Review of the UltraCane.

Jun 20, 2012 |

Introduction

I have not been using the UltraCane for long so my opinion is not based on Ong term exposure however I have done plenty of walking over the past week in areas that I know very well and areas that I have never visited before in both busy and very quiet environments so I have a decent idea of if this mobility aid will benefit me or not. Of course, I have another two or three weeks before making my mind up completely and I’m certainly going to get as much out of this time as possible.

I thought I should write this review to highlight why I think the UltraCane is so good but yet needs so much improvement to be a mobility aid that people just can’t do without.

background

I have used devices that employ ultrasonic waves in the past such as the Miniguide and the K-Sonar so I am quite comfortable with the concept. The UltraCane is something that has interested me for quite a while so when I broke my previous cane two weeks ago I decided that it was time to try something different.

Summary

I like the UltraCane. I think it is a very good idea. From a short time of using it, I found that I am a little more confident while walking. There’s one thing I really hate about the normal cane. That is, to know an obstacle is there you need to make physical contact with it. With the UltraCane it is possible to sense the obstacle through one of the vibrating plates on the handle. I find that following walls for example is much easier because I can keep the vibrations at a steady level while sweeping the cane from side to side.

I think that the design of the handle should and probably will mature and evolve sooner rather than later as a lot of small but very important details need to be reassessed. Using the cane for an extended period of time results in strain to my hand. Especially my index finger. Maybe this is something I’d get use to tú I find in particular when following a wall on my right, the angle that I need to twist my hand to is not natural or comfortable so after a while I find that I need to move my grip regularly to help. I would actually be concerned that this movement when following something on the right using the sensor has the potential to cause RSI.

Feedback

I have sent the following points to Sound for Sight who have relayed them to the engineers of this very interesting mobility aid.

  1. The vibrating plates on the top of the handle are poorly positioned in my opinion. As a blind person, I find the most sensitive or aware part of my hand is my index finger. This comes from reading Braille and indeed typing. The thumb is probably one of the least sensitive parts. It would be more natural to receive this feedback through vibrations delivered to the index finger or maybe even the index finger and the thumb. I’m aware that the canes are designed to be used by both left and right handed users but this design choice may need to be revisited.
  2. An alternative battery source should be used. Using conventional AA batteries has its benefits of course however a battery that can be recharged by plugging in the cane would be a lot more sustainable and cost effective for users.
  3. I’m sorry to say that the audible tones for low battery notifications are quite useless. In my experience as a user of the cane in built up areas the audible tones produced are not loud enough to be heard in busy areas. Of course, users would not want loud tones as they would draw attention to the cane therefore an alternative method of feedback should be employed. For example, alternating vibrations between the plates and / or vibrations of alternate duration. Of course, looking at a different approach, a third vibrating plate could be inserted to facilitate notifications so that there could be no confusion as to if vibrations signify a notifications or an upcoming obstruction.
  4. The manual refers to a cover that can be fitted over the sensors during heavy rain. I have not received any such cover.
  5. The switch for turning off the cane and changing between short and long distance scanning are in a very unusual place. I suggest that the switch is replaced by three water proof buttons positioned for the three fingers at the bottom of the cane. I regularly change between modes while walking depending on what I am scanning for. The current location of the switch does not cater for this as naturally as on other similar devices.
  6. The ergonomic design of the cane is something that I noticed as soon as I began using it however I suggest a minor change to the positioning of the sensors. The sensors are designed to stick out straight with the users hand in the normal grip position. This means that when twisting the wrist to scan for a wall on the left the motion is very natural and relaxed. However, when twisting the wrist to the right to scan a for a wall on the other side of the user the movement is not as natural. I suggest moving the sensors just slightly so that by default, the users hand is held in a more tilted position to the left to have the sensors pointing in the forward position. This way, while scanning right the wrist movement would not be as strenuous.

I appreciate that a lot of work goes into designing a product like this and the changes I suggest would not be possible in the short term however I would hope that the engineers take them into account during future iterations of the product.

