BLIND DAVE'S BLOG

05-03-2007

Marathon runner Blind Dave Heeley was presented to his home crowd in West Bromwich on Saturday when he was introduced to the crowd at half-time in the Baggies v Sunderland match. Here's what else he's been up to as he builds up to next year's record-breaking 7/7/7 challenge.

Hi Stirrers

Well, what was I saying last week? When there's a good down hill there's normally a flipping great up hill to follow and as the seven days before were very relaxing, you've guessed it, things went pear shaped or in my case as flat as a pan cake. Technology? I know what I'd do with it. Telephone, pen and paper, that's the answer - or Braille in my case.

Yes in this hi-tech world, I certainly have begun to rely on my e mail facility more and more, but it was down for a week; very annoying because a lot of people will only deal via the internet these days. I suppose it stops them committing themselves over the phone - either that or they don't have the confidence to deal face to face with people and a crisis.

I'm with Talk Talk and to be honest over the past couple of years have been quite satisfied with their service; however, as of the 25th January they've gone down hill fast.

My email service and Internet connection would only work properly between 9am and 5pm; after that, the Pony Express was quicker, and then on 20th February it packed up completely.

I was on the phone every day and the range of excuses differed every time, either that or I was cut off. To be fair, their service centre is another one based in India, and although the people were very polite the immediate problem right away was the language barrier.

What also amazes me when things are going right, every one in an organisation is a manager. Surprise, surprise since this problem has reared it's ugly head, not a manager or supervisor is to be found, strange that.

Eventually after many frustrating phone calls, one young lady persevered with us and she ran Debb through the whole set up procedure and, guess what? One big problem was the simple lack of a dot after a particular word. As I said earlier, unfortunately with language barriers there is always going to be a communication break down and for what reason? The £ sign yet again. It's sad that this symbol rules so many lives!

Still after seven days of different excuses at least I can access my emails, but I still have problems after 5pm. I've written to Talk Talk - let's see how quickly they respond. I'll keep you informed, I think I will start looking at other service providers, though; can anyone recommend a good one?

Whilst I've got my moaning head on (yes occasionally I moan) coming back from a break in Windermere has (if you'll excuse the pun) opened up my eyes. In Cumbria, the kids' play areas were clean, properly run, and undamaged - it was a pleasure to sit and let the kids play safely without any bother.

When we came home we took them to a little play area down the road from us, where the swings had been all wrapped round their frames, the gates had been ripped off, there was glass and dog mess every where, with teenagers kicking a ball around in the play area meant for the little one.

After making some comments to them, I got forty words for one and the foul language wa disgusting. If they were my kids I would be ashamed. Is Cumbria such a different part of the world? I do wonder some times if our local councillors, police and the authorities in general ought to take a trip out of the area to see how things should be run, instead of debating in comfy rooms, eating and drinking at or expense.

Perhaps fines to councillors should be dished out when their areas don't perform;my goodness would we see a difference!

Anyway lets get back to normality. The pub we've been using for a couple of years on a Monday and Friday, has had it's problems due to the turn round of managers. For whatever reason the gas was turned off, the place I'm told needed a coat of paint and certainly a new carpet, or should I say a carpet and as for the toilets well the less said about them the better. The bar area and glasses were clean, though, the beer a good pint but the biggest draw in this day and age the price was right.

We used to sit and have a laugh, huddled around a convector heater, colder than the beer. I must admit some times I wondered why I ventured out of the house; it was warmer in the pub garden. The lads said it was an advantage in this instance being blind as I could imagine the perfect surroundings and also couldn't see some of the clientele.

However, with all the new “luxuries”, the smile was wiped off our faces; they put the beer up, 30p on a pint overnight. I think someone is taking the mick. So for our next night out we changed venues. My goodness, what a shock to our system. We walked in and actually took off our coats.

There was comfortable seating, reasonable music playing and we could also talk instead of shouting, the beer was a nice pint, at a sensible price and guess what? Half the people who used to drink in the last place were in there; I wondered were most of them had gone. That's it; Monday's and Friday's are now sorted Mind, the club I drink in on a Sunday night is still a much better place; still we can't have every thing can we.

The London Marathon's getting closer, but at this present moment I'm feeling as good as I've ever felt, fitness wise; our long runs are going well, well sort of. For a change I ran unscathed, but sadly Mac had a slight problem. Not a tree, not a bus stop, not a kerb, but a tin. Yes a tin.

We think it was a tin of baked beans; there we were running up the road and he told me to lead on, suddenly he cried out, we had passed some one who had obviously been shopping, they must have swung there bag out of my way and, well I never, it hit Mac on the knee, he limped a little, swore a lot and I chirped in with Beanz Meanz pain. Sorry, I can't help but laugh, the Heinz Beans advert will never be the same again. Hopefully Mac's knee will. Still, it could have been worse, it could have been mine. I'm sure I'll suffer at some point for laughing, it's certainly put a smile on my face writing about it.