Farewell 2010

I know that I have written before that I'm not a great fan of New Year's Eve. I think its the arbitrary nature of it. Every and any day could be New Year's Eve surely? Although it was the Roman's who started celebrating 1st Jan (or near equivalent some days after the winter solstice basically) as New Year in the British Isles, so it goes back a fair few years.

I'm not against New Year's celebrations though; I've had some lovely New Years', some raucous (I'm thinking of the 2 I spent in Weston Super Mare!), some boozy and cosy spent in Doncaster usually with my friend Lorraine watching music videos after the pub. I've had a couple of lost New Year's Eves in Nottingham one involving being dressed as a goth (although I really resembled a French mine artist) and the other a rolling stones tribute band called the Rolling Clones. I've also been lucky enough to have spent some beautiful New Year's Eve's with Jase last year at Hampton Court and the year before that in central London but away from the crowds. (our first 2 new years were spent at home watching fire works over the roofs.)

This year will be like the latter, we will be seeing 2011 in from our new home. So that will be very special and quiet although I do want to try a Drambuie and champagne cocktail, so maybe not that quiet!

The seemingly never ending onslaught of unpacking, acquiring new pieces of furniture for our new house continues. My office/study is nearly ready. Its so good to have my own space to work in. Ginny Wolf knew how important it was to have your own space, and she was right!

Before Christmas our dining table was delivered and there is a picture of it below.

Here's a picture of it with the runner and place mats which arrived yesterday. The colour scheme in the dining end of our kitchen diner is green and blue - quite a deep sea green and bright blue.

Well it just leaves me to wish everyone who reads my blog a very merry New Year's Eve and may 2011 be peaceful, joyful and bright! Cheers!

Boxing day

My parents visited today - Boxing day, and we went for a lovely walk in the snow with Millie the chocolate Labrador. Above is a photo of my Dad and Millie. Below is a picture of my Mum an me before I took a tumble on the ice.
Whilst on the walk I took a picture of our house and our neighbours from across the first field.

We had a lovely Christmas day yesterday, with a lovely dinner, very quiet and peaceful. It's so nice to be settled in to our new house for Christmas. Most of my office furniture arrived on Christmas Eve and we, well I mean Jase built it for me so I spent a little bit of time unpacking stationery yesterday. We still have quite a lot more to do but we're getting there.

Cold December

The cold weather has continued - we were so lucky that the weekend we moved happened to be in a hiatus to the weather. This weekend we had snow as I mentioned in the entry below. In the end we had about half a foot of snow which now has compacted somewhat and is about 4 or 5 inches deep. There are much deeper drifts of course. Today we went for a walk into Biggleswade across the fields in the snow. Although I was wearing wellies I found it really hard going. My back was killing me. In town I bought a pair of German snow boots, fleece lined and waterproof. They are the most snuggly, comfy boots ever. I totally love them!

In town we had a nice meal at the Maltings in Biggleswade which is really cosy and the food and wine were lovely and as a converted brewery malting house it is rather historic inside.

Below is a picture of Rookie contemplating the snow.
We also went back to our rented house today, the one which had all the spiders in the garden. We found these on the back gate. Very beautiful webs I just wonder how the spiders are faring.

You can find some more pictures here on my flickr page

House move and Christmas preparations

Above is a picture of my cat Rookie who has come back to live with me now that we've moved in to our new home. Rookie is an elderly cat approaching her 18th year. Apart from from being very thin and a bit arthritic she is well and very happy to be living with us again. When I moved in with Jase 3 years ago she went to live with my Mum and Dad in Yorkshire because Jase's flat didn't have a garden. Anyway she seems very happy to be back and seems to like our back garden. Rookie is a talkative cat being part Siamese, she likes to miaow at every opportunity. For example like many cats she miaows when she wants food but she always says thank you after her food as well!

So the house below isn't our new home ;-) its actually for sale in our local bakers for £20 if I'd had means to get it home I would have bought it! A real gingerbread house is something I've always wanted! it was very Christmassy in town today, there were carol singers in the market dressed in Biblical fancy dress, there seemed to be more than 3 wise men but the more the merrier I suppose. I got a cup of free mulled wine when I bought a freshly made pancake. Even outside ASDA the Lions club had their Santa's sleigh parked and blasting out Christmas hits. As it started to snow I felt very festive even though it was absolutely freezing.
We moved into our new house last weekend - in the hiatus between snow and ice so we were very lucky. The move went really smoothly everything done in one day. Of course it was stressful and it felt like the packing and the boxes would never end. Now it feels like we've lived here forever. We still have a lot of unpacking to do but there's no rush. Below is a photo of our front door with trees I've bought and the light and number Jase fitted today before the snow came.
As below shows we have had snow here in Bedfordshire, after largely missing it last time its quite a novelty to have snow. It's still falling and we have about 2 inches which has fallen in about 2 hours.

Biggleswade Christmas Lights

Last night was the annual Christmas lights switch on in Biggleswade town centre. The Mayor said that this was a spectacle which has been celebrated since 1962. It appears that the lights themselves date back to that first "switch on" as well. You can see some grainy pictures I took of the lights and towns folk last night.

As with the summer carnival, a fayer was present in the market square, and the Sea Cadets and choral society treated us to carols and Christmas tunes. I particularly enjoyed singing O Come All Ye Faithful and O Little Town of Bethlehem. The Sea Cadets rendition of Frosty the Snow Man was also a treat.
Staunch atheist Jason, didn't really enjoy one of the local vicars, Pastor Trevor, asking everyone to pray for the lights and Christmas in general. But the Mayor soon brought the focus back to consumerism by asking everyone to contribute towards the Chamber of Commerce's Christmas Lights fund! Everyone was then encouraged to stuff their faces with candy floss, hot dogs, chips and to scream if they wanted to go faster on the waltzers.

