Mateusz Borowick, piano,
Katie Bennigton, oboe; Anna Hashimoto, clarinet;
Emma Whitney,horn; Nina Ashton, bassoon

Conducted by Mike Thorne

Sponsored by Cambridge PianoForte and Music Gallery,Cambridge Consultants Ltd,  The Technology Partnership, Deloitte, The Stradivari Trust and The Richard and Anne King Charitable Trust

Following last year’s superb performance of the music of Brahms, we would like to invite you to a very special centenary concert for Cam Sight.

The highly acclaimed Polish pianist Mateusz Borowick, with a specially selected chamber orchestra of Cambridge’s best players, will be performing:

Quintet for piano and winds in E flat, K452
Piano Concerto no. 15 in B flat, K450
Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, K297b

 West Road Concert Hall,  7.30pm Sunday February 12 2012

The programme is a delightful mix of two well-known favourites, plus the seldom played Sinfonia Concertante.  Enjoy an evening with the genius of Mozart, played by an exciting young pianist just starting his international career, joined by a chamber orchestra. 

If you like orchestral music, if you like piano, if you like Mozart – this is for you

Last year we had a full house, so to avoid disappointment, we suggest that you contact the Corn Exchange Box Office as soon as possible. Tickets can be booked in person at the Cambridge Corn Exchange Box Office, Wheeler Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QB or by telephone on 01223 357851.

Tickets are £23, £20(+60, Registered Disabled), £10.00 (Student, Child). All proceeds to Cam Sight.

We hope very much to see you at West Road, as support from the Friends of Cam Sight is vital for the charity’s work with local visually impaired people.

 We look forward to welcoming you.

To make sure I was ready for the trip I just had to talk to my lecturer who was organising it. The only provision I really had to organise for myself was a sighted guide for me as I don’t use a guide dog and I think my friends on the course would get very tired describing everything to me, whilst soaking in the history themselves. Therefore after much bureaucracy I managed to get another SSA to come along with me as my sighted guide and audio describer. An example of how ridiculous the bureaucracy was, my SSA was officially not allowed to have breakfast from the bed and breakfast we were staying at because that was one step too far for student finance. That was the only extra pre-trip organisation really. All I had to do now was look forward to the trip.

On the Friday morning, the first day of the trip, I met with my SSA at Cambridge station and set off for the Eurostar, St. Pancras. After a wonderful train journey filled with getting to know you talk, in which I discovered he had been to see The Who when they were young, which I was very impressed by, we arrived at Kings Cross. He was pretty nervous about sighted guiding me but it was fine, we did not plough over anyone and that is always a bonus. When we got to St. Pancras we met up with the rest of the group from my course. Once everyone was there we went on the Eurostar and off to Paris! Once we arrived at Gare Du Nord Paris one of the first things I noticed about Paris was the smells. In some areas the smell was horrible and in other areas the smell was pleasant. The initial smell was that of the Paris Metro and the strength of the smell of urine varied from station to station. However an ever present nice smell was the lovely cafe’s with the smells of the croissants, breads, cakes etc which was so inviting. The cheese shops on the other hand would split opinion over the appeal of the smell; personally I loved the occasional cheesy smells. A further initial thing I noticed was the noises. Something I found astonishing is the excessive use of the horn when the streets become gridlocked by the sheer weight of the traffic. The first time I noticed this was when we were at the Opera House during the evening rush hour.  Another thing I noticed regarding the sounds was the sound of the crowd. The multitude of pedestrians sounded different and that is something I found quite fascinating. I think the reason I found this so fascinating was because I have never been abroad in living memory, so I have never experienced this before.

