A Quarterly Newsletter VIEWPOINT May 2014
Barnet Borough Sight Impaired (BBSI)
Tel:/Ansaphone: 020 8200 5462
Website: www.barnetbsi.org.uk
E-mail: Reg. Charity No: 1058045
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Viewpoint. This quarter we have some contributions from our Guest Editor of last year, Michael Henriques: A report on our 20th Anniversary Exhibition and a sad goodbye to Sally Gibbins, the highly popular Sensory and Rehabilitation Officer for Barnet Borough who has retired and will make her escape to her home in Normandy! Also we say ‘au revoir’ to Sunethra Goonewardene who was amongst a group of 23 Barnet residents who were awarded the prestigious Civic Award on 1st April. Even though she promises to come back after a year, she is missed already. Nigel Vandyk has kindly volunteered to act as Chairman until next year, so BBSI is in safe hands until then. We, on the committee, look forward to working with Nigel who has been a committee member himself for some time. We have been joined by Jenny Coupe and Jonathan Cave on the committee whose inputs will be most welcome. Deborah Kershaw is replacing Sally as a co-opted member.
Future Meetings:
Tuesday 3rd June - Talk about security from the Metropolitan Police and details of the ‘Message in a Bottle’ scheme.
Tuesday 1st July - Live Music Now.
Thursday 7th August - Outing to Perry Green, Hertfordshire to see an outdoor exhibition of Henry Moore’s sculptures.
The meetings take place at St Mary’s Church Hall, Hendon Lane, Finchley, N3 1TR from 1.30pm - 3.30pm on the first Tuesday of the month (except for August when there is no meeting and January when it is held on the second Tuesday.)
Time for a smile
· I hear Cadbury’s have brought a new Oriental chocolate bar.
Hmm, I think it’s a Chinese whisper.
· I used to work in a shoe factory. The work was sole destroying.
· I have to act out a region of Italy. Don’t be Sicily!
Outing to the ArtsDepot, Saturday 22nd March
Contributed by Michael Henriques.
‘Welcome to Rydal High’ was one of the announcements that we heard as we sat in ‘Grease’! This was a greatouting organised by the BBSI committee held at the Arts Depot in North Finchley in aid of Breast Cancer Research. Those of us whocould see, were doubly blessed as there was a visual delight as well as an acoustic one: the singing certainly was a treat. The dancing evoked the feeling which the original actors John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John gave us when they were on the stage in the 1970s. I think we nearly had grannies doing the jive in the aisles; only the lack of space restrained them. The old songs got us tapping our hands, feet, toes and noses all at once. I believe there was a full-size model of a car on the stage too. At the end, when the lead singer, Sandy, sang a song saying goodbye to her old self, SandraD, she appeared in a full length tight fitting leather biker’s costume which I got the impression was stunning. If our spirits were low at first, they were certainly left sky - high afterwards...
Thank you for a great afternoon's entertainment. We look forward to the next outing in August when we go among the sculptures of Henry Moore in Hertfordshire at Perry Green.
What Seeing Means to me.
In May 2013, Trinity Church Centre had many events, organised by Chris Hurwitz Bremner, which raised over £1,100 for various charities including the RNIB. An installation of a ‘wall’ of spectacles was exhibited and the public were invited to attach a luggage label to a pair with a comment on ‘What seeing means to me.’
This attracted many different thoughts which were subsequently sent to RNIB. Chris listed over 50 different comments such as:
· Memories
· Every day looking out on a beautiful world
· It’s truly amazing. But we (the lucky sighted!) mostly take it for granted.
· Seeing stars.
· Capturing people’s expressions
AND
This is what it means to Michael Henriques, a blind BBSI committee member:
Everything that I am missing in my life- my imagination is turned loose and I create (3D) images - allwomen appear gorgeous to me- I have developed a sensitive side. Sometimes - seeing is not everything, otherwise those of us without it would have nothing? We still have that twinkle in oureyes but internally and maybe more privately, but we have more than nothing.
We have happiness but it is tinged with sadness. After we have grieved for the loss of our sight we see the positive side of things: mountains are there for the discovering -- no one said it was going to be easy and it is not, but we have found faith, hope and really good friends.
(Thank you for letting me express my feelings)
AGM & Exhibition Tuesday 4th March 2014
This year our AGM was held at Trinity Church Centre, as a larger venue was required to enable an exhibition entitled, ‘Vision for Life’ to be held. It was attended by BBSI members including our co-opted member Sally Gibbins who represented the Sensual Impairment team in Barnet. As Sally retired this month, a special presentation was made to her as well as to Sunethra Goonewardene who is stepping down from her position as Chair to pursue some personal matters. There was a team of enthusiastic helpers to make sure the event ran smoothly. Guests included The Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Melvyn Cohen, the Lady Mayoress, Councillor Wendy Prentice, Councillors Suri Khatri, and Alison Cornelius. Barnet Borough Talking Newspaper (BBTN) was represented by their Chairman, Mr Zaf Khan who also said a few words to open the exhibition. Middlesex Association for the Blind was represented by their CEO, Mr Andrew Cox.
Sunethra chaired the proceedings of the AGM which was preceded by a talk from Sharon Schaffer about the progress of the ‘Low Vision Strategy’ which was initiated in January 2013.
Dad’s Army Star is a real card. (Report from the Hendon Times)
Blind people shared laughter and fun with a comedy actor at the event to mark their club’s 20th anniversary. Barnet Borough Sight Impaired invited Dad’s Army actor, Frank Williams to help mark its achievements during the past two decades. More than 100 visually impaired and fully-sighted people attended the event, which was held at Trinity Church Centre in Nether Street, Finchley. The club staged an exhibition about sight loss and how to prevent it. People shared their experiences of going blind with fully-sighted people.
