In the lakes again

Yesterday I went to the Lake District with The Outlook Trust. Today we have been up at Tower Wood Outdoor education center where the trust keeps the Gig and canoes. We split up into two groups to kayak and sail. It was nice to sail in the Gig again. It seems so strange but six years ago I hated every moment I spent sailing because the boat leaned. I always feared it would throw me in. After overcoming my fear of sailing, I now find that sailing in the Gig, which is actually quite a small boat, is second nature.

Appreciated by Microsoft

Last week, I received an e-mail from Ed Gibson at Microsoft Corporation. Turns out he likes my blog, my ability not just to say what's good about something but also the ability to be critical of something. It's good to know that I have been noticed by Microsoft and I hope I can continue to put up materiall that pleases everyone (that is if I do so).

This time Offcom went too far

Telecommunications regulator Offcom has made a decision that is affecting blind cellphone users around the UK. At one time, if a blind and partially sighted person was registered with the Free Directory Enquiries service and they needed a number, all they had to do was to pick up their trusty handset, dial 195, give the person at the other end a unique ID code and then request the number. The person on the end would then dutifully look up the number and give it to the caller. The best part was that this was free to blind and partially sighted users – not any more. If you dial 195 from, let's say my Vodafone Pay Monthly handset, it will go through to 118 888, and I will receive the number without having to tell the operative my PIN code. However, it will appear on my bill as a chargeable call. The reason for this is that Offcom want the mobile networks in the UK to use 118 888 and not 195, because apparently 192 and 197 directory enquiries is no longer. I knew that but come on – blind users can't suddenly use a telephone directory easily, so why has free directories been discontinued so suddenly? This sure beats me.

............ and that concludes our rant for today. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

I-Doser Application

Today I was reading the latest edition of The Official Windows Vista magazine when I came across an article for a program called I-Doser. Basically what it does is to play sounds to the user through headphones which it is claimed the sound waves will alter the waves in the brain thereby altering the mood of the person who is listening to the sounds through headphones. I was curious so I decided to download the program and give it a go. Two free doses are provided. The first one is Content, which wipes negative thoughts from your head and leaves you feeling happy and contented. The second dose, alcohol gives you that feeling when you've just had a couple of jars. I tried the Content dose (I didn't fancy feeling drunk in the middle of the afternoon at Chez Wakefield). The sound played for twenty minutes, and it did seem a little annoying at first having an annoying ringing sound playing for twenty minutes, but when it finished it did fade out rather than just stop dead, which meant your ears have time to recover. It seemed okay I guess but that could just be a placebo effect.

I'm a little sceptical of these things. I don't know how much research has been done into this, but I have a feeling that prolonged tampering with brain waves could have negative side effects, so just exercise caution.

Outlook Trust

I have now become the administrator for the web-site of The Outlook Trust. The site has already been made up but if you want to know more about the trust, or to see the changes that I will be making to the site (once I can get the log-in credentials to work) then please click here. I have also asked about becoming a helper and one of the trustees is going to look into it for us.

My trip to Scotland

Last week I went to Scotland with the Outlook Trust, the organisation that takes young visually impaired people on residential where they do outdoor activities. This week we did activities such as kayaking, sailing, gorge walking and white water rafting. We set off on Sunday 1^st of July from the co-op car park to travel for about eight hours on the magic bus to Strontian, which is a village on Loch Sunart, which is a sea loch on the west of Scotland near Fort William. We stayed in a self-catering bunkhouse which was actually quite modern, however most of us didn't get any signal on our mobiles. The only phones which got a signal were one of the leaders' phones which was on Orange, and ironically enough, my Samsung D600 picked up enough signal in a certain spot of the room for me to have a decent phone conversation.

Anyhoo, we went kayaking on the Monday morning. We kayaked to a channel in the loch where porpoises are found. It was quite scary in a way that I had a feeling that a porpoise may come up around the boat. We then paddled back for Lunch. Afterwards, some of us were given the opportunity to have a go at driving the Rib (Rubber Inflatable Boat), dubbed "Orange One" while some of us went sailing on one of the leaders' Yacht, which was called Moya. We then swapped over and some more people sailed while the others had a go at driving the Rib. Tuesday was a bit more strenuous, with gorge walking on the agenda for the morning. This gorge (I forget the name) was a tricky one, with certain parts where you had to swim in it. I have been in this gorge before; We did part of it in 2003 the last time we were in Strontian. This time it was slightly tricky with my having to wear sandals. The right sandal kept coming loose and on the way back, I had to just take them off and walk barefoot back to the bus, which was bad news for the leader who loaned me the dry suit in an attempt to keep my toe dry. After gorge walking, we went for lunch, and afterwards it was time to learn how to capsize in a double kayak, which was fun and also very wet. Some of us got to have a go at wind surfing but because the rest of us were sitting in the rib cold and wet, we had to retire for the day. On the next day, we white-water rafting with two professional instructors from Vertical Descents, an organisation that takes people white-water rafting, canyonning and Fun Yaking which is like white-weater rafting but in two man inflatable boats which are as stable and safe as rafts but as manoeuvrable as kayaks. We did some white-water rafting on the river Gary which is a class 3-4 river. Rivers are classed in how tricky they are and the classing system goes from 1 to 6, so our river was quite fast, in fact we were stuck in the first rapid, and I will have to admit to being absolutely petrified now because if I don't somebody else will. Once we had finished the rapids we headed back to the bunkhouse for a quick rest and then we had a barbecue on the Wednesday evening. On the Thursday, we headed out on a kayaking expedition. The weather was quite cool, and it rained occasionally but we paddled for about four hours from Loch Sunart through Loch Teacus to some ground by small estate. We set up tents and had tea which was cooked on stoves that use mentholated spirits. We had tomato pasta and freshly caught mackerel which tasted fantastic. After tea we all turned in for the night. The next day we packed up and set off back. The original idea was to sail through Loch Teacus into Loch Drambuie, into the open sea, then back to Loch Sunart, but because we were all tired, we canoed in Loch Drambuie just for a little while and then back through Loch Sunart. The journey was quite long and in places very tricky because of the wind, so we all rafted up and made a makeshift sail from paddles and tarpaulin, which worked very well as we made some speed. We used the rudders on the back of the double kayaks to steer, and we made quite a distance before we headed for Lunch. After lunch, we only had an hour to go, but we put our backs into it and we got back okay. After helping to shift the kayaks back to the bus we headed off back to the bunkhouse for a quick hower before we went to a restaurant for tea. The lasagne we had was really tasty as was the lemon meringue we had for dessert. After tea, it was time to pack up for the long journey back home.

We all enjoyed the trip to Scotland and thanks to the Outlook Trust for putting it on for us.