Bin Day

Hello everyone, 
I had forgotten how hard getting back into a 'work' routine would be, my new routine has meant that I have had to walk Ralph in near darkness in the mornings, I walk my learnt route so the only real obstacle is the occasional car parked on the path and the Friday bin day chaos, when people think its ok to leave their black bins full of rubbish in the middle of the path, and the little brown food waste bins are impossible to see. Luckily the food waste bins, before they have been emptied, are of great interest to Ralph and that means I can more or less gage that the pulling on the lead and the intense sniffing means there is a bin near by.
Actually, thinking about it Friday bin days are a bloody nightmare!
Its another one of those things that as a sighted person you just don't consider. I once would have put my black wheelie bin out on the path, sometimes with a black rubbish sack beside the bin, never in a million years would it have occurred to me that perhaps there might be a someone who is visually impaired walking along the path, and that same someone might not have been able to see my bin let alone the black sack which I placed beside the bin. Loosing sight makes you consider all the overlooked, small and simple things with a whole different attitude. 
Maybe bins should be brightly coloured, have reflective strips, maybe people should be more considerate when they put their bins out..MAYBE, the people emptying the bins should also be more conscious of the implications of leaving a bin where there is not usually a bin has on someone who relies on memory to get them to and from their destinations....OR Maybe, I should just stay home on Friday mornings and let Ralph run around the garden to do his business, I suppose the bins have to be emptied and it is just one of the things which really get on my nerves, ohhh and people parking on paths, that is a subject I can really get on my soap box for!
One Friday morning a couple of weeks ago, I was walking Ralph in the semi-dark, the street lights were still on but the sky was just starting to break up and light was coming through the dark sky, as we walked along I could see the street light reflecting on something shinny on the path, and very often the person who lives along that road parks his car right up on the path so I know to move to the right and walk on the grass verge, imagine what a prat I felt when I moved to walk around the car, Ralph very selfishly did not tell me that there was a wheelie bin parked on the grass verge and even more selfishly took himself through the small gap between the car and the bin, leaving me splattered across the top of the bin, I looked up to see Ralph standing under the street light looking back at me with his head tilted to one side, I could just hear what he was thinking....woman what the hell are you doing to that wheelie bin, put it down at once and lets resume our walk. After I had pulled myself together and picked up his lead, I looked back down at him and I swear the look on his face was saying....right, lets not mention this again, but for goodness sake woman just bloody look where you are going! I'm also sure he tutted at me as he trotted off in the direction of home. 
A couple of Mondays ago I had a little bit of a accident, the day before I had heard some really sad news and Monday morning I was preoccupied with worrying about things I could do nothing about, it was one of those days where you walk into a room, stand there for 20 minutes just thinking, then suddenly your brain tunes back into your surroundings but you've no idea what it was you were in the room for, this was happening every few minutes so I gave up, clipped Ralph's lead on and took the usual route, it was fairly dark but I could feel Ralph trotting right beside my instead of his usual dashing off to find the first place to cock his leg. When I reached the top of the road I realised that I was walking the route backwards, not literally walking backwards, but I had started at the end and was walking it anti clockwise. How difficult can this be right? Clearly Ralph was struggling with this change, and I nearly turned around to walk the route in the normal direction but I thought, NO, we can do this simple act of walking a different way can't we? 
It appears this was much more difficult than I thought and I hadn't realised how unfamiliar a familiar route can be. 
I got really confused crossing the road and I don't really understand how it happened, because I am still sure I stepped off a low curb so in my mind there should have been a low curb to get me back on the path at the other side of the road, but there wasn't, there was a nice big curb and I wasn't expecting it so my foot hit the curb and my body hit the path and Ralph stood there sniffing my hair like...Are you dead Mum?
I sat up and rubbed my grazed hands and reached out for Ralphs lead again, once he realised I was OK, he was back to the judgemental, side eye glances and the 'I told you so' attitude that I have learnt to expect from him. 
The whole thing had bothered me that much that I went back in the daylight to see where I went wrong, when I walk in my usual direction I follow the curve of the road which leads me to the low curb. Coming from the other direction there is no real curve because there is someone's drive in the way so I crossed the road at the junction where there is no low curb!!..and boom, there we have it, sight impaired woman splattered all over the path and a wheelie bin in less than four days, bit of a record that I recon. 
Anyway, the heating has gone off, and I'm bloody cold, so I'm off to bed, speak soon xx

