...And that blind girl will take over the world!

I have made a massive achievement, a huge leap in the steps of visually impaired people everywhere... I have beaten a fully sighted person at darts! I will add right now that the person I was playing was in no way drunk and I did not impede them in any way.

So yes you read correctly 'that blind girl' (as I  am often affectionately known)  played darts for the first time in her life and BEAT TOM!

Furthermore on this dangerous (for everyone in a pub sized perimeter) journey of immense discovery no one was harmed, I did not hit anyone with a dart, including myself and we all lived to tell the tale. In truth the fact that everyone in the surrounding area survived is possibly more impressive than the fact that I beat Tom at darts.

This is obviously a huge step forward for all the visually impaired people out there who ever considered playing darts, I had never played darts before in my life so here are my top tips on how to insure success.

1) Safety first- check you are facing the dart board, a little shout that you are about to throw the dart before you actually do will remind people that there is a game in progress and that if they do walk in front of you they will get a face full of dart.

2) Ask someone to hold your guide dog as far away from you as possible, Gus (my guide dog) was a bit fascinated by the throwing of objects, and was keen to intercept

3) If you can't see the dart board- Ask someone to stand in front of the board and shout, clap or stomp... insure they have moved before you throw the dart.

4) If you can see the dart board- Don't bother trying to aim, this was a fantastic failure in my attempts. I could not see the dart board with my right eye, but I could with my left so I attempted to throw the darts left handed, this was also a mistake as it was even less accurate and I think I pulled something!

5) The actual act of throwing  As long as you throw the dart pointy end first anything goes!

6) Scoring- Get someone with eyes that work to do the scoring, dart boards are tactile and colour coded but quite frankly have a rather confusing layout. 

So anyway darts lesson over I now know that I can do anything if I try hard enough, lets all have a hug and go and dance in the sunlight!

What is it with pubs?

Now you may remember a particularly blog entry I published last year called hats and pubs in which I discussed the issues faced by your everyday photophobic when trying to go out!

Well I hate to say it but the pubs have annoyed me yet again for there lack of thought regarding policy.

After playing Goalball on a Saturday me, Dave and the coach go for a drink and usually food, we go to the same pub pretty much every week because it has really comfy sofas, and is cheap!

I however am starting to get slightly irritated by the pub for several key reasons. At roughly 7pm every Saturday night they dim all the lights down, turning some of them off in the process, this is bad. one week I was mid meal and the light that I had cunningly sat under expecting the usual dimming was turned off. I quite like to see what I'm eating given that I have that ability, I no I'm lucky but I want to use it to its full potential.

There bouncers also arrive about this time on a Saturday evening we have had several unfortunate run ins. The first time we all went to the pub I was upstairs after visiting the ladies and I was lost trying to find my way back downstairs with loud music and flashing lights, not to mention other people all around when a guy walked straight in to me , somehow straddling my moving long cane in the process, I nearly broke the guys neck, it was his fault but still, I worry about the possible law suites.I noticed the florescent yellow arm band and that he was a bouncer. he was really nice about the whole thing and showed me how to get down stairs.

The other problem with the bouncers is there chosen standing location when attempting to exit the pub (sometimes a little worse for were) they have an unfortunate habit of standing right in front of the door, for obvious reasons I grant you. The only problem is that the pub has a flight of stairs to go down before you get to the door and then two more steps once your out. for some reason which is beyond me the bouncers chose to stand leaning up against the hand rail. Now for someone with my bio-mechanic oddness has enough trouble trying to navigate going down stairs at the best of times but in the dark and with no handrail doesn't bare thinking about. alas I have to try and get the bouncers attention so I can get them to move, failing that a gentle prod with the cane does the trick.

Nevertheless pubs still hold a special place in my heart!

Hats and pubs

I've just been shopping this is indeed one of my favorite pastimes I could bore you in the delights of my many purchases but I fear I may lose any readers I actually have if I where to go in to detail!

My mother and I decided to go to a pub for lunch with the smoking ban now in England it's great , you are no longer confined in a room full of people lighting up forced to do damage to your lungs due to passive smoking, my asthmatic mother loves it, and as an avid non-smoker so do I.

I don't drink , well let me rephrase that statement I'm not supposed to drink on my medication. I still enjoy sitting in the company of others and watching them get drunk or just socialising.

pubs often do nice food as did the one we went to today had a really nice chicken and bacon melt thing with BBQ sauce and cheese in a roll , it was really nice the chips where crispy and everything was perfect.

In fact my entire day would have been perfect if it had not been for one incident, and it is such a common one that happens practically every time I go on an evening out or out for lunch.

I was asked "can you take your hat of please?", this is something I have a real problem with.

I understand it's a measure to try and prevent crime, like wearing a hat is going to have some chemical effect on your brain which combined with possible alcohol consumption will result in a transformation like that of the hulk, from ordinary bloke to giant green destruction machine.

I just think its rude to ask another person to remove an item of clothing (in a public setting) and for me specifically its awful , having to say no i cant remove my hat I'm visually impaired I need to keep it on. OK I do admit that I sometimes keep my hat on not due to my V.I status but due to the fact I feel awkward without it, self conscious , naked and venerable, I'm emotionally attached to my hat collection. There's also the great ability to hide behind it, not in a criminal sense but in a self conscious sense, I'm fully aware that my eyes don't look "normal" my pupils are different, I have scaring and I don't have to much control over there movement so I guess i would rather hide behind the hat than have people think I'm giving them funny looks.

I mean do the owners of pubs even think of people with disabilities, it's not just little visually impaired me this could affect there's people with scaring, cancer patents and people with body dimorphic disorder, to name just three groups that might want to wear a hat.

I don't like it, it happens everywhere I go. I don't like it!