On the Friday evening we set up in the hotel. The hotel was a very basic place which provided us with mattresses of sorts to sleep on and lumps of bread in the style of cement for breakfast. The spiral staircase was also incredibly steep but the hotel did not matter that much as we did not spend much time there. Also my room seemed much better than some of the others. Some of my more unlucky fellow students had bed bugs in their beds, something I have never experienced but sounds rather unpleasant. Once we had all set up we immediately set off for a historical guided tour of the local area by my lecturer. That is when we went to the Opera House. The Opera House is where Emperor Napoleon III was nearly assassinated and it was described to me as a large, grand building built in the classical style and was kind of like a huge Fitz William Museum to look at. It was in an area of Paris not dissimilar to Knightsbridge of London, it even had Paris’ equivalent of Harrods across the road to match. I’m sure I looked grand with my long scruffy hair, unruly beard and tatty jacket. Also on this walk we walked past Paris’ equivalent of Madame Tussauds, in the window there was a wax model of the queen with French Football World Cup winner and former player of the year Zididine Zidane’s face on her body, pretty weird. On this walk we also went to Place de’la Concorde where the royal family and other riff raff were beheaded. Under the monarchy the huge open square in the middle of Paris, Place de’la Concorde, was called Place de’la Bourbon after the royal family. After the revolution it became known as Place de’la Revolution. When the royal family came back it reverted back to Place de’la Bourbon and then when a king came in they liked (for a while, anyway) he tried to appease everyone by renaming the square Place de’la Concorde which roughly translates as ‘peace square’. After the Place de’la Concorde we went to the nearby site of where the former palace of the royal family used to be before Versaille. The original site of where the French Royal family lived is now a park with the same reputation as Hampstead Heath. The palace was burnt down during the revolution, as was much of Paris’ architecture which represented royalty. Someone who knew Paris in 1789 would not recognise it in 1889. After the tour on the Friday evening, we went for a meal and I tried snails (L’Escargot) for the first time. They were actually quite nice. They tasted more of the garlic and butter marinade than anything else and I would say their texture would be similar to muscles but I have never had them before so cannot really say.

On the Saturday we started off by going to La Défense, which is like the equivalent of the Docklands, the area is all tall tower blocks. The area has a huge arch to commemorate 200 years since the revolution, although it is the other end of the city from the Arc de’Triomphe it sits parallel. From there we got a bus to Napoleon’s house. Which was a charming place with lovely gardens and although it is huge I was expecting it to be bigger. What was nice about that place is that there was this telephone like handset which I could carry around with me and depending on what number room I was in I could punch that into the phone and I would then have an English audio guide. From there we went to Montmartre to see Sacré-Cœur, it is the artisanal area where The Moulin Rouge is located. If you have never been to Paris before, this is an area of Paris unlike the city centre and the main touristy parts. The main touristy areas like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de’Triomphe have a very uniform style of architecture. The streets are mainly wide boulevards lined with huge, linear, unchanging buildings which stretch the length of the streets. The ground floor of these apartments are usually shops, then you have the really plush apartments and as you go up the floors the apartments become less and less swanky until you get to a roof which is like a bohemian, student bed-sit of a room. In Montmartre, up near the Sacré-Cœur is completely different. As opposed to the city centre of Paris this area is incredibly hilly and we had to go up what seemed like hundreds of steps to go between streets. Furthermore the streets are packed and they are not pedestrianised, you have cars crawling through a crowd of people, it is mad but brilliant. You get artists around this area, there was about a handful of accordion players, there was a row of arches which ran parallel with the road and which the pavement was in. In this little sheltered bit of pavement there were artists painting with easels. Due to the number of steps everyone was pretty knackered when we got to the top, where the church was situated, but we soon forgot about it when we saw the church and the view. Everyone was amazed, apparently you could see pretty much the whole city and the church was an amazingly vivid white. Montmartre was probably my favourite part of Paris. It seemed to have so much character. I had a real sense of the closeness and the artisanal nature of the area and I was having its beauty described to me. It was lovely. Everyone seemed to really admire the view of the city from up at the top of the hill in Montmartre. We had a spot of lunch there and I had this delicious cheese board, it had all sorts of cheese on it, smoked, soft, strong, hard, it was delicious.

After lunch on the Saturday, once we had finished in Montmartre, we were let loose and I suggested walking from Montmartre to the Eiffel Tower, via the Arc de’Triomphe. Everyone else, whom I may add, could read the map thought this was a fantastic idea and decided on a route. After about 1hr 20mins we made it to the Arc de’Triomphe, about 12-15 of us in a convoy. This quite authoritative person in the group with a hat made sure we were all in order. She remained at the front, waving her hat in the air whenever we stopped to regroup and she made sure there were 6ft+ people in the middle and at the end so we knew where everyone was. She was pretty amazing at controlling our unruly mob. Anyway by the time we were at the Arc de’Triomphe we had some pretty tired legs in the group and there were people saying, “who’s idea was this,” in an exasperated yet jokey, playful manner. At the Arc de’Triomphe we decided to pause and try and regain our energy a bit, I would say they were all a bit wimpish but it was still nice soaking in the atmosphere around the Arc. The traffic was crazy and apparently they even saw someone using a push bike around the Arc! Once we were finished at the Arc we continued onto the Eiffel Tower which took about another 30mins and it sounded breathtaking. It sounds like we caught it at just the right time. The sun was setting behind the tower, so the sky had a slight pink tinge to an otherwise black sky, the lights had lit up the tower and it was reflecting in the Seine. So with this backdrop we all had our photo taken. This gave our group a momentary boost of energy and we made our way to the tower, in a dreamlike state, only to be rudely awoken when we saw the size of the queue to go up the tower. The 12-15 of us arranged to meet up with the rest of the group at Place de’la Concorde at 6.30 and time was getting on so we could not queue. However to add insult to injury to my fellow students who accompanied me on this fantastic walk across Paris, my SSA managed to blag me on! I felt a bit harsh but by this time I had started to get to know and bond with some of my fellow students on the course, something I have previously struggled to do since I have lost my eyesight and my fellow students didn’t seem to mind. Moreover, like me they seemed to enjoy the walk from Montmartre to the Eiffel Tower as it was a great way of seeing the transformation in the city, from the narrow, busy, artisanal streets of Montmartre, to the wide, uniform boulevards of the city centre. Once up on the tower it was fantastic, serene and peaceful. It was remarkable seeing the complexity and madness of the city operate below.

