Hello our little hatchlings and welcome to a shiny new episode of Blind Guys Chat. We begin our show this week with some almost-but-not-really upsetting news: It appears that Stuart’s adventure to Mount Kilimanjaro has hit a little bump in the road; apparently his sherpas have had enough of lugging his beer supply up the mountain, so instead of raising the Blind Guys Chat flag at the summit, they decided to mount Stuart on the flagpole, possibly by his very attractive thermal underjocks. But don’t despair - Jan, Óran, and Clodagh are considering the possibility of creating a crowd-funding site where you can donate to get Stu down again. Unfortunately, our next management meeting is not until December 4th, so Stuart will have to wait for that decision to be made. However, Jan and Óran have realised there is a bright side to this. Since they retrofitted lightbulbs into Stuart’s prosthetic eyes, he has now effectively become a beacon for aircraft flying in the area, warning them to steer away from the high mountains and thus Jan and Óran are actually saving lives, So, as you can see, it’s not all bad news.

But , Clodagh brought up the fact that they won’t work when Stuart has his eyes closed. We may need to rethink this...

Jan is back from his sixth holiday of the year. He has been fighting the French in Normandy. We say French but really we mean fighting his deck chair because he has been spending his time visiting World War 2 historic sites with his family while camping in a forest and living the life of a well-mannered Frenchman, (is that an oxymoron?). Yes, the Bloem family jumped into the Tesla and took a spin to France. Apparently, their campsite even has a treehouse you can stay in. And the Bloem family were not alone - oh no! There were loads of Irish campers there too: sorry about that Jan. Jan also shares some other recent dramas – be sure to listen out for that scary story.

Talking about the Irish, Óran has a story from a work colleague who has just come back from Greece, a place where you could fry an egg on a stone at the moment.

Clodagh has an email from Nora Casey who in the interests of science has taken one for the team and entered a big science yoki-thingymajig in order to experience lightning. Did it smell like barbecue chicken? Nora explains all…

Aaron Linson also emailed in to tell us about his new job. We wish you the very best Aaron.

So, strip down to your furry outer coat, dump the wet gear in a stinky pile inside the door, and get ready to be a hero on the beaches of Normandy, cos it’s time for the French to get used to the sound of Blind Guys Chat - 8 out of 10 Frenchmen prefer it to having a bad attitude.

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Hello dear listeners and welcome to the most funlyest podcast in the world ever (and yes, we know that’s not a real word. We make up our own words around here. Don't you?). In a change to our regular programme schedule and because the 2 messers (Jan & Stuart) are on holiday, we have had to invoke the “wheel of stand-ins” to help us fairly select a listener who has offered to guest-host, so let’s give it a whirl and see who comes out a winner!

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Hello dear listeners. Well, with the fall of the Dutch government being a direct result of Jan and Sjef's influence, we begin the show looking for an account of the events that have led the people of the Netherlands into another election. We bring you the full facts and the reasons that brought about this historic event.(Spoiler alert. We don't really!!) Stuart has news about Sight Village which is happening in Birmingham shortly and he an Jan did a webinar recently for Sight and Sound on the evolution of the screen reader JAWS but they didn’t get this approved by their line manager/producer/Óran. …not that he is bitter or anything about being left out of this fantastic event. Anyway, let’s move on. Harrumph. In other news: Stuart and Jan have both found an issue with what seems to be the latest version of Zoom. It looks like the “Share computer sound option” when sharing your screen has gone missing. Have you found the same issue? In other news, Óran seems to have lost all his saved emails in Outlook; do Jan and Stuart have any solutions? Professor John Sweeney makes a welcome return to the podcast. As you will be aware the Very Reverend Professor John knows absolutely everything about climate and climate change and his chat with the guys was so good that we decided to make it a two-parter, so this week you will hear part #1. Tune in on the 27th July for the second part. In TV Corner, we are recommending ‘Hijack’ on Apple TV and Clodagh’s favourite show, not really, Suits on Netflix. Jan is also wondering if there is AD available on the movie End of Days. He is heading off to Normandy and wants to watch the movie before he “fights them on the beaches”. We also have great news about ‘The Crown’ Season 5. In a new departure, the guys are going back to basics. We are talking about keyboards and if they use any bumpons to quickly navigate a qwerty keyboard? Derry Lawler is on the email machine and has done some research for the Blind Guys regarding the smell of lightening. He also has some advice for those of us who have a Netflix subscription.

