Day 2 in the Big Apple

We had another really busy day yesterday in the Big Apple. First of all we visited B&H camera and video store. It's massive with an overhead conveyerbelt truck system which transports goods around the shop. Being run by Orthodox Jews it's shut on the sabbath and next week due to a Jewish holiday. So yesterday morning was our only chance to have a look around. 

We then went for a walk along the highline - a disused elevated railway line transformed into a park. I picked up a pretzel from a truck before we set off though! 

Flowers on the highline. 

The highline has some amazing views of some iconic buildings. 

Empire State Building above the roof tops. 

The Chrysler building 

After walking the High Line we wandered around the meat packing district which I really liked. Cobbled streets, converted warehouses and brownstones. We walked down one tree lined street that could have been Sesame Street. 

We then went to Union Square to grab lunch and do some shopping. We went to Dylan's Candy Bar which is a Willy Wonkeresque kaleidoscope of candy! I wish I could take my niece Antonia here she would be in heaven! Due to my high blood pressure and related health stuff I abstained from buying any sweets for me! I know I resisted the massive box of jelly beans! Jelly beans are my major weakness. 

I made up for my saintliness in Dylan's by spending in Barnes and Noble the largest book store in the world. I bought a book about one of the USA's first law enforcers. Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart looks like a a great read! Jase found a card strategy game to buy and I got a Cookie Monster  and here he is: 

We then walked up past the flatiron building stopping at the Lego store. 

For dinner we went out to a lovely Thai restaurant. We got back to the hotel in time for the new Muppet Show :-) 

First day in the Big Apple

Our first day in NYC was a busy one we walked 8 miles and managed to see many of the Mid Town sights I'd wanted to. 

There was a lovely sun rise yesterday morning I snapped from our window. 

We had a brilliant breakfast and then walked up to Central Park. It was a brilliant early autumn morning. We bought drinks from one of the hot dog stalls. Too early for a hot dog after a big breakfast! Here's a view of sky scrapers from Central Park. 

We saw the Ghostbusters building from Central Park - no sign of Zuul. 

I was impressed to see you can use your phone to get an audio guide to different parts of the park. 

After visiting the park we walked along 5th Avenue. As the Pope was due to arrive later for a service at St Patrick's Cathedral from Central Park down to about 48th St there were road blocks and barrakades. NYPD were everywhere but all in good spirits. We then went to Grand Central Station which is beautifully majestic. 

We walked past Central Library up to a nice bar called the West End Grille and I had a fabulous grilled cheese sandwich with Brie apple and bacon. It was delicious. I tried some craft beer. 

As the Pope was due to arrive around 5 and the streets near our hotel were getting crowded we went back to our room to watch the near by streets on the TV as the Pope arrived. 

Apparently FOX News have voted Pope Francis the most dangerous man in the world (beating the winner of the last 6 years, Barack Obama!) this is because Pope Francis has been raising issues like climate change (that it's real,) the positive effects of immigration and greed. All I can say is Pope Francis should be proud to have angered FOX News so much! 

New York

I couldn't sleep last night. In the end I got up and read up about New York and followed a few NYC based Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. This time next week I'll be in New York. 

Before my first trip to the US in 2011 I wrote a blog post about what I was expecting and when we went to Miami and then San Diego I discovered that the US is not what I expected in many ways and exactly what I expected in other ways. The trouble is in the UK we are surrounded by American culture through TV, film and literature and it's everywhere but of course it's not real! . 

So if the US culture I've gladly swallowed ranges from Westerns to the X-Files, Breaking Bad to Stephen King, Hollywood blockbusters, Little House on the Prairie and Huckleberry Finn it's no wonder my experience of Florida and California were some how lacking. There were no aliens, no Cowboys, no small towns haunted by evil clowns!

When I consider my cultural references for New York they're equally odd. Sesame Street, Fame, Ghostbusters, Cagney and Lacey were the New Yorks of my childhood. (Cagney and Lacey was actually filmed in Canada and LA!!) as a child I thought New York must be full of joggers grabbing hot dogs, women cops fighting crime, grouches living in bins, kids dancing in the streets and lots of ghosts! The kid in me is going to be so disappointed! But I'm sure in so many other ways I'm going to be delighted and surprised! 

