Hi Russell,

Just to add to this we do have a wheelchair access platform for any shows you wish to go to in the future. On hugely popular shows like this they tend to fill up very fast as well as the show selling out.

Unfortunately wheelchair crowd surfing is not advised or allowed!

But access customers are more than welcome to book and come to shows. Tickets are sold on 02077 873129 subject to availability.

Thanks
Jake Edwards | Box Office Manager | O2 Academy Brixton
211 Stockwell Road, London, SW9 9SL
www.academy-music-group.co.uk

—–Original Message—–

You ever get that ‘ such n such sends their love ‘ thing?

Whenever someone asks me to send their love, for at least the last ten years, I’ve said ‘ you can send it yourself if you like ‘and offered a phone number to text or call.

Curiously, at that point hardly anyone has taken me up on the offer of the phone number?  That implies to me that they weren’t that concerned whether the love got sent or not, rather that it was just something that they said to appear polite or caring.

I get ‘ sent’ lots of love by quite a few people that I’ve not seen or heard from since my accident. Of course I nod and smile and ask for mine to be sent back, knowing that that won’t happen anyway.

It is all a bit false, isn’t it?

I sent this email, just now, to a venue in Brixton :

Hi,

Pre paralysis I regularly saw bands at Brixton.

I’d like that to resume!

How do I find out about ticket availability for wheelchair plus carer?

I was always at the front in the mosh pit… but I accept that that isn’t allowed in a wheelchair…
Is wheelchair crowd surfing ok?

I want to attend as many gigs as I can.

Emilie Sande is there on March 21st… and I’d definitely like to book that, but also gigs before then.

Get back to me?

Russ

Sent from my iPhone 8.2 prototype.

So I don’t have a UTI.

Whilst that’s good, I’m left with what the hell is it this time?

When it’s like this I just question it all again.
I think about the simplicity and wonder of just being normal, and everyone taking that for granted. You only get it once it’s gone, that’s for sure. Even when it’s threatened, you don’t get it, your optimism stops you from believing it can actually be taken away.

My bloated middle seems to stare at me, and my twitching legs taunt me. I’ve seen my daughters for just moments this weekend – which is sad for me.

Hopefully sleep will reset my mindset.

Forgot to say thanks to Jo for her help and company last night. I owe you one.

The spasms have increased to such an extent that  I’ve called 111 again and requested a doctor to call in, with yet another course of drugs for me.

It seems that whatever I do that’s a positive, is tested again by fate almost straight away, to knock me over.

My stomach is bloated again, my speech slurred, and my fortitude stretched.

If I was religious, I think I’d have lost belief in God already.

From my non stop spasms, I’m gambling on having another UTI, rather than my fixation coming loose again, and hoping that the appropriate antibiotic will fix it.

I am also extremely tired, and just fell asleep in my chair for 20 minutes, which I think is a first. As I’m strapped into the bloody thing, I can’t fall out of it .

However, who knows?!

As I can’t reach my legs any more, I can’t get to them to move them around and stretch them in different directions, and they seem to have gone extremely stiff as a consequence, and even put on muscle. further adding to the weight of them.

It was great to see James C, and Mary on Friday- time seems to go faster now that I’ve cheered up… and I keep myself occupied doing constructive things all of the time ( not that falling asleep counts as constructive )

Anna, my morning carer, says that spending time with me doesn’t actually feel like work, such is the fun that we have… when I then asked if I could stop paying her, she replied very diplomatically ‘ that if that was financially possible for her, then she would agree ‘   I’ll take the compliment.

My next X ray is in 2 weeks’ time, to see if anything has officially moved within my spine. If it has, then God only knows what they’d do next.

Its Xmas soon, I’ve just realised.. and I don’t know what I’ll be doing really? Life used to be so busy in the pre Xmas period, but now that seems to have altered, and I don’t really have a lot  festive  going on, as far as I know, though I am for the next week busy all of the time, both in the daytime and the evenings.