Negatives

There are a few things that annoy me a little when using the UltraCane:

  1. The noise the cane makes while rolling it is very loud and hollow. This is probably because of the UltraCane handle. This sound dims as the tip is worn down a little but the noise is a bit more noticeable than with a standard mobility cane. I must admit however that I hate the sound of a cane with a passion. It is a pet hate of mine ever since after I got my first guide dog so many friends remarked at their relief that they didn’t have to listen to it scraping along the ground any more. It’s something I have been a little more conscious of since.
  2. I think the wrist strap on the top of the UltraCane is handy while walking but it’s a bit cumbersome when trying to secure the cane tightly after folding it up. I’m wondering about trying to put some kind of elasticated strap onto the handle of this one… If I keep it of course to make it faster to store the cane neatly when using public transport. Again, this is personal preference.
  3. The UltraCane has been improved in the past few years. Sound for Sight say that it is now lighter than before but I can’t help wondering why it is still so heavy. There are similar devices out there that are a lot lighter. Why is the UltraCane so heavy?
  4. The UltraCane handle seems to be much bigger than it needs to be as well. Looking at similar devices that do not come with a cane that use ultra sonic waves and vibrations to provide feedback, it seems to me that the size of the handle is much bigger than it needs to be. Take the old Mini guide for example; this was the size of a cigarette lighter!
  5. The UltraCane seems to be more expensive than alternative products as well. Now, I could be wrong here, but why is this?

To me the ultra-cane feels like a very useful mobility aid however it seems like the concept is still in its infancy. Minor design changes to the handle so that it is easier to hold for an extended period of time, better placement of the tactile indicators and more durability will, I hope, make this a tool that becomes a standard mobility aid for many blind people.

Posatives

I do actually like the UltraCane a lot. I am being critical because I don’t want to give you a false sense of what it can and can’t do. I’m still not sure if I’ll keep it. £635 excluding postage is a lot of money. It came to just over €800 in total. If it can’t do absolutely everything I need it to then I think I will give it back. That said, if it can help me get around with a bit more confidence then I might just be convinced. Either way, I think it has a long way to go before I would personally say that it is a mature product.

For faireness sake, here are a few of the reasons I like the UltraCane a lot:

  1. I love the fact I get prior warning before I meet something with the cane. There is a particularly annoying sandwich board on Nassau Street in Dublin. When walking down toward Kildare Street I meet it. It’s a land mark so I could avoid it if I want but meeting it means that I’m along the right line and I’ll be passing the shop doors slightly. I walk out from the edge of the building slightly to make sure I don’t walk straight into people stepping out of doorways at that point. Then I come to the tactile markers so I know I can turn right… It’s a hand enough rout but I hate having to find that land mark. Especially when it’s raining because for some reason the building always drips on me. It’s very irritating. With the UltraCane I walk with the building on my right. I don’t actually touch the wall with the cane. I just keep the vibration on the handle reasonably constant. This is something that is taking a lot of practise because it’s very hard to feel the difference in the speed of the vibrations using my thumb. When their quite slow its fine but if I’m two feet from a wall their almost completely undistinguishable. While I’m walking down the street I will notice that directly ahead the UltraCane detects an obstacle. Because I’m not yet ready to just find a way around this obstacle using vibrations alone, I still meet it with the cane but it’s not as bad because I have time to slow down and meet it on my own terms. From there I orientate myself away from the side of the building and I continue on my way.
    The nice thing about the UltraCane is when I’m walking past the fruit stand outside one of the shops the vibrations get faster so I have yet another land mark to verify my path by without even having to touch it.
    I’m hoping I’ll get better at this with time so that I can avoid the sign without having to touch it. I find it much easier when buildings jut out for example.
  2. One great time to have the UltraCane is during bin day. Again, I’m not as practised with it as some people so I still like to actually touch the obstacle but knowing something is there in advance is a more reassuring than I thought it would be.
  3. Oh of course, the UltraCane has a sensor that tries to detect objects at head level. I am delighted to say that I’ve tested this and it works. I’m tired of walking into wet bushes hanging over a wall or decorative plants hitting me in the face on the way to work in the morning. There are two decorative plants at face level on one side of South Fredrick Street. With the UltraCane I can sense these when their near so I can put my hand out to avoid them. This is going to be great on wet mornings.