Save Bedfordshire's library van and door to door service!

Central Bedfordshire Coucnil is currently reviewing it's library van and book delivery service. (The book bundle delivery is currently for those unable to get to a library.) The plans are to stop the library van and to change the book delivery service to one with eligibility criteria to be run by volunteers. I only just found out about the consultation on this and the closing date is this Friday 18th September.

From a quick glance at the information provided the eligibility criteria being proposed doesn't include partially sighted people only those severely sight impaired rather than both sight impaired and severely sight impaired. Yet partially sighted people can't drive so face the same issues getting to a library. I am hoping this is just a language oversight but unfortunately more and more recently I am becoming aware of criteria like this ignoring those registered as sight impaired (partially sighted) and only focusing on those registered (severely sight impaired.) Many older people are registered sight impaired are no longer able to drive and are living in rural settings with out public transport and so are unable to get to the library. If the wording stayed as it is they would be denied the opportunity to receive library books.

The Council also propose that library staff will assess whether someone is entitled to the service from the check list of different impairments! I think this is extremely worrying as I am certain most librarians and library staff did not go into their chosen career in order to assess how disabled someone is! It is putting an unnecessary burden on the library staff and I can see it only causing real problems for library staff. Are the council really suggesting that there are hoards of people pretending to be disabled in order to get some books delivered to their house every couple of weeks?

The council also proposes to cut the library van completely which they say is only used by 241 people currently.  I would guess though that a lot of those people use the van because they can't get to the library and will be forced to use this volunteer lead book delivery scheme instead or as the council probably hopes will not sign up for the service (who wants to be assessed as disabled by your local librarian?) and so save money that way.

I understand that the council needs to save money but I can only see this causing huge problems for the older and disabled people who rely on the mobile and door to door book service. These will be some of the most vulnerable and isolated people in our society who rely on these books as a real life line. I know that RNIB research shows that losing the ability to read is one of the greatest fears people have when they are diagnosed with an eye condition. Of course with brilliant services like library vans and the door to door service blind and partially sighted people can continue to read in many formats (large print, braille and audio books.)

The consultation closes on Friday so please fill out the survey even if you don't live in Beds or use the mobile library service, one day you might have to! You have to scroll down the page to find the Library Link consultation  http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/have-your-say/default.aspx

Technology

I just saw one of those posts on Facebook, invariably posted by someone over the age of 40 (yes I fall into that category) saying something like "I'm glad I was a child before the internet and phones and other technology." Usually these posts have a picture of a minion on them (Am I the only person on the planet who hates the horrid yellow filter tip / earplug creatures?) any way this isn't about minions. It's about technology.

This weekend I spent a couple of hours with a group of 11 -17 year olds at their youth club talking about education, what they wanted to do when they leave school or college and what they like to do in their spare time. All of the young people had a visual impairment. What was interesting was that they really aren't that different from me at that age in many respects. They were into Dr Who, or the latest boy band, they had worries about how other people perceived their visual impairment, the older ones were coming to terms with the thought of not being able to drive.

But there was one huge difference between there childhood and mine. They could access their education so much more easily than me. They could read any book they wanted to. They could get around London (where they live) easily and independently. Where I had struggled to read the black board at school even when I sat underneath it, they had the information on the teachers smart screen sent straight to their iPads. Or if the teacher was using a non smart board, they just took a photo of it on their tablet and zoomed in to see what was what. The books they needed to read in school were available on their iPads too, so they could have them in large print or listen to them. For experiments in science lessons they used hand held CCTVs to magnify their apparatus and results.

Similarly when reading for pleasure there are countless audio books available or the kindle which allow you to enlarge the print to a size they can read.

When getting around London, the buses speak, telling them which stops they are at, the trains do the same too. Google street view means they can check out where they are going in advance so they know what obvious landmarks to look out for. Those with less sight use the google directions.

I am certainly one person who wishes that this modern technology had existed when I was a child.

Technology isn't the reason kids no longer play outside and roam across the countryside that comes down to two reasons the increase in traffic making it much more dangerous to be out crossing roads and our society's collective fear of strangers.