rowlitt, like in growl. So that question was a useful one.  Then we went on to talk about my sight, support I had at school, and how I felt about going to Tramlines. Then we were done.  It was Joanne’s turn next.  Joanne is the Deputy General Manager of SRSB. 

After we had done the filming I felt very excited and very pleased with how it went. I felt a lot more relaxed about the filming we would be doing at Tramlines the next day. 

On the big day we all got a ride on the SRSB minibus to Hillsborough park, where the main festival was this year. It was their first year at the park this year, before they had been at Devonshire Green and Ponderosa Park. I thought this would make it worse, so much more space to fit so many more people.  But actually everything was so spread out, there was so much space.  There was nobody awkwardly in my personal space while I was watching bands, every group of friends had their own space and freedom. Me and Chloe wandered around for a while, checking out the place and Simon and his family went to check out the family area. Shortly after Cathy came and we started talking filming again. She asked us to do whatever we would usually do at a festival and to act natural. I didn’t know how to act natural, I hadn’t been to one before!  So we decided to sit on the grass and watch a band. They filmed us walking and then sitting down. When we were sat, Cathy then came to ask me a few questions about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. One of the questions was, “what would you say to a visually impaired person who was thinking about coming here for the first time?”  I didn’t sound very convincing at all, the end of my answer was “you’ll probably enjoy it”. Then I realised I should sound more enthusiastic than that so I said “I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.” Let’s just say a certain person found my answer hilarious. We had a big laugh about it afterwards. 

Then we had finished. Cathy went off to talk to the famous people, not as famous as me obviously ha ha! Then it started raining, a lot. Me, Chloe and Jane all went and found shelter under an umbrella. We were all cold, soaked and covered in grass. The rain wasn’t giving in so we decided to leave. 

I went back to Chloe’s house where we sat with Chloe’s husband and son and watched ourselves on the telly.  I didn’t sound as good as I did on the radio, they definitely chose the funniest bits. We had such a laugh. 

So I would like to say a massive, MASSIVE thank you to SRSB, Tramlines, Tickets for Good, Cathy Booth and BBC Look North for giving me a truly amazing experience. And you know where I am if you want me for anything else!

My Narrow Boat - Graham

At last I took delivery of my narrow boat "LASS STRAW" and it's amazing. I had been waiting 12 months for delivery which should have taken 6 months so I insisted that I should be allowed to take it out for the August bank holiday. So for that weekend and the weekend after, I  accompanied by my brother and three friends took her out, the first time travelling from Shardlow to Willington and back on the Trent and Mersey canal and the following week to Loughborough and back via the river Soar, returning the boat back to the boatyard each time for to complete some outstanding jobs. On the 14th September I was officially handed the keys and we were off on our extended journey. This was me, my brother Malc and part of the time my friend Chris.

We have visited some interesting places en route, the first of which was Melbourne in Derbyshire which, after a walk away from the canal via a disused railway line, we discovered was a lovely quaint unspoiled village. This was followed by Burton on Trent, Branston, and several days in the lovely village of Alrewas.

During this period I went home to Sheffield to attend the funeral of a close friend and my brother stayed on the boat.

At the funeral I was introduced to a couple who also own a narrow boat. He lives on the boat full time and she joins him, wherever he has moved the boat to, at the weekends, returning to Sheffield to go to work on Monday. What was extraordinary about this meeting was that when I told them where I had left my boat, they were gobsmacked because they had left their boat there too. On my return I discovered that their boat was moored five boats away from mine.

Anyway as you may know from my previous blogs, my brother and I are both visually impaired, with my brother's eyesight being a bit worse than mine so I thought I would keep you posted as to how we are getting on from the point of view of a VIP.

To be fair, although for the most part, when we are on open canal my brother is fine but he does struggle a bit when we are approaching things. it takes him a bit longer to work out what is happening but at 4mph not much can go wrong and we are both thoroughly enjoying the whole experience.

The boat is 58 feet long which has meant two things:

1. At that length it is difficult to see an awful lot further than the front of the boat and I keep hearing my brother saying "it's a bloody long boat this".
2. We have largely overcome the problem by, while one of us is steering from he rear, the other, armed with a monocular, (which was issued to each of us by the low vision clinic at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital) sits on the front communicating forthcoming hazards to the steerer via a two way radio.  

This is also useful at locks for the person at the lock to communicate to the people on the boat what the situation is eg " the lock is empty, gates opening soon" or "boat going up in lock and one waiting to come in to come down" The crew then  know whether to hold the boat for a few minutes or tie up for a longer period.

The other thing that the radio is often used for is to exclaim "BOOZER" when a pub is spotted and along the canal this is quite often.

