Eighth posting of 3 July 2009

This is my last posting of today. I want to mention some interesting things that are going to happen to me in the next months. On about 14 July I shall be visiting Kamila and her family in Vienna. Who Kamila is will be revealed another day. After a couple of weeks I travel with Vanda to Polnad and thence to Lwow (Lvov) in the Ukraine. I return to the UK in mid-August and in mid-September I shall be attending the European DbI Conference in Senigalia, Italy. I am leaving the most exciting part to the end: I have agreed to work in a "blind" Foundation and school in eastern Hungary this Autumn, probably from October. I shall be there for some months and I think it will be an adventure. I shall be reporting on this blog.

Seventh posting of 3 July 2009

I have been greatly troubled by a personal problem from the beginning of 2009. I am not going to say here what that was but it is and was very sad. However, an important and perhaps the final chapter was ended on 19 June 2009. Here is a photo of my solicitor and my reader, Alice, as we celebrated-mildly-of course, after a Court Hearing that morning. It was only the second beer I had had in the whole year.

Sixth posting of 3 July 2009

Another successful City Synergy outing was held on 13 June 2009 when we attended the Worthing Regatta at-blow me down-Worthing. It was a contest of rowers so perhaps it should have been called a Rogatta. here are some photos to whet your appetite and there are others on the Flickr Photo Gallery. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hova/

Fifth posting of 3 July 2009

As always, the Hearing and Sight Impaired branch of Sense (HSI) had a successful Christmas Party in 2008. This was the first one we had held at the new Sense HQ in Pentonville Road, London. Here are some illustrative photos. There are more photos on my Flickr Photo Gallery.

Fouth posting of 3 July 2009

It seems a long time ago now but City Synergy held a successful Christmas Party at the White Horse, Rottingdean at the end of 2008. here are 4 representative photos.All the photos taken that day are on my Flickr Photo Gallery.

Fourth posting of 3 July 2009

Those of us who have campaigned in the last few years for the retention of the Carnegie Library in Hove received a further fillip on 20 April 2009. The Council had agreed to open this library every Monday afternoon. This was to encourage school children, who perhaps did not have ideal facilities at home, to attend the library after school. The Library is now thus open 6 days a week-a situation that has not obtained for many, many years. Here I pay tribute to Christopher Hawtree of Hove, an ardent public library enthusiast, who led the campaign to save the Library from closure by the Council who must have been crazy to decide to do that.

Third posting of 3 July 2009

We (my ever-efficient reader and I) just did not have the time in October to do a posting about the RNIB-led Lobby concerning DLA at the House of Commons on 15 October 2008. Attached to this posting are 4 representative photos but you can see many more by going to my Flickr Photo Gallery. here again is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hova/ As I hope everyone knows the two Lobbys (this one and the one in December 2006) were very worthwhile as success was achieved on 17 March 2009 when the Government announced that it had accepted the purpose of these Lobbys. Visually-impaired people will be entitled to claim for the Higher Rate of the Mobility Component of DLA from April 2011.

Second posting of 3 July 2009

In this posting I mention a very successful trip to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight which I undertook with City Synergy on 6 June 2009. Osborne House was the home for most of her reign of Queen Victoria and is well worth visiting. It is set in lovely grounds which Victoria increased by purchasing adjacent land whenever it came on the market.To a tree freak like myself, the giant trees were particularly appealing. I am pleased to say that our guide, employed by Natural England, allowed, nay encouraged us to touch the statues etc. In this posting are 4 representative photos but as you can imagine there are more on my Flickr Photo Gallery.

Update on Colin Bennett's activities in the last quarter year

I have been very busy in the months since I attended the RNIB Campaigns Weekend in Aston, Birmingham at the end of March 2009. that was the subject of my last posting. I am going to make a series of postings today, each one saying a few words about an activity accompanied by a small number of photos. One can access all the photos for all the activities by going to my Flickr Photo Gallery thus: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hova/