Tag: Assistance
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Musings from a Blind Man: When Safe Havens Fall Short

Hospitals are meant to be safe havens — places where we’re supported when we’re at our most vulnerable. But my recent experience showed me how easily that safety can slip away when accessibility and empathy fall short. From a warm, inclusive anniversary trip to a very different hospital ward, this week reminded me just how…
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Flight Free part 4: Selfies in Paris

Waking up in Nice on a bright late summer morning, we could hear the pedestrians ambling around on the streets below going about their Saturday morning routine. We had a relatively tight schedule to get to the station for our late-morning train and the most important task on the list was opening birthday presents. It’s…
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Flight Free part 3: The Train of Monte Cinto

Quite often as a holiday gets close to an end and you begin getting your things ready for the trip home, there is that sense of melancholy that tomorrow you will be back home and the holiday will soon be a distant memory. Not this time, as we had our final swim in the rooftop…
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Flight Free part 2: Night boat to Ajaccio

We left off last time reflecting on the trip so far as we settled into our 5 hour high-speed run down from Paris to the Mediterranean port of Toulon. So far, aside from a slight panic in Paris, things were going smoothly. The SNCF train we were on was spacious and comfortable although being on…
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Flight Free part 1: Happy anniversary

Last year my wife of 17 years and I celebrated our anniversary by going out for dinner with the kids at Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus. This isn’t our usual choice for a romantic anniversary meal but there was a special reason for being in London on a warm August evening. We were due…
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Musings from a Blind Man: Turn up and Go

Original post from January 2024 I decided to do a little experiment today as Chester and I took a solo trip to visit my eldest at university in Kingston. It’s quite a straightforward trip on South Western Railway from Reading with just a single change at Twickenham. So what’s the experiment? Turn Up And Go…
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Van life: Can this blind petrol head really be happy in the slow lane?

If someone had told me 6 months ago that I would be sat outside my 20+ year-old camper van at 8 o’clock on a rainy Sunday morning in early Spring looking out at the Brecon Beacons. I’d have laughed in their face. But, here I am, pen in hand, legs wrapped in a blanket and…
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Disabled in an abled world

Disability comes as a result of many circumstances. For some it’s from a freak occurrence such as an accident or an acute medical condition, others are affected by it from birth and still others it happens over time like a dormant beast, slowly waking. For those of you who’ve read my other posts, you’ll know…