Jase and I beat a hasty retreat to the Stratton House Hotel to have a quick dinner. When we arrived everything was set out for Christmas dinner! I was ecstatic! There is a picture below of the Stratton's Christmased up restaurant and me looking ecstatic (and like a plump farmers wife, I think.) We got the only spare table, as the rest of the restaurant was given over to a 70th birthday party. I'd had my turkey dinner and Jase his steak before the 70th birthday got going though so we didn't witness the fun!

Today I've been mainly packing ready for our move. This time next week we should be - fingers crossed - safely moved into our new house. Today I packed books and ornaments. I'm glad I've bought so much wool lately as it has been invaluable for padding out boxes!

Met Police Disability Independent Advisory Group

One of the projects I have been working on for the last few months has been with the Metropolitan Police. So I am very pleased to announce that today the Met have launched their recruitment drive for their Disability Independent Advisory Group. More information and how to apply are below. Good luck!

Advert for DIAG

Metropolitan Police Service, Disability Independent Advice Group:

Members

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) are recruiting a new Disability Independent Advisory Group (DIAG) and are seeking around 12 members.

The DIAG’s role will be to provide independent, strategic and specialist advice to the MPS on how disabled people of all ages and backgrounds are affected by the policing of London. We are looking for committed, enthusiastic people who can work well as part of a group but who can also express their views, specialist knowledge and experience as an individual at a high level within a complex organisation.

Your views and advice will support the MPS in making London safe.

The MPS will seek advice from the group through two methods: on line or through pre arranged meetings.

This is a voluntary role without payment. However, reasonable expenses will be paid and reasonable adjustments will be accommodated.

To request an application pack, please contact us:

Email : disability@met.police.uk

Tel no: 0207 161 2719 also for further information

Deaf and deafened people using a Textphone (minicom) should use the 18001 Text Relay prefix and dial 18001 0207 161 2719 or

SMS text: 07920768425

Closing date: 24th December 2010

All applicants will be contacted early in the New Year

Quick snow update

After buying the pair of wellies above, for walking in the snow, the snow melted! Saying that it hasn't all gone and the temperature has plummeted again as soon as the sun went down. It's -1 at the moment.

Below is a photo of some holly I took looking very festive :-)

Snow, Dragons and my fab cousin

Today we had snow! Although the north and east of the country have had snow for a couple of days, the snow has only just arrived in Bedfordshire. We haven't had much snow, just a dusting but it has made everything look really pretty. I went out early this morning to take some photographs of the back garden, above is a picture of my lavender plant. Whilst below is a picture of the front garden.
I'm looking forward to going to market this morning, I'm hoping that it will feel quite Christmassy with all the snow.

After the exciting news about our house move which is now only two weeks away, I'll be spending most of the weekend sorting out packing.

as I've mentioned in earlier blog entries my eyesight is getting worse, something that I thought wasn't likely to happen. So I've been thinking about ways in which I can avoid eyestrain and make things easier for myself. One of the ideas I had was to use some voice recognition software; in the past I'd worked with colleagues who used voice recognition software called Dragon. In the past Dragon was mainly used by people with dyslexia, dexterity impairments and by a few people with visual impairments. I'd heard that the actual technology had come on a long way in the last couple of years so I thought I might as well give it a go. So at the moment I'm dictating into a headset my blog entry. It's not quite like Star Trek where you just talk to the computer and it does what you say, but it's not far off. I'm hoping that this will really help me with long report writing and particularly where I'm in the planning stage, I'll be able to dictate my thoughts and initial ideas and then use that to dictate all organised report. The only thing I have to get used to with Dragon is speaking naturally but also precisely and also remembering to put punctuation in as I go.

Yesterday I had a very busy but exciting day. I went to Essex to meet with Essex Coalition of Disabled People, I know quite a few people who work there already. So it was nice to see where they actually work. I had a really productive meeting and it looks like I'll be doing some training with Essex in the New Year. Essex coalition of disabled people are based in Chelmsford which is where my cousin Helen lives. I got in touch with Helen to let her know that I would be visiting Chelmsford but didn't realise that her house is about 5 min away from Essex coalitions offices. So I had a lovely afternoon with Helen catching up, and hopefully in the New Year I'll get more opportunities to spend some time with her and her family.

Anyway I'm about to go out in the snow not that there's that much, visit the market and a bit of shopping. I'm taking my camera with me so made post some extra photos latest today.

Good news!

I am really pleased to announce that we at last have a completion date for moving into our new home. If everything goes to plan we will be safely in our new home before Christmas in fact in just over 2 weeks! So it'll be packing all the way now until we start unpacking I guess.

I'll keep you all posted with progress. We have a "familarisation" visit on Wednesday to see round our finished home and find out some of the practicalities for living in the new development. I'll take my camera next week so I can post some "before" pictures on the blog!

The photo tonight is of some of the Christmas lights in Hitchin, outside the language school where I have my Japanese lesson. My learning is going well but slowly! The pace is good for me because it gives me time to reinforce my learning.

