tried to sort out a trip with this thing, unfortunately can’t get an appropriate vehicle because it is unavailable!

Hopefully better luck next time… Still enjoying Tenerife, accessibility is good partly due to the excessive tourism focus.

Holiday account Tenerife with Angela

Angela is one of my favourite travelling partners, we have a good laugh together, understand each other well, look after each other(she looks after me extremely competently and I occasionally am able to help her in some ways) and it enables myself and my wife Ellen to have real holidays, the same as other couples enjoy.

A good example is our most recent holiday, to Tenerife. The “a team” consisting of Angela and Cara are well versed in my day-to-day routine and don’t have to be asked much. The things I want to have individual control over, I am asked and the things I want to be done the same as usual are done without asking. This works well for me and enables me to get on with enjoying time with my wife and my mother-in-law, really relaxing and not having to worry about work or care. That’s what I call”transparent care”, it’s there in the background. It’s hard work but doesn’t get in the way of a productive and rewarding lifestyle. Tact, sensitivity and attentiveness are some of the key characteristics that care professionals demonstrate on a day-to-day basis and Angela is an absolute expert. On top of this she is an expert physiotherapist and occupational therapist(OT by educational background), obviously an exceptional luxury for myself.

When we travel, flying is one of the most strenuous parts. Things have to be done incredibly carefully and meticulously to avoid slipups and disasters due to unforeseen events. We have to take extra care and countermeasures to mitigate against events such as equipment damage and constant attention needs to be paid to avoid pressure marks and other sources of discomfort. You are never quite sure how you are going to be treated by airport staff or members of the public and sometimes your resolve may be tested. Angela is both meticulous and extremely patient, she never forgets and she plans like a pro. This is what makes travelling easy!

She will make the effort to get up earlier than I have asked so I can be ready for the day starting the same time as others, this kind of selflessness is rare and although others may not appreciate how much this kind of gesture affects my day-to-day life, some of you will, it is really something. I will always be in debt to Angela but I think she enjoys our company and we enjoy hers.

She has been with us for two years, those have been some of the happiest in our lives and a significant reason for that is Angela.

Photos to follow on Flickr soon…

Holiday account Tenerife with Angela
Angela is one of my favourite travelling partners, we have a
good laugh together, understand each other well, look after each
other(she looks after me extremely competently and I
occasionally am able to help her in some ways) and it enables
myself and my wife Ellen to have real holidays, the same as
other couples enjoy.
A good example is our most recent holiday, to Tenerife. The “a
team” consisting of Angela and Cara are well versed in my day-
to-day routine and don’t have to be asked much. The things I
want to have individual control over, I am asked and the things
I want to be done the same as usual are done without asking.
This works well for me and enables me to get on with enjoying
time with my wife and my mother-in-law, really relaxing and not
having to worry about work or care. That’s what I
call”transparent care”, it’s there in the background. It’s hard
work but doesn’t get in the way of a productive and rewarding
lifestyle. Tact, sensitivity and attentiveness are some of the
key characteristics that care professionals demonstrate on a
day-to-day basis and Angela is an absolute expert. On top of
this she is an expert physiotherapist and occupational
therapist(OT by educational background), obviously an
exceptional luxury for myself.
When we travel, flying is one of the most strenuous parts.
Things have to be done incredibly carefully and meticulously to
avoid slipups and disasters due to unforeseen events. We have to
take extra care and countermeasures to mitigate against events
such as equipment damage and constant attention needs to be paid
to avoid pressure marks and other sources of discomfort. You are
never quite sure how you are going to be treated by airport
staff or members of the public and sometimes your resolve may be
tested. Angela is both meticulous and extremely patient, she
never forgets and she plans like a pro. This is what makes
travelling easy!
She will make the effort to get up earlier than I have asked so
I can be ready for the day starting the same time as others,
this kind of selflessness is almost unheard of and although
others may not appreciate how much this kind of gesture affects
my day-to-day life, some of you will, it is really something. I
will always be in debt to Angela but I think she enjoys our
company and we enjoy hers.
She has been with us for two years, those have been some of the
happiest in our lives and a significant reason for that is
Angela.

great to have had such a massive reaction to the article which seems to have gone down a storm, even with people who don’t usually read the mail!

