January is the month to try something new and challenge yourself, with annual events like Dry January, No Spend January and Veganuary. According to Veganuary 9% of British adults have taken part in Veganuary at some point since the campaign was first launched in 2014. Veganuary themselves have estimated that is around 6 million people.
The idea of a “new year, new me” inspired me to try Veganuary for a week. On the whole, I am a dedicated carnivore, so the idea of going vegan for a week was daunting. After getting some reassurance from my aunt I headed out to the shops and brought myself a weeks’ worth of vegan friendly food.
I started off my first day by having a croissant with some ham and applewood smoked cheese. I was surprised by how fluffy and buttery the croissant tasted and pleasantly surprised at the taste of cheese. I was off to a flying start, none of my fears were true and I started to think “I can do this!”. Later on I made myself a chicken and bacon toastie for lunch which had a rubbery texture and a very salty taste but was otherwise extremely bland. For dinner I made sausages, broccoli, pasta with some Philadelphia mixed in, I honestly wouldn’t have been able to tell the sausages were meat free if I didn’t know and the Philadelphia tasted a lot creamier although it was very bland and slightly watery.
I can definitely do this.
But then came lunch time day two… I made myself a cheese and ham toastie with some cheese tortilla crisps. The meal would have been great had it not been for the melted cheese. That cheese that had tasted nice the day before now tasted horrid it was like liquid plastic. I thought I would try and improve my day by having a kit kat. Unfortunately the kit kat had a very grainy taste and dinner wasn’t an improvement either, with the fish tasting sour.
Maybe I can’t do this.
However, day three was a slight improvement with the pizza having a creamy texture but again not having any flavour even from the onions or peppers. Day four was similar with the garlic kievs have a strong smell of garlic but strangely not tasting like it. Day five however did bring a bit of flavour back into my pallet with the burgers have a peppery taste and rubbery texture.
No, I can do this.
Day 6 was some dinosaur nuggets which had a rubbery texture and were very dry with no real flavour. Day 7 was the day I used up what I hadn’t eaten involving cracker and Philadelphia, crisps, croissants and biscuits. All of which had a very bland taste, dry texture and occasionally a powdering texture.
I actually did it!
I can definitely see the appeal of going vegan, with the diet resulting in 75% less climate-heating emissions and pollution. I very much enjoyed having meat and flavour back in my meals.
When we arrived at Miami Cruise Terminal me and my sister had no idea what was about to happen. We had no idea that we were about to embark on a cruise where we were staying in an AquaTheater Suite, which is part of Royal Caribbeans Star Class.
Depending on what class you are in you get certain amenities. In Star class you are entitled to complimentary gratuities, complimentary speciality dinning, complimentary minibar and laundry/pressing services, complimentary beverage and refreshment packages. You are also entitled to some of the best seats in select entertainment venues, VOOM Wifi, priority entrance to onboard activities, suite lounge and sun deck and of course you have access to your own Royal Gene!
We were in cabin 9330 which was on the starboard side of the ship in the aft. As we were in an AquaTheater Suite it meant we were able to see/watch the AquaShow whilst onboard. Our Royal Gene was called Wendy and she was absolutely amazing throughout our cruise from the little things like making sure the cabin had enough snacks all the way to organising behind the scenes tours of the bridge, galley and even organising a special behind the scenes tour of the theatre for my sister who loves musical theatre.
When we first arrived there were balloons on the door and as we entered there was a happy birthday banner and cake for my dad and mum (me and my sister also got a cake but later on in the cruise). As we had priority boarding it allowed us to unpack and get to lunch before anyone else was allowed in the cabins which made the whole boarding experience stress free and a lot quieter.