My SSA and I eventually met up with the rest of the group as they were just about to order food, great timing. It was this point I realised that I had made a bit of a name for myself on the trip. My lecturer and the history administrator thought we were nuts and hilarious that the group decided to follow my lead in walking from Montmartre to the Eiffel Tower. Again I ordered a typical French meal by having frog’s legs for my starter. If you have not had them before they are delicious. I know most people say weird meats taste like chicken but this really does. It is maybe slightly more tender and slightly more flavoursome but that might have something to do with the sauce on top of them. The other things I ate I haven’t really thought to mention because they are just like things you get in Britain, lamb and duck, the only difference is that they were cooked in a tasty sauce I had not tried before.

On the Sunday, we went on another guided historical tour of Paris. We walked through St Denis and through the red light district. Thankfully it was kind of quiet what with it being a Sunday morning and all. But the stink in some areas was horrible. It smelt of urine and others even said there was human poo on the street. Luckily we went on to nicer areas with nicer smells. We went to where the Bastille used to be, then onto the Pompidou Centre, then past Notre Dame and eventually we went to the museum of Paris and again I had one of those telephone audio tours in English. I thought this was a fantastic service. Once we finished here we made our way back home. There were many sleepy heads on the Eurostar and many nostalgic stories of our fantastic weekend bubbling around our carriage. Luckily, for me though, as I was wide awake one of my pals agreed to play a game of cards with me, which I had brought from Cam Sight. They thought it was pretty cool that there were such things as Braille playing cards and it proved to be a lovely end to a fantastic weekend. All in all I had a fantastic time. I probably did as much as I could in a weekend in Paris, I got to know people on my course a bit more, and as I mentioned socialising is something I have found difficult since losing my sight, so it was a fantastic time had by all.

Therefore in the event that someone is reading this and has been discouraged from travelling because of a loss of eyesight, really do not let it. You can have a fantastic time experiences different cities, soaking up new atmospheres, smelling different smells and sampling new foods.

Anyway I hope you have enjoyed my rambling about my trip to Paris, as I hope you can tell I tried to give it a point at the end and I hope it has encouraged others to adventure.

Take care

Warren Wilson

Join artist Filipa Pereira-Stubbs for an object-handling and practical art session, inspired by the permanent collection at Kettle’s Yard on Wednesday 7 March, 10.30am – 12.30pm.

Free of charge, to book a place please contact Becky Cawdry on 01223 420033 or becky@camsight.org.uk

I would like to try out some leisure activities for blind people and partially sighted people and what better way to do this than to do something I used to enjoy, football. So, if anyone else in the local area, who is visually impaired like myself, would love to give football a go please get in contact with me. Even if you are not blind/visually impaired yourself but know someone who is and might be interested please pass on my contact information below. We need the interest before we can get the ball(s) rolling!

Warren.wilson@hotmail.co.uk

If you are interested here are some useful contacts:

British Blind Sport
http://www.britishblindsport.org.uk/index.php?id=1

The RNIB’s sport and leisure section
http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/copingwithsightloss/youngpeople/teens/freetime/ypsport/Pages/sport_leisure.aspx

Hope to be playing football with you soon,
Warren Wilson

The Russian-themed programme comprises of:

March from The Love of Three Oranges – Prokofiev
The Iron Foundry – Mosolov
Romance from “The Gadfly” – Shostakovich
Piano Concerto – Khachaturian
Symphony No. 6 (Pathitique) Tchaikovsky

Piano: Peter Foggitt

Ticket price £14 (all proceeds to Cam Sight)
Please contact Sally Nott at Cam Sight on 01223 420033 or sally.n@camsight.org.uk

The Cambridge Orchestra was founded in 1987 by the late Charles Sampson in response to requests for a new symphony orchestra which could harness the very talented players and music teachers, within the Eastern Counties to perform large classical repertoire to the highest standards. In 2010 the governing organisation was changed into a charitable trust, and the opportunity was taken to adopt a new name for the orchestra to commemorate its founder – The Sampson Orchestra of Cambridge. A particularly important sphere of the Cambridge Orchestra’s activities has been to work with local charities and Cam Sight is honored to be chosen for the forthcoming concert in January. There will be a collection for Cam Sight at the end of the concert.

