Christmas Evening at Gladstone Pottery Museum

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When we visited Gladstone Pottery Museum earlier in the year, one of the free hand painters we were talking to suggested that we revisit during the Christmas season as she found it quite a magical time to be there.

We took her advice and visited for a Christmas carols evening. It did look quite magical as the Victorian pottery was lit up with Christmas lights and oil lamps. There were some demonstrations of pottery making going on, also by lamp light, and the staff were dressed in Victorian style outfits.

It looked very pretty but I can imagine that it was quite difficult for Victorian workers to work by lamplight as the light wasn’t that good. For example, for the free hand painters, with some colours it was difficult to tell what the colour was because of the poor light.

Once we’d had a look around inside, we went back out side to the (cold!) courtyard to listen to the brass band that was playing and to wait for the carol singing to start. There were three fires blazing in the courtyard, with a group of people crowded around each one for warmth. There was also mulled wine and spicy nuts provided for us to enjoy.

Unfortunately, we only managed to stay for two carols as by this point I couldn’t feel my fingers and toes. I think next time, I’d wear two pairs of gloves and an extra pair of socks!

We’d definitely go again, as it was very enjoyable and very Christmassy.

This is our last blog before Christmas, so we shall wish you all a Merry Christmas, and hope you enjoy the video below.

Christmas Through Time at BCLM

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This week we made a return visit to the Black Country Living Museum. They’ve got quite a few things going on over the Christmas season, but we went specifically to look at Christmas through Time.

All the houses were decorated as they would have been in the time period they were from. For example, the 1940s prefab house had a Christmas tree that was a small branch from a tree, which was painted white, and had homemade decorations on it. There were also paper chains hanging up that were made from newspaper, as this was a time of rationing.

The one thing all the houses had in common was that they all had a fire roaring in the grate, which made that particular room where the fire was, nice and toasty warm. We definitely appreciated that as it was a chilly day!

We had the obligatory fish & chips fried in beef dripping while we were there. We cannot visit BCLM without having fish & chips! We certainly appreciated having them as they were nice and warm 🙂

In addition, there was also mulled wine available for the adults, from the pub, to also warm you up.

This was the first time we had visited BCLM around Christmas time and it’s something we’d definitely do again. Another visitor told us that it’s especially magical to visit there if it’s been snowing. That’s something to bear in mind for future visits too.

John Goes Driving!

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John has been driving! Obviously not in our car but on a driving experience that’s specifically for visually impaired people.

This was organised by a group called Racecar Assistive Techonology. They can be found on Facebook by searching for The Blind Racer.

John drove two cars: the first a Ford Mondeo and the second a more sporty Honda (sorry I’m not sure of the exact model.) Both cars have duel controls in them, in the same way that driving school cars have duel controls. In fact, the dual controls were fitted by a company that fits them in driving school cars.

There were two sighted instructors, or navigators as they call themselves, and they sat in the car while John was driving. Each instructor drove the car around the track, with John as a passenger, before John had his go.

Unfortunately for John it was raining that day, so the track was wet, which meant that John couldn’t go as fast as he would have liked to go. He had a really good time nonetheless and found the instructors really helpful and friendly.

It’s definitely something that John would like to do again, however, he also has plans to fly a plane next!

Check out his driving experience in the video below.

Why We Don’t Do Theme Parks

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We’ve been asked by a few people, why we don’t go to theme parks. As a family, we used to enjoy going to theme parks, even though I am a self-confessed wimp!

The last time we went to a theme park was in 2015, and we went to Alton Towers in Staffordshire. We had a bad experience there and as a result we have never returned to Alton Towers since then, or been to any other theme park.

We talk about the experience in the video below.

World of Wedgwood

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We visited the World of Wedgwood in Barlaston, near Stoke-on-Trent. It’s an interesting place to visit as it displays various items made by Wedgwood over the years. There’s artefacts on display from the mid 1700s, when Josiah Wedgwood opened his first factory, through to the present day.

Obviously, the items that are 100s of years old cannot be touched, so John was relying on description for those. However, on Josiah Wedgwood’s desk there was a photocopy of one of his writing books, so you could look through that, almost as though you were turning the pages of the actual book that Wedgwood wrote in. There are also different drawers you can look through to see Wedgwood’s different experiments with colour.

Looking at more recent items, it’s interesting to see how styles and fashions have changed over the years. With ware made for the 1960s market being very different than that made for the 1980s market!

