Musings from a Blind Man: Turn up and Go

Original post from January 2024 I decided to do a little experiment today as Chester and I took a solo trip to visit my eldest at university in Kingston. It’s quite a straightforward trip on South Western Railway from Reading with just a single change at Twickenham. So what’s the experiment? Turn Up And Go …

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A woman sat on a bench overlooking the water

Musings from a Blind Man: The impact of our actions

Welcome folks to the latest musings of a blind man. This week’s edition is all about the impact of keeping up a brave face when deep inside you’re having a tough time! Last week was a mixture of highs and lows which, with this week being Mental Health Awareness Week seems appropriate to highlight to …

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A large frying pan full of shredded meat on a homemade outdoor grill. The pan handle is being held in place by a stone pig’s head statue

Musings from a Blind Man: Blind Grillin’

There’s nothing like a warm Saturday afternoon to take advantage of sitting outside (albeit wearing a thick hoodie to combat the chill) with some music in the background and a large joint of pork smoking on the grill. Slowly cooking a side of meat takes a lot of time and patience and it is the …

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Musings from a Blind Man: A late-night taxi ride home

I’m sat dozing in the back of a taxi, heading home after a late work event. Chester is laid on the floor next to me in the back of the comfortable MPV, exhausted after such a busy day. As we head on into the night my eyes flicker open and I attempt to gather my …

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A LED light driver and a strip of dotless LED lights on a reel

Letting the (brick) dust settle – Part 5: Lighting it up

It’s almost 30 degrees Celsius and we’ve just finished checking in over 100 boxes from Friday’s kitchen delivery. Aside from one or two discrepancies everything seems to be just about in order ready for installation to begin tomorrow morning. It’s been 7 weeks since we last had a “proper” home-cooked meal in our own home …

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A white sheet with the letters W, I and C written in braille

Letting the (brick) dust settle – Part 4: That perfect souffle

Surely the most straightforward part of designing a kitchen is choosing the appliances, right? For some it’s simply a case of going for a preferred manufacturer, for others it will be what works the best and for some it will be driven by budget. Still others may spend hours on end trawling the review websites …

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Letting the (brick) dust settle – Part 3: Opening up to nature

This week was an exciting one in the ongoing kitchen renovations as it came with the installation of one of the key components – bifold windows. The importance of this is twofold. Firstly, it demonstrates how big and bright the space will be and, secondly, it creates that direct link between the inside and outside …

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An open space with a large blue steel beam across the middle and a smaller red beam bolted to it at right-angles supporting the floor above. Along one wall is a series of electrical wiring and a clock is above the open door

Letting the (brick) dust settle – Part 2: The design

As mentioned in last week’s post, over the next few weeks I’d like to showcase some of the elements of our new kitchen design that will hopefully ensure the space remains suitable long after the decline in my sight reaches its inevitable conclusion. going to focus on the actual kitchen layout. It goes without saying …

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Exposed ceiling joists being held up by acrow support posts with a broken wall to the side

Letting the (brick) dust settle – An introduction into accessible kitchen design

When talking about modifying a space to make it more accessible, one typically conjures up images of a clinical, functional space littered with those chunky white plastic grab handles like someone has just finished kitting out a nursing home and have a job lot of handles left over! But if TV shows like DIY SOS …

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