Just a quick update but I will try to keep up to date over the next few weeks.

knitting, work, house move and CBT

The picture above is of some of the wool I have got at the moment waiting to be knitted into mainly scarves for Christmas presents. I just got some new wool today from Dragon Yarns that is absolutely gorgeous. Pure new wool, eco friendly dyes and untreated. Its beautifully soft and luxurious. I haven't been writing much at the moment on my blog but I will try hard to rectify this. The last 3 weeks have been very busy for me and not just because I have been knitting :-)

Work

After delivering the 2 events for RADAR I was asked to help with an event on the UN convention on human rights of disabled persons and health, which is really exciting. I am also working on an exciting piece of work relating to sustainable careers for disabled people. On top of that I am helping RADAR develop their work with associates and delivering a contract for the London Deanery on their Single Equality Scheme. It really has been non stop. Oh, and I mustn't forget the work for the Met Police which I should have some exciting news about in the next week or two!

Moving House

We still don't have a moving in date for our new house, though the good news is I have been inside our new house! Just over a week ago Jase and I got a tour around our house with the project manager for the site. The house was almost complete and flooring and just needing carpets and a few cosmetic things. It was really thrilling to be inside our new house. I can't wait to move in and have my own office! Of course we are now likely to move just before Christmas so getting the extra furniture we need and things like curtains is going to be a nightmare!

CBT

At last I've had some CBT sessions and they have gone really well so far. I will try and write more about this soon as I want to keep those of you who have been so supportive of my "mental health" journey over the last year, up to date with how I am doing.

So just an update for now but I will try to blog more over the next few weeks up until we move (fingers crossed) Next time we visit the house I'll take some pictures of the empty house it'll be great for us to look back to as we fill it with stuff and make it our own!

A visit to Moorfields

I've written quite a lot about mental health on my blog - and in fact I may write some more soon as I have my first CBT appointment tomorrow morning, but I've not written a lot about being partially sighted. I guess this is because I've always been partially sighted so it's not really something I think about that often.

This week however I was faced with an issue I never thought I'd have to face - that my vision is getting worse. I always assumed that unless I developed something like glaucoma which I am monitored for annually, my sight would stay pretty stable. I thought this because as a baby I had both my lenses removed because I had cataracts. Back then they didn't have the technology to implant new lenses so I've always just used glasses and later contact lenses to help me see. Even with glasses or lenses my eye sight is pretty rubbish and I am registered as partially sighted.

I don't see well enough to drive and it is hard for me to explain to others how I see as I don't know what to compare it with, as this is all I've ever known. The easiest way to explain how I see the world is that it is like an impressionist painting (colourful, blurry, and quite beautiful) but as I don't have a lens I can't focus and so my sense of perspective or understanding of moving objects is totally impaired. With my contact lenses in I can read the top 2 lines of the eye test chart and that's it. Well that's what I could read.

Over the last 5 or 6 years I've been complaining to my consultant at Moorfield's that my night vision was getting worse. They thought it was due to the fact that my pupils don't dilate very much, so light doesn't get in to the back of my eye. I also felt that I wasn't able to read small print as easily as I used to, I get tired a lot more easily and get headaches from reading which I never used to.

This summer I complained that I was seeing strange brown or black shapes out of the corner of my eye - not like the normal floaters I've had all my life though they are getting worse too. So I was booked in for an ultrasound on my right eye.

On Wednesday I went for the ultrasound and then saw my consultant. Before I saw my consultant I saw a junior Dr who after getting me to read the eye chart looked worried. I wasn't reading as much as I used to and this was a trend. He looked back at the results for the last few years and it showed that steadily I was reading the letters less and less accurately and this time I couldn't make out the letters on the 2nd row at all. He looked worried.

My consultant explained that I had a lot of scar tissue in my eye from the operations as a baby and also "opacities" caused by the scar tissue on the back of the remains of the capsule in my eye which used to hold my lens. The symptoms I am experiencing are because the scar tissue does not allow enough light into my eye and also scatters the light in a strange way which is why I am getting so much glare from lights particularly at night. The less light that reaches the retina the less I can see.

I basically have the symptoms of a cataract! The one thing I thought I could never get. No lens then no cataracts again.

My consultant had his serious face on and asked if I'd like to see the low vision aid clinic. That made me realise that this was something serious. He also said that he could potentially do an op to help get more light into my eye but he'd rather monitor what happened for a bit. I've had this discussion before about the op to remove scar tissue - before it was causing me any problems. Its not as straight forward as usual laser op which takes 15 minutes. I have nystagmus which means my eyes wander about, using a laser on a moving target isn't my idea of fun! My consultant knows that I'm not keen on having other operations if I don't have to. There are of course risks with any op, and this one could end up making my sight worse rather than restoring it to what it was. What it was, wasn't much cop in the first place so is it worth the risk?

It turns out that my other eye also has this scar tissue and is also developing the same problem.

It's an interesting dilemma for me to face - I never thought that my sight could get worse so I never thought about what I'd do if it did. My consultant asked if I'd like to be referred to the low vision aid clinic. I explained to him my job and how I'd worked for the RNIB in the past and used lots of technology to help me. I'd helped others use low vision aids to help them remain in work.

The things that have struck me most after learning about all of this is the fact that I didn't make more of a fuss about the fact that I felt that my vision was getting worse. I'd mention it at the hospital each year but wouldn't push the matter. Sometimes I'd tell myself that it was all in my head and that my vision was the same as before but I just wasn't coping as well. I really convinced myself of this. I was hard on myself saying that I just needed to be braver about walking about in the dark etc.

Now I know that it wasn't in my head I actually feel relieved and I'm prepared to make changes now so that it's easier for me to get about. I've bought a small maglite torch to carry in my handbag and use at night. I'm more prepared to use taxi's and take things more slowly when walking about unfamiliar places.