As I mentioned earlier Star Class guests have complimentary access to speciality dinning, and we definitely took advantage of this. We didn’t go to every single speciality restaurant onboard as we didn’t really like some cuisines like izumi which is a sushi restaurant. We did visit: Johnny Rockets, Coastal kitchen, Chops grill, Jamie’s Italian, 150 central park and we accessed room service/Starbucks as this was also complimentary. Whilst this may seem like we has similar things every night I can assure you we didn’t and we even tried things we wouldn’t have thought to try had we not been there. Now as someone who was only expecting to go to one speciality dinning for one meal and then spending the rest of the time in the buffet or main dinning room, the concept of going to a speciality restaurant for every meal took some getting used to.
I still can’t decide if I liked Jamie’s Italian or Chops grill better.
Wendy (our Gene) made sure we knew what we were doing each day and when we were doing it, even sending us reminders 15 minutes prior to the event. Like I said Wendy was amazing and she would even take time to come see us at least two times a day to make sure everything was ok. It was more than ok.
With our star class status we could go along to the flowrider session put on for star class guests only and whilst I didn’t take part my dad and sister did. I was quite happy sitting getting gently sprayed with water as even though it was 8am it was already about 30 degrees. We also used to Suite deck a lot more than we did the normal pool deck as it was just a lot quieter and there was more shaded seating which was appreciated.
The priority embarking and disembarking from the ship was also an amazing perk for us especially when we had excursions booked, or when we got to Coco Cay as this meant we were some of the first at the loungers on the beaches.
Now the big question everyone is probably thinking. Is it worth the price?
From my point of view I believe it is worth the price, If you utilise as much of it as you can then it is definitely worth the price. Now we may not have necessarily utilised what we had as much as other people do but we utilised what we needed to. I think for us the biggest positives were the access to the Royal Gene as this helped our holiday run a whole lot smoother: this includes the prioritised seating we got, early access and the behind the scenes tours and all of the opportunities Wendy helped provide us with throughout the cruise. The access to laundry as we had already been on holiday for 9 days prior to embarking on the ship. Of course the speciality dinning really helped us to try things we might not have tried had we been in the buffet we probably would have stuck with what we knew we liked.
I think we probably could of used more of everything involved in the experience but we like to be able to go out and explore and experience things on the cuff rather than having everything in black and white. Whilst our schedule had been planned ahead of time for somethings we were able to adjust the timings to suit us, a brilliant example of this is when we moved our dinner to a later time a couple of hours prior as my sister wanted to go and perform at karaoke.
If you are planning on getting a suite which includes a Royal Gene I have two pieces of advice for you
Be nice to them they are human and they are amazing with everything they do behind the scenes.
Don’t feel as if you can’t change anything. If you don’t like that restaurant or the menu that day as to switch it out and if possible it will happen. If you don’t want to do that show it is completely fine
Overall if you can do a suite experience like this even if it is only once do it. I loved it and as a blind person it made my holiday so much more relaxing and I am sure it would make anyone holiday more relaxing.
July is Disability Pride month so what better time than to hold Disability Expo? This year Disability Expo was held on the 6th and 7th July at the Excel in London. As someone who is registered blind, has multiple different eye conditions, neurological and mental health conditions; I decided to go and see what charities or organisations were out there for disabled people.
Initially I was very reluctant and nervous to attend this event. Would it be too loud? overly crowded? too bright? Was I going become overwhelmed which would lead to who knows what. I am convinced my thoughts were on a crowded non-stop carousel. But I managed to slow down to carousel enough to attend the event.
Before the event Disability Expo provided information on how to get there, food and drink, BSL interpretation/live captioning, audio description and a show guide. Personally as someone who is blind and has anxiety knowing what is happening when helps me to stay regulated; however, it was quite hard to know what was going on when the show guide didn’t work properly with a screen reader. Quite ironic as it was sent by Disability Expo themselves. I was also unable to get the audio description app they were using to work.
A video of me trying to navigate the Disability Expo show guide with voiceover
Arriving at the Excel centre security staff inform you to go down to hall N4. As a blind person if I hadn’t been with someone else I would of found it very hard to know if I was in the right place. Part of me thinks and feels there should be more information provided on how to get to the hall once you arrive at the centre or there should be staff at the entrance to offer more help.
