Disability – Page 6 – Well Eye Never

The Dream Team – One Year As A Support Worker

It’s been just over a year since I became a support worker for my friend Emily Davison, aka Fashioneyesta, to assist with her new role as a trainee journalist with Newsquest, primarily on the News Shopper site as well as their other south London titles. So I thought I’d give an update in this post and video on how it’s going, and an insight into the work I’m doing. I’m not sponsored to mention any of the products and services that I talk about here, all opinions are my own as usual, and I hope you enjoy!

Christmas 2023 Favourites – Part 2

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great Christmas, and that you have a prosperous year ahead as well.

This is the second, bumper part of my festive Favourites, as the first part covered the month of November, where I had a free Christmas meal, explored a trail of snowmen sculptures and saw some of London’s displays, among other activities.

Since then, in December and early January, I’ve met friends in both London and Devon, seen four incredible theatre shows, explored a museum I hadn’t been to before, had some lovely meals in restaurants, ate far too much food at home, celebrated the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, watched lots of comedies on TV, and enjoyed some music as well.

So once again, as with every Christmas, this is a bumper post and video. One of the meals was a free PR invite for my journalist friend Emily to review, but as usual I’m not sponsored or affiliated to write anything here, and all opinions are my own. I hope you enjoy!

Palladium Pantomime – Peter Pan

Christmas has been a bit extended for me this year, as it’s only just come to an end this past week with my trip to see the famous Palladium Pantomime for the first time, complete with a touch tour and audio description. And it ensured that I ended the festive season in style, because it was an amazing, hilarious, musical, magical experience.

Doctor Who At 60 Review – The Whoniverse

For the final part of my trilogy celebrating the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who – following on from my reviews of the specials and radio shows – I’m diving into The Whoniverse on BBC iPlayer.

This treasure trove of televised time-travelling treats came as quite the surprise when it was launched by the BBC at the beginning of November. At its heart are over 800 episodes from the series, accompanied by several spin-offs, documentaries, other programmes and accessibility features, all for free (well, with no subscription required on top of your TV licence anyway).

So there’s a lot on offer, and I hope you enjoy my trawl through the various special programmes I’ve been watching. As always, none of this is sponsored by or affiliated with the BBC or anyone else connected with Doctor Who, and all opinions are my own.

Doctor Who At 60 Review – The Specials

Updated in November 2024 to include the newly released deleted scenes.

Happy 60th anniversary to Doctor Who! The BBC have quite rightly been celebrating one of their biggest, best and longest-running shows in style recently, and I’ve been very much enjoying the various ways they’ve marked the occasion.

In particular, we’ve had a new trilogy of hour-long specials, featuring the wonderful return of David Tennant as the Doctor (designated Number 14 rather than 10 this time), Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, the late great Bernard Cribbins in his final appearance as grandfather Wilfred Mott, and some other important characters, plus the introduction of Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor. And behind the scenes we also warmly welcome back composer Murray Gold, executive producers Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter & Phil Collinson (along with new arrival Joel Collins), and showrunner Russell T Davies.

It really is wonderful that the old team have been reunited, and that they’ve been given a bigger budget too, partly thanks to the BBC’s new global streaming deal with Disney+, so the show looks even more impressive than it already did. And there’s greater representation of diversity, in ways that are genuinely inclusive rather than just ticking boxes, which is fantastic.

So it does feel like we’re entering a fresh new era, which has been given its own section on BBC iPlayer (alongside others for the earlier Classic and Modern eras as part of the wider Whoniverse). It is rather a shame that Disney+ viewers won’t have access to older episodes – hence the numbering is being reset to Season 1 for Ncuti Gatwa’s debut, instead of confusing their users by calling it Series 14 – but hopefully these latest episodes will tempt new Whovians overseas to find ways of looking back at previous adventures.

So, much like my deep dives into the TV adventures of the 9th and 10th Doctors (in Series 1, 2, 3 & 4 and the specials), in this post I’m going to review the 60th anniversary episodes and the extras in the latest Blu-ray steelbook. Unlike my older reviews however, of episodes that I’ve seen countless times before, these are my first reactions to seeing these new adventures.

