So, as threatened, I'll now tell you about an episode I had a few years ago with unsuitable shoes.
(I should perhaps transfer all this to our website journal, do you think?) Meanwhile though:-
Once Chris and I had restarted blindsimming in our mature years,
(this would be at the time described in our website journal, see Page
4 Development of Blindsimming Blindfolds (1),) I developed a wish to
find out how long in a day I could go blindfolded out-of-doors –
with Chris as my guide, of course. Needless to say, he was keen to
help and came up with a plan.
He proposed to pick me up at home, early in the morning after my
husband had caught his usual train into London for work. He would
blindfold me then and there and smuggle me into his car and drive me
to a bird reservation some distance away. There we could walk some
distance to the far side of the reservation where there was a pub
close by, have lunch, walk back, and drive home in time for me to
cook my husbands evening on his return from London about seven in the
evening. Ten or eleven hours blindfolded – lovely. And he would
enjoy it too, I knew.
Firstly then, a few details. He would come to pick me up
around 7am, park his car close to our kitchen door, I would be ready
then and he would blindfold me with my favourite silk scarf, help me,
unseen by any curious neighbours, into the back of the car. I would
have suitable shoes to change into when we got there and I would have
left my watch in my bedside drawer. Part of the game which appealed
to me – I wouldn't be needing it, would I? I would also have taken
a Kwell Tablet. I knew I would get car-sick on a longer journey
blindfolded, even sitting in the back seat. Spare one in my pocket
for the journey home.
Everything started off as planned, I had my spare pair
of shoes in a shopping bag, together with a packed lunch to eat when
we got to the pub and had bought ourselves a drink. At that time, we
were developing a 'blindfold' for me to wear in public, not
conspicuous as such. Once we got to the site, Chris helped me with a
home-made adhesive patch, which had pieces of lint over each eye and
was a single patch that bridged the top of my nose and stuck firmly
around all edges. On top of this, I wore a large pair of sunglasses,
called Eliminators (!) which was designed to wear over ordinary
glasses, were it necessary, and which we had contrived to be big
enough to hide the adhesive patch from view. The 'blindfold' then was
most efficient and wouldn't slip off.
I preferred the nice double-layer silk scarf which I
wore in the car but not now on public view. In those days, I didn't
use a white stick just hung on to Chris's arm. Left arm, so that he
could have his binoculars ready in his right hand should any
particular bird attract his attention. We didn't need to try to look
the part – we were both quite interested in bird-life.
One snag arose, unfortunately. When I came to change my
shoes to something better suited for cross-country walking, I
discovered – even though blindfolded of course, that I had brought
the wrong pair! Somehow in my haste early in the morning I had bought
an old pair by accident, a pair that I had discarded a year or so ago
because they were too tight to wear for any long period. Disaster.
The pair I had been wearing in the car were very light shoes and no
good for any distance over rough ground.
Putting on a brave face, I decided to suffer with the
tight pair. Anything other than abandon my blindfolded day out. So
Chris changed the scarf blindfold for the 'blind person-appearance'
patch and dark glasses and off we set. I listened for bird calls and
song and tried to identify the bird and Chris then found it and told
me if I had got it right. I was still learning in those days,
although I'm still learning now of course.
After a couple of hours though, my feet were killing me!
In reasonable shoes, I can walk quite happily for four or five hours
but not today. I had to just sit down eventually but was still
determined to keep my blindfolded day going. Chris looked at the map
which we had luckily not left in the car and found that if I could
struggle on a bit, we could get out to a road and he would run back
to the car park and bring the car along to that point, where I could
at least change into the other lighter pair of shoes or simply give
up walking altogether and we could go onto the pub, have our packed
lunch which we had been carrying between us, and find something else
to do in the afternoon. Luckily too, it was fine weather that day.
So we decided to do the latter of those two options.
This meant though, that he had to abandon me at that
point. Again luckily there was a seat on a village green (he told
me!). So there I sat, still determined not to remove the blindfold
for, Chris promised, no longer than three-quarters of an hour.
Actually he was gone nearly an hour and a half. Two people came and
used the seat and spoke to me, so I was able to keep track of the
time by asking them the time in return for telling them why I was
there waiting for my brother, which they seemed to accept as if a
normal event.
Quite an experience for me though.
I kept it up more or less as planned after that and we
eventually got back home late in the afternoon and in time for me to
recover from my nine or so hours unseeing and then get on with my
husband's meal preparation.
Just for your entertainment!! (I hope?)
