I’m still settling into my new rented cottage in Eynsham. For Richie, my guide dog and myself it’s been a crazy two weeks of unpacking and getting to know the new surroundings. Being a visually impaired person in a new town that I don’t know at all is very difficult at times.

Having Richie has made things so much easier in so many ways. By and large the people of Eynsham have been incredibly friendly and welcoming to us both.

We’ve been together to several pubs and restaurants and made very welcome. He’s an absolutely adorable looking Labrador/Retriever cross and I find that wherever we go he draws attention. People come and talk to us and it is often a conversation starter when people ask me if I live in Eynsham and so on. Several people have already offered to look after him if I need to go away, or exercise him if I can’t.

Unfortunately one restaurant owner didn’t realise that you are not supposed to turn someone away because they have a guide dog because that’s disability discrimination and against the law.

My friend Sara and myself were very much looking forward to an Indian meal over the Easter weekend at a place that had been highly recommended to me – the Bay Leaf in Eynsham.

I was particularly confident that we would be welcome because I had already visited the other Indian restaurant that I have been told is run by members of the same family and been made very welcome.

We had just found our table and were beginning to sit down and make ourselves comfortable when someone came over and said we had to leave because the guide dog wasn’t allowed in the restaurant.

I explained to him briefly that he had to allow me in with Richie but then we decided we didn’t want to eat there after all and would prefer to find somewhere else.

The weather on that particular night was a little bit grumpy and so having found our way there on foot we then had to venture out into the weather again to find somewhere else.

My disability means that I cannot drive a car and so have to travel everywhere on foot. Richie guides me and provides me with both balance and stability as well as warning other people about my poor vision, so going anywhere without him is very difficult.

Richie is extremely well-behaved in pubs and restaurants and never bothers anybody else so it is completely unnecessary to ban him and a complete misunderstanding of the law and the nature of the guide dog himself. As it turned out we were made very welcome that the other restaurant, The Ready Steady Spice, and I didn’t let this restaurant worker spoil an evening with a special old friend that I hadn’t seen for a long time.

In the five years that I’ve been supported by a guide dog there have been very few occasions Richie has not been made welcome.

But when it does happen it is extremely inconvenient and makes me feel that there is something really wrong and different about me that I can’t go to the places where fully able people go and enjoy a nice meal like them.