At the end of the tour there is a dragon, very cleverly constructed from plates, bowls, cups and saucers, with forks for claws and eyelashes.

Accessibility is good and there is a loop system for hearing impaired people.

Video is below.

Gladstone Pottery Museum

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On this trip we went to Gladstone Pottery Museum. This is a preserved Victorian pot bank (pottery factory) in Stoke-on-Trent.

As the museum is Victorian, this means that there are cobblestones, so it is a bit bumpy if you’re a wheelchair user. Parts of the museum are also Grade II listed, so may be inaccessible in some parts because of this. Having said that, a large part of the museum is accessible and it’s worth a visit.

The staff there are extremely helpful and knowledgeable, as most of them have spent many years working in the pottery industry. We found that staff were keen to impart both their knowledge of various jobs within the pottery industry and to give practical demonstrations. 

This was a great trip for John as staff there gave him many opportunities for a hands-on experience, so he could fully participate in what was going on too. The staff were willing to let him touch things that had just been made too, so he could feel what had been made and feel the clay.

We were really impressed with how much we learned and how much we were all able to participate and experience this Victorian pot bank.

We’ve been advised that Christmas time is a good time to visit too, so we are planning a return visit then.

The video of our visit is below.

Thinktank, Birmingham

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On this visit we went to the Thinktank in Birmingham. This is a very interactive, hands on science museum, where there is plenty for everyone to do. John got the opportunity to practise his Braille skills but, alas, not his singing skills!

Some of the exhibits are memorable to us because they made us laugh - for example when we pressed the button for the final stage of the digestive system! You’ll have to watch the video to see what happened there 🙂

Unfortunately, when we visited the planetarium was closed, which was a shame because we’d have really liked to have seen that. However, apart from that, we all had a great time. Accessibility is excellent and we all had the opportunity to engage with the interactive exhibits.

If any members of your party need a quiet space to go to, while you are there, there is a quiet room available for them.

Parking is available at Millenium Point. This is in a multi-storey car park of the type that you take a ticket on entry and pay on your way out. If you have a disabled parking badge, you can show this to a car park attendant and they will activate your ticket for you, so you are not paying for parking. Carers go in for free, at the Thinktank, and there is a concessionary price for disabled people.

We think that it’s definitely worth a visit. Check out our video below.

Trentham Monkey Forest

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We visited Trentham Monkey Forest in Staffordshire. Its opening times are seasonal, so check before you visit that it is open. The Monkey Forest is part of the Trentham Estate and is an area where the monkeys are allowed to roam freely, so you could have a monkey stroll across the path in front of you at any moment!

Dogs are not allowed at the Monkey Forest and this does include assistance dogs. Also, some of the paths in the Monkey Forest are quite steep, so maybe inaccessible for some wheelchairs. I remember visiting when George had a manual wheelchair and I honestly thought that I was going to need oxygen by the time I’d pushed him and his chair up one of the steep paths! An alternative route is signposted, however this involves going along a path where people are exiting the part of the forest that is accessed by the steepest path. This means that you do have to watch out for people walking towards you, if you go along the alternative route.

It’s a nice place to visit for a few hours and it’s great seeing the monkeys roam freely in the forest.

To make a whole day of visiting, the Trentham Estate also has gardens you can visit (for an additional charge) and a shopping village, that has some interesting shops, and not the standard soulless chain stores.

Our video of our day at the Monkey Forest is below.

NEC - Motorhome & Caravan Show 2018

Last weekend we decided to visit the Motorhome & Caravan Show at the NEC. We went because we’ve been looking at getting a folding camper to enable us to go and visit places that are further than a day trip from home. We had quite a specific wish list of three items:

1. It had to be light as our car will only tow up to 1200kgs;

2. It had to be small enough for us to store at home, so that we’re not paying for storage;

3. It had to be easy to put up.

We did actually find something that met all the requirements of our wish list... but more on that later.

We arrived at the NEC about 20 minutes before the show opened. It was busy at this time but not unbearably so. We got to have a look around a wheelchair accessible motorhome, which we thought was brilliant. It definitely opens up the world of touring and camping to more people. George tried out some of the accessible features of the motorhome, in his chair, and he was quite impressed.

