Canterbury

    There's an old Chinese curse that says; "May you live in interesting times." I've never been sure if that's necessarily a curse, because "interesting" is better than "boring" by a mile, but I understand the context; too much "interesting" at the same time can make even the most extraordinary seem ordinary.

    For me, I'm currently living through "interesting times", but I don't think there's any chance I'll find any of it ordinary. A new job, my debut novel "Fall From Grace" being published by Inspired Quill (find it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mydebutnovel) in September and a sequel in progress means that I'm genuinely finding my life interesting at the moment - but if I feel the curse being to linger, I'll make sure I run as far away from it as I can!

    I was in Canterbury yesterday (Saturday 23rd July), visiting a friend's art exhibition (keep a look out for Kay Nicholas in the future - I suspect she'll become a lot better known!), and then took a mooch round the shops. Now, I hope I'm not teaching people to suck eggs when I tell you that Canterbury is a hugely historical city. Just to give you an idea, settlers first moved onto the site in the British Iron Age, and was later settled by the Romans and St Augustine - the man who first brought Christianity to mainland Britain - landed at Canterbury and made the city his Kentish base for introducing the religion to the rest of the country.

    I'm as non-religious as the next person (as long as the next person is someone like Christopher Hitchens), but the architechture of Canterbury Cathedral (which is over 1400 years old - yes, you read that right!) is awe-inspiring, regardless of your beliefs. You have to respect the ability to construct such a phenomenal and stunning building and that continues to be an iconic structure a millennia later.

    I'm pleased I went and visited it off-spec - often, those are the best sorts of days, where you can just go where the mood takes you. I'm not always very good at that; I prefer to plan my days methodically, because it gives me a sense of control over my dyspraxia, as well as gives me time to plan ahead and try to work out any issues that might arise - and then work out how I need to overcome them. Having the confidence to be more spontaneous is something I'm still developing - sometimes, I do need to spend some time thinking about a situation to make sure I feel confident - but I'm on the right track.

    As I queued to get in (sadly, you have to pay for access these days, but that's no real surprise anywhere, is it?), I began to wonder if the Cathedral's staff had a robust equalities policy. It's something I'm more conscious of now I'm talking about my dyspraxia a lot more and that I'm becoming more aware of Deaf Culture and language. I was curious to know if a Deaf person going round the cathedral would be able to access information in the same way as a hearing person like me would.

    If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I'm hearing and passionate about equality of opportunity for all. I get angry if I see organisations offering a second-rate service to someone because of a disabilty, regardless of what it is. I can never truly imagine what it's like to be Deaf, and nor would I presume to, but I do know what it can be like to be in a situation and not always feel like I know what's going on - in my case, because of my dyspraxia.

    I've conducted a similar test before - that time at an art gallery (http://vikingbay.blogspot.com/2011/04/experiment-in-human-nature-art-gallery.html) - and they didn't come out of it as well as I'd hoped, so was curious to see how the cathedral would fare.

    I have to say, I was impressed. They've either had some Deaf awareness training or superb customer service training ... or just have a high level of common sense. I dealt with three staff - a young guy on the ticket desk and two attendents as I walked around the actual cathedral - and they were brilliant. I made sure that my voice was switched off all the way round, and none of the staff seemed in any way fazed by my - albeit temporary - Deafness. They were all willing to go to additional lengths to give advice and guidance, and went to great lengths to make me feel included, which impressed me hugely.

    I spent a great hour walking round the cathedral and its grounds, and my mood was good as I walked amongst the huge volume of visitors and tourists that had joined me in visiting Canterbury. I think part of my mood was down to the superb level of general awareness that the staff exhibited; if only we could somehow bottle that and transplant it to other organisations, I'd be a very happy man.

    Here are some photos if you were interested in taking a look ... https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150324431875170.393544.741245169