How can I not help you 2 - The Blind and the Stupid

There’s a lot of bad customer service around. I even write about it every now and then. But I don’t think I can beat this. This story, printed in the Belfast Telegraph and filched by me without their permission, features my daughter, so obviously I’m not without a bit of bias with my opinions. But read the article and think on. And wonder how the person who “served” my daughter can do their job and sleep well after each day. The idiot.

For anyone who is blind or knows someone who is, then they will be familiar with the knowledge and having one’s cane lost, trampled on by a careless member of the public or just going knackered on you through wear and tear, is not just a matter of inconvenience, but literally of life of death. Their justification is that if they were to sell Carly a cane of the wrong size, she tripped (or whatever) and became injured and could/would sue them is plainly more important to them than allowing someone who is obviously blind to go wandering in the streets without any kind of symbolic protection let alone an essential guiding tool, when they plainly have the power to avoid that situation – and abuse it.

Some jobsworth has really had an attack of the stupids. Or can’tbearseds.

They really should not be doing their job as they plainly lack any sense of decency and humanity.

My former employer is truly going to pot when it puts their own liability over the real risk of a human being – someone, let’s remind ourselves, who they are in the unique position to serve, then don’t.

Can you imagine this scenario?:

"I'd like to buy a knife - a big one".
"Can't. You might use it to stab someone".
"But I'm a chef. I need it for my job".
"Can you prove you're a chef"?
"Yes, the big white chef's hat I'm wearing...".
"Is that the best you can do? Might be a fancy dress hat for all I know".
"Unlikely. Ha ha. Well..here's my work badge with my restaurant's name printed on it, and my job title, Head Chef, and a wee photo".
"Sorry, still can't sell you one. And the man on the photo clearly has a moustache, whereas you...sir...don't".
"It was a fashion faux pas I'm afraid. Can't you see the little blood stain on my shirt".
"Oooh, you don't want to mention that to PC Plod. It might be kiddie blood. You can do down for that".
"It's from a dead cow which I cut up earlier. So you won't sell me a knife, even though I can see a big rack of Sabatiers over there".
"No, well now you come to mention it, yes I could, but you'll need to show me the knife you used".
"Difficult. It broke - that's why I'm here".
"But without your old broken knife as evidence, I can't, no, won't sell you a replacement. You might use it stab a poor innocent child, then come back and blame me for selling it to you. It's a knife-for-knife situation only I'm afraid".


and blah, blah, blah

Here's the article. (Full name of my daughter curtailed by me).

"I’m blind, but I can't get a white stick"

RNIB centre won’t sell Carly a new cane
Friday, May 30, 2008
By Emily Moulton
Blind people in Northern Ireland cannot buy white canes from the province's only resource centre because the charity does not provide training for its staff, the Belfast Telegraph has learned.
The revelation came to light after Ulster-born woman Carly M (21), who lost her cane en route to the airport from her home in Oxfordshire, tried to purchase a new one from the Royal National Institute of the Blind centre in Belfast earlier this week.
Miss M, who was born with a genetic condition called Leibers Congenital Amaurosis which made her blind, said she was told by staff at the centre that they could not sell her a cane unless she could provide proof of her old one.
She also claimed that after she explained how she lost her "stick" and what its measurements were, they still refused to sell her one saying it was not their "policy".

The RNIB is the only organisation which provides support for blind and partially sighted people in Northern Ireland. On its website it says its resource centre is where people "can try out or purchase the most cutting edge access technology, everyday living products, and a wide range of specialist equipment for blind and partially sighted people".

Miss M said she was shocked that she could not buy a cane which, she said, is essential for her mobility.
The 21-year-old, who had to leave Northern Ireland five years ago so she could study physiotherapy, usually has a guide dog but was unable to bring it with her on her visit back to Craigavon.

She explained she used her "stick" to navigate when she was travelling and was a little distressed when she discovered she had lost it — but thought she would be fine once she arrived because she would just be able to buy a new one.
"I just could not believe they could not sell me a stick," she said. "When I told them that I had lost it on my way over from England they said the only way they could get me one was if I showed them my old one. After I explained again and told them the measurements of my old cane they then said they did not have any.
"These people then said they could not sell me one because it was their company policy and said if they sold me one and it was the wrong measurements and I had an accident they would be liable.

"I have never been aware of any policy which says you can not sell a blind person a cane if they don't have their old one. When I got mine I just walked into the centre in London and they found me one. I just couldn't believe it. They were happy for me to leave and travel on my own unaided but they were not happy to risk selling me a stick which might have been two or three centimetres different."
Martin Walls, spokesman for the RNIB in Northern Ireland, said staff at the centre were unable to sell her a walking cane was because they lacked training — but in light of this issue the organisation was now re-looking at its policy.
"For RNIB, the safety of blind and partially sighted people using our products is a priority. We consider that mobility training is key to using a cane safely and RNIB does not currently provide this training in Northern Ireland.