Phew, it’s an action-packed show this week folks, so get your voting cards ready and remember to vote early and often for the number 1 podcast as recently voted by Dogs who love dogs magazine: Blind Guys Chat!

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Hello you little rascals, are you hot enough? Have you been enjoying the good weather? Well Jan is roasting in his attic studio with 31 degrees of boiling heat and the producer won’t let him leave the fan on during recording, so he’s melting. Speaking of boiling, do you have one of those boiling water taps or a One cup kettle? Check it out here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Breville-HotCup-Dispenser-Variable-Dispense/dp/B078L3WJWM. Well, Óran thinks the kettle is great but Stuart is not too sure if the water will be hot enough for his needs… he has a lot of needs ya know! Have you ever been hit by lightning? What did it smell like? Jan is desperate to know. Tell us all about it on [email protected]. Our guests this week are Dr Rachel Bermingham and Dr Ellen Moran from the research department in Fighting Blindness. They’re chatting to us about the research that Fighting Blindness supports, and about the upcoming Retina International World Congress 2024. This was a highly informative interview – thanks to the two doctors for chatting with us. And if you want more information on what they talked to us about, see these links below: https://www.fightingblindness.ie/how-we-can-help-research-patient-and-public-involvement-in-research-and-development-ppi-for-people-living-with-sight-loss-vip-network/ https://www.fightingblindness.ie/how-we-can-help/research/meet-your-researchers/ ** ** https://www.fightingblindness.ie/news/save-the-date-for-riwc-2024-5-8-june-in-dublin/ And finally, in case you are interested, here’s the list of mental health supports that Fighting Blindness offers: https://tinyurl.com/BGCsupports. This list was collated from the mental health panel discussion in Episode 57 of Blind Guys Chat, which you can listen back to here: https://tinyurl.com/BlindGuysChatEp57. In TV corner we are talking about: ‘Best Interest’: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10714820/ ‘Silo’: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14688458/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 and ‘Wonders of the World I Can't See’: (with blind UK comedian Chris McCausland) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28078974/ And by the way, if you want a quick laugh, check out Chris McCausland and Lee Mack presenting at the BAFTA’S this year here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLhy0Zq95HU&ab_channel=BBC Clodagh and Óran’s friend Antonia Gunko Karelina was featured on RTÉ Radio One’s programme ‘Sunday Miscellany’ on Sunday 25 June 2023. She spoke about how dancing the tango helped her cope with the trauma of having to abandon her home because of the war in Ukraine, and how she feels embraced by the people of Ireland. It’s a beautiful piece and is very moving – you can listen to it here: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22266657/ Stuart has news about a webinar he is hosting with Jan next week, see details here: https://www.sightandsound.co.uk/event/webinar-wednesday-catching-up-with-vispero-software-enhancements/ We have emails from Nora from Boston, Blind Gordon from Scotland (with a lovely voice message), another lovely voice message from Suave Saleem, and a final email from Aaron Linson in the USA. Poor Clodagh was feeling the pressure! So, forget about slush funds, jump into that paddling pool, and get ready to listen to one of the sweatiest and most awe-inspiring podcasts in the known universe: Blind Guys Chat… 8 out of 10 CFO’s prefer it to a slap on the wrist.