I am just going to have to wait and see what happens with all of this.

Hallowe'en

It's Hallowe'en tonight and it seems this year the country has gone Hallowe'en happy! Saying that, nothing could compare to how the Japanese celebrate Hallowe'en. The pictures on my blog today are from a year ago in Canal City shopping centre, Hakata. The quality isn't great because it was quite dark but I think it gives you an idea of how the Japanese shopping centre was decorated!

I've been too busy to blog again. I know it's a rubbish excuse but I really have been rushed off my feet for the last couple of weeks.I have been up to the following:

• Being a good host - Jason's parents visited last weekend and took them to Cambridge last Saturday. It was a lovely sunny day and Cambridge looked lovely.
• Being a good auntie number 1 - Jason's brother and nieces and nephew visited last Sunday which was lots of fun but kept me busy cooking, taking the kids to the park and trying to be a good auntie!
• Star gazing - we had a couple of lovely cloudless cold nights last week and I spent some time looking at the stars particularly vega and the other bright stars of the "summer triangle" as well as marvelling at Jupiter's brightness.
• Event organising - on Thursday it was RADAR's Future of Disability Equality round table discussion, hosted by Holiday Inn and chaired by Baroness Jane Campbell. I helped organise the event for RADAR which sparked some really interesting discussion and actions to take forward. I'll write more when the report is complete and link to it. The event was attended by former Ministers, business leaders and disability activists.
• Being a good auntie part 2 - I visited my brother and his 4 children on Friday afternoon. I had great fun going to the park with them and Nanook the husky as well as being read to by my niece Lucia who is 6.
• Reading - I've still not finished Inspector Imanishi Investigates on my Kindle and yet I've also started reading a book on psychology as well!

There has been lots more besides but I shan't bore you with it. Tonight Jase and I are cooking a roast dinner of roast chicken, roast veg, mashed turnip and sweet corn mmmmmmm. So I better go and par boil the tatties.

Work, work and Buddhist statues

Yet another apology from me for not blogging often enough. I have just been so busy over the last few weeks with my work for RADAR organising their AGM and debate last week - which was a great success. I'll post when there is more information on it, there will be a blog entry and a report.

At RADAR I'm also helping them organise a very exciting round table event next week looking at the future of disability equality for the next 15 years. Should raise lots of debate so watch this space too for more information.

I'm also working for the Met Police at the moment another important piece of work around involvement of disabled people in the strategic work of the police in London. I will definitely blogging more about this and linking to their website once it all goes live.

On Saturday I was delivering training at the V&A museum for Action for Children, delivering diversity and disability training for their volunteers. It's always really good fun doing this training, the volunteers are always really enthusiastic and engaged. Holding the training at the V&A was a stroke of genius too. To get to the training room I had to walk through the gallery of Buddhist sculpture including the gold statue of Tara above. If you click on Tara it will take you to the V&As website with all the information you need to know about the statue and the photograph. I linked to this on facebook and a couple of my friends really enjoyed looking at the website. It certainly gave me a feeling of peace and serenity before the training. I went back afterwards and spent some time amongst the sculptures which was wonderful.

When I've not been working or looking at Buddhist sculpture I've been doing lots of admin for my business. I had my first meeting with my accountant and he really helped me. I have been doing a lot form filling, registering with tax authorities and filling out spreadsheets but it will all be worth it in the long run!

Hamlet

I'm going to have to write a few catch up entries because I've been a bit slack blogging lately. I'll explain why shortly.

Hamlet

I'll start with Hamlet. A week ago I went with my Mum to see Hamlet at Sheffield Crucible Theatre.

I love the Crucible, it's a small, cosy theatre almost in the round. It is in fact shaped like a crucible and the alchemy on stage there always seems to entertain whether its Shakespeare or snooker.

The cast of this production is impressive:

Hamlet: John Simm

Claudius: John Nettles

Gertrude: Barbara Flynn

Just to name a few of the cast.

Hamlet is not one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. My favourite is King Lear I think it has everything you could ever want from a play. In fact I think I prefer MacBeth to Hamlet. Saying that Hamlet was the second Shakespeare play I ever saw and it was the Mark Rylance Hamlet of 1989 It affected me so much as a 15 year old that I thought no Hamlet would ever live up to it. I was probably right but, older and wiser I realise that there is room for a different interpretation of Hamlet.

With John Simm playing Hamlet it was inevitable that the critics would compare it to David Tenant's Hamlet. (David Tenant's Dr to John Simm's Master in Dr Who.) I wasn't able to get tickets to see David Tenant as Hamlet (though I tried and my phone bill was testament to this!)

I did see the televised version though at Christmas and within 10 minutes I wanted to slap Tenant's Hamlet and tell him to just grow up! This is my usual response to any Hamlet who isn't Mark Rylance.

But This current production of Hamlet made me think differently about the play and the character. It was an incredibly accessible version of Hamlet and Shakespeare. Some purists don't like that sort of thing but Shakespeare if performed right is incredibly accessible. I actually understood some aspects of Hamlet as a play and character I haven't before. The fact that Hamlet does doubt the ghost, and so his mind. Not in some grand way but in a very ordinary way.

John Simm's Hamlet was a bit blokey, and matey. He didn't swagger but unlike some Hamlet's he didn't slouch and sulk either. He was just a bloke. Yes a mixed up, grieving, stupid bloke but he was just a man. I liked that a lot.