Of course, this is just my opinion. I’d be very interested in hearing from other UltraCane users.

Eitleán – The reason that I have been so quiet.

May 9, 2012 | ,

I probably have no readers left on this site at all and you know what? I don’t blame you at all. I haven’t been posting here because I’ve been very busy with other projects that seem to be running at the same time.

I thought I should write something to tell you a bit about what I’m doing. Today’s post will be about the music side of things. I’m playing with two lovely people who live in Dundalk. Andrew Grafton and his girlfriend Trudy Maguire. Their full time musicians who play every kind of music from rock to classical to jazz, to the blues. Trudy even sings in a quire and is an active participant in the Irish accordion association. Andrew is kept busy as he is probably one of the most talented videographers and sound engineers on the east coast. He’s also one of the nicest guitarists I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing music with.

About a year ago we began playing music together. I originally stood in for another musician as he was traveling quite a lot but as time moved on we began to get together more and more. About two months ago we finally settled on a name for the band on the way to the airport for the last of a string of gigs around St. Patrick’s Day. The name is Eitleán. This is Irish for Airplane. For those of you outside Ireland, this is pronounced etchelawn. Yes, it’s a funny way of thinking up a band name but it has stuck and it suits the nature of the band because we’re all messers when you get right down to it.

We have been working on a new CD for the past few months as well and we’re hoping that will be released very shortly. In anticipation of the launch and in an effort to raise awareness of the band we have been hitting social media networks. You may now find us on Facebook, Twitter, Sound cloud and our Eitleán website which is still in the process of being built.

This is the part where I ask you to get involved. Listen to our tracks on sound cloud, follow our twitter account and like our page on Facebook. Eitleán music is definitely here to stay and hopefully this is just the start of what is to come.

Social networks

The accessibility of virtual desktops.

Apr 19, 2012 | , , , ,

This probably could be a much more scientific approach to a review or analysis of the accessibility of a Windows guest running on the ESXI hypervisor however, I don’t really have the time to write such a document at the moment. However, this will serve as verification to some that access to this environment is possible all be it in a limited way.

For the less technical people out there, basically what I’m talking about here is running a Windows computer inside a virtual machine.

You need a more basic description? No problem. Try this. Let’s say you have one large computer. Virtual machines are machines that run inside this big computer. Think about it as if it was a building. This building might have ten different companies. True, each company could probably have its own building but there’s no need. It only needs a certain amount of space. An entire building would be over kill. So, the one building hosts all of these guest companies. Just like one large server can host dozens or hundreds of virtual machines be those workstations that users work with or servers that run the companies IT systems. Having one building hosting all these smaller companies cut down on the space required the cost of maintenance and the cost of power. When you hear the word hypervisor, I am basically talking about the building or the large server that hosts all the virtual machines or companies. When I talk about a guest, I am talking about the companies in the building i.e, the virtual machines. Get it?

  • Building = Server / Hypervisor
  • Company = Guest or virtual machine

Ok. I’m glad we have all of that cleared up. You can take a break for a few seconds before I move on to the next part because it’s going to get a little technical again. Don’t worry. You’ll understand it now that you have a grip of the basics.

For one reason or another, I spent some time yesterday tackling the problem of how a blind person can independently and efficiently access a Windows 7 PC that has been virtualized using a thin client. A thin client for those of you who aren’t aware of the term is a basic PC. It has very limited storage, limited RAM and a low power processor. The idea of this machine is to give a user a platform from where they can access a virtual computer. All it does is start a cut down version of Windows and provide the user with a log in box to start their virtual system.

