Glen – Page 36 – Well Eye Never

Room 101 – My Visually Impaired Frustrations

For this post, I thought I’d do something a bit like the TV show Room 101 (where celebrities nominate their pet hates to be locked away forever). It’s named after the torture chamber in George Orwell’s novel 1984, which is said to contain “the worst thing in the world”. We also had a Room 101 at my college which was rather memorable, because it was the examinations office! So that felt both appropriate and ominous!

So I wanted to do a post along those lines, using it as an excuse to list some things that frustrate or irritate me because I have a visual impairment. I’ve also made a Youtube video to accompany it. It’s not at all intended to be offensive or to upset anyone, and I’m not a negative or moaning person. I’m actually very positive, as I’ve hopefully conveyed throughout this blog. But it’s nice to get some things off your chest now and again, and to try and spread a bit of awareness in the process.

So here are 10 things that frustrate me as a visually impaired person, which either affect me directly or have an impact on my friends and family. I could think of more, but this is plenty. If you’ve done any of these things, please don’t feel bad about them. We all make mistakes without meaning to, that’s life and that’s fine. All I ask is that you take it on board for future reference.

June 2017 Favourites

Hi there, welcome back to the next instalment of my monthly updates. It’s hard to believe that it was the 6-month anniversary of my move to London in June, that’s certainly flown by!

Of course, I appreciate that this month is one that some people would rather forget, given the despicable attack on London Bridge and the devastating Grenfell Tower fire, and my thoughts go out to everyone affected by those terrible events.

But for me, I’ve happily continued with my explorations of London, taking advantage of the glorious weather to walk around a lot of different places, capturing lots of photos and videos along the way, as well as celebrating Aniridia Day, seeing TV shows being recorded and socialising with friends! Hence this is a very busy post, and I hope you enjoy it all!

The Last Leg – My Studio Audience Experience

Following on from my post about being in the audience for Mock The Week on Tuesday night, I was also lucky enough to have a ticket for Channel 4’s The Last Leg on Friday night as well. Out of both the shows this week, this was the one I was looking forward to the most.

So, as with Mock The Week, I wanted to tell you a bit about my experience there, without giving away too many TV secrets. Just like that previous post, this isn’t sponsored or endorsed in any way by anybody connected with The Last Leg or SRO Audiences. These are just my personal opinions that I wanted to share with you, as it was a very new and exciting experience for me. And again, this is also discussed in my video about Being In A TV Audience.

Mock The Week – My Studio Audience Experience

This Tuesday I got to be in the audience for the BBC’s Mock The Week, which is recorded at the ITV Studios – go figure! I’ve never been in a TV audience before, so I was looking forward to what I hoped would be an amazing experience. And it was! And it was great to watch it back on BBC2 this evening as well. So I thought I’d tell you a bit about it, without giving away any secrets or spoilers for those who also want to go to the show.

This post isn’t sponsored or endorsed in any way by anyone connected with Mock The Week or SRO Audiences. Nobody’s asked me to do this, I just wanted to relate my experience, as it was very new and exciting for me.

This is also discussed in my video about Being In A TV Audience.

Scam Email – Microsoft Security Notification

Back in April I did a post about scam emails I’d had pretending to be from Amazon and Barclays (and a shoutout to Codemefy who commented on it – go and check out their blog for lots of spam email information).

It’s always been my intention to make more scam awareness posts like that, to keep raising awareness, but time’s not been on my side. However, I will keep them coming here and there, and today I wanted to share an email I got at work this week, from a scammer pretending to be Microsoft. Given that it was at my workplace, it suggests this is more aimed at business people rather than home users, but you never know who will receive these things. It is the sort of email that people at home could fall for too if they’re not careful.

Aniridia Day – My Shining Success Story

Happy Aniridia Day! 🙂

Today we’re celebrating people’s achievements and ambitions with Aniridia, as part of the Shining Success campaign, for which I edited a promo video I’m very proud of. There are also Facebook and Twitter pages for the day, where people are sharing their stories, photos and videos to mark the occasion, so please do check them out.

It’s already bringing people together with aniridia who have never met before, and helping to spread a positive message of positivity, support, solidarity and hope for the future. And if you want to find aniridia support groups, the links on my Sight Loss Resources page may help.

So this post, and a video to accompany it, is my contribution for the day, talking about my own achievements and ambitions, as someone living with aniridia. I hope you find it interesting!

May 2017 Favourites

Hello again, and welcome to my latest monthly roundup. I’ve continued to settle in well and enjoy a variety of experiences in London over the last few weeks, including more social events, museum visits, festivals, walks and tours, plus I’ve taken a trip to see my old friends in Devon. So there’s loads to get through, and I hope you enjoy reading about it all!

Barking Up The Right Track

While looking online for things to do in London, and other places I might want to travel to, I came across the excellent videos by Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe that have been published by Londonist and on Geoff’s own channel. These include videos about secrets of the Underground, the least used stations in the country, facts about London, vlogs and more.

So railways are a big passion of theirs, but they’re not trainspotters either, and you don’t need to be into trains and railways in a big way to enjoy them. Their videos are accessible, fun and informative, without being nerdy or patronising, as they look more closely at the history and features of the rail network that millions of people use and take for granted on a daily basis.

And right now they’re embarking on their most ambitious project yet, called All The Stations, which is the reason behind my latest outing this weekend.

March & April 2017 Favourites

Hey there, welcome back! I’m sorry I didn’t do a Favourites post for March, but I was unwell that month with dental problems, so I didn’t end up going to any events in the end. It’s all resolved now though, and despite that setback it was still a productive month at home. Then in April I was able to go out a lot more again, by myself and with other people.

So there’s quite a lot to bring you up to date with, particularly the many outings I’ve had for tours, walks, museum visits and social events in April. I took lots of photos along the way, some of which I’ve included below, while there are more on my Instagram too. And I’ve posted several video clips on my Youtube channel, which I’ve also included below. Plus there are updates on things I’ve been doing and watching at home. So I hope you enjoy it all!

Scam Emails – Amazon & Barclays

I don’t get many spam emails, thankfully, but one or two inevitably pop up sometimes. And I thought it might be useful to start flagging scams up here on the blog, just to give people an idea of things to look out for. If it makes just one or two people a bit more aware, then I figure it’s worth it. So I’ve got a couple to mention here.

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