Having fun with iMovie

We have been having some fun with iMovie the film editing app.

if you press the link below you will get to see me sawing wood....I know, but its better than watching paint dry!!

blind man with a saw!

The Dark Way Home Documentary about the innovations that came out of soldiers who were blinded in WW1

I have been working on a documentary about the soldiers who were blinded in the first world war.  The numbers who came home with sight issues were enormous and society back home had to find ways of teaching and inventing new ways of surviving day to day life

Thursday 26th May BBC 2 Scotland 7pm or for those outside Scotland

 BBC Two Scotland can be viewed on Sky 142 (HD) & 970, Freesat 970.

 

A few more videos added to my Channel

I have added a few more videos to my You Tube Channel

On the Road Again

A short film of my team preparing to go "On the road again" for the Scottish Elections.

The tough decision of Rentons retirement

Renton sitting in the drivers seat of the car looking in the wing mirror

Unless there is a snap general UK election in the next 12 months, this forthcoming Scottish Election at the beginning of May, will be my guide dog’s last one before he retires! Bit of a shock I know! One of the reasons I started this blog was to explain the process of how a blind person is trained to work with the new dog and all the bonding and frustrations that go along with it. So far he’s been on the road with me on two UK elections, one local council election, a Scottish Referendum on independence and oh yes, a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU still to come at the end of June.

So Renton has certainly seen his fair share of political action.

It’s never easy making the decision to retire a guide dog, but as he’s coming up for 8 and it can take some time to get the exact dog for my needs, it was suggested it may be time to start the process of retiring him.

So, before the Easter break, I sat down with one of the guide dog instructors to set out a plan and timetable for Renton’s retirement.    The one thing I didn’t want to do was have a last minute rush to stop him working, which would leave me with no dog at all or push me into getting a dog that  doesn't quite fit my needs.  Because of this we’ve put a plan in place that he will retire sometime over the next 18months!

There are two things I have to consider when retiring a guide dog.  His welfare and my mobility. One doesn’t supersede the other, they are both equally important. It’s very easy to get sentimental, but it doesn’t help. Fundamentally, I’m blind and need a dog to get about. Plus he needs some time to enjoy life without the stress of work.

picture of the bag of Ian and Rentons heads as they sit in the car

A  colleague at work had said that they thought that 8yrs old sounded young to retire a guide dog? Well, in many cases this may be true. However, it does come down to the dogs work load and breed. German shepherds are larger dogs so do tend to age a bit quicker than the average Lab.8-9yrs old is about an average age for a dog which is so big...and he is huge! So to give them some kind of quality after work life it’s best to retire them a bit earlier. 

So anytime over the next year and a half, I could get that call saying we’ve a new dog for you. Then the real emotion kicks in and the next big decision. Do we keep Renton? Or find him a new home for his retirement? 

  

To sleep per chance to dream

So... the clocks have gone forward an hour and we’ll all lose extra time in bed. However, the up-side is that long sultry summer days are just around the corner - fantastic! (You can’t say I’m not an optimist.)  However, being blind, apart from the hot sun against my face I won’t detect any difference, as I can’t distinguish between day and night. 

It is estimated that 70% of totally blind people have a sleep disorder and as many as half of everyone with a significant sight loss could also be affected.  It’s because they can’t tell light from dark. 

I’ve discovered that I’m one of the unfortunate 70% of totally blind people who have trouble sleeping. It’s like having permanent jetlag. There I am laying in bed, wide awake at 4 am in the morning, physically exhausted - wondering why I can’t sleep. It wasn’t until I presented a radio programme that I discovered my poor sleep pattern may have something to do with my blindness.

The problem is caused by the disruption of the melatonin in the body. It controls the circadian rhythm, so we sleep at night and stay alert during daylight hours. The amount of light which reaches the eyes controls the quantity of melatonin that the pineal gland produces. Light slows down the production of the hormone.  So on a bright sunny day, you are alert and filled with energy. On a dull day when the house is full of dark shadows, you become more lacklustre and sleepy. When evening falls and the lights go out, the pineal gland increases its production of melatonin. The hormone flows throughout the body and makes people sleepy. However, if you’re blind, this doesn’t work affectively and the body’s natural rhythm becomes disrupted throwing the sleep pattern out of kilter.

I’ve been visually impaired since birth, but because I had a little vision and the light was getting through to my pineal gland, my body was still excreting the melatonin hormone, so disturbed sleep patterns were not  really an issue, until I lost all my sight a few years ago.   A blind friend of mine had been complaining for years of not being able to get to sleep at night and he didn’t understand why.  Consequently he would be shattered the following day at work, making it very difficult for him to function affectively.  He also believed that his lack of sleep was much more disabling than his lack of vision.  

Like him, if I’ve had a good night's sleep I can function quite normally. Moving around independently, operating my computer and interacting with my colleagues doesn’t present any difficulty. But if I’ve not slept, it’s quite a different matter.

It’s a very difficult thing to describe. Another blind friend who suffered badly from sleep deficiency explained it as having a squishy shield between you and the rest of the world. I know exactly what they meant.  In this state of semi awakeness, combined with blindness, it can be extremely dangerous when moving around. It’s so easy to get disoriented and misjudge stairs, traffic and other obstacles.  Although it’s largely incurable, the worst aspects can be significantly reduced by taking the drug Melatonin before going to bed. Oddly, you would imagine that this would be commonly known, both among the blind community and the medical profession, but it’s not. 

Nearly three years ago I presented a documentary for BBC Radio Scotland on this subject and I was astonished how people were not aware of the problem. Many of the blind people I talked to admitted 'Yes I do have a sleep problem'. However, few knew why, and even worse, when some went to their GP to get help, hardly any of the doctors linked their patient’s blindness to their sleeping difficulties. Melatonin doesn’t work for everyone though; some people can suffer from side affects, like headaches. So it’s still worth getting medical advice, even if the GP is not fully aware of what you are talking about.  

Over 24 hours my body clock can slip by 30 minutes and over a six-week period, will do a complete 24-hour cycle with the added complication of no two days being the same However, if I take my Melatonin every night before retiring, it can stabilise my sleep pattern. 

It’s not only visually impaired people who suffer from a sleep disorder. Shift workers who do irregular working hours, can also be badly affected. Parents with small children can also find their circadian rhythm being thrown off balance by having to get up at irregular times during the night. 

It is very difficult to get Melatonin from your doctor here in the UK, as it’s not on the list of approved drugs for prescription. Although, it is relatively easy to get it from the internet.  

Sleep deprivation is only a problem because, as a blind person, I have to fit into a sighted world. If I didn’t have to go to work at the same time every day or sit down to eat with everyone else, I could let my body clock fall into its own natural sleep pattern: Breakfast at midnight, lunch at four in the morning and be home for dinner at around nine.  However, the reality is that I do have to fit in, so for that reason I will keep taking the pills. 

  

Sting in the tail movie link. Should've gone to spec sellers!!!!!

Sting in the tail my new Silent Movie...not for Blind people, but by me and Christine about my humorous take on every day advertising.