The rest of the cast were all excellent particularly Polonyous, his fate was genuinely shocking and a bit sad even though he was a busy old fool. John Nettles was good too, and I did soon forget that I was watching the bloke from Bergerac!

So if you can get to see it in Sheffield I recommend you do!

Office Politics

It's been a busy week this one. On Monday I met with the Met Police about the work I'm doing for them as a recruitment consultant. In the afternoon I got an email asking if I could possibly help out with some events at RADAR, so I said yes. I found myself on Tuesday at the RADAR offices agreeing to work up to 4 days a week at their offices for a month!

Then on Thursday it was the Inclusion London Seminar that I had been organising and also presenting at. That involved a 5 AM start and the stress of organising the morning registration, all the access requirements etc. We had the usual issues, a BSL interpreter was a bit late, the plasma screen wouldn't work and the speech to text typist was not happy at the amount of work she had to do. In the end the seminar went very well and Inclusion London have had really good feed back.

Then today I started work at RADARs offices. I haven't been in an office since the 12th May. So it was strange to come back to this kind of setting. It's made me realise offices all over the country are exactly the same though and already I feel like one of the ganag. In just one afternoon, the milk ran out but was promptly bought, the printer had an issue, someone printing a huge ammount of important stuff got interrupted and unhappy, cookies were brought into the office, I recieved a call from the Sun newspaper problem page and didn't know what to do with the call.

Yep that's right the Sun's agony aunt called wanting to speak to RADAR's media person - who I was able to track down with the help of a colleague.

It made me realise that once you've worked in one office you can just easily sink into just about any other office in the world.

Scotland & glad tidings!

It's a week ago now that we arrived in Pitlochry after our 3 day stay in Fife with Jason's parents. Now that we are back home a week ago seems like a year! I'd only ever passed through Pitlochry on the train and I didn't really know what to expect. I've been to Inverness and Cromarty but not Perthshire or the Grampians. I was surprised most by the extraordinary diversity of trees and the large area of woodland. There are so many different trees all growing together, oaks and beech nestle beneath extremely tall firs and redwoods. Some of the countries oldest and tallest trees can be found in Perthshire. I'd love to visit the Yew tree which could be up to 2000 years old!

The picture I took above is of some woodland close to the hotel where we were staying, the Atholl Palace Hotel. The hotel was an old hydrotherapy centre for the Victorians, and later a school. It seemed just the place where Hercule Poirot would appear, waddling into breakfast to tell Hastings their had been a murder! As the Highland Tennis Tournament was being held at the hotel last week (the 2nd oldest tennis tournament in Scotland in its 115th year) it felt even more like the setting for an Agatha Christy mystery. So it was a very pleasant place to stay but not for those who love the ultra modern!

We stayed in one of the turret suites which is supposedly haunted by a Green Lady as http://scottishghosts.webs.com/apparitionsaf.htm reports:lace Hotel, Pitlochry

The Atholl Palace is a large castlellated Hotel, built in 1875, it is reputed to be haunted by a 'Green Lady', and her spectre has allegedly been witnessed by staff and guests in one of the bedrooms and the the corridor ourside the room. It is believed that this bedroom is no longer used by guests due to amount of complaints Management received the following morning!!!!

Another account however said the ghost actually haunted our turret room which had been put back into use as a guest room! Either way I didn't notice any spooky going ons and Jason of course doesn't believe in such nonsense :-) Anyway the room was lovely. I took lots of pictures including ones of our room and you can see them all on my Flickr page.

We did quite a lot of walking in Pitlochry around the town, to the black spout waterfall, through Faskally forest and around Loch Faskally. We also visited the Salmon ladder and "Salmon Viewing Chamber" which made me feel a little uncomfortable, but it was the fishy kind of Salmon they wanted to view not the happy kind :-) Over 4000 salmon have used the ladder already this year to get around the hydro electric dam. All very impressive.

Good News

The picture below is of a small waterfall in the grounds of the Hotel, near to a "Ducklings Crossing" sign which isn't really anything very special apart from the fact that it was where Jase and I decided it would be a good idea to get married! It wasn't so much a proposal by either of us; we're not very conventional, more just walking along the drive and talking and the next thing I know we've agreed to get married. So sorry to disappoint anyone who wanted tales of hot air balloon rides and down on one knee proposals. But for me it was the most magical thing in the world and it happened in a truly beautiful and extremely peaceful place.

Pitlochry was always going to be somewhere that I'd want to go back to and explore more, but now it will be even more special to both of us.

I can definitely recommend Pitlochry as a place to go on holiday, there is a theatre, great walking both through woodland and mountain, lots of water for those who like fishing and boats and loads of wildlife. The food was great too - the hotel did a fine steak and an amazing starter called the "wee beastie" which was small balls of haggis deep fried in batter. They were lovely. Because I've done my back in again I was on strong pain killers so couldn't really drink but I did manage a wee scotch, I tried the local Edradour 10 yr single malt. It was a lovely scotch, quite flowery with a bit of vanilla, very smooth but had a real peppery kick to it. When I need a new bottle of whisky it'll be a 10 year Edradour that I'll go for I think.

Home

Since getting back home I've been really busy with work. I have a new contract with the Metropolitan Police, as a recruitment consultant for their Diversity team. It's the Equality Act seminar on Thursday that I have been organising for Inclusion London, plus I have a few other things in the pipe line that I am working on. By the end of this week I'll need another holiday!

I'll leave you with a picture I took of the Firth of Forth.

Arthurs seat & kite surfer

Arthurs seat & kite surfer
Originally uploaded by Happy Salmon

Click on this picture to have a look at my flickr photos from the 1st part of our holiday in Fife. These were taken just over a week ago.

