Disability – Well Eye Never

February & March 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope your year’s been going well so far, and you’re enjoying the Easter weekend. For me, the first few months of 2026 have been a transition period, as I’ve been making the switch from my support worker role to a new zero-hours contract as an accessibility tester, so I can focus more on caring for my mother and looking after my own wellbeing. You can find out more about all of that in my latest Carer & Career Update post.

Because of that, along with the often cold and wet weather, I haven’t done many interesting things in London since my January Favourites. I’ve been out for a few walks, got a haircut and done some shopping when the weather allows, but that’s it – until very recently, when I saw my first theatre show of the year with a friend of mine, which was a much-needed bit of light relief.

So in this post I’ll be talking about my theatre visit, which involved a touch tour and audio description, as well as the variety of entertainment I’ve been enjoying at home. None of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual, and I hope you find it interesting!

Carer & Career Updates – Easter 2026 (New Beginnings)

Happy Easter! This is a time that traditionally marks new beginnings, and for my mother and I that’s certainly true this season.

After a difficult year in which Mum’s care needs increased and my income was slashed, I’ve now left my job as a support worker to focus more on her and myself. I’ve also entered a new freelance zero-hours contract to generate a little bit of income on the side, so I’m not out of work entirely and can still gain some useful experience. But ultimately I can be much more flexible with my time now, to focus on what matters most.

So, following on from my post in January about how things were going at the start of the year, here’s a fresh update on how we’re starting a new chapter in our lives.

January 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope your year’s got off to a good start. For me, as noted in my recent update about my career and being a carer, my circumstances are set to change due to my mother’s ongoing support needs and funding cuts for my current job role. But Mum is much better than she was last year, I’ve already secured a new freelance position, and I have other financial support, so there’s good reason to be positive and hopeful about the year ahead.

I’m also celebrating 10 years of blogging and YouTubing, and that decade has really flown by! Thank you so much if you’ve played any part in that, whether it’s quietly reading my posts or interacting with me in some way, I really appreciate it!

But to focus on January, I have started going out and about more again, now that my mother’s situation has eased a bit. So I’ve met a couple of friends, eaten some delicious food and taken a few nice walks. Meanwhile at home, alongside my usual favourite TV programmes, I’ve been having a stand-up comedy binge by watching several specials and finishing an autobiography. So there’s quite a bit to mention as usual, none of which is sponsored to appear here, and I hope you enjoy!

Ten Years Of YouTubing

Yesterday I made a post celebrating my 10 years as a blogger. And therefore by definition I’ve also passed my 10th anniversary on YouTube, so it seems only right to do a post about that too. My YouTube channel actually came first, in the second half of 2015, but there’s only one video I’ve kept from the two I filmed as an experiment back then, before I started posting more regularly a year later, in August 2016. With everything else going on last year, the milestone passed me by, so now’s as good a time as any to reflect on it.

Of course, I could do a video about this, buy as well as my general reflections I want to explore the statistics behind my channel like I did for my blog yesterday, which will naturally be easier to go through in written form. While statistics will be of no interest to some, I’m interested in seeing them personally as I don’t normally pay any attention to them, and they’re a nice way of marking a point in time that I can refer back to in another 5 or 10 years if I’m still blogging or filming then, to see how I’ve progressed.

It will also help me to complete a streak of posts here on my blog, as when I do my Favourites post tomorrow I’ll have posted every day for a week for the first time ever. So that seems another nice way to mark my 10th anniversary, following my most prolific month ever, as I made 13 posts during January, largely thanks to all those Freddie Mercury exhibition posts!

Ten Years Of Blogging

Incredibly, this month marks the 10th anniversary of my blog, as I registered with WordPress and started rambling away here at the start of February in 2016, talking about my conditions aniridia and nystagmus. The old journal posts listed before then were added and backdated retrospectively during the Covid lockdowns as something to do, although in that regard I’m impressed that I’ve been able to fill a blog with content spanning over 25 years, and that people have been so interested in reading about my past as well as the present.

