Another Amazing Week

Bearsac with Debra

No Mickey Mouse, government Funded Schemes here.

My comment - 3 guide dogs getting money from ATM - Must get the DLA out B4 the bank manager takes it.

Dame Hettie Peters MBE, Ambassador for Children

On Thursday evening I went to the launch of some new slimming products. We met at the Marriott Hotel. It was real posh. We usually meet at the Apollo Hotel on Thursdays and Sunday evenings. Tiens invitation readds: Improve your health, beauty and lifestyle. Give yourself a chance to learn from 5000 yrs of traditional Chinese secret. Also reposition yourself to create wealth. May a invite you to a TIENS presentation

On Friday I received a membership card for New Oscott Village Friends. I'm at a crossroad. Do I move into the new village, near my grandkids, another area or stay where I am now? In the post I also got an invitationfrom Rich Dad's Education to a free workshop - Your financial crisis could come to an end in 2009. I then went to Works Directions - the Mickey Mouse scheme that's getting mega bucks to put disabled people into work. It was like a Mental Health Day centre in there. Noisy with sick people addressing envelopes, copying addresses off the computers, having their business broadcast to all on sundry, attending an Expert Patient Course. I sat as my 'adviser' wrote a letter to tell me that they'd give me £26 for publicity of my business and sign me off when I make my first £50. I told her that their standards were very low. She said she was there to help me. It's all on tape. Never attend these meeting on your own or without a tape recorder. I sat next to a nurse who's moving to Cornwall. I spent the day printing off stuff. Unfortunately they have a policy written in stone against all social networks - Twitter, facebook etc. They'll 'support' me for another 13 weeks. Scam. I've only met 1 person who they've helped to get a job. They really haven't a clue.

I didn't sleep much on Friday night. I was having breathing problems. So at 5pm I got up and started getting ready to go to London to represent Birmingham Centre for Inclusive Living of which I'm a Board Member. It was organised by Disability LIB - Listen Include Build. Disability LIB is an alliance of 7 organisations offering capcity building support and advice to Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs) in England using rights based principles and business skills, at a time of financial crisis and political opportunity. There were representations from numerous organisations. This was one of the best organised events ever. I went to workshops by Black Men Moving forward, a national mentoring programme run by service users with a good understanding and experience of the barriers face by people with disabilities, their carers and those with long term impairments. It was good to see a mental health group at the event because usually when we have disability events there are harldy any mental health groups represented. National Survivor User Network NSUN (mental health) aims to build the capacity of the survivor and user movement to support their work in all its diversity. In our workshop we had a representtive of Women's resource centre. Building futures: creating a financially strong women's sector. Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People were there. Birmingham's version, of which I was a founder member, closed years ago. I got a copy of the Campaigns Cookbook . Available from SCOPE

I also got 40 pens and 20 Disability Now magazines for distribution to the Tribe. I met Mr Davidstar Royal King who is a gun violence survivor. He used to be an amateur boxer with great prospects before 2 kids, 13 & 15 shot him with a sawn off shotgun and left him with brain damage and 1 eye. David has been trying to meet with David Cameron and Boris Johnson but he's had no reply to his letters.

Salome from Concept Consulting RMT asked me to help her get a cup of tea. We had two butlers at the event. So I just asked one of them to get 2 cups of tea because I tend to drop things, especially when I'm tired. We left Birmingham to go to London and met up with Richard Wood, BCIL's previous Consultant now with National Coalition of Disabled People (NCDP) Pete Millington from Birmingham Disability Resource Centre (BDRC) Members of DAN one of whom is on BCIL Board and Jon Coleman, BCIL's Manager and founder of the Coalition of Disabled People. He was the first person I saw when I got off the train. We went for breakfast as it was only 8.30 and the conference started at 10.30. Other people I spoke at length with include Ian Rattray of digi-talk text to speech and Author Debra who was with Bearsac, Teddy Bear Extraordinnaire. I took a photo with him so it should be on the website. Debra has written a book about Bearsac. You can find it on Amazon.

.At the end of the conference I got a taxi to Hackney to see Dame Hettie Peters MBE. In July there's a Children's event, 'There's Hope' at which I am an honoured guest. We've been talking to each other over the phone for months but have never met. After I left Mrs Peter's I caught 2 bus and the tube to the Premier Hotel in Elephant and Castle. I was so tired that I fell asleep as soon as I got into bed and slept till 8am Sunday. When I got up I watched children's programmes till 10 then went to Reception where I met someone who had been to a conference on Children's Rights in Nigeria. Child Trafficking has been going on for a long time. It is part of the culture. So if we now try to stop the devastation, child abuse, broken homes, child prostitution, are we introducing western values to Africa? Unfortunately I didn't get this man's details as my phone rang and he got a taxi whilst I was talking. I then met Jennifer from Ivory Coast via France, She's coming to England to live in September and wants to Learn English as a Second Language. Do I want to move to London to teach her? I then heard Christian music and discovered a Spanish Church, Casa de Pan (House of Bread) in a meeting room in the hotel. I spent 10 minutes in the service then went to catch my trains. I got a German copy of Elle Decoration and Desert Flower by Waris Dirie. She's a famous model and a spokeswoman on women's rights in Africa. I read half the book by the time I got to Birmingham. I was looking forward to having free wifi on the Virgin train but a very sullen woman and child were sitting near the window and I daredn't ask them to let me plug in the laptop. With an hour to wait at Euston, because I misread the times, I used my Boots Card to buy a shrimp noodle salad drink and honey yoghurt. When I got back home, I went to poundland to get some mints then set off to babysit the grandkids.

Tiens http://www.tiens.co.uk/ , Extra Care Charitable Trust http://www.extracare.org.uk/, Rich Dad's Education http://www.richdadstock.co.uk/, Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ Birmingham Centre for Inclusive Living BCIL http://www.bcil.org.uk/, Expert Patient Programme - contact your local PCT, Disability LIB http://www.disabilitylib.org.uk/, Black Men Moving Forward enquiries , Volunteer and advocacy service, http://www.encweb.org.uk/ nsun national survivor user network http://www.nsun.org.uk/ Women's Resource Centre http://www.org.uk/ Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People http://www.ncodp.org.uk/ Birmingham Centre for Inclusive Living http://www.bcil.org.uk/, Birmingham Disablity Resource Centre http://www.disability.co.uk/ digi-talk http://www.digitalkmedia.co.uk/ Comcab http://www.computercab.co.uk/ Premier by Eurotraveller Hotel http://www.eurotravellerhotel.com/ Bearsac http://www.bearsac.com/