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Hello dear Blind Guys Chatters - it’s time for your favourite podcast. We begin the show with some very sad news. Our friend Danlami Bashru from Nigeria has sadly passed away. Danlami was our first guest on the podcast back in September 2020, and we would like to dedicate this week’s show to him. Danlami was an erudite, highly educated man, and a great advocate for blind and vision impaired people throughout his beloved Nigeria. The Blind Guys were honoured that he agreed to come onto the show and chat with us. After a little reminiscing about our friend Danlami, we move on with the show to discuss our favourite topic - the weather. Poor Jan has been melting away in 30 degree heat - that's Celsius of course. There are no flies on Sjef though; he’s in the bathroom lounging in a bath of ice. Stuart has actually spent some money - he handed over his chauffeur’s yearly salary for a months subscription to Chat GPT. Was it worth it? Spoiler alert - no, not really, but he does give the new Chat GPT IOS app the thumbs up. Our guest this week is Oleg Shevkun. Oleg grew up in Leningrad and Moscow before taking a pitstop in Dallas before finally settling in Germany. He works as a tester at Vispero and is here to tell us all about his life and how he ended up working there. Clodagh has an email from our friend Gary in South Africa. Gary has taken the time to do a great demo of the Seeing AI app. In his demo we get to see what is in his fridge, and before you guess, Stuart, it's not beer! Finally, we end where we began, and have put together a little montage of our interview with Danlami Bashru from episode 2 of Blind Guys Chat. If you would like to listen to the full episode again, you'll find it here: : https://pnc.st/s/blind-guys-chat/3ffab55fc9c24603/002-dogs-drains-and-the-dreaded-double-d- We would like to offer our sincere sympathies to Danlami's family. May he rest in peace.

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It’s time for another fun-filled 60 minutes with the blind guys, and this week we welcome back part-time co-host and part-time sunbather - Stuart Lawler. Yes Stuart is gracing us with his presence so he can tell Óran and Jan all about his latest holiday - smiling pile of poo emoji.

This week in a change to our normal programming i.e Óran moaning about something, we instead have Jan standing on his soapbox giving out about trying to pay a restaurant bill using a touch screen credit card machine. Have you ever been forced to give your pin number to a stranger? Well we think enough is enough, and action is required.

Stuart has recorded a demo using his very best friend, Chat GPT.

Clodagh’s got emails from Gary Hough like cough, and an audio message from Dave Nason, who has news about Sky support being available via the Be My Eyes app.

So, chill out on your deck chair. Have the pool boy dredge the pool for toenail clippings, and get settled in for episode 72 of the number one podcast in the omniverse: Blind Guys Chat! 8 out of 11 field mice prefer it to a big chunk of emmental.

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Hello dear Blind Guys Chatters - it’s time for your favourite podcast – hurray! This week we are devoting most  of the show to the final Eurovision Song Contest report from Kevin Sherwin. Yes, even though Kevin is jet-lagged from all the dancin’ and singin’ in Liverpool, he finds time to chat to us about the Song Contest last Saturday night. Did you vote for Sweden or Finland to win? What were the other options? Do you even care? Tell us on [email protected]. We want to know! Guess what? Stuart is missing in action again but does manage to take time out of his busy sunbathing  schedule to tell us about an assistive technology event taking place next week in ChildVision, Dublin. Jan is just back from SightCity in Frankfurt, and he tells us how he got on in the new location for this event. Clodagh has an email from Blind Gordon, who gives us his review of the Seeing AI app. Kevin Farrell is writing to ask if we can keep Donald Trump in Ireland, spoiler alert: No way Jose! So, step off the waffle iron, pour yourself a glass of champers in the green room, and settle into another scintillating episode of Blind Guys Chat. 16 out of 20 Germans prefer it to their own Eurovision entry.

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Hello dear listeners, are you ready for another Eurovision preview? Well Kevin Sherwin is back to share his views on last Tuesday night's semi final and also to chat about the acts on tonight. Don't forget to watch it tonight at 8pm (Irish time).

Enjoy!!

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Hey folks, wanna know how the Eurovision song contest 2023 from Liverpool is going? Well here is the first report from our good friend Kevin Sherwin. Kevin has all the info on the preview show prior to the semi final tonight. It's a great report so go on and give it a listen before you settle down with a nice cuppa and watch the semi final.

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Episode 68 is all about surprises. The first surprise is that Óran, Jan and Clodagh are all unavailable, (no, we’re not joking) and they’ve left Stuart holding the baby, or the podcast on his own! Will he come out of it the other end? It just so happens that he might, but its not because of Stuart’s podcasting skills, its thanks to our lovely friend Veronica Hyks, who has produced a series of short audio described commentaries called Countdown to the coronation. We couldn’t have inflicted Stuart’s rambling on our listeners for a full hour because we’d really like to keep some of you tuning in to future episodes, so, instead, we pulled together all Veronica’s great work and have popped them in this episode for your listening pleasure. And, fear not, the guys minus Stuart, who’s on yet another holiday, will return in a fortnight.

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