I’ve also just started my 10th year of living in London, so while my anniversary of the big move isn’t technically until next Christmas, and I will probably say more about that particular milestone when the time comes, it’s practically a double celebration.

And on top of all that, thanks to some fortuitous timing, I’ve managed to ensure that this particular post is my 500th to be published here. Sure, there have been more than that in total, as a few posts have been merged or deleted over time, and I’m not counting the index pages. But in terms of currently published posts on my homepage, there are now 500 exactly.

Carer & Career Updates – January 2026

After everything Mum and I went through last year, it’s fair to say that 2026 has had mixed beginnings for us. But ultimately there are signs of hope and potential for the 12 months ahead. So I wanted to give an update about caring for Mum and have a little rant about my work situation, so you know where we stand at the moment, before I do my Favourites post about the month soon.

Chris McCausland – Keep Laughing Review

I’ve mentioned Chris McCausland several times in my blog in recent years, because he’s one of my favourite comedians, and not because he’s blind. He’s very funny, clever and down to earth, a genuine nice guy, and I got to see him live a few years ago, which I hope to do again at some point. Recently I also enjoyed his fascinating documentary Seeing Into The Future, and he’s done great podcast interviews with the BBC, Channel 4 News and Romesh Ranganathan.

And now my mother and I have listened to the audiobook of his new autobiography, Keep Laughing, and we’ve really enjoyed it, so I wanted to do a review here as well. This isn’t sponsored or gifted, I’m just a fan, and I hope you find it interesting.

Christmas 2025 Favourites – Part 2

Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had a wonderful time this festive season. Or if it’s been a difficult period, or even a tough year overall, then I hope 2026 works out better for you.

My mother and I are certainly hoping it will be more positive after everything we’ve been through in the last 12 months. I’ve written a lot about being a carer for her, and recently brought our story up to date by reflecting on the year and the considerable progress we’ve made. We did have a lovely, relaxing, over-indulgent Christmas, I’m pleased to say, so that’s put us in the right frame of mind for the year ahead. The future of my job is very uncertain, granted, but whatever happens with that I’ll be alright. So fingers crossed things continue to go well for us.

I previously posted about the things I enjoyed during the advent period leading up to Christmas, so now it’s time to catch up with all the other entertainment that’s been keeping me occupied since then. So let’s jump straight into it, and I hope you enjoy!

Caring For Mum – Part 5 – Reflections

What a year this has been. It was always going to be the case that Mum’s health would decline in some way at some point, given her age and disability, but neither she nor I had bargained on the spiral that took hold during the past 12 months, especially during the spring and summer. That’s why I started writing my carer’s journal posts – partly as a cry for help and a bit of therapy for myself early on, but mainly to raise awareness of what it’s been like for me as a carer, as it’s the sort of thing that goes unnoticed behind closed doors.

I’ve always been my mother’s carer to some extent, ever since I was old enough to help her out with things. But it’s only in this past year that it’s really felt like it, given how much more attention I’ve had to give to her, at the expense of my leisure time and wellbeing, because of the mental and physical consequences of her sight loss and all the falls she’s been having.

However, I’m pleased to say that we’ve actually ended the year in a much better position than when we started it. Things aren’t exactly the way they were before, and never will be, but given all the support we’ve received, Mum is in a much better frame of mind and we’re on a much more stable footing for the year ahead, and therefore we feel like we can get on with our lives in a similar way to how we used to.

So as a bumper post to finish the year, I want to reflect on the events of the past 12 months and bring things right up to date, and I hope you find it interesting.

Carer’s Journal – December 2025

Here’s another set of journal entries on my life as a carer, to bring things up to date before Christmas. Then I’ll do another post to cover the Christmas period, which will take us into the new year.

The month didn’t start off well in terms of my career, as my support work role is now looking untenable, despite the government claiming it wants disabled people in work. So do excuse my rant in the first journal entry!

But at home things have been a lot better, in terms of Mum’s health and medical appointments, coupled with our preparations for Christmas. I was even able to meet a friend for a festive meal, which was lovely, and look at some of the decorations in the city.

So here’s what’s been going on so far this month, which I hope you find interesting as always.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: