Fun in Brum

Members of the Your Voice user group converged in England's second city for the annual weekend get-together.

This year’s event, based at Birmingham's Jury's Inn Hotel, attracted over 30 members from across the country, keen to join in the fun.

As well as meeting old friends and making new ones, the group enjoyed a variety of activities including shopping, visits to art galleries and museums, cinema and ten pin bowling.

Here Cathy Lunn from Sheffield writes about her Fun Weekend...

Arriving at the hotel at tea-time, a lot of people were already there, getting to know each other or catching up with old friends. After checking in I chose to wind down in my room for a while as I had worked in the morning and then caught a train, which I always find tiring. I was soon ready to join everyone for an excellent dinner.

Later, we all assembled to discuss the activities we would like to participate in. There was a choice of going shopping, visiting museums, a ride on the Big Wheel, a visit to the sea-life centre, or doing your own thing. We also discussed our options for the evening time.

 These activities included socialising in some of the local pubs, going to the cinema or theatre or bowling. We were given directions to these places and the approximate cost.

The organisers had thought of everything and had even arranged for a mini-bus to transport people to the shops and museums if they required it. We could do our own thing or go along in small groups. A fun quiz followed - many thanks to Lisa Cain for arranging this.

After breakfast on Saturday, Peter Farrall arrived with Carl the photographer to record the event. Soon, it was time to get down to the serious matter of SHOPPING. I had a marvellous time visiting the Bull Ring shopping centre with a small group of friends. It was very busy and because of the queues at the check-outs I didn't buy anything; never mind, it gives me a good excuse to return!

In the afternoon I visited the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery where I chose to go around on my own instead of doing a guided tour with the others. I absolutely loved it; I'm a sucker for a good museum! There was lots to see and I found the Buddhist ceremony that took place whilst I was there, fascinating. If anything, the museum was too big to get around and to take in all the exhibits within the two hours we were there. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every minute and would recommend it to anyone who likes museums.

After dinner on Saturday evening, I decided to go on the Big Wheel, situated quite near the hotel. This was a very gentle merry-go-round. Everyone who went on it was very pleased with themselves for being 'so brave'. We then returned to the hotel for a few drinks.

Sunday morning saw the arrival of Andrew Spencely. He was from Independence Technology of Johnson & Johnson. Andrew gave a very informative demonstration and talk about the Independent iBOT mobility system. This high-tech wheelchair can crawl up and down kerbs and stairways, balance on two wheels, it goes up and down, (handy for having an eye-to-eye conversation, especially with the bar-tender!). It also crosses rough terrain, and has four wheel drive. After his demonstration, people were invited to ask questions about the wheelchair. Mary King thanked him for taking the time to come and speak to us.

Mary then wound up the weekend with an excellent feed-back session and gave everyone the opportunity to say what they had liked and disliked about the week-end. Suggestions from people were taken on board to be considered when arranging future events. A buffet lunch followed.