As I don’t think I’ll be allowed to go sit skiing this winter, and may or may not be spending a month in rehab in hospital, my immediate life short term life is sort of on hold.

Going to work is impossible for a few reasons, practical, political and spinal, and my restriction to only wheelchair taxis does limit my travel a bit, and there’s been a definite shift in my ‘ social circles ‘ as marital status change looms, though not through anything I’ve deliberately done – I’m too busy being positive, which is extremely welcome inside my head, and those of the friends that I see a fair bit of.

Tomorrow, I’m going to a talk by a pair that rowed the Pacific – as much a mental as it will have been a physical challenge. I did invite a mate ( Mr James C, who’s no stranger to such a challenge ) but sadly he was already committed to a talk about ante natal stuff, that Mrs C wouldn’t let him get out of….. what is it with wives?( God Bless  ‘ em, they mean well…… as well as exerting a powerful influence quite a lot of the time )

I’ll write more about that ( the rowers, not the wives  ) once I’ve listened to what they say… my days of rowing ( different pronunciation )  with wives are hopefully over.

My voice seems to have recovered enough to just about hold my own in a noisy pub. It’s only taken almost 3 and a 1/2 years  but I’m there.

Great to see Dickon, Toby, Glenn, Ian and Sam – of the Toulon 12, who pushed me around Chiswick, went to the bar for me, and in relay tipped my urine from a bottle into the loo some way across the pub. I still have a permanent catheter in, with a tap on the end of a bag. The bag fills, and I turn the tap.. the wine bottle fills and is then conveyed to the loo.

Simples.

One day in the confusion, I’ve no doubt someone will mistake the pee for wine and regret it.

I have seen that happen before, pre my injury.. it’s a Welsh rugby player thing!

I’m NFI this weekend to Danielle’s sister’s birthday event, so will find my own entertainment I’m sure. Really I ought to be taking it easy, but I’ve never been any good at that.. as a matter of principle?!

I can conclude that my email to the parents, pre party, was a good thing to have done.

I only had to talk about falling off my bike just the once, allowing me to talk about other things.

What a lovely lot of parents they are, and half of them had something in common – they were reading a Welsh bloke’s blog, in the few days preceding the party.

What were the chances of that?

” When you write about a positive experience about how someone came to your help physically or mentally or vice versa. It puts everyday life into perspective for your reader (me)… if you can be positive and hopeful about what someone said or did for you or even how they made you feel with their smile or look or touch then I too can look out for a similar experience in my day and be grateful and say to myself “today was not too bad”

When you write about a challenging day your reader (me) feels your emotions too and makes me mindful about how I treat others in my day whether they are physically disabled or emotionally going through a rough patch (and let’s face it …we are all going through our own journeys in our minds and most of the time they are tough journeys).

So really you indirectly inspire your reader (me) to be the “best version of myself”
(Even if it’s just me who feels that way….you’ve made a difference to one person in the world and that’s better than none)”

In terms of ‘ therapy’ for those with life altering conditions, I think I’ve just experienced an effective one.

My old mate, Dominic, organised for his few mates and I to have a quick Italian dinner, followed by a short wheel to the Waterloo iMax cinema.

Talk about an amazing audio-visual and temporary  mind altering experience… with the 3D glasses and the huge curved screen, with a truly mind blowing sound system and a suitably futuristic film, reality is truly suspended.

Dom’s choice of film, Dr Strange, was perfect for the iMax – ok it’s a Marvel Comics production, but it has got Benedict Cucumber as the star, and he’s a proper actor.

I’m going to find it hard to watch a film anywhere else now?

UberWav there was easy, Black Cab back more than twice the cost and really not safe, plus banged my head on entry and exit….

Not that it impacted on the great night that I had.

I only focus on the positives, after all.

?

PS all parents arrive in 40 minutes for the party.

My voice has deserted me again, so hope I cope in a noisy room.