"We don't therefore stock canes for sale in the resource centre and have to order in replacements where RNIB has supplied the original cane. We will however be looking at our policy in light of this as the needs of customers are paramount."

Artful combination

Nearly forgot to blog this diamond of this shop sign spotted on East Street, Barking. I'd never have considered buying a mobile contract with my duvet. Just think! One stop shopping. Ooooh-er.

DaggersDukc's Eats: Oh Vesuvio, Upminster, Essex

I haven't written up a restaurant review in some time, but the Access Eat blog has inspired me. So here goes with a slab of suburban eating.

Mrs D-D and travelled to nearby Upminster last Saturday for something to chow down on after spending a large chunk of the day fixing up my boss's home internet connection. Upminster, literally at the end of the line (the green one on the tube map), may not be the first place a Londoner would think of when going out for a night's grazing, but is becoming more popular and could soon rival Hornchurch - again, not a place that regularly jumps out as restaurant capital of London but well established as local gem in East London amongst a tundra of towns featuring little more than restaurant mediocrity. Trundling along Corbets Tey Road, and finding our usual Italian choice, Prezzo, already fully booked, we moved on to a place we'd passed on by before - Oh Vesuvio.

Quite a pleasant meal awaited us. Our friendly waiter made a special effort to fit us in - the place was bursting, as it turned out, justifiably so. Decor is dark, but homely and has the feel of an established local restaurant - its signage suggests it may be been here since the 60s.

The menu comprised the usual staple of Italian menus we've known in England for decades with pasta, meat and fish dishes being the order of the day, with rich wine based sauces being represented well. I started with smoked salmon cones loaded with prawn cocktail, which, with lemon juice sprinkled over it, burst out with a cartoon-y flavour and got a full 10/10. I then had steak with marsala wine sauce which was again brimming with flavour and which I gave 8/10 - large portion of perfectly cooked steak too. Mrs D-D's main was beef canneloni which she rated as 8/10.

For dessert, I had a rather nice, though small, home-made Tiramisu, which at least tasted home-made and which I'd have given 8/10 had it been a little more generous in portion.

Summing up, Oh Vesuvio is a pleasant, somewhat conservative local Italian. The kind of place you could happily take a business client for dinner. The average age of the clientele was around 50, so perhaps not the coolest joint in town, but a highly satisfying one, at least as far as their food and helpful service goes. Average prices were: £5 per starter, £10-15 main course, and £4.50 for dessert.

Service: 8/10
Food: 8/10
Value: 7/10 (prices were higher than average for the area)

Oh Vesuvio: 101 Corbets Tey Road, Upminster, Essex


My dessert - a nice little touch

Great Lives, Radio 4: Ian Curtis of Joy Division

For the last week or so, I've kept hearing trails on Radio 4 for a program called Great Lives, this week featuring the life of Ian Curtis of Joy Division. I've not really been a great JD or New Order fan (though like many I thought Blue Monday was a masterwork) and I think the lyrics in Love Will Tear Us Apart are probably some of the most emotionally charged to have graced a pop record. I'm sure any decent appreciator of poetry might disagree, but I'm more of a pop lover than a poet.

My appetite was whetted though and it was worth firing up the BBC iPlayer just to hear an unreleased version of LWTUA played on plaintive reverb-heavy piano, and sung by Mr Curtis through a pitch-shifter or vocoder - I couldn't tell with. This version, which appears about half way through the program, has all the lonesome qualities of a computer calling out to a silent, post-apocalyptic world. Fractured, damaged, almost dead, but with just enough charge to cry out its last - a digital vocalisation is it is putting all its effort into, knowing that it too will be finito soon.

The show was interesting in its own right - we get to hear about the two faces of Ian Curtis, public and private. For that 1 minute excerpt of song, it is worth seeking out the shows, which will be on iPlayer for the next few days, and no doubt will make occasional re-appearances in the BBC's archive music documentaries so is likely to pop up sporadically on iPlayer.

An interesting source of some cover versions is:

http://coverlover.vox.com/library/post/love-will-tear-us-apart.html

Accessible eating blog

A quite interesting blog comes from Graham, who is a big, bad blind eater extraordinaire. This boy loves eating and writing his experiences after doing so. And he generally grubs down in the kind of places many Londoners eat: cheap, local restaurants and cafes. He's stone blind too, so his comments aren't the usual critiques, but concentrate on how helpful staff are when it comes to reading menus, whether speaking English is an issue and whether, in his opinion, packet sauces have been used.

His Access Eat blog is here:

http://access-eat.blogspot.com