The first thing that I attended was the People’s Panel on disability representation in the media. I found this talk interesting especially as someone who is hoping to get a job with in the media. For me there were several points made that resonated with me the first was from Mark Webb who told a story of how there were two adverts back to back which showed a wheelchair user which…
“brought me almost to tears.”
Mark Webb People’s Panellist
Mark did also express how more disabilities need to be shown as not everyone is a wheelchair user. The other thing which stuck with me was how TV productions either don’t consult disabled people or talk to disabled people and then ignore what has been said. This was empathised by both Ciara Lawrence who works for a disability charity and Nate Williams who is a Paralympic Producer. Nate Willia0ms said that he always views the “athlete first then disability”; and that he works with the athletes on how they want to address their disability. Ciara who works for a disability charity talked about how a TV show wanted their help on what a disabled person would need, so the charity went and offered help and then the TV show didn’t hire a disabled person. Another example of media misrepresentation is imagined up story lines this happened in a soap opera where a character had MS and started having hallucinations which is not a symptom of MS. This makes the public misinformed of conditions meaning disabled people feel responsible for correcting this.
“we as people with a disability are all different. We all have our own likes and dislikes and our own support needs”
Ciara Lawrence
After this talk finished it was time to go and look at all the different stalls.
Unfortunately I felt as if I was limited to the stalls I could interactive with; this was because a majority of the stalls were aimed at wheelchair users or those with Autism/ADHD. Personally this made the Expo feel stereotypical as not every disabled person is in wheelchairs. it also felt as if the point of the Expo was being ignored as not all disabilities had representation.
In fact there was only one stall which focused on people with visual impairment, FLAG-ME VI. This shocked me as over 2 million people in the UK have a visual impairment with 340,000 of those being registered blind. There was also only one stall representing MS (talk with MS) and one stall for sclerosis/spina bifida. these again are conditions which affect a large portion of the UK. over 130,000 people in the UK have MS with 130 diagnosed a week. It is also estimated that between 5 and 10 percent of the UK population have spina bifida.
With these statistics I personally would of thought there would be more stalls representing these conditions. I was unable to find the MS stall and there was no on at the FLAG-ME VI stall when I got there so I couldn’t even talk to these stalls.
There were stalls that I did manage to interact with and get information from. Below are some of my take aways from each stall.
The first stall that I spoke with was Wonder Pax and I can say the name is true. This was a stall which was selling reusable heated and cooled gel packs. There was a variety of different packs to chose from which all helped with different things. There were hand, neck, back and eye gel packs which all helped to alleviate muscular and joint pain as well as help circulation, decrease muscle spasms and expand muscle and tissues. The eye pack also helped with migraines, headaches and dry eye. All of the gel packs were designed so that they wouldn’t burn a persons skin. Initially I was very sceptical about this stall, I have tried using heated gel packs before to help manage my pain and muscle spasm but I found they never helped. These packs honestly helped so much with my pain in the few minutes I was at the stall that I was tempted to just stay there all day. I did come away from the Expo with one of every single gel pack they had which came in hand when I got home and was in pain from the day. Wonder Pax definitely suit there name. The only complaint I would have is that there products are expensive and it is easy to say ‘I will just get one from elsewhere’.
Next up was Aventido an assistive technology stand. As someone who is reliant on technology this stall intrigued me although the company isn’t primarily aimed at blind people they still have to technology to help. In particular the OrCam (which is small device) can read text, recognise faces and help identify objects in your surroundings helping blind and visually impaired people live and work independently. Aventido also offer text to speech and speech to text software which can help blind people especially those with other disabilities. I did find this stall interesting and enjoyed talking to the staff who were helpful and gave me some ideas of how I can get these products through DSA or access to work.