There is one barrier to accessibility when using thin clients. No additional software can be installed ordinarily as there isn’t enough space to facilitate it. This means installing a screen reader isn’t an option. Even a pen drive version of Jaws won’t work because it requires the installation of a mirror driver. Fortunately, NVDA will work very well. Just download the portable version and run it. If I was to make one suggestion it would be to put NVDA to sleep automatically when the PC over IP or the RDP client started as it can get a little confusing when modifier keys such as caps lock are pressed. I know this can be done using scripts though and it is something I would look at doing if I was using this as my workstation every day.

So, you can now use the thin client to log into your workstation. That’s the first hurdle out of the way. Now what?

With VMware you can log onto virtual machines using two protocols. RDP which is Microsoft’s remote desktop protocol or PC over IP which is the protocol used by VMware. PC over IP is more efficient for a number of reasons but in later versions of RDP Microsoft have gained some ground. I won’t explain the benefits over PC over IP in this post but very quickly, PC over IP is less bandwidth intensive so the experience of remotely using a virtual machine is a little smoother.

You’ll be happy to know that relaying sound back to the thin client is supported by both of these protocols however you won’t get instant feedback like you would if sitting at your own PC. The delay is in the realm of about fraction of a second but if like me you expect instant responses from a screen reader this fraction of a second may as well be an eternity.

Relaying sound back to the thin client is very important. Jaws, my preferred screen reader crashes every time it is started in a virtual machine using the PC over IP protocol. Without fail, it refuses to run. NVDA on the other hand runs very nicely in a virtual machine using the PC over IP protocol. Of course, using NVDA sound mapping to your thin client is vital which is why I made the point earlier.

Unfortunately, there you have it. What I’m saying in a very long winded way is, yes, you can access a virtual machine using a thin client if you’re stuck but I wouldn’t think it’s usable every day. The sound lag is just too pronounced. NVDA’s ability to work in this environment should however be recognised and commended. Jaws, a leader in screen reading software seems to fail badly.

Please don’t’ take this as an endorsement or a criticism of any screen reader. I am simply stating what I have found to be the reality here. I have written this post to highlight this area and to show that improvement is required. More and more organizations and companies are moving to virtual desktops to replace physical machines as they provide significant cost savings. I have a genuine fear that assistive technology companies are not aware of this trend and blind computer users such as me will be left clambering to keep up with my sighted colleagues. I strongly believe that it is vital that companies such as Freedom Scientific, NV Access and GW Micro listen to users and when possible, utilize their experience and expertise. I for one offer it freely.

Systems used are:

  • ESXI 5.0
  • VMWare view 5.0
  • Windows 7 X64 and 32 bit.
  • Thin client running a cut down version of Windows XP.
  • 1GB network connection.
  • Virtual machine had two processors and 4GB of RAM.
  • Thin client had 1GB of RAM and 1 processor at 1.5GHZ.

I should finally note that I do not see RDP as a viable solution for accessing virtual machines using a thin client. Especially for screen reader users. If by some stroke of luck you get Jaws running on your thin client, you would then use Jaws on your virtual machine to tunnel the data back to your locally running instance of Jaws on the thin client. That’s fine, however, what if like me your a system administrator and you will need to establish connections to other remote systems from your virtual machine. You will not be able to use Jaws to establish a second or third connection as you are already using jaws through one RDP session. Drawing on an article from IBM this seems to be a viable solution for some researchers however from the perspective of someone who both administers and uses a virtual environment every day, I would not be able to depend on RDP due to this limitations. PC over IP is a protocol designed and optomized for he VMware virtual platform. We should be able to use it.

The future of browsing the web.