We are now moored at Stone in Staffordshire for a few days while my brother is back in Sheffield attending to some business. We will then be detouring from the Trent and Mersey canal on to the Caldon canal to visit leek and Frogall and places in between.

I can't wait

Archery at the Para European Championships - Phil

I have been asked by to forward a blog post on my experience of competing as a visually impaired Archery at Pilsen in the Para European Championships 11th to 19th August 2018.

I am visually impaired and learnt to shoot a bow at Sheffield Blind Archery group based at the Northern General Hospital. I need to use a tactile sight and foot locators to enable me to aim at the target, along with my spotter Marina, who assists me with the equipment and telling me where the arrows are in the target.

I was very excited when I found out that I was part of the team going to the games. We travelled to Pilsen with the Para Archery team on the Saturday 11th August. We stayed in a hotel that was in the City centre and not far from the venues used for the competition. Over the next few days the team practiced at the Archery field in readiness for the Qualifiers.

These are used to determine who goes through to the semi final/finals.

Four visually impaired archers from Britain made to the semi finals, one of whom is a Deaf Blind archer from Northern Ireland.

The medal matches were held in the central square of Pilsen, next to the cathedral. It was televised on youtube which made me a little nervous initially, but I hardly had time to think about it when the time came.

My match was for the Bronze medal, against another British Archer. It came down to a one arrow shoot out, highest score wins. Unfortunately I lost, but despite my disappointment, I still enjoyed my experience at the games. I met some very interesting people from various places and can’t wait to go to my next competition.

Visual impairment does not have to be a barrier to taking up a chosen sport or pastime.

Yoga at SRSB - Amy

This year I have been trying something else new. Last year I started trampolining and this year I am trying out yoga for the first time. I have never been interested in yoga at all, but since I have been trampolining I love exercise. I never thought I would say that because I absolutely hated PE at school. I only liked it when we did trampolining. Last year though I came to realise that if you choose the right thing for you, exercise can feel so good. For me it’s not about doing it to lose weight, or beating my personal best, it’s about improving my general health. You don’t realise how much your muscles tense up when you don’t exercise, even just having one week away from the trampoline and I can feel a difference. It’s not a good one. I love the feeling the day after when I am really achy, but at the same time, I feel like I could do it all again. 

At this moment in time, trampolining is a bit too risky with my health. Even though I have been managing well, I don’t want to push my luck. I am gutted about it, I can’t wait until I can go again, and I will definitely go back. But for now, I need something less risky. Something where I am less likely to injure myself. If I fell off a yoga mat I would go with a lot less of a splat than falling off a trampoline! Like I said I have never really had an interest in yoga at all, but when I saw the Inbetweeners Club were doing it at SRSB I thought I would give it a go.

At the start of every session we lay on our backs on the yoga mat for a few minutes, just thinking. The teacher Catherine tells us to focus on all of the areas that are achy, painful, or just need a little bit of attention. In the first session my back and hips where really aching and I just couldn’t wait to get up. I also had my hair up in a ponytail, so laying on it messed it all up. I know not to do that again, I put my bobble lower down now! I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but Catherine was really informative. She explained the poses very well, so we didn’t need to see her. She works for Yoga Quota who do yoga with people who have disabilities and health problems. They make it accessible so that everybody is able to do it. If I couldn’t do one pose, Catherine changes it so that I am still working the same muscles, but in a different way. I felt sorry for the few people who could do the poses correctly, they were in that position for ages while Catherine made adaptations for the rest of us. When we did poses that involved kneeling I could not do them at all, because my knees hurt too much, I kept trying, but I just couldn’t kneel for more than a few seconds. I do have problems with the muscles around my knees and hips though. When we sat on the floor I could feel every single bone and it was so uncomfortable, the floor was so hard and flat! I can’t believe I used to be a nursery nurse. Most of my day was spent on the floor and crawling around when I did that job. These days my body just can’t handle the floor.

At the end of the first session we laid back on the mats, like at the beginning. We were told to think again about the work we had done, the areas that were hurting at the start and how they feel now. My back was a lot less achy at the end than it was at the start. So even just that one session had made a difference.

The day after, my legs ached, my hips ached and my shoulders ached. I didn’t even think I had done much with my shoulders. That’s the thing, exercise doesn’t have to be painful, or uncomfortable. When I go trampolining I am completely pain free, until the day after. Even just doing stretches can loosen you up and improve your circulation. I am far from fit, so don’t mistake me for a super lean fitness queen, because I’m not at all. I do need to exercise a lot more than I do, but this is just a few things I have learnt over the past year or so.

