The Journey Continues......

It has been quite some time since I last wrote a post, four months. I've even found a draft post that I wrote in December, only there is no content, just the title! This gives a good indication of how busy it has been in the last quarter of the Looking Out For Sight (LO4S) project at work and in our family life too. I'm trying to make better use of time though for all the extra activities I love.

The first year of the LO4S ended on Friday and I'm very happy to say that Wiltshire Sight have secured funding for a second year so we will be able to continue the beneficial training that has been developed and implemented and my contract continues for another year. I'm really looking forward an exciting project year ahead, already I've attended a training day at the Great Western Hospital where I displayed the LO4S toolkit and talked to staff about sight loss and how they can further support patients. I am sure we will have more opportunities similar to this throughout the year. We will be delivering the training on a national level with other sight societies so it will be a very interesting year.

I attended an RNIB/Action for Blind People 'Living With Sight Loss' course this week. It was a one day course, so not as in depth as the Wiltshire Sight 'Moving On' course that I attended about 3-4 years ago which lasted six weeks. However, what was beneficial was learning about what is new in the eye world such as the free Talking Book service from the RNIB which enables the user to download books onto their tablet or phone - perfect for me. Also, I obtained details of the music department at the RNIB, I am so keen to get back into playing the classical guitar (I achieved Grade 3 seven years ago) but it is really challenging since my sight has worsened over the last year. I cannot read more than one note at a time, or read any of the dynamics such as when to play loudly, quietly etc. This means I will need to learn pieces by heart which is rather a daunting prospect and has put me off starting again. However, I am going to phone the RNIB music department and ask for their advice, I have a beautiful sounding guitar and I want to be playing it again and at the level I reached previously. Today I started from the beginning of my guitar books to refresh my memory of the notes, it came back pretty quickly so I'm confident that with some guidance from the RNIB and regular practice (that will be the biggest challenge), I will play again.

At the 'Living With Sight Loss' course it was good to meet others in a similar situation to myself, we were all able to empathise about the challenges we have and the emotions that you go through with sight loss. So often you feel like you are the only one in the world with sight loss but it's not the case - there are over two million people who have a sight impairment!