Some lovely responses but unfortunate not enough time to reply to most.

We are looking forward to a break in the sun next week when we fly to Tenerife with Ellen’s mother.

I’m working hard on organising my approach to using open source tools to enhance the efficiency of voice recognition in work and everyday tasks, lots of tools to apply in different cases.

Unfortunately having to manage a high level of frustration due to changes in care personnel. Continuity is a chronically understated necessary characteristic of care for anyone who actually wants to live their life. Anyway… It’s a lot better for me than for a large number of others so I will just get on with it!

enjoyed a couple of talks at”carers matters ” conference, one by Jackie Ashley the Guardian columnist on caring for her husband Andrew Marr and another by a DWP representative talking about the new “personal independence payments” the replacement for “disabled living allowance”. both the talks were good and educational, hopefully raising the attention to the great and increasing importance of care.

seasons greets and all of that, hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas shopping.

We talk to Tom and Ellen who have been through a life-changing accident | Mail Online.

link to the article

enjoyed the article which came out on page 36 of the YOU, mail on Sunday magazine. Very well produced. Ellen’s birthday today and we are celebrating up in new Abbey, Dumfries with a host of close friends and family. Getting ready for a fry up!

we will have an article coming out in the Sunday mail YOU magazine supplement.  if you read it we hope you enjoy it!

It comes out on the twenty-fourth of November, Ellen’s birthday.

Johnny Lee: Free or cheap Wii Remote hacks | Video on TED.com.

incredible research a low-cost hands-free pointing devices, utilising generic devices for the global good

Off to see John Mayer at the O2 tonight

here is a quick demonstration of software I’ve written to control my iPhone through voice recognition:

Access to digital media

In recent years our standards of living have been closely linked to availability, quantity and quality of digital media. My recent mini project has been concerned with enabling me to access digital media around the house independently and irrespective of location. the following gives the objectives:
I want to be able to listen or watch media from a number of bearers including YouTube, iPlayer, iTunes as well as other website and my local media.
I want to be able to access this from my bed, my wheelchair and anywhere else I happen to be in the house.
I want to also be able to access this media through a number of devices: laptop/voice recognition, wheelchair controls/mobile phone, bedside switch/environmental control.
I want to be able to use my mobile phone through my lap top and my wheelchair controls.

I have mostly achieved the objectives through the following solution:

I have a wheelable TV stand supporting my 38″ Tv, two laptop docking stations, a raspberry pi minicomputer, a chromecast HDMI dongle and a hi-fi system connected to the TV via a Bluetooth receiver and transmitter.

All the TV stand connections are integrated within the stand, the laptops+, chromecast, raspberry pi communicate with the Internet and the home network over Wi-Fi and the TV connects with the hi-fi and speakers over Bluetooth. There is one cable connected to the TV stand, a single 240 volt power cable.

The premise is that everything transmits media to the TV which in turn plays audio via Bluetooth over the hi-fi.

Any device capable of supporting a chrome browser can stream digital media directly to the TV via chromecast. Therefore from a laptop when I’m using voice recognition of from my phone when in my wheelchair using my head control/wheelchair mounted environmental control to scan through iPhone icons via the Perrero module. also works well with YouTube iPhone application.

I can control my media centre, displaying through the TV, hosted on my raspberry pi, £35, minicomputer from my wheelchair environmental control or the single switch environmental control next to my bed. Through this I can access a host of digital media from the Internet or my local media server. This also provides a airplay interface which allows any device supporting iTunes to stream digital media directly to the TV (any Apple devices), another option from my phone or laptop.

The TV stand can be wheeled around the house still transmitting audio through the hi-fi via Bluetooth, connected through Wi-Fi to the Internet and the home network.