Then we went and looked around some trailer tents and folding campers. I like the idea of trailer tents because the trailer is light and easy to store, but the tent part is not especially easy to put up. We looked at Pennine folding campers - in particular the Pathfinder. The trailer is light enough to be towed by the car but is quite big. I’m not sure that it would be able to be stored at home due to its size. It also made me think of a caravan that’s been chopped in half. We also looked at the Air Opus folding camper. The trailer is light and it’s smaller than the Pathfinder trailer. The really cool feature is that it’s inflatable and comes with an electric pump to inflate the air beams, so you don’t have to!

Unfortunately, by this time the NEC was getting really busy and very crowded. We had our lunch and tried to look at a few more exhibits in the different halls. George was worried about getting lost in the crowds, so held on to my hand. He was getting quite overwhelmed by the number of people there and ran over Sue’s feet a few times (ouch!) trying to get away from people. Sue found it tricky because she was trying to hold on to George’s hand, avoid having her feet run over and guide John, and John had a lot of people falling over his cane. It was quite stressful for all of us, so we decided to leave at this point.

What did we find that met all the requirements of our wish list? It was the Air Opus of course!

Video is below.

Museum of the Moon

We went to see the Museum of the Moon exhibition, when it was touring in our area.

The exhibition was created by artist Luke Jerram and is a 7 metre diameter model of the moon. It is made of 120dpi NASA images of the moon’s surface. It is internally lit and is at an approximate scale of 1:500,000, which means that every centimetre of the model represents approximately 5 kilometres of the lunar surface.

At each place that it travels to, it is displayed in a different way and can be indoors or outdoors. When it was on display in our local area, it was indoors and the area it was in was bathed in a blue light, so it looked as though you were standing close to the moon in the night sky. At various places on the floor beneath the moon there were blankets and pillows, so people could lie on the floor and look up at the moon. There was also seating available for people to sit down and enjoy the exhibition.

It was free to visit and accessible for wheelchair users.  When Sue saw the model of the moon for the first time, she was awestruck by it and the amount of detail in the model. She described it as almost like standing next to the moon, without ever leaving the Earth. John was also able to get a sense of how spectacular the model was from Sue’s description. George enjoyed seeing it too 🙂

The short video below shows the exhibition as it was when it visited our local area. You can visit the Museum of the Moon website here, to find out when it will be in your local area, if you wish to see it for yourself.

Severn Valley Railway

On this trip we went to Severn Valley Railway. This is a steam railway that runs between Kidderminster in Worcestershire and Bridgnorth in Shropshire. We got on the train in Bridgnorth, travelled to Highley (to look at the Engine House), then on to Kidderminster. The return journey was straight through from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth. George loved this trip. In common with quite a few people with autism, he loves trains, so this trip was a birthday treat for him 🙂

The theming of the stations along the railway is brilliant. You could almost imagine yourself being there in the 1950s/60s. The engines and railway carriages are also authentic. There is a carriage that has been altered so that it is wheelchair accessible. The doors are slightly wider, there’s a ramp available to get into the carriage, and some of the seats have been removed so that wheelchair users can remain in their wheelchairs.

If you are travelling on a train that does not have the wheelchair accessible carriage attached and you are able to transfer to the train, the guard will put the wheelchair in the guard’s van and you get to travel in a first class carriage, for no extra charge. This happened to us on the first leg of our journey from Bridgnorth to Highley. The seats in the first class carriage were very comfortable and we could have quite happily ridden first class all day!

We didn’t get as much filming done as we would have liked to do at Kidderminster station, as a small boy kind of latched on to us and we were very wary of having him included in our video.

We had a good day out and we’d definitely go to Severn Valley Railway again 🙂

RAF Museum Cosford

We visited the RAF Museum in Cosford over the school Summer holidays. It’s an interesting place to visit and has a lot of old aircraft that can be viewed.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see everything as one of the aircraft hangars was closed due to a flood.

The museum itself is free to enter, although you do need to pay for parking (this includes blue badge holders). There are plenty of places to sit and eat, if you’ve brought your own food, and there’s a cafe too. There’s also a small gift shop near the entrance to the museum.

This year the RAF is celebrating its centenary and, as part of the celebrations, guided tours of a Nimrod aircraft were being offered for £5 per person. We didn’t take the tour as it would have involved climbing up steps to the aircraft, but it was a fabulous opportunity to see inside a Nimrod.

The museum itself is very accessible to wheelchairs. In the hangar that displays aircraft used during the Cold War, there are lifts available to enable wheelchair users to get to different levels, or there is the option of going outside the hangar and walking down a sloped path to get to the lower levels of the hangar.

