Miss-Delectable
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Dining out with travellers' tales - Opinion - News - Belfast Telegraph
When I was a young man (there were no teenagers in those days!), anybody over the age of 65 was regarded as very old and past it. Nowadays it has become the age when we join clubs and start to plan extensive holidays.
Last week in Lisburn I spoke to a deaf man in his early 70s who had just returned from a five-week tour of Australia and Thailand with his wife and both were in radiant good health.
I chatted with them at the new lunch club for older deaf that meets on the second Wednesday of the month in the hall of Lisburn Downtown Centre, right in the middle of the town's Market Square. Organiser Malachy McBurney invited me to join them for the meal and kindly arranged car parking in a quiet courtyard right beside the venue. Volunteers Florence Ewing, Irene Woods and William McCormick helped Malachy with the preparation and serving of the wholesome three-course meal for the 50 or so guests, for which a nominal sum of £4 is charged. The club is planning a special Christmas dinner for 2pm on December 12 at Edenmore Golf Club, so please contact Irene Woods if you would like to go.
In these days of impersonal electronic communication it is still good to meet old friends face to face and share the news and laugh and chat in our special language. After the meal a deaf man from Ards came over to tell me a similar club meets in Bangor on the first Wednesday of each month and is equally popular. Originally the cut-off age for membership was 60, but so many wanted to join it was lowered to 55. Deaf people have such an animated way of talking it is really hard to tell anyone's age and I got a hug from a sprightly lady from Bangor who told me she is in her 90th year and had just returned from holiday!
Can we apply the good spirits and friendly banter of these lunch clubs into the practical reality of the home for older deaf citizens being proposed for Northern Ireland and which I have been writing about over the past two weeks? A meal and chat together once a month is a different proposition to the small, irritating problems that may arise when people see each other every day.
Malachy suggested a possible answer to that, and after the dishes had been cleared away and we had gathered round the platform for the rest of the planned programme, told us about the group trip he is planning in June next year to the De Gelderhorst Apartments in Holland. This home for older deaf citizens is world-famous for the innovative care it provides for the 100 deaf people living there and Malachy believes we should model any home here on the same pattern. Apparently the Dutch government has been providing unlimited financial support to the venture and deaf people around the world regard it as the pattern to follow. We'll see.
Alice Johnston, from the British Deaf Association, was next on the platform to introduce Adrian Saunders, from Greenmount Agricultural College, who gave an illustrated lecture on organic foods with help from interpreter Trisha. It was a fascinating talk and the questions and answer session went on for a long time after. Deaf people miss out on a lot of relevant information like this and Adrian's talk was much appreciated.
Contact the Lisburn Downtown Centre through Margaret Bailie, 49 Market Square South, Lisburn, BT28 1AG
When I was a young man (there were no teenagers in those days!), anybody over the age of 65 was regarded as very old and past it. Nowadays it has become the age when we join clubs and start to plan extensive holidays.
Last week in Lisburn I spoke to a deaf man in his early 70s who had just returned from a five-week tour of Australia and Thailand with his wife and both were in radiant good health.
I chatted with them at the new lunch club for older deaf that meets on the second Wednesday of the month in the hall of Lisburn Downtown Centre, right in the middle of the town's Market Square. Organiser Malachy McBurney invited me to join them for the meal and kindly arranged car parking in a quiet courtyard right beside the venue. Volunteers Florence Ewing, Irene Woods and William McCormick helped Malachy with the preparation and serving of the wholesome three-course meal for the 50 or so guests, for which a nominal sum of £4 is charged. The club is planning a special Christmas dinner for 2pm on December 12 at Edenmore Golf Club, so please contact Irene Woods if you would like to go.
In these days of impersonal electronic communication it is still good to meet old friends face to face and share the news and laugh and chat in our special language. After the meal a deaf man from Ards came over to tell me a similar club meets in Bangor on the first Wednesday of each month and is equally popular. Originally the cut-off age for membership was 60, but so many wanted to join it was lowered to 55. Deaf people have such an animated way of talking it is really hard to tell anyone's age and I got a hug from a sprightly lady from Bangor who told me she is in her 90th year and had just returned from holiday!
Can we apply the good spirits and friendly banter of these lunch clubs into the practical reality of the home for older deaf citizens being proposed for Northern Ireland and which I have been writing about over the past two weeks? A meal and chat together once a month is a different proposition to the small, irritating problems that may arise when people see each other every day.
Malachy suggested a possible answer to that, and after the dishes had been cleared away and we had gathered round the platform for the rest of the planned programme, told us about the group trip he is planning in June next year to the De Gelderhorst Apartments in Holland. This home for older deaf citizens is world-famous for the innovative care it provides for the 100 deaf people living there and Malachy believes we should model any home here on the same pattern. Apparently the Dutch government has been providing unlimited financial support to the venture and deaf people around the world regard it as the pattern to follow. We'll see.
Alice Johnston, from the British Deaf Association, was next on the platform to introduce Adrian Saunders, from Greenmount Agricultural College, who gave an illustrated lecture on organic foods with help from interpreter Trisha. It was a fascinating talk and the questions and answer session went on for a long time after. Deaf people miss out on a lot of relevant information like this and Adrian's talk was much appreciated.
Contact the Lisburn Downtown Centre through Margaret Bailie, 49 Market Square South, Lisburn, BT28 1AG