I have been to three sessions of yoga so far and I am getting better at it. Yesterday Catherine told me that I am really getting the hang of it, I knew what move was coming next and I noticed that my leg had moved and wasn’t straight enough. I am finding the hard, flat floor a lot easier to sit on, and I am able to kneel for longer. Still not long, but maybe nearer a minute rather than a few seconds. I do feel that my knee muscles are stronger though, less achy and less likely to go painful like they do sometimes. I have bought my own super thick yoga mat and downloaded some apps. I am really enjoying it, a lot more than I thought I would. I will be gutted when the sessions come to an end in a few weeks. I really, really hope there will be more. *

Exercise is really hard when you are visually impaired. If you go running or walking, you may need a guide. Swimming is difficult because it’s hard to see where people are, especially without my glasses and if they are under water. Adaptations can be made for ball games, such as balls and equipment that are designed for blind people. Going to a gym or leisure centre, full of sighted people is really scary and daunting. In my experience Sheffield International Venues do offer extra support when it is needed. They have disabled friendly sessions at some of their pools and they have been really supportive with me getting back into trampolining. But it’s still scary. I think it would be really good to have more accessible sessions during the day. A lot of exercise classes involve looking at an instructor, to watch what they are doing. Also some sessions are only in the evening, such as trampolining. This is a really bad time when you are visually impaired, especially in the winter when it goes dark early. Also the busses don’t run as often and organising transport is more difficult in the evening. So I feel there should be more accessible day sessions for activities. It would be really good to make things like aerobics and yoga completely accessible in gyms and leisure centres. I have had lots of support when I have asked for it, but I do think that work needs to be done to make leisure centres less daunting and more friendly and welcoming for people with sight problems.

More VI friendly exercise sessions could benefit VI people in a variety of ways. It could improve their fitness and general health, it could also be a social activity, meeting up with friends and making new friends. This would then improve their mental health and their confidence.


*This story was written before SRSB established a regular class. There is now a Yoga Session every Thursday from 4:30 to 5:30pm.

Trip to Derby - Graham

Yesterday, I went to see what progress had been made in building my narrow boat.

Firstly, my brother and I went by bus to Sheffield Interchange and then walked across to Sheffield Station where I bought my rail ticket to Derby. What I think may be of interest to visually impaired people is that if you use a disabled person's railcard to get a third off the price of a day return to Derby it will cost £7.85. However if you show your mobility bus pass at the booking office at Sheffield Station you can purchase a Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket for half price (£6.50). It can be used on the following rail services:

• Buxton - Chapel-en-le-Frith - New Mills (Newtown)
• Sheffield - Hathersage - Hope - Edale - Chinley - New Mills (Central)
• Sheffield - Chesterfield - Alfreton - Langley Mill - Ilkeston
• Sheffield - Chesterfield - Derby
• Derby - Belper - Ambergate - Cromford - Matlock
• Derby - Long Eaton
• Derby - Tutbury and Hatton - Uttoxeter
• Derby - Willington - Burton-on-Trent
• Shirebrook - Whitwell

It can also be used on lots of bus services within and in and out of Derbyshire county but I am not listing these as you can already use your mobility pass on any bus.

We boarded the 10.24 train to Southampton getting off at Derby 30 minutes later. We walked to the front of the station and after about 15 minutes boarded a Skylink bus which runs from Derby to Leicester via East Midlands Airport.

These buses are great. Each stop comes up on the destination board as you are arriving but more importantly you are notified audibly as you approach each stop with the name of the stop.

We alighted in Shardlow and after a short walk, arrived at The Wharf and J D Narrowboats.

We spent about an hour there and I was delighted with progress which, amongst lots of other things, included seeing that the engine had been installed. (a symbolic milestone).

Photographs of my boat can be viewed on my Facebook page.

Apparently the weather in Sheffield was shocking but when we came out of the boatyard we were in bright sunshine so we went for a walk. We walked by the Trent and Mersey canal (which in parts is the canal and in parts is the River Trent) to Trent Lock which is at the junction of the Trent and Mersey Canal, the River Soar and the Erewash Canal.

Trent Lock is a lovely picturesque spot with two pubs and a cafe. Having had a nice lunch at the Lockeeper Inn we continued our walk to Long Eaton from where we got a bus back to Derby.

For anyone thinking of doing this walk. From Trent Lock stay on the towpath, don't be tempted to leave the canal at any of the bridges because you will soon see that the towpath goes right behind the bus stop.

The number 12 goes direct to Derby bus station from where you can get any bus going to Alvaston or the Skyliner both of which drop at the Railway Station.

We were a bit unfortunate in that we arrived at the bus stop at 15:20 for the bus which runs every half hour apart from the 15:27 which only runs on school holidays so we had to wait until 15:57.

My advice would be to do this walk in summer and at the weekend when you are much more like to see boat movements on the canal and river.

All in all a nice day out, which if we had taken sandwiches and a flask would only have cost the £6.50 we spent on the Wayfarer ticket.