Integrex are a sensory room company which offer interactive floor and screens. integrex offer and audio visual experience, with all of their visual games and scenes come with music or a sound. This did make the experience more immersive and inclusive. There was nothing to say that the software was accessible with screen readers but there is potential that it does; some of the games were harder to access if you have a visual impairment. I did like the idea of this company as it did help with some of the anxiety I was feeling at the event but I don’t think I had enough time at this stall to accurately pass judgment on this company.
World Explorer Holidays is a company that helps disabled people book holidays; the company handles flights, tours, hotels and much more. What I really liked about this company was that they openly admitted that they had limited knowledge on other disabilities such as visual impairments and that they were already looking at getting braille leaflets. The idea that someone else helps you book and plan your holiday immediately made me less stressed and the fact that they would be available before, during and after your holiday to help represent you in any issues you may have. (if your reading this Paula I thought you were amazing and I loved your company) In the future when I am able to book a holiday I will definitely be looking at this company for help.
Bond hotel also offered fully accessible holidays in Blackpool for people with physical disabilities, learning difficulties and mental health conditions.
Speaking of travel Great Western Railways also held a stand; now I have previously helped GWR with improving their accessibility and it was great to see Dan Pearce again especially with all of the new products they have which help disabled people, particularly those with visual impairments. My favourite product that were on display were the cards that let people know you had an assistance dog underneath the seat which GWR designed and was then taken on at a national level. I also really liked the idea of the help booklet which informed people of what help you may need and your most regular stations (this product was also available in braille which would help me greatly) this is another product I feel needs to be taken on at a national level.
The hidden disability sunflower lanyard company were also in attendance raising more awareness to the sunflower lanyard campaign. They were giving out lanyards, badges, stickers, magnets and sunflower seeds. This was one of the only stalls I felt represents all disabilities.
Like I said earlier there were many stalls that were aimed at wheelchair users such as Chunc Wheelchairs, Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby, Mybility All Terrain Wheelchairs and The Wheelchair Alliance.
In between looking at all of the stalls I also attended a talk about accessibility at the BBC held by Robbie Crow. I found this talk very insightful and interesting particularly as someone who is hoping to work at a media company in the future. Robbie talked about how the BBC had a designated accessibility team which worked on making sure assistive technology worked with the software and how the BBC helps fund what you need to make sure you can start work within 4 to 6 weeks instead of having to wait for the Access to Work scheme to fund what you need. He also talked about how there are specific projects which help recruit disabled people. The BBC has what is known as 50 20 12; this means that they want to ensure that 50% of the workforce is women, 20% are from BAME communities, 12% are disabled. Afterwards I spoke to Robbie about whether there were limitations for people with certain disabilities due to accessibility issue with screen reader software and things like teleprompters; for this Robbie said that there would be two options using an earpiece to have it read to you or using braille which has some downfalls as you have to be a fast braille reader, You can find our more about the BBC diversity and inclusion aims below.
Robbie’s speech helped me feel like I was capable of getting a job in the future and I was very grateful to him even if I did momentarily forget how to communicate with someone when talking with him.
Overall I was definitely expecting more from this Expo. Personally I felt there was a lack of representation for those with hearing/sight impairments, some neurological/neuromuscular conditions and some mental health conditions. whilst there were some stalls there that would help with this there are many other charities that could have been invited to make it seem less like you had to be in a wheelchair to get help. If I had been on my own I do worry that I may not have found any of the stalls I wanted too as I would be unable to see which stall/area i was in and the app for audio description didn’t seem to work for me.
Despite this I did feel it was a worthwhile event and I particularly enjoyed the panel I went to. All my worries about it being too loud or too crowded were wrong whilst the expo was crowded it didn’t feel as if you were being squashed like sardines and it wasn’t too loud compared to other places I have been.
Easter Sunday is primarily a day to celebrate with shows, egg hunts and plenty of food. However this Easter I did something new and different from the traditional celebrations, I attended a dog show. This dog show was put on by The Victoria Inn in Burnham-on-Crouch to raise money to support Guide Dogs and help other dog related businesses.