Apr 16, 2012 | ,

When you’re a blind user of technology you are going to depend on a screen reader and it’s very likely you read the web the way I do ordinarily. From top to bottom and then from left to right. This is just how traditional screen readers on Windows, Linux and the Mac do things. Now, let me explain this to the sighted readers of this blog. Take the website TheRegister .co.uk This site has content arranged in columns and it’s very easy to glance through the headlines that are of interest. Almost at a glance you can pick an article and click on that page. Traditionally, a computer user who is blind utilizing a screen reader will need to navigate past the navigation links at the top, down by the search link, past the advertisements until she or he gets to the content. When he or she finds a page and navigates to it the entire journey starts again. I’m dramatizing it slightly to make a point. That is, web browsing for an individual using a screen reader is very linear. Over the past six or seven years the situation has improved steadily with screen reader makers developing shortcuts that allow navigation by heading, table, list, frame, paragraph, image, form element and other standard HTML elements. This revolutionized access to the web as sites that use decent HTML mark-up can be navigated easily by jumping past huge chunks of text.

I think or rather, I hope a new revolution in web accessibility has been reached. It’s in the form of a device I originally publicly discredited as being nothing more than an oversized iPod. Yes, I’m talking about the iPad. I think this big touch screen is actually the most enjoyable interface I have ever used for browsing the web. It’s so nice to be able to explore the layout of a website. Getting a sense of where the navigation links are, where the content starts and where the form fields are located for example is so much nicer than remembering that to find the content on my favourite website, I press h three times to jump to the third heading then I press down five times to move past all the junk. Just like I assume a sighted person reads through the timeline on Facebook very quickly by glancing at specific parts of the screen, I can glance at different parts of the screen with my fingers. I know, it’s very different still but it is probably the closest I have ever been to actually reading a site in a similar way to sighted friends.

It’s also a lot less keyboard commands to remember. For obvious reasons of course.

I recently designedthe website for Computer Support Services from the ground up. Compared to the work of professional web designers, my attempt at design is basic at best but I’m quite proud of it. I regularly checked my layout using the iPad. Making sure I aligned things correctly was so much easier using a touch screen interface. I’d make a change to the style sheet and as soon as it was saved, I’d have a feel of the iPad to make sure I hadn’t broken something and then when I was happy that everything was still in the right place, I’d look for the new component that I’d added. For example, if you look at the twitter feed at the bottom right of the Computer Support Services website. I wanted to give that just enough space to let it stand out but I didn’t want to overwhelm the bottom of the home page. Finding that balance was made a lot easier by exploring the size of the section by touch.

If you haven’t tried browsing the Internet using an iPad, I’d encourage you to give it a shot. If you tried it before and you aren’t convinced, spend some time with it. If you want specific tips drop me a comment.

I should also mention that I’ve written this blog post using wordpress on my iPhone and I finished it using the iPad. The wonders of modern technology ay? 🙂

Risky Trojan doing the rounds. Please read this.

Mar 28, 2012 | , ,

A script has been found on a number of websites that when run will attempt to install a trojan onto a PC. This script is usually sent by Email and in fact you may find that it origionates from Glynis Bradbury Of course, I have motified that Email address slightly for security. The script redirects you to a site with the domain name agentcleanerrescue.info.

For some reason, Proxies and anti-virus applications are not yet detecting this threat even though it has been out there for four days now. To protect against this, do the following:

If you have a proxy on your network, blacklist the domain: agentcleanerrescue.info.
If you are a home user, you can block this domain as well. Just do the following.

For Windows 7 or Vista

  1. Click the start button.
  2. Type notepad into the search box.
  3. Right click the notepad
  4. Click run as administrator.
  5. When prompted to confirm that you want to run as an administrator click the Yes button.
  6. Click File in the menu.
  7. Click Open
  8. In the file name box paste the following line:

    c:windowssystem32driversetchosts

  9. Click the Open button.
  10. Scrole to the bottom of the file.
  11. Paste the following line:

    127.0.0.1 agentcleanerrescue.info

  12. Click the File menu.
  13. Click Save

For Windows XP

  1. Click the start button.
  2. Navigate to All Programs, then Accessories
  3. Click Notepad

    4. Yes button.

  4. Click File in the menu.
  5. Click Open
  6. In the file name box paste the following line:

    c:windowssystem32driversetchosts

  7. Click the Open button.
  8. Scrole to the bottom of the file.
  9. Paste the following line:

    127.0.0.1 agentcleanerrescue.info

  10. Click the File menu.
  11. Click Save

Of course, it should go without saying that in addition to letting your system update software automatically in the background, you should regularly fource a manual update of your AntiVirus application and perform Windows updates.

