Swimming, Cricket, and Sleeping Aids

Wednesday March 22nd – Susan’s friends and family will be astonished to learn that we got up at 5:30 am, went to the gym and swam laps! Our gym is quite nice and has an excellent pool. I couldn't beleive how crowded the lanes were and the lifequard told me this was the "slow season" as it's almost winter. Those Aussies really like their swimming! I should have known given the number of medals the Aussies are winning in the swim events at the Commonwealth games. When we got back Grant had freshly baked chocolate chip muffins… Good thing we already worked out!

We spent the morning reviewing more eye disorders and how they impact O&M and daily living. Our technical lectures are often interspersed with stories about clients Jhaneen has worked with, questions from Sue and I about clients we have worked with and plenty of translation from “Aussie” to “American” and back.

Today at lunch we got to talking about Cricket (Charles, you’ll like this one). Everyone was trying to explain the game to us when Jhaneen remembered there was a cricket set in the Childrens’ mobility department complete with a soft ball that we could use indoors. So here we all were in the dining room playing a simulated game of Cricket! Grant was the bowler, while Laura and Simone were batters; Ron and Jhaneen were the narrators. It was quite entertaining!

Back to work in the afternoon where we drove to a nearby neighborhood with a light business area. We all wore different low vision simulators, got a map and had to walk a route independently, later we repeated the exercise trading maps and simulators. I have to say it certainly gives you a better perspective to actually walk around in the world with the simulators rather than talk about and try them on briefly in a classroom. We then went to a mall much like the ones we have in the US. In this busy environment we practiced sighted guide again this time incorporation stairs, escalators, and travelators (which are like an escalator except instead of stairs it’s a long gradual ramp). We then had to use the low vision simulators to locate the mall directory and read the map location of a specific store. This can be quite challenging in an unfamiliar mall and depending of the type of low vision you are simulation reading the directory once you find it can be almost impossible.

Once the lesson was finished Jhaneen, Laura, and Simone went home while Sue and I stayed at the mall to do a bit of shopping. We were searching for some kind of sleeping aid as we are both having trouble sleeping here. I thought they might have a product like Tylenol PM, so we went to the “Chemist” (which is what we call a drug store or pharmacy). I explained what Tylenol PM was but they didn’t have it. Sue then asked if the cold medicines there have a sleeping agent. At that point the cashier and pharmacist started looking at us in a weird way. I just figured they didn’t understand what we meant so tried a different description, “you know like sleeping pills”. As they stared darkly at us the pharmacist asked suspiciously, “what do you need them for?” By now my light bulb had finally turned on and I realized we were creeping them out a bit. I explained we were from America and due to the jet lag we couldn’t sleep properly. The pharmacist then cautiously stated that they did have what we were looking for, and over the counter sleep aid. However she did repeat SEVERAL times, this is for OCCASIONAL use, so I think her ‘red flag’ was still up. They sold it to us anyway. Let’s hope it works!