Image from Victoria Inn Facebook page.
The sun was beaming down with lots of noise and activity coming from the stalls that were setting up; who were trying to find the best way to lay out their stall to display all of their goods. Dogs and owners began showing up around 1pm with registration for the dog competition beginning at 2pm and the show beginning at 3pm.
I can say with certainty that the smell of dog cologne and dog treats mixed with the smell of roast dinner was an interesting one which certainly confused the senses. Especially as the space wasn’t the largest. That didn’t stop people from showing up there was so many people it was like being at a concert. There was around 200 entries for all of the categories, which shocked me as I didn’t realise how seriously some people took dog shows especially one as small and local as this one.
The categories for the dog competition included
Most handsome hound
Prettiest Bitch
Golden oldie (a dog over 8)
Cutest puppy (a dog under 1)
Best trick
Most obedient
Funniest dog
The judging was done by 2 dog breeders and there were many tough calls throughout the afternoon for the winner to be chosen.
The stalls were also amazing from homemade vegan dog treats that helped with digestion to homemade pieces of art, bowties and home décor. All of the stalls were very informative and I learnt a lot about what dogs need to eat to maintain their digestive system and help their dental health. There were also raffles and three kinds of tombola (one for adults, one for children and one for dogs) at the Guide Dog stall which was fun for everyone who had a go.
Overall it was a great afternoon out with so many different stalls with so much to offer. I did find it slightly overwhelming as it was so busy with the pub still open and the football on just added to the noise and crowd.
Altogether £384.52 was raised and donated to Guide dogs. The landlady at the Victoria Inn has already said she would love to do the event again next year and as someone who had never been to a dog show before I will definitely be attempting to save money so I can go again.
Caribbean Sun glistening down over clear blue water, a gentle breeze flowing through the air with the sound of hundreds of people with the low vibrations of a ship gliding through the water in the background.
This is what the summer of 2020 should have looked like.
Three years on there is hope that this might be the summer I get to experience the Caribbean.
In 2019 my parents went on their first ever cruise to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. They sailed from Fort Lauderdale around the Caribbean. During their cruise they thought this might be a type of holiday we would all enjoy so decided to book a cruise around the Caribbean for August 2020.
Photo by Chris Woodward
The excitement grew and me and my sister Kim held various planning sessions to create the perfect Caribbean holiday. Finally after weeks of decisions, debates and itinerary design we were ready to present our idea. Did we unintentionally treat this planning like we were going on The Apprentice or Dragons Den? Potentially.
So that is what we did. Everyone was happy with our plan and it was a job well done.
With the plans now made for what we would be doing my research begun on the ship we were meant to go on which happened to be the same one my parents had been on a few months prior The Celebrity Equinox.
Then March 13th 2020 happened. The day when everyone’s lives changed, the day Covid Lockdown 1 started.
At the start it was all going to be fine, two weeks was nothing; summer holidays were longer than that why would there be any need to panic? Then it was May… June… July and the realisation sank in that this would not be the summer I went to the Caribbean. Travel restrictions were still in place. We made the decision to push our cruise back a year So I resigned myself to putting my Caribbean shirt back in the wardrobe for now.
Seeing how disappointed we were as soon as cruises had reopened to sail from the UK my parents booked us on to the MSC Virtuosa and we sailed around the British Isles from Southampton to Liverpool to Greenock in Scotland and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Since the first cruise around the British Isles in October 2020 I have become what some may call obsessed with cruises (although my dad has also become somewhat obsessed)
Whilst I still have not been on a Caribbean cruise I have been on 2 around the British isles (once on MSC Virtuosa and once on Anthem of the Seas), I have been on a cruise to Belgium and Amsterdam on Celebrity silhouette and I have been around the western Mediterranean on the newest and largest cruise ship currently in the world Wonder of the Seas.