This allows me to spend less time asking people to connect/reconnect devices and more time getting on with life…

we are unfortunately on our way back to the UK from Strasbourg, the last stop on our trip which started in Troyes on Friday, France and then through Founex, near Geneva Switzerland to visit dad and family, watching Lucas play football competitively and gaining an assist for fantastic corner. we then travelled through the Mont Blanc tunnel towards Genoa (Liguria – Italy) and south to Levanto where we stayed for five nights.
Levanto is a picturesque town just north of the Cinque-terrre, it is large enough to support its own culture and year-round life, not just having to rely on tourism for sustenance. Known for fantastic food and wide variety of restaurants including my favourites: L ‘artichoka (cod cappuccino, Cacao pasta), Totano Blu (unimaginable seafood spaghetti), L’oasis (prawn sauce trofie) and graziella’s own original pesto (creamy with lots of garlic) not forgetting the ubiquitous sensational pizza.
we stayed at “A durmi” again, such a wonderful family offering unparalleled hospitality in a beautiful setting (thank you so much graziella & family).
Then on Wednesday, it was back across to the north-east of Italy, Conegliano – Veneto, the home of Prosecco to visit Angela’s (our lives have been enriched by her presence over the last year and a half) hometown. Again the hospitality was fantastic with the Maset family preparing delicious food and helping anyway they could.
Prosecco tasting was great fun in the “Vigne matte” cantina/winery. I like dry!
After enjoying some sightseeing of Castles and architecture, we travelled over the San Bernardino pass to stop over for lunch with the Leisingers in Malans, Switzerland. there we were treated to a tour of Peter’s new work (Peter is an artist, check out PeterLeisinger.com) which surrounds the house of Maria and Peter in a magical fashion.
We then drove to Strasbourg to stay the night, had a lovely walk around in the morning and now underway to Calais!

please sponsor my friend Jenny Lee who is running for her grandmother’s favourite charity. She doesn’t usually run so is making a massive effort!

Go Jen…

Or if it’s easier people can sponsor by text -

All you need to do is text JLEE to the number 70070 and the amount they want to give!

Trainning vid! -

technical

some questions about media streaming /accessible technology I asked a well-known technical blogger…

I’ve been looking at home media streaming solutions for a while including things like xbmc on the raspberry pi, Apple airplay, squeezebox, plexserver … I’m basically looking to have some solution where TV, content clients, content server and speakers are communicating wirelessly and this is obviously possible, just trying to find the most cost-effective, coherent solutions supporting the largest number of content client applications e.g. iTunes/chrome browser/operating system audio subsystem/xbmc/plexclient.

My question to you is specifically about the availability of chromecast in the UK, this seems to suit my needs better than something like Apple TV (which, unless jail broken, I believe will not stream local area network hosted media and less through a iTunes library, not sure whether you could just run iTunes on the Apple TV pulling media from a shared network location) although CC may not be able to stream local media, I’m fairly sure I can find a way to use xbmc/leapcast to stream Lan hosted media to the chromecast.

My other question is about your opinion of run-and-read. due to my inability to physically turn pages or pushbuttons, I’m constantly frustrated by the lack of contact less page turning devices for ereaders, this device (which I have backed on Dragon) looks good and I could attach it to a headband to tap with my head on something to turn pages.

Have been playing with various devices for eyegaze control, voice recognition as always and iphone switch and voice control.

updated.

this is the initial plan:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Oxford&daddr=Troyes,+France+to:Founex,+Switzerland+to:Levanto,+La+Spezia,+Italy+to:Conegliano,+Treviso,+Italy+to:Bad+Ragaz,+Switzerland+to:Strasbourg,+France.+to:Oxford&hl=en&ll=42.60162,5.888672&spn=19.599961,5.822754&sll=47.960502,5.515137&sspn=8.578754,18.962402&geocode=FVWsFQMdAs_s_ymvH8StgDNxSDECdFTLqNsgyA%3BFZDy4AId7yw-ACmxt4fnV5juRzF1T-hmVRLdVw%3BFRz7wgIdfHpeACkzwiAD7GeMRzG6tbngGhW1cw%3BFab1oQIdnqWSAClhNBi4yO3UEjGGcW-jTJknNw%3BFa02vAIdXbG7ACkrSFnGBRV5RzH2j3-oamotww%3BFcNJzQId-_mQACmRVnh0gcuERzGKDkrTO_CVtg%3BFexR5QIdKjl2ACnBshheSciWRzEfJOcYMUgalw%3BFVWsFQMdAs_s_ymvH8StgDNxSDECdFTLqNsgyA&mra=ls&t=m&z=6

27sep-7oct

France, Switzerland, Italy and passing through Germany

looks like it will become practical at some point:

http://m.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/08/when-i-actually-wear-google-glass

now how to get my hands on one?