Two Happy Events

Two happy events today.

The first was posting off some empty printer cartridges.

For the last 12 months I’ve been accumulating used printer cartridges, hoping to find an easy way to recycle them. Currys, P C World and the supermarkets are all extremely keen to sell me the things but not so keen to take the ‘empties’ back.

So, hooray for Tesco who has done a deal with The Recycling Factory (Tesco's cartridge recycling) so that you can send off (just about) any manufacturer's empty cartridges for recycling and, in exchange for the used cartridges, you can either get points on your Clubcard or make a donation to support the Diabetes charity. They even supply postage-paid envelopes, so I’ve just sent off 44 cartridges in 9 envelopes.

The second happy event was lunch at the Eight Bells pub/restaurant in Bolney, about 10 miles north of Brighton & Hove.

 

The pub is just across the road from St Mary Magdalene’s Church, which dates from the 12^th century and has a tower with a ‘ring’ of eight bells, the earliest dating to 1592 – hence the Eight Bells name of the pub.

Eight Bells pub sign

We had a buffet lunch with the A&B deaf group and supporters, including Fathers Ian and Raglan. Most of the group had just returned from Lourdes and the Lourdes Effect was still strong. I was seated next to Cathy and opposite Ruby and we soon discovered that we all suffered from the same addiction...chocolate in all its forms and especially dark chocolate. Two of us had carried supplies of M&M chocolates to Lourdes (they ‘melt in your mouth and not in your hand,’ which is rather useful in hot weather!), and each of us had a particular craving (- and yes, I promise to try the M&S cherry chocolates soon!).

Travelling to Lourdes with the deaf group and being in their company for a week was very interesting. Not knowing any sign language, I was handicapped and unable to communicate, so the deaf remained mostly an enigma to me, at least as people, as personalities. Certainly, I knew the individuals, their names at least, and could offer a smile, could make a few very basic gestures, but that was the limit of it. The communication was basic and fleeting.

Two things stood out for me in Lourdes. The deaf group’s party night performance was impressive. They proved to be experts in bodily and facial expression, easily conveying humour and personality through mime, initiating communication rather than being the mute object of it. You wanted to learn more about each of them, to build a bridge – or at least to meet them halfway on the bridge they were building.

Second, many of the helpers and redshirts were making a real effort to learn basic signing, opening the way to communication – and enjoying it. This underlined the point that good intention is not enough, there must be an investment of time and effort as well.

There’s no getting away from it. I’m going to have to learn some signs.