Since returning from L.A. I have not been quite myself. I had to take a couple of days away from work as I had an extremely sore neck and back, frequent headaches, several nosebleeds and a series of tender lumps growing on my shoulders and back. I guess I must have been a bit under the weather as my colleagues very generously told me that I “looked like death” and to go home.

Anyway, not really sure of the cause of my various ailments but a couple of days rest plus the Easter break have done me the power of good and I’m certainly feeling much better than I did. So thank you for asking! 🙂

During my trip to the California State University conference on technology and disability held at Los Angelis last month, I had the honour of briefly meeting Stevie Wonder.

Other than his hit singles and collaborations with other artists, I cannot claim to be too familiar with a large proportion of Stevie Wonder’s work. I’m sure Ebony and Ivory as well as I Just Called to Say I Love You were not the musicians finest moments? Although I enjoyed his performance with Tony Bennett on the Grammy awards earlier this year. And I will always have fond memories of Happy Birthday which I sliced and diced in Sony Soundforge as a special audio production for ACB Radio.

The fleeting encounter came quite by chance while I was mulling over the difference between accessibility and usability with an interesting man who used to work for Apple (that’s the computer people not the Beatles record company). I was boring my acquaintance with my thoughts on blindness product packaging when he interrupted me.

“I thought you should know Stevie Wonder has just come into the room.”

As indicated above, I am not the most fanatical of Stevie Wonder aficionados. That said, I have the utmost respect for stevie Wonder’s achievements and he probably is one of the most renowned blind people alive. I felt almost duty-bound to go over and say hello. Stevie was sat about 10 feet from where I was standing and naturally he was in the midst of a croud two or three deep. I sidled over and struck up a conversation with the huge bodyguard who was escorting Stevie that evening. It turned out that the guard was one of four who are charged with the star’s safety. Anyway he seemed a remarkably tolerant guy who was good enough to arrange my 30 seconds with Stevie. I shook hands with Stevie and told him that I had enjoyed his Grammy appearance with Tony Bennett and was looking forward to any future collaborations. Stevie, clad in a leather jacket, remained seated and told me it was good to meet me and to be cool. It was then time to let someone else say hello so I moved on.

It was not the most dramatic of meetings by any stretch of the imagination but definitely an A-Lister to add to my modest collection of famous people memories which include: Ian Rush and Steve McManaman world class footballers, Patrick Moore astronomer and world record holder for presenting the longest running tv show, Paddy Ashdown while he was leader of the Liberal Democrat party and the Queen during her visit to Liverpool in 1992.

Does this shit really still go on? If a taxi was found not to have picked someone up because they were black, a woman, gay, elderly, Muslim all hell would break loose! If taken guide dogs is considered to be a reasonable adjustment in the eyes of the law why does this provision continue to be flouted?

Ian Hamilton is a journalist for the BBC in Scotland. I met him a couple of years ago when I was producing a piece about accessible GPS in Glasgow. I am delighted Ian has written this piece for the BBC News site.

Quite a few blind people go to football matches in the UK, I used to be one of them before I got superstitious about Liverpool playing better when I was not there.

Anyway, for me the sound of the crowd, the sound of the commentary, the sound of the players shouting to each other is a vital part of the football going experience. So it was fascinating to learn about the experience of Clarke Stevens who is deaf blind.

Good stuff, keep it coming Ian.

I was moved by Michael Hingson’s keynote presentation at the American Councel of the Blind’s national convention last year in Florida. Michael’s very personal and inspirational story recounts his experience as he escaped the fall of the WTC. I had the honour to meet Michael briefly an hour or two after his address to ACB members. He struck me as an extremely genuine natural sort of chap.

Not being a guidedog user I do not have first hand experience of what must be going through your mind in the run up to the dog’s retirement. however, I have whitnessed the affect on others and it can be an emotional journey.

Dragon’s Den is compulsive viewing in this house and I watched spellbound a couple of weeks ago when Levi Roots (aka Keith) made his seemingly inept pitch to the Dragons with an acoustic guitar and a ditty about a medium to hot tomato sauce but not such a hot grasp of his financial projections. Viewers were instantly charmed by Levi’s warmth and a couple of the dragons spotted the Sauce’s marketable potential and invested in the product to the tune of £50,000!

For the past fortnight we have been speculating at work about the future of Reggae Reggae Sauce and whether or not we would be able to find somewhere we could order a bottle to try. Anyway, while I was away in Liverpool on Wednesday the world seems to have gone Reggae Reggae Sauce mad. Apparently after hearing Sainsbury’s had secured a distribution deal, yesterday lunch time two of my colleagues went skipping into the supermarket like excited children to see who would be the first to spot a bottle of the sauce. Needless to say it did not take them very long to locate and purchase a bottle of Reggae Reggae Sauce. As I walked through the door first thing this morning, yours truly was proudly presented with said bottle!

I tried Reggae Reggae Sauce at lunch time as a dip for chicken nuggets and it really is very tasty. I was expecting it to be slightly thicker and to have a shelf life longer than 5 days. My main concern is that I will be sick to death of the Reggae Reggae Sauce song long before I have had enough of the sauce itself. Apparently the track will be available from all reputable and some not so reputable download sites and could chart next week with the proceeds going to the Comic Relief appeal.