Later on there will then be additional posts to review some of the other goodies I’ve been enjoying on the BBC website, that have been generously made available for free. It really does feel like they recognise what a valuable and significant asset they have in this show, given the attention they’re lavishing upon it – which sounds obvious, but that hasn’t always been the case.

As with all of my Doctor Who reviews, this isn’t sponsored by or affiliated with the BBC or anyone else involved with the show. I’m just a keen fan who enjoys exploring the series and writing about it, and as a result there will be lots of spoilers ahead as well. So I hope you enjoy!

Christmas In Devon

It seems hard to believe that it’s well over a year already since I was made redundant from my previous job in Torquay, and that the first anniversary of my new job in London is just a month away. But I still keep in contact with my former colleagues and friends down in the Westcountry, and last week I popped down there to see some of them again for a Christmas catch-up. So I thought I’d do a little write-up about it, as I have some festive photos and video clips to share as well.

Christmas 2023 Favourites – Part 1

Seasons greetings, I hope your preparations for Christmas are going well, November always feels a little bit festive, but for me it was even more so than normal this year, because I’ve already explored a variety of London’s displays, seen a bunch of snowmen on a sculpture trail, and had a free Christmas dinner courtesy of a PR invite. On top of that I’ve also seen a couple of theatre shows, while at home I’ve been enjoying some more TV and music as always.

Consequently it makes sense to treat this as a festive Favourites post and video, and spread the joy over 2 months. It’s not too early as far as I’m concerned. So with the usual disclaimer that all opinions are my own, including for the free food, let’s crack on with it, and I hope you enjoy!

October 2023 Favourites

Hello again, and welcome to my latest little roundup, at a time when I know that things are far from cheerful news-wise. The war in Israel and Gaza is horrific to say the least, and like everyone else I can only pray for peace and express my solidarity with the innocent civilians affected on all sides, just as I do for the ongoing Ukraine conflict. Then there’s the Covid Inquiry, stormy weather and other stuff. But on the plus side, the plans to close railway ticket offices have just been scrapped (for now at least), which I had a little rant about in my July post, so well done to everyone who campaigned against it.

So as always I hope my posts are a pleasant distraction from things like that. And for me this has been a pretty relaxing month really. I didn’t go to any theatre shows this time, but I did revisit a couple of my favourite museums, explored a couple of sculpture trails, and had a nice Halloween tour with my friend and colleague Emily. Plus I got my Covid booster, had a few other nice walks, and went to a retirement party (all the best Pauline if you’re reading this!), but I don’t need to write about those little bits here.

So let’s crack on with this month’s post and video, in which nothing is sponsored or gifted as usual, and I hope you enjoy!

September 2023 Favourites

Hey there! Following my very busy birthday month – and thank you again to everyone who sent good wishes for my 40th – September has unsurprisingly and deliberately been much quieter and more relaxed.

I did see an amazing theatre show and had a lovely afternoon tea though, which I’ll be talking about here, but otherwise my outings were either for health appointments or general walks. And at home I’ve been watching a few things on TV and working as usual.

So there isn’t a huge amount to cover in this month’s post and video, but I hope you enjoy what I do have to offer!

40th Birthday Favourites

Here we go, the big four-o,
These two score years have not gone slow!
Amazing how the time has flown,
And since my youth how much I’ve grown.
I had to celebrate, you know,
With food and drink and West End shows.
So with my friends and on my own,
I’ve really marked this milestone.

There’s stand-up stars who made me laugh,
Musicals well-choreographed,
Eating blind and on a cruise,
A 9-course feast and rounds of booze,
A major rock star’s prized possessions,
Art displayed with cool projections.
An action film with audio description,
And shows I’ve seen on television.

Come see how I’ve spent my time,
I promise it’s not all in rhyme.
Here’s why I’m feeling all aglow,
Enjoy this post and video!

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