Craft for Sale.
Raffle.
Cakes to Buy.
Other Goodies!

A unique gastronomic experience with Cam Sight, at a new venue at
The Red House, Longstowe.

Wearing a blindfold to open your eyes to food…

Blind-tasting wine is an established concept; but blind-tasting food is just as fascinating.  You can challenge your tastebuds, and your culinary knowledge, at this popular event.  Can you identify ingredients when you can’t see the delicious food on your plate?  Even if your table doesn’t win the bottle of champagne awarded for the best guesses, dining in the dark means you’ll appreciate textures, tastes and conversation in a totally different way.

How does it work?

You’ll be given 3 tasty finger-food morsels for starters, and 3 for pudding, to be tasted ‘blind’ so you can compete for the prize to guess what you are eating.  But blindfolds off for the main course, knives and forks allowed, to let you to enjoy your choice in a more conventional way. 

This popular event is moving venue to ‘The Red House’ at Longstowe

20 minutes from Cambridge on the A1198, halfway between Wimpole and Cambourne, The Red House is an old coaching inn with loads of atmosphere, specializing in well sourced traditional English food. Why not organize a table of friends for a great evening?  Or mix in with other couples on the night.

Dining in the Dark
£39 per head for a 3 course meal with coffee
7.30pm, Friday 25 November, 2011

To book a table please send a cheque to:

Cam Sight, 167 Green End Road, Cambridge, CB4 1RW. 

Credit card payments can also be taken, please phone Becky 01223 420033 or becky@camsight.org.uk

Please note, payment for the event is taken in advance and no refund will be offered if the booking is cancelled unless the places can be filled from the waiting list. This will help to ensure the event raises the maximum amount towards the work of Cam Sight supporting local people with sight loss.

This is a fundraising charity event for Cam Sight.

‘Seeing it my way’ is a new initiative developed so that every person with sight loss across the UK gets the support they need. It sets out a range of outcomes that people have told us are important to them, such as the need for emotional support, mobility and independence.

Developed by the sight loss sector, ‘Seeing it my way’ is endorsed by the UK Vision Strategy.

So that ‘Seeing it my way’ can really make a difference in changing sight loss services, we need feedback from blind and partially sighted people, to make sure we have the right outcomes.

To take part, blind and partially sighted people should read ’Seeing it My Way’, which can be found below, and then complete the online survey at www.vision2020uk.org.uk/ukvisionstrategy/survey/seeingitmyway_online_survey.htm or call Stephanie Village at the National Blind Children’s Society on 01278 764 771 for a copy of the document or to give feedback by phone.

Alternatively, people can call Visionary on 01777 705299 to find out if a local society near them is holding a focus group that they can take part in (focus group surveys should be returned by post to ‘FREEPOST UK VISION STRATEGY’).

The closing date is Friday 16 December 2011.

Siri opens up a whole new world of exciting mobile access for someone that has low vision or is blind. Instead of having to manually navigate through a sea of icons using VoiceOver, then typing in your text message to someone, you can simply say, “Text Jerry and tell him I’ll be there at 3pm.” Siri will create the text and read it back to you.  If you have your accessibility settings turned on, Siri will dictate your message back before sending it.

We hope it’s as good as it sounds. For more information take a look at their website http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html

The iPhone4S goes on sale 14 October.

Although Tube staff would often provide assistance to visually impaired passengers, including by stopping escalators where possible, the official line was that this may not be possible “at busy times” in case it caused overcrowding. But research carried out by The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has shown once guide dog owners are trained, they will be able to safely use escalators.

The charity will now carry out a training course for Guide Dogs users to learn to use the escalators safely.

The change, which comes into effect this week, will also apply to the Docklands Light Railway and London Overground. A TfL spokesman said: “It was not always practical for disabled passengers with an assistance dog to carry them on escalators, particularly if the person was visually impaired.”

Oliver Barton, client services manager at Guide Dogs for the Blind, said: “Once guide dog owners are trained, they will be able to safely use escalators if they provide the only means of accessing TfL managed stations.”

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “The modernisation of this antiquated bylaw helps make the Tube more accessible for all.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15148178?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter