Shopping With A Disability At Westfield

Hello Everyone,

A few weeks ago I spent a day shopping with some friends at the Westfield in Stratford. All three of us had sight loss. It was my first time being in a situation where I had the most useful vision out of us. To shop till we dropped, we used the assistance service that's available at the shopping centre. This post is about my experience using this service for the first time. 

My White Cane Journey

 Hello Everyone,

It's white cane awareness day! 

To mark this occasion I thought it was time I tell you about my journey with the cane and why I love using it. After all, today is all about sharing why the cane is such a vital tool for visually impaired people! I'll also explain what the white cane means and the different types blind and visually impaired people use.  

Do All Blind People Think The Same?

Hello Everyone,

This month I've decided to do the "Do Blind People Think The Same?" tag. It's a tag that originated from Jubilee's "Do All Blind People Think The Same?" video, with blind content creators Alisha B, James Rath, Lucy Edwards, Molly Burke, Christine Ha and Mario Bonds. It's part of their spectrum series where they have a range of people from the same community answer questions and share their experiences. After the video was released, Cayla with a C created a Blind YouTuber tag about this, more blind and visually impaired creators answered the questions themselves and created a tag within the blind community. Sight loss is a spectrum, so people would have different experiences and viewpoints to the questions. I wasn't tagged, but I wanted to answer the questions anyway and give my two sense. Here's the video which started it all:

Ramadan Resources

 Hello Everyone,

Ramadan Mubarak!

Since Ramadan has started I thought for this month's post I'd share some resources you could use, to make the most of the month itself. I'm not sure about you, but I start the month with high expectations, but don't end up doing as much as I hoped. Also regardless of whether you're working from home or not, it can be difficult to balance work and making the most of Ramadan. Which is why this post will have things you can use throughout the course of the month, to do that. 

The Aga Khan Centre

Hello Everyone, 

This month I've written about my experience at an audio described Open House tour at the Aga Khan Centre in London. It was organised by VocalEyes and took place before the pandemic and lockdown happened in the UK. I thought it would be nice to share something fun for blind and partially sighted people to do, you know once VocalEyes feel it's safe of course. Plus I thought it would be a nice place for people to visit once lockdown is over. Either way, if you like architecture, you should definitely look out for accessible opportunities like this!

My Trip To Lanzarote

Hello Everyone,

This time last year I went on my first international trip with VICTA and Seable. Today I’ll tell you all about this trip. Plus explain what both these organisations are about. I know it's not safe to travel right now, but by the end of this post you'll learn why you should still check them out. Not to mention why Lanzarote is a great holiday destination. Keep reading to find out how visually impaired people go on holiday semi-independently. 

Audio Description at Blenheim Palace

Hello Everyone,

Last summer I went to Blenheim palace near Oxford with my brother in law, sister, nephew and cousin. We got to have an audio described tour of the palace and see the gardens. It was the first time I had used an audio description handset during a tour. Today I’ll talk about my thoughts on using the guide and the tour. To find out how accessible the handset was, check out my review on the RNIB website.

Cooking With a Disability

Hello Everyone,

I've been doing a lot of cooking recently. By a lot I mean I've cooked 5 times this month, making 4 different types of dishes. Plus a few desserts here and there. So, today's post is about how I cook with a visual impairment. Hopefully the tips I share can help you, regardless of whether you have a disability or not. I'll be using photos from the time I made chicken cous cous as examples. 

Disability, Trust and Vulnerability

Hello Everyone,

This post is about the topic of trust. Mainly, the fact that blind and partially sighted people need to trust others more than the average person. But it's also about how we shouldn't let this impact our safety. In other words, there should be a way to not put yourself in a more vulnerable situation, just because you need to trust the other person has your best interest at heart.

Accessibility In Bangladesh

Hello Everyone,

Last month I went to Bangladesh for the first time in years. I loved it! This post is about accessibility in Bangladesh, or lack there of. It's about the differences from the UK. Everyday aspects of people's lives that you don't hear about. This post doesn't reflect what living with sight loss would be like for the entire population. Just a particular class. But I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Five Things I Love About Being Visually Impaired

Hello Everyone,

This month's post is inspired by Molly Burke's videos where she talks about the things she loves about being blind. In Molly's video she talks about the 10 thibgs, but I could only think of 5. I've been a fan of Molly for a while. She's one of the most well known visually impaired creatives or influencers out there, but she's also a successful motivational speaker. When you've been visually impaired your whole life it becomes normal to you, part of your everyday life. Yes there are things that suck, makes life more inconvenient at times, but there are some perks to it. So here's my list of what I love about living with sight loss!