A musical perspective.

Mar 26, 2012 | ,

During the week leading up to St. Patrick’s day I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to play music every day. Between sessions, practising, gigging and teaching it seemed like I didn’t put down the pipes once. To say that I enjoyed it wouldn’t be good enough.
I’m playing music with two friends at the moment. Both of them sing and one plays the guitar and the other plays the accordion. Their brilliant fun to be around and their playing really suit my mischievous style. When playing together the band is called Eitleán. For those of you using a screen reader to read this, I am sorry but you won’t get the proper pronunciation. Eitleán is Airplane in Irish. I’ll explain how we came up with that name shortly. The band sings a combination of songs from Mary black, Paul Brady, Christy Moore, the Dubliners, Cara Dillon, Julie Fowlis, and dozens of other well-known folk singers. We also play a lot of Irish traditional tunes. We generally try to keep the music diverse so it is rare that during a gig or session you’ll hear a lot of one kind. For example, last night we played a Romanian tune, Something from Spain, a lot of Irish traditional tunes and songs such as Go lassie go, The island, Fisherman’s blues, Rainy night in Soho, Whisky in the jar, Spanish lady and the Irish rover. As you can hopefully see, the range of music is spread right across the Irish traditional and folk genres. The instruments in the band are: Uilleann pipes, accordion, whistles, low whistles, bodhran, mandolin, piano and guitar. Not all at the same time though. There’s only three of us and we’ve only a certain amount of hands. You can see then why I absolutely love nothing more than sitting down at a gig or session with these people. It’s very rewarding playing with two really brilliant musicians. We’re constantly thinking of new ideas and always pushing the boundaries of the sound.

The band is only on the go for about six months now so the number of gigs etc. that we’re getting is still quite low. Plus, I’m working full time so I’m not giving it as much attention as I would like. Still, it’s keeping me entertained. The other two are full time musicians. It’s what they do every day so as you can imagine, they have their fingers in quite a lot of pies.

So, as I was saying, I spent the entire week playing music. From a session in Macs in Dundalk on Friday night the 9th of March right up to the last gig on Sunday the 18th of March. I won’t bore you with all the details. The highlights were playing in the airport on Thursday and Friday morning to greet tourists and emigrants returning to Ireland, the Brilliant session on Friday night, the four or five sessions on St. Patrick’s day and the very enjoyable day I spent with the other two in a modern and very well run recording studio in Dundalk on the Sunday.

While working in a job that seems to constantly have me stressed or worried over something, music is the one thing I can fully depend on to get rid of all apprehension. I don’t remember the last time I was so relaxed. Two weeks in a hot country wouldn’t distress me like that week did. I’ve often thought of playing music full time but I know I never will. I’m one of the luckiest people in the world. I work in an industry I really love and when I’m finished work, I get to entertain and teach people with a hobby that I love just as much. It’s a very rare opportunity. I wouldn’t want to jeopardise the enjoyment I get from playing music by having to depend on it as an income.

Before I finish, I better tell you how we came up with the name Eitleán. We had been discussing suitable names for months. Trills and triplets, the button folk, bits and pieces, Folken trad and probably dozens of others but nothing was really sticking. We had one hour to come up with a name on Friday for a recording that the Dublin airport authority wanted to prepare so while driving up the M1 and throwing the most stupid of names around for the craic someone asked what the Irish for air plane was. And so a name was agreed!