For visually impaired people, under normal circumstances you are not allowed to touch the wartime aircraft, due to the age of them. We were very lucky because while we were visiting John was given a touch tour of both a Spitfire and a Hurricane. The man who took John on the tour was very knowledgeable about both aircraft and also gave John the opportunity to touch some of the weapons that were used on these aircraft, including some of the ammunition that was used. This made the visit more meaningful for John.

The video of our visit is below. This was filmed before we got a new microphone, so some of the audio isn’t as good as it could be, particularly in the hangars.

Visually Impaired Obstacle Course

As a visually impaired person, John finds that just going for a walk outside is an obstacle course. Fortunately he has his long cane, which enables him to find most of the obstacles but not all of them.

In areas that John knows, some of the permanent obstacles, such as street furniture, can be useful as an orienteering guide that gives him an idea of where he is. For example, a litter bin in front of a street lamp, next to some railings may tell him that he is at a particular point on a road that he knows. In an area that John doesn’t know, street furniture can cause as many issues as temporary obstacles.

Temporary obstacles, such as temporary road signs, shop signs placed on the pavement, cars parked on the pavement, wheelie bins left out etc, can cause problems and some confusion. This is mostly because they are unexpected and when the long cane hits them, John then has to figure out which direction to go in to avoid hitting them with his body. If a car has been parked fully on the pavement, John may even have to walk into the road to avoid hitting it. As a visually impaired person, who also has a hearing impairment, John may not hear if it is safe to step into the road to avoid the parked car.

There are also “hidden” obstacles that the long cane cannot find. This means that John doesn’t know that they are there until he walks into them, usually with his head or face. In the video below, there is an example of a hidden obstacle at the end - this is an estate agent’s sign that has been placed quite low on the wall. Over hanging trees and bushes also cause problems, and John has had his face scratched or been poked in the eye by a few of these.

Hopefully, the video below will help to raise awareness of some of the struggles visually impaired people have just walking outside.

Cadbury World

We visited Cadbury World over the school Summer holidays.

Accessibility wise it is a fabulous place to visit. There is full wheelchair access; there is audio description available for visually impaired visitors and the videos that are shown are signed, for hearing impaired visitors.

However, visiting during school holidays isn’t the best idea if anyone has sensory processing disorder.  Cadbury World gets very loud and very busy during these times. George has sensory processing disorder and struggles to cope with loud noises. Unfortunately he doesn’t like anything over his ears, so noise cancelling headphones are not an option. He has a wheelchair because of the pain and tiredness caused by his EDS, and we have found that when George is in his wheelchair he can cope with a lot more than he is able to without it. For George his wheelchair is a safe zone as most people ignore him when he is in it. I’m sure that a lot of people in wheelchairs can identify with being ignored, but this is a positive thing for George.

We enjoyed our day, ate too much chocolate and spent far too much money in the shop! It is a trip that we would make again but maybe we would leave the shopping list at home this time!

New DAFO Casting From Orthotics

George has been a user of the orthotics service since he was 12 months old.  At that time, he was described as “floppy” - this was before he was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). He started off being prescribed with Piedro boots. These were fantastic at the time as George was unable to bear any weight on his feet and ankles, until he had the support that the boots gave him. He was eventually able to take his first steps when he was 2 years old, with the support of his Piedros.

After his Piedro boots, George was prescribed with Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO), otherwise known as splints, for both legs. These were made by putting a plaster cast on both legs, including ankles and feet, and ensuring his feet were in the correct position as the plaster dried. Once the plaster dried, it was cut away from his legs and the plaster used as a mould to create an AFO for each leg. The advantage of AFOs was that it meant that George could wear different shoes, other than just having a pair of Piedro boots. The disadvantage was that the various straps on the AFOs used to damage the shoes he was wearing, so he would get through shoes really quickly. The other disadvantage was that they used to restrict what George could wear on his legs, as some of his trousers and jeans weren’t wide enough to accommodate the AFOs around his legs. George also found them more uncomfortable than Piedro boots, as they went to just below his knee.

As a result of George’s thoughts about his AFOs, he was prescribed with Dynamic Ankle Foot Orthosis (DAFO) at his last casting. These are very similar to AFOs but are shorter, which eliminates some of the disadvantages of AFOs. They also feel less restrictive to George too.

This morning George went to be cast for new DAFOs, as he has outgrown his old ones. His feet and ankles are just as floppy now as they were when he was 12 months old and it takes a lot of effort on the part of the orthotist who casts him, to make sure that his feet and ankles are in the correct position, while the plaster dries. He always smiles while he’s being cast and takes great pleasure in choosing a transfer to go on his DAFOs when they are made. Today he has chosen building blocks as his transfer for his DAFOs, as they remind him of one of his favourite games - ROBLOX.

The new DAFOs will be ready for him in October and hopefully will last awhile before he needs to be cast again 🙂

New Hearing Aids To Help With Tinnitus.

Today, John collected some new hearing aids. They don’t look any different than any other behind the ear hearing aids, but they are different. These have the capability to be programmed as normal hearing aids with a normal setting, a group setting and T-position, for a loop system. The difference with these is that these can also be programmed with a masking sound, to help people who suffer with tinnitus. Tests have shown that with some people, having a masking sound such as white, pink or red noise can help to “drown out” the noise that people who suffer from tinnitus can hear.

Tinnitus has been making John’s life unbearable on a lot of occasions, so he’s one of the first to try these new hearing aids from the NHS. His audiologist was quite excited because this was the first time she’s programmed these new hearing aids. John chose to have pink noise added to his, as it reminded him of the sound of the ocean.

We’re going back to see her again in a few months to see how (or if) these new hearing aids help John.

We shall keep you posted about how John goes on with them.

Pony Riding with Aiming High

Aiming High for Disabled Children offers short break activities for disabled children and young people. It gives them the opportunity to spend time with their peers and opportunities to try out new things, both with and without their families. Each local authority area has its own Aiming High Scheme.

One of George’s favourite activities with Aiming High is pony riding. In our local authority area this is an activity that is offered for one afternoon per month and is always George’s first choice of activities when we look in the Aiming High brochure.

In addition to pony riding he’s also been trampolining, although he no longer does that as it causes him joint pain. He’s also been on different day trips and out for social evenings and meals, with his peers.

We think Aiming High is a fantastic scheme because it gives George the opportunity to do activities, with adult support, that other young people of his age could do on their own.

The video below shows George enjoying one of the pony riding activities.

Science and Media Museum

We had a trip to Bradford, to go to the Science and Media Museum. George had been here on a school trip and had really enjoyed it, so we decided to pay a visit as a family.

We looked at lots of different sets and really enjoyed the ones from our childhood days. There are also props from different shows too. These Play School toys in the picture brought back some childhood memories for Sue 🙂

There’s plenty to see and do, and it’s very accessible for wheelchairs as there is a lift to all floors. However, for John, being visually impaired, there wasn’t anything for him to do. The hands-on activities did require vision - for example the old video games. If everything hadn’t been described by Sue, then John wouldn’t have got much out of the day at all.

All in all though, we did enjoy the day and it brought back some childhood memories.

The video of our day is here.

Accessible Cycling

We hired a side by side tandem for John and Sue, and a trike for George, and went cycling around Westport Lake.

There were all sorts of cycles available to hire - normal bikes and tandems, side by side tandems, trikes, hand cycles, side by side tandems with a seat at the front for a non-pedaller, and trailers for wheelchairs. It’s made cycling pretty much available to everyone 🙂

We had a really enjoyable afternoon and we only stopped because of the rain, as John was concerned about his hearing aids getting wet.

Check out our video below.

 #accessiblecycling #cyclingforeveryone

Poppies: Weeping Window at Middleport Pottery

We went to visit the Poppies: Weeping Window exhibition at Middleport Pottery. It’s very poignant seeing the poppies coming out of the top of an old bottle oven and down the side of it. It’s well worth a visit if you get the opportunity to go. The exhibition is on until September 16, 2018.

Middleport Pottery is Victorian, so there are cobblestones, which makes it a bit bumpy for wheelchair users. For visually impaired visitors, if you ask, there is an opportunity for you to touch a poppy, so you can get a sense of what they are like.

We would definitely recommend it.

Audio Description Update

Today we went to the cinema to try out the suggestion we received on our audio description YouTube video, to make the experience a better one.

Did it work? Eventually, yes!

We cannot fault the efforts of the staff at our local Vue cinema, as they tried to get the system working. They were working on it right up until the main feature started and, fortunately, they were successful.

John tried the suggestion, made by Jack, of using the headphones on just one ear. At first, he tried the headphones with his hearing aids in but that made a banging sound. Taking one hearing aid out and having the headphones on that ear worked brilliantly. Thank you Jack for your excellent suggestion.