New Beginings

 I've re-written my first blog of 2019 three times already. I just don't know where to start, since the last time I wrote I've barely had five minutes to think let alone sit and write. I am aware that I've lost loads of readers due to my lack of blogging but sometimes life takes over and before you know it two months have passed and I haven't posted a word!
SO, Happy new year to you all, I wish you all love, wealth and health for 2019, well, definitely love and health, wealth is just a added bonus!
Lots has happened during the last couple of months, Ralph became poorly again, this time I got him to the vets before he coved me in blood, but unfortunately the vet got it instead (I say unfortunately, but I was secretly relieved that he saved it for her especially as she was wearing one of those white coats that protect your clothes). We had a fun week after the visit to the vets as it took all three of us to pin him down to syringe his medicine into him, the following week found him moping around as he clearly had the hump with us and felt that we had been horrible to him, however the week after that he suddenly got over it and occupied himself by hiding under the Christmas tree and jumping out at who ever walked past, he even sat with us one evening when we were playing dog bingo, the youngest daughter gave him his own doggie board, he sat looking at it for a few minutes, looked up at us playing then sat on his board, like, This board, my human friends, now belongs to me!!
The following day I took him for our first long walk in weeks, it was so lovely to see his tail wagging away as he ran off in front, chasing birds and squirrels and running back to me as if to say...look Mum, I'm having a great time. He looks like a different dog and is so happy, fingers crossed it lasts this time.
I just checked back on the last blog I wrote and it seems I forgot to publish it properly, honestly, its no wonder I've lost readers!! I think it went onto my Facebook page but not on the other sites, never mind...where was I , oh yes, so, with Ralph not really feeling like he wanted to walk far, I had plenty of time on my hands, and with Christmas around the corner and my creative streak bursting to show its face, I found some old wool and made a Christmas wreath out of woollen pompoms. I was actually really impressed with the result, and everyone who saw it encouraged me to make some through the year this year and find myself a stall on a craft market and sell them, I have started looking for cheap wool in the shops and asking friends for donations of any old wool hanging around and the pompom making has begun. I think I'm going to make a small and a large wreath and a heart shaped one too. 

What do you think of my prototype? and do you think they will sell? or are my family and friends just being kind?

Right in the middle of me wondering how the hell I ever had time to go to work, I got..THE CALL...in fact I got two calls, one from Tesco and the other from our local hospital, both inviting me to interview!! 

After my last disastrous attempt at interview, I did shyte loads of research for Tesco, honestly, by the time I had finished gathering information I knew which colour y-fronts Mr Tesco prefers!

This interview was much better, I felt quietly confident as I left, and the day before I was due to go to the interview at the Hospital, I got another call offering me the job, so I accepted, declined the other interview politely and am now training to be the new stock controller at a little Tesco store near where I live! 

I'll be honest, it was really hard work at first, there is so much to learn and its a area I've absolutely no experience in at all but three weeks down the line and my training is coming on in leaps and bounds, although I now have a little dilemma....Do I wear a badge which informs people that I am visually impaired or not? The thing is, I think it would be a good idea, as I haven't been using my cane, mostly because I have to carry around a mini printer, a PDA (little computer thing that zaps the bar code on products), a clip board, couple of pens and a load of paperwork, ohhh and my magnifiers, so Kevin the cane stays home! 

I think it would warn people that I'm maybe not as quick to find things as regular sighted people might be and there is a reason why I didn't see your child racing up the isles on his scooter!!

However, it has been brought to my attention that a VI badge might not be such a good idea, maybe people might use the fact that I 'cant see' as a bit of reason to try and errr, confuse me!

What do I do? To wear a badge or not to wear a badge this is the question!! 

I suppose I wont know unless I try it, Mr Tesco seems ok with the badge, and is happy to provide one, so I will give it a go and let you know how it goes. 

Right, im off to wash up and get myself ready for Monday Morning. Have a good week everyone!

xx