Fife

We arrived in bonny Scotland yesterday to glorious sunshine. We had a lovely journey, the section from Newcastle to Edinburgh is one of my favourite train journeys ever. Both afternoons in Scotland so far have been very sunny so I've been out taking photos on both afternoon. Below is a picture of Pettycur taken from the harbour.

One beautiful thing about Pettycur beach are the rose bushes that surround it; mixing the rose perfume with the salty smell of the sea. Refreshing, refined and it should be bottled!

I also went shopping today buying a grey scarf with silver thread running through it and a grey headband / fascinater thing, it looks better than it sounds :-)

Nanook

Nanook

Nanook is my brother's new puppy. My nieces and nephew love him to bits. In fact my 6 year old niece Lucia took this photo of Nanook. He's a very calm, quiet but friendly dog so perfect for the children. Anyway I thought I'd introduce Nanook to the blogsphere!

Sent from my iPhone

Garden spider

Garden spider
Originally uploaded by Happy Salmon

We have an army of web spinning, fly eating garden spiders in our erm, garden. This is the only picture to come out which was ok to crop and zoom in on. I didn't want to get too close to any of them!

September!

I love September! For some reason I never feel good in August, I could understand it when a teacher because although on holiday I'd end up spending most of the time ill, I'd always come down with a cold or bad migraine. I've always worked through August since not teaching but this year starting up my new business meant that August was a barren month - everyone's on holiday. So I had to take time off and I just slumped into a big low.

Today is 1st September and I do feel a lot better already. I love September the shiny new school shoes, the misty mornings, the crisp evenings, the blackberries and the robin singing at my window this morning. The change in seasons. My dahlias are looking splendid after a heavy morning dew, pictured above. But I also have some new roses, pictured below. That's why I love September, summer is growing old but autumn promises a bounty of fruit, vegetables and cosiness! My favourite time of year is autumn. So I'm happy today!
When emerging from a period of feeling very low I always feel fragile and shaky, there is always the worry that this is a false start, that by tea time I'll be back in the doldrums and the turmoil. Fingers crossed though that this time I am well and truly out of the worst.

Weekly roundup

Well I've had a busy old week. I decided to take some time off from my freelance work and so had this week as a "holiday."

My friend Ruth came to visit at the beginning of the week for a couple of days which was lovely. We just pottered about Biggleswade and Hitchin was nice and relaxing. I also made chilli which I always enjoy.

In the middle of the week I visited my parents and did a bit of shopping with my Mum and popped out for a meal.

Then on Friday my friend Selina came to visit with her two little boys Jack and Lucas. They have grown so quickly it is really quite astonishing. It was lovely to see Selina as it's been far to long. The last time we visited Selina was almost exactly 2 years ago!

Yesterday was a pretty lazy one so today we went to Cambridge for a bit of an explore. I only really know the river and colleges bit of Cambridge so we walked around that area to where the main shops are. We had a good wander and Jase got me two DVD's Kiki's Delivery Service and the Cat Returns both Studio Ghibli Japanese animated films.

We passed a Chinese supermarket on the way back and picked up some Gunpowder tea. This caused a lot of tweets on Twitter so tomorrow I shall blog about the gun powder tea with some photos of it and comparison to other teas I have!

Self employment and cake

Lets deal with the cake first shall we? My twitter friends will know that I was making cakes last weekend for my brother's birthday party. Yes he was 32 and he wanted a proper birthday party buffet like you have when your a child! I have to say it was always my favourite food. Birthdays were great with cocktail sausages, sausage roles quiche etc. My Granny also used to make us a fantastic buffet lunch when ever we went to visit with pork pies, scotch eggs, quiche, the best salad loads of fresh water cress, big ripe tomatoes and always loads of cakes of course. I remember one year for my brother's birthday my Mum made a dinosaur cake resplendent with green butter icing.

So for my brother's birthday I made fudge muffins decorated in pink icing and smarties pictured below. The gorgeous cheese cake above was made by the English Cheesecake Co who I can heartily recommend! The biscuit base was just perfect! My brother's had little Crunchy style chocolate and honeycomb pieces in it and on top of it. Personally I like the look of the blackberry cheesecake the English Cheese Cake Co do!

I also thought it was about time I blogged about being self employed. It's 3 month today since I left my permanent job at the NMC. Its funny the 3 months have flown by but it also seems like a life time ago that I was having my leaving drinks in Regents Street.

I certainly didn't make things easy for myself moving house 2 days later and then going through the 6 weeks of navigation through the selling a flat process.

Work wise I have been lucky. I only ever intended to work part time and baring that in mind I have been very fortunate with the contracts i have won. I have only so far applied for one thing that I didn't get and that was a public appointment rather than a contract as such.

I've carried out two training sessions which both went well, did some policy and consultation work for my old employer and as you know, from me plugging it on my blog, I'm organising and co presenting a seminar on disability and the equality act in September. There are a couple of other things in the pipe line too.

So my work so far has been varied and really interesting. I still have moments of panic when I think I should apply for a "proper job" so I have more security. I still haven't got used to the erratic nature of being paid as a freelancer. Because I didn't plan to do this as such I didn't have a nice cushion of savings or anything like that to see me through the barren periods. My long suffering boyfriend Jason has been wonderful in helping me. I have had to make changes though. Gone for now are my arbitrary beauty treatments. I'm doing them myself now at home. (apart from pedicures which due to my lack of eyesight I really cant manage so I still get my pedicure as a little slice of luxury!)