Chairman Sunethra Goonewardene said: “It was a valuable way to spread the message about the effects of going blind can have. We just wanted to show how, with the right equipment, blind people can manage with their everyday lives. Everybody said how much they enjoyed it. I think it was very successful. We all loved hearing from Frank; he had very interesting things to say. He played card games with members before giving a talk on his career as an actor and his time on Dad’s Army.
The club was launched by Optician Harry Daile, who is now 103, when there was little or no support for blind people in Barnet.
Tuesday 1st April 2014.
April Fool’s Day’s pranks usually finish at lunch time but this month there was a jinx on the BBSI monthly general meeting. A performance from ‘Live Music Now’ was expected but the clock ticked on with no appearance of our booked folk singer! There were more members than usual and it would have been a terrible shame to disappoint them. Luckily in their midst was a regular attendee, Paul Payne, who is totally blind. At a moment’s notice, and without hesitation, he sat down at the piano and entertained the members and helpers with a medley of tunes which he played from memory.
Thank you, Paul!
Technology: Opening New Doors for the Visually Impaired.
Moorfields Eye Hospital runs free training sessions to help the blind and partially sighted to get the most out of the enormous amount of technology available to them. During sessions they can:
· Find out more about access technology
· Try out software and equipment
· Meet Moorfields’ staff, who offer guidance and information.
To find out more, visit The Royal London School for the Blind (RLSB) on rlsb.org.uk or on 01732 592650
Intraocular Magnifiers
You may have heard about the 87 year old lady suffering from AMD who had an operation to fit a telescopic device into her eye. This enabled her to have some vision rather than none at all. As reported by Ms Giuliana Silvestri, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon in Sideview, the Macular Society’s magazine, there are three types of this kind of magnifying aid. The latest is the Orilens. It is very small (1.25mm in thickness) but allows a potential magnification of 2.5 times. Selection and suitability of patients is the key to the success of all of the existing devices. As well as fitting the ocular requirements, Ms Silvestri found that the patient’s motivation is essential for success. Unfortunately, funding is not available on the NHS for these intraocular magnifiers and to have the procedure carried out privately can cost from £6,000 to £20,000 depending on the type of lens used.
Kale: the new ‘Superfood.’
Kale has been around for centuries and was the diet of the rural poor in the middle ages. As a child, I remember walking through fields of the cabbage like vegetable on the way to school as our dairy herd munched its way through it on a daily basis. However, it is now promoted by celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, the actress, because it is rich in anti-oxidants which keep the eyes healthy. Kale has a high lutein content which is good for macular health too. All this publicity has meant supermarkets are carrying stocks of the vegetable, making it much more accessible. If you wonder what to do with it once you have a supply, there are websites devoted to the vegetable: www.discoverkale.co.uk; www.thekaleproject.com and Gwyneth’s own site www.Goop.com.
To get you started here is a lentil and kale soup recipe which you can prepare quickly:
Ingredients:
150g Puy lentils (just over 5 ounces)
2 x 200g/ packs of kale (about 14 ounces
1.5l vegetable stock (about 2 ½ pints)
195g drained canned sweetcorn. (a small can)
400g chopped tomatoes (a standard can)
4 sprigs of thyme
Method:
1. Cook lentils in boiling water for 15 minutes
2. Drain and return to the pan
3. Add kale, stock and remaining ingredients
4. Cover and simmer for 8 minutes then season to taste and serve.
And this leads us nicely on to how to avoid paying ‘celebrity’ prices for our greens. There are many obstacles to gardening for those with low vision, but it is not impossible, and there is a compromise! How about using containers in your kitchen or on the window sill? That way you can avoid bugs and slugs, the rain, and picking your own is much easier! A self-help movement called ‘Vertical Veg’ offers advice and ideas online. Mark Smith suggests you could use a kitchen table or inner windowsill that gets 3-4 hours of sunshine. This is enough to grow leafy crops like lettuce, rocket and pea shoots. More sun would allow you to grow tomatoes or dwarf celery. You would need a container about 6 inches high or more for tomatoes (12 inches), bearing in mind you would have to feed and water more often if the pot is smaller. The soil would be best and ‘cleaner’ if bought as a potting mix from a garden centre.
I hope this will inspire you to get started on your own bit of indoor gardening. Website address: www.verticalveg.org.uk
What’s on – visit Tate Britain or Tate Modern.
Both art galleries offer bookable personal interactive described tours for the blind and partially-sighted. You need to give them a minimum of 48 hours’ notice by calling: 020 7887 8888
Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
A one-liner: The guy who fell on to an upholstery machine is now fully recovered. (Think about it!)
Guide-dogs News (from the Guide Dogs magazine.)
They are delighted to share with you some historic news for their Dog Attacks campaign. The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill finally received Royal Assent last month which means a dog attack on an assistance dog could now lead to the owner being punished with up to three years imprisonment, as it will be classed as an aggravated offence.
Guide dog owner, Jemma, told them what this news means to her: “It’s fantastic that these measures have now come into law as it mean that guide dogs and their owners are protected by law when they weren’t previously. In the past, when my guide dog was attacked, it felt like there wasn’t anything the police could do. People were getting away with being irresponsible dog owners even though dog attacks have long term effects on guide dogs and their owners. I’m just sad this couldn’t have happened sooner to prevent my guide dog Gus being attacked and having to retire. I’m now partnered with a new guide dog, Ollie, and we’re getting on really well and I hope this change will help keep us both safer in future.”
They are very grateful for everything the public has done to help bring about this law. It’s a major step forward in protecting the safety of our incredible, life changing dogs. The new law will be in force in England and Wales, as well as in Scotland thanks to a recent Parliamentary activity in Holyrood. Northern Ireland already has very similar measures in place.