A Letter To My Younger Self

Hello Everyone,

Like the title suggests this post is a letter to my younger self, 16 to be exact. I've seen quite a few videos and posts like this and always found what people wanted to tell a past version of themselves quite interesting. 

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: image of the wirds "A letter to my younger self" in dark black capitals on the right, on a cream background. On the left-hand side is some white flowers in a glass vase

My Skin Care Routine

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As you can tell from the tittle this blog post is about my skin care routine. I'm no beauty blogger but I've seen a lot of posts about skin care and I like watching videos about othet people!s skin care routines. So I thought why not give it a go myself. An alternative title for this post should be "The Body Shop Vitamin E Range" because these are the products I use, but this isn't a review post. So if you want to know more about the Vitamin E range then keep reading. I talk about what I use, why I have this routine and how I learnt these products were right for me.

Manga Exhibit at the British Museum

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On Saturday 8th of June I went to my first audio described tour, of the Cti Manga exhibition at the British Museum, by Vocal Eyes describer Lonny Evans and the exhibit curator Nicole. Vocal Eyes is a charity that ensures blind and partially sighted people can use audio description to experience and enjoy the theatre, museums and architecture the same way as everyone else. I've written an introductory review about my experience for people who are unfamiliar with manga, which you can find on the Vocal Eyes website. This post is a follow up review with more information for people who are fans of anime and manga. I’ve also included some pictures I took of some of the pieces you’ll see if you do decide to go to the exhibit yourself.

Ramadan Goals

Hello Everyone,

Ramadan is the most blessed month of the year for Muslims. For 30 days we have the opportunity to develop our connection to Allah (SWT), the message in the Qur'an and understand the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed (SWS). It's a month of fasting, reflection, sacrifice and generosity for 29 to 30 days, depending on the fighting of the moon. As a blessed month Ramadan is divided into three stages: Mercy (days 1-10), Forgiveness (days 11-20) and Safety (days 21-30). The last 10 days of the month also has a night of power called Layla Tul Qadr, where your act of worship is equivalent to 84-years of worship. For more information about why Ramadan is the most rewarding month for us Muslims, click here.  This blog post is about what I want to do to make the most of the month. Oh and to keep myself happy and healthy.

Ideas, Birthdays & Careers

Hello!

I know it's been a few months since my last post. This one is just a quick life update about ideas I've had for this blog and what I've been up to.

Phantom Of The Opera

Hello Everyone!

Last week I went to see Phantom Of the Opera with a group of visually impaired people at Her Majesty's Theater in London. A friend of mine, told me about this Facebook group of  visually impaired people who organise theater trips around the UK. This was my first time meeting some of the members of the group (I only knew 1 person), but it was a great day out. Today's blog post is about this day out. Along with my experience of using audio description for the first time at the theater. 

Decluttering My Bedroom

Hello Everyone!

I've recently finished watching the new Netflix show, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, a show I din't think I'd be interested in but soon found that it made me want to declutter my entire room. So today I'll be talking about using the Konmari method to tidy my bedroom, which took about two weeks to do. I'll also include a few before and after photos. Unfortunately I didn't take any footage of my folding, but I think the show does a good job of explaining how to do it anyway. Now let's get started!

2019: The Year Of Trying New Things

Hello Everyone

Happy New Year!

Yes...I know it's the middle of January, but you can say "Happy New Year" up until the end of the month right? Yes, no, maybe so?

Anyways greetings aside, this post is just a quick summary of what I did last year and what I've been up to since my last post. It's also about the "New Years Resolutions"/"Goals" I've set for myself, or lack there of. I'll explain why later.

Let's Talk About Post-Uni Blues

Hello!

I know it's been a long time since I last made a post on here. The truth is that after finishing my exams and attending graduation I was hit with what people call "post-uni blues" or "post-uni depression". I think there's a lot of content on the Internet about how to overcome this. But I don't think people actually address what it's like being in that stage of your life, where you're figuring out what to do after finishing your degree. Which is why I thought I would share my experience of going through this. Maybe there are some of you that are going through it right now, and need to know someone else can relate. Or maybe you've gotten past it and want to reflect on it, with hindsight. Perhaps you're in your final year and want to know what happens next? Either way I hope you find this an interesting read.