The thing that I am finding most difficult is the lack of routine. There is no way that I want to go back to commuting every day! Those of you who do that hard slog on public transport or in your cars will not have a jot of sympathy for me lounging about in my pjs at 11AM. But seriously I know that our bodies like routines even if my mind rebells against it I do need a routine and I haven't as yet found one.

I'm sleeping late, eating late and generally not keeping to any kind of routine. Some times I work in the morning's. sometimes afternoons and sometimes all day or not at all, if I don't need to. I guess I should really stop worrying about it as long as I'm getting the work done and I'm happy. I just wondered how others who work from home or are self employed deal with it? I'd love to know.

So on the whole I think doing freelance work is great! I'd also like to say thank you to everyone who has been so supportive with my decision and with my work :-)

Grey Dagger Moth caterpillar

I went out for the first time today after spraining my ankle. I'm glad to say that its not too bad so it won't stop me getting about but no more charging about the countryside for a few days at least!

So I've been catching up on some weeding in the garden. I came across the caterpillar pictured above on one of my roses. Its a spectacular looking caterpillar but apparently the moth it turns into isn't that exciting a bit grey and tatty looking! I know how the moth feels :-)

My lady bird army!

I noticed yesterday morning that literally over night my chilli plant had become infested with little white green fly grubs! Yuck, the little critters were everywhere! Because the weather has been so bad over the last couple of weeks I hadn't been able to put the chilli plant out in the garden so I guess this is how it happened. Yesterday was surprisingly glorious though, so out went the chilli plant. I put it near another plant which has been colonised by lady birds.

I hoped that maybe a lady bird or two might jump on to the chilli plant and feast on the nasty little green fly larvae. Well the lady birds certainly found there way to the plant as did the little wasp things that love green fly. My own wee beastie army eating all the evil larvae!

For good measure before bringing it in at night I blasted the plant with a fine spray of water hoping that would knock off any left.

This morning I thought I'd inspect the plant back in its sunny position in our hall. I found one little white grub but before I could rub it off the leaf I noticed a lady bird heading for it! After closer inspection there are at least two lady birds still on the plant chomping away at any grubs they find!
I tried to get a couple of pics of them which you can see here.

I am very grateful to my lady bird army for keeping the green fly at bay. Nature truly is wondrous!

Natalie the explorer!

Today the weather was so gorgeous, I decided to go for a walk and explore a bit of Biggleswade I'd not been to. I decided to walk north of the town and up a farm track towards the RSPB lodge south of Sandy. As I walked through the northern most housing estate in the town I came across this huge pom pom of a hanging basket! (pictured below.)

I found the farm track with out any difficulties, the picture below shows the farm track I was following you can see what a beautiful day it was.

The view around me as of just farm land and hedgerows. It was so peaceful with only the sound of the wind in the wheat, the crickets chirruping and the odd burst of bird song. I was really enjoying my exploring! I walked 2 miles in a little over 30 minutes so I was making brisk progress along the track. (I had my trusty pedometer with me)

Then just as I approached the end of the track I fell and twisted my ankle in a pot hole. I got up dusted myself down and carried on like a trooper. Not long after this, the only car I'd seen passed me very slowly. I noticed the driver was studying me closely, he wound down the window and asked me if I was alright. I said yes and carried on, as did the car in the opposite direction. I then looked down and saw that there were about 5 little rivers of blood streaking down my shin! Luckily I had some antiseptic wipes with me so I could clean the cuts on my knee, but it stung an awful lot! I began to walk slowly back but I realised that my ankle was only getting worse so I phoned for a cab. I had to wait for it by these lonely farm buildings. The iron doors were rattling in the wind. It felt very lonely and a bit spooky waiting there for the taxi to arrive!

I got home safely and I'm glad I did because my knee is quite sore and stiff now and my ankle pretty painful! But a nice cup of tea, some painkillers and a low calorie pizza with salad are cheering me up no end!

HareOnna Diversity guest blog: My fears for disabled people

I have been meaning and promising to blog about DLA and the coalition government for ages now, and just haven't had the time or energy. (Mainly the latter.) I want to broaden out the blog post to also include my fears about how the proposed public sector cuts will affect disabled people as well. So this is my first HareOnna Diversity blog entry (once my HareOnna Diversity website is up and running I'll have a blog on that.)

DLA

I'll tackle DLA first though. My big fears about the proposals for DLA are two fold. As I've mentioned on the blog before I'm concerned that the government is wilfully misunderstanding what DLA is actually for and the media are reporting about DLA in a very negative way. Secondly I am concerned that the mandatory medicals from 2013 for all DLA recipients will actually waste money and not save it at all.

DLA myths

There are a lot of unhelpful myths out there about DLA and disability benefits more generally. I did a simple search on the Daily Mail website for "Disability Living Allowance" and here is a link to the search page the vast majority of stories including the top stories found are about disability benefit cheats! When searching the Sun for stories relating to DLA it isn't much different lots of benefit cheat stories and the headline below comes in 3rd from top (below the story about a traffic warden disability benefit cheat)

"We’ll fare better by spending a lot less on welfare

Wednesday, June 23, 2010,The Sun

CHANCELLOR attacks benefits culture, vowing hundreds of thousands will go back to work"

So there are a couple of myths at work here, the first relates to disproportionate reporting about disability benefit cheats and scammers. This perpetuates a myth that there are hundreds of disabled people wrongly claiming benefits and playing the system. (Personally I think these scamming scrounger stories feed into 2 of the most damaging and pervasive negative stereo types about disabled people that there are "deserving disabled people" who need charity and "undeserving" disabled people who should be feared.)