I remain hopeful that 2023 is the year my Caribbean shirt will actually be used in the Caribbean!!
In April 2023 I visited the London Mithraeum a display dedicated the the Roman temple of Mithras. I was incredibly excited to go as the website said that the Mithraeum had both large print and braille brochures, magnifying glasses, digital guides with vision accessibility and also warns you about low lighting levels.
From the website it sounded very promising as there was a lot of accessibility features available; this is one of the only places I have found that is so accommodating and encourages guests to feel the 3D models. There was also a vase feature in the main lobby which had different vibrations and sounds depending on where you are standing.
I did find that when there was a lot of people in the main lobby that the noise and vibrations coming from the vase feature was overpowering. That isn’t to say I didn’t like the feature I found it interesting that it had been designed to make different sounds depending on which vase you were near. I also liked being able to feel some of the vases so that I could get a concept of what they were like.
A similar thing can be said for the 3D models available and the staff member who explained each model was very helpful.
Although I enjoyed visiting I did experience some issues during my visit, in particular with the “digital guides with vision accessibility”.
The biggest problem I faced was the fact I need to use a screen reader to navigate any form of technology. This was not available on the tablets provided so we had to download the app on to a phone to see if it would work. Unfortunately this didn’t work either as the screen reader would either refer to something as “button” or “interactive touch area”. The staff members we talked to were wonderful and apologised for it not working the way it should and took some information to send off to there managers.
I also found it very hard to know what was going on in the show part of the exhibition. I would have liked to have something like a headset with a pre-recorded audio description of what was happening during the show. A similar process is used in cinemas to audio describe film, the good thing about this is it won’t disturb other guests as only the person using the headphones would be able to hear the audio description.
These were just my personal preferences and all of the staff were lovely and helped so much so I would recommend going if this might be something you are interested in. The Mithraeum is situated in a lovely area where you can see some stunning sights of London, so after you visit ancient sight you can walk along the river and see some more amazing sights.
I grew up with household names such as Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher. I knew they were all in Formula One; But I was never really interested I just saw it as something boring that meant I couldn’t play with my toys.
As I got older I started to realise that I didn’t find it necessary boring I just needed to understand what was happening. But the problem was as I had gotten older I had started noticing that Men and Women didn’t get involved in the same thing and as far as I knew Formula One was a “mans sport”.
This all meant that when I came to University and found friends who happened to love Formula One my first thought was “oh bloody hell”.
My second thought was “wait there are girls that are my age”.
My second thought is what stuck with me (I am very glad it did) I knew that if I was ever going to like and understand Formula One this was probably my best bet. It is at this point I would like to make it known this was only one of several reasons we are friends.
So in November when I was invited to go round one of my friends to watch the Austen Grand Prix I went along. I figured there was nothing I could lose so why not?
There was four of us watching the race and I didn’t feel combated that I wasn’t the only person there who didn’t know what was going on (Hi Iona).
Image from shutterstock
Then it was time for “lights out and away we go”. In my opinion it wasn’t the most exciting race but there was enough happening to keep rookies like me entertained. I did feel I had missed out slightly as we were coming to the end of a season
As a blind person I thought this kind of sport watching was something of a daydream but between the commentary on TV and the discussion about what was happening on screen. I was pretty well informed of what was going on.
I think by the end of the night me and Jordan had created some sort of code for if anything happened to Ferrari. Squeal= something good silence followed with either a sigh, swear word or just more silence. All meant a different bad scenarios had happened for Ferrari. (Thanks Jordan)
Whilst it might not have been the most entertaining race I had started to understand what was happening towards the end and it felt exhilarating I knew I could now at least talk to my dad about the races I had seen. And the next weekend I found myself watching it again and the one after that and then the season was over.
I can now say I am very much into motor sport and although Jordan may hate my constant messages I love being able to talk to someone and ask all my questions without judgment. I have also become an avid reader of the Sky sports f1 twitter.
The AWord 