I chose the title of this blog post because for a very short time I got to see through the eyes of full time musicians. I was absolutely amazed by the amount of work they put in. Before they turn up to a gig the preparation is quite obvious. You practise, test out the gear, tune instruments, clean everything so it’s presentable and all that kind of thing. What you don’t see is the conversations at 4:30 in the morning about a YouTube video that has just been found with a style that makes you think of a song or a tune in a completely different way. You don’t really see that the band they are playing on Wednesday night with is completely different to the band their playing in on Thursday night and between Wednesday and Thursday they may have played at a funeral, a corporate event or simply a family reunion. I know that one full time musician is in three full time bands and he’s in about four or five session groups. He could be playing hard rock on Mondays, Spanish guitar on Tuesdays, pop on Wednesdays, Country on Thursday, classical on Friday jazz on Saturday and Irish traditional tunes on Sunday. Between all of this he might need to learn twenty songs for the next week and prepare a new composition for a film. It is simply amazing that these people get to have a life at all. The life of a musician is very busy and very demanding. Even as a musician myself, I wasn’t aware of the amount of work a full timer puts in.

Hosting wordpress from behind a proxy.

Mar 22, 2012 | , ,

This is just a quick note that I hope will hopefully help someone who tries to do something similar to this.
If you are running WordPress on a server behind a locked down firewall and you must go through a proxy, you will need to add the following lines to your wp-config.php file.

define(‘WP_PROXY_HOST’, ‘192.168.0.1’);
define(‘WP_PROXY_PORT’, ‘8080’);
define(‘WP_PROXY_BYPASS_HOSTS’, ‘localhost’);

Of course, it goes without saying that you need to change the host IP address to match your proxy.

Catching up.

Mar 2, 2012 | , ,

I haven’t given you a general update in quite a while. Sorry about that.

So, what’s happening? Good question. I’m not sure where to start. Fortunately, I’m still working. Recent stats released recently have put unemployment in Ireland at 14%. That’s the highest levels in twenty years I think they’ve said. So, the fact that I’m part of the lucky ones is definitely something to be happy about. In fact, I am very happy because I’m very fortunate to be doing reasonably well when the rest of the country seems to be suffering. Work is still actually really enjoyable. Sure, I go in some mornings and the last place I want to be is sitting in the office but I’m glad to say that after four years the job is still challenging and the environment I work in is quite decent as well.

Outside of work things are going just as nicely. I’m playing a lot of music at the moment. I’m teaching people on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I’m practising with a band on Thursday and I’m usually playing at a gig and a session a few times during the weekend. I’m fortunate to be playing a lot of music with two good friends of mine. One plays the guitar and the other the accordion. Both of them sing as well so they add a great variety to the music.

When I’m not at work or playing music, I’m working on technology projects or working for local companies. I’ll tell you a lot more about this shortly. Again, it’s interesting, demanding and challenging so I’m loving every moment of it.

Of course, a few things aren’t going so well but that’s only to be expected and accepted. If you don’t have the bad you can’t appreciate the good as they say.

I have a few meetings this afternoon. They are going to make a few plans start moving in the right direction. Hopefully in about a month I’ll be able to tell you more. In fact, hopefully a month from now I will be able to fill you in on a lot of things that are about to change.

How are you?

Maurice Lennon with guests at Harcourt Hotel

Maurice Lennon with guests at Harcourt Hotel

Feb 14, 2012 | , ,

Firstly, listen to Paul on flute and the noises he’s making/ the man is either absolutely nuts or a pure genius. This set starts with the lark in the morning.
This was one of the main gigs Maurice played during his brief return to Ireland in late 2011 in the Harcourt hotel in Dublin. Hopefully he comes back again for a few tunes soon!

Maurice Lennon with guests at Harcourt Hotel

Maurice Lennon with guests at Harcourt Hotel

Feb 14, 2012 | , ,

Firstly, listen to Paul on flute and the noises he’s making/ the man is either absolutely nuts or a pure genius. This set starts with the lark in the morning.
This was one of the main gigs Maurice played during his brief return to Ireland in late 2011 in the Harcourt hotel in Dublin. Hopefully he comes back again for a few tunes soon!