The other myth relates to what DLA is for. The Sun's story equates cuts in DLA as part of the agenda for getting disabled people back to work. DLA is paid to disabled people regardless of whether they are in work or not. Its a "living" allowance that is supposed to meet the extra costs that disabled people face because society is not designed in an accessible way for them.

The DLA medical

The proposal to make all recipients of DLA attend a medical in 2013 perpetuates one of the other myths that it's easy to claim DLA and you don't have a medical. This is wrong because most people on DLA are called for medicals and all will have to supply detailed medical evidence from a specialist. Many recipients are called for medicals on a 4 yearly basis. I don't get called for medicals at the moment as the evidence provided by my consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital explained that my eye condition will not change (though it could get worse.) Quite rightly and so not to waste money I am not called to attend medicals. If all those claiming DLA for a condition like mine which will not "get better" are called to a medical in 2013 this will cost the government more money not save it.

The other issue is who will carry out these medicals? Generally local GPs are used to carry out medicals for the benefits agency. When I was a Disability Employment Advisor in the jobcentre I would occasionally send someone claiming benefits to one of these Drs so that I could get clearer information about how their condition affected their ability to work. (With DLA of course they will have to look at how the impairment affects all of their life including work but also personal care and mobility at home and in all environments.) To be honest these GPs reports were pretty useless. Quite often the GP would have no idea about the clients medical condition and would have to recommend we send them to a specialist. On other occasions the Dr even if an occupational health expert would not actually be able to asses the client for the correct type of work. They'd be assessed either too generally or too specifically. For example if the client had been a crane operator the Dr would assess them for that job and say no they can't do that anymore. They would then recommend something incredibly general and not make any recommendations for reasonable adjustments.

I'm not saying that all Drs were like this but many were, those who are very good and specialised in this field are expensive to use and hard to find appointments with. So how are they going to cope come 2013 when these Drs will be considering a much wider remit not just the work environment?

This leads me on to my second concern

Supporting disabled people back into work

There is a link between people on DLA and the coalition government and the previous government's plans to get more disabled people into work. The previous government had commissioned some research last year into the work expectations of people out of work who also receive DLA. Below is a link to the research and a paragraph from the summary about work expectations of people on DLA who were out of work.

DLA and work expectations research for the DWP

The relationship between respondents’ work aspirations and their DLA status was explored. Across the whole sample, 42 per cent of respondents said that they were either unsure about working in the future or that they did not expect to work again. Among the respondents who claimed DLA this figure was 60 per cent, suggesting that DLA claimants were further from the labour market than those claiming incapacity benefits without DLA. Those who reported that their health condition limited their activities either somewhat or a great deal were also more likely to hold pessimistic views about the prospect of working in the future.

When DLA claimants did identify things that would enable them to work they tended to mention measures related to in-work support.

These findings shouldn't be a surprise. Incapacity Benefit is paid to people "incapable of work due to illness" and includes people who have health conditions like broken limbs, those having major surgery, other serious but non permanent injuries or illnesses. Of course people who have long term impairments which we would think of as disabilities can also receive incapacity benefit if out of work, it is this group who are likely to also claim DLA. So if someone is claiming incapacity benefit and DLA their health condition or impairment is likely to be permanent so of course their expectations about work or circumstances changing will be less than someone who is recovering from surgery.

Similarly it is then no surprise that those who receive DLA are most concerned about receiving support when they are in work. Their conditions aren't likely to "get better" they are the people who will most likely need "reasonable adjustments" made for them when they return to work or those who will most need supported employment.

Whist the government are planning cuts across the public sector which will lead inevitably to the loss of jobs, will support for disabled people who want to work still be available? There are rumours that Ian Duncan Smith at the DWP wants to feed some of the money saved in benefit curs and freezes into supported employment. I think this is a must.

One of the other findings from the DLA and work expectations research was that more people in receipt of DLA said that returning to work would be easier if they could work from home. Hinting at some of the wider barriers that they face in returning to work relate to the physical activity of getting to work and the work environment.

The future of supported employement

At last weeks RADAR seminar on Sustainable Careers and the future of supported employment barriers relating to transport and travelling to work as well as the physical and attitudinal barriers within the work place were all discussed as being still very hard for disabled people to overcome. The seminar really brought home to me how serious the situation is for disabled people at the moment.

At the government's own admission disabled people are going to be worse off with changes to the benefits system. Many disabled people who are out of work would really love to be working but the barriers they face are just huge. There are some excellent examples of good practice regarding supporting disabled people to find work, and maintain careers that are meaningful and productive. These examples of good practice need to be supported though and learnt from.

The evidence from both Australia and America is that when benefits for disabled people are cut and adequate support into work isn't provided then disabled people just fall out of the system all together. You get greater numbers of disabled people back in care (costing the government more), larger numbers on the streets, more children in poverty. We don't want this to happen over here!

One thing said by Susan Scott Parker at the seminar which rang totally true with me and links back to the myths about DLA is that when it comes to disabled people and work and benefits there is still a pervasive belief (even if its not spoken) that genuinely disabled people can't work and so those disabled people who do work can't actually be "disabled." This is such a divisive and dangerous stereotype and yet one which seems to be at the heart of the rhetoric around getting people off benefits and into work and the DLA cuts.

I think that it is only when we have tackled prejudice and misunderstanding like this and the concept of "deserving" and "undeserving" disabled people that we can really start to achieve equality.