I watched a programme on the telly the other day. I think it was called The Best House in Town. Four houses were visited by ‘ the panel of judges ‘ and a verdict was reached.
All of the houses were incredible dwellings, and all very different. They went from old/ traditional to new/ innovative.
One of the houses had been built/ commissioned by a couple, and was absolutely hi tech and full of innovation, yet was incredibly stylish at the same time. This house didn’t win the competition, I’m sure due to its modernity. The thing was though that the couple that owned it ( had had it built ) were the oldest of the four sets of owners. Why then did such a hi tech house appeal to them? That’s unusual…
Except the Man of the couple had a progressive condition that they knew would leave him in a wheelchair within a few years, so they had future proofed their home, and thought of everything they his condition was going to oblige him to require.

For me, this was the winner, by a country mile. The amount of thought focused into it was truly staggering, with every aspect installed to make low down height life and electric wheelchair accommodative.
For the judges, none of whom were obliged to think ahead to future mobility challenges, none of the special features meant anything at all. I mean why would they?

And that’s the challenge I face every day.
🤷

I’m at Lizzy’s house, and I’m cranking on the crank machine in her garage. The garage is adjacent to the house, and in between there are 40 feet of gravel. It’s impossible to propel a wheelchair over gravel, so I have to ask Lizzy to drag me backwards to the garage. If you try to go forwards, the little front wheels of the wheelchair quickly sink into the gravel and I come to a stop, and I can’t get myself that far backwards in deep gravel.

So as I said I’m in the garage, cranking with one arm.

A lovely SUV drives into her ( long gravel ) driveway, up to near where I am, and out jumps a gentleman that I recognise as one of her neighbours. He’s about my age, and Lizzy had previously described him to me as the smartest ( as in cleverest ) man she knows.

He jumps out of his car, and says ( smiling ) to the chap in the garage in the wheelchair using one arm to make a gym machine work ‘ your dog is out on the road !’

I guess he had had several options… really.

He had obviously known who the dog belonged to.

In order of preference maybe..
1 Call/ catch the dog, and bring it to the house
2 Get Lizzy by knocking on her door and telling her about the dog
3 Tell the chap in the wheelchair that Lizzy’s dog was loose, and leave him to resolve it.

This is where the complete disconnect takes place. The not seeing that the chap in the wheelchair has absolutely no chance of first negotiating the 100 feet of gravel to the main road, and then absolutely no chance of catching a loose dog somewhere out on a road, and then absolutely absolutely no chance of leading said dog back to the house. I mean what, I’d have to attach a lead and then wheel through gravel pulling a dog? It’s just beyond impossible.

So if the cleverest man in town can’t weigh up the options and choose one that’ll work for a disabled person… then what chance do the rest of the people have of doing something that works for the wheelchair population?

Over the last 7 years I’ve learned to take with a pinch ( ok a large sack ) of salt, the things I’m told regarding Accessibilty.
Once I attended a talk, having phoned to ask if the building was wheelchair accessible. Having been told by the girl on the phone that it was, I was surprised to see the 12 steps leading to the front door, with no other way in. Other times there’ll be a fairly negotiable front entrance but then a right angled corner and 3 steps down to the kitchen/ dining room where the occasion is being held… but no mention of this in the discussion about me coming. It’s as though people live in places without actually noticing anything about how their houses are constructed.
Without sounding patronising, it’s hard to press people about the ACTUAL layout of their dwellings, in order to get the real story reference the challenges that lie in wait, simply because people who don’t have access challenges just don’t notice steps and obstacles that they can trot up or dodge sideways around….

🤷

Yesterday I was able to book tickets to go to a comedy club, in May.

Imagine it? A taste of ‘ normal life’ again.
It felt quite strange booking it, and the notion of actually going feels even stranger.
Of course it may yet be cancelled, but to actually have something normal in my diary to actually GO TO is a real novelty.

On the upside I’ve been listening to the GLC a fair bit whilst cranking.
If you don’t know about THE GOLDIE LOOKING CHAIN.. then do give them a listen on Spotify.
Their social commentary in their lyrics is bloody genius.

And it’s pure Welsh humour.
Sometimes I’m laughing so much I have to stop cranking!

A great day for the Welsh yesterday. We can’t not win the Six Nations now.. who’d have thought?!

I’m awake ( from about 4am ). My spasms wake me very often these days so I don’t sleep well that often.
I actually looked back at my own blog too, and realised just how much I used to write, and how much I had to say.
Is this a lockdown thing that now I just don’t want to write, or is it because my life isn’t that eventful any more? Looking back, it’s obvious that regular calamities were my life, and I seriously don’t know how I managed to NOT kill myself, just to escape the constant torture.
I think that if it weren’t for the exercise I’m doing now that I’d be in a bad place, mentally, for sure, but I’m fairly ok. The non stop shite weather is something I’m sick of tbh, and a proper Spring start will Im sure help all of us.
Some variety in my life would be ever so welcome. I do hope to go to the States to get a new ibot… but obviously that’s on hold til we can travel, and I want to visit my own flat in Portugal too. Traveling now is something I can’t do independently, so I need a companion that is also willing and able to help me with washing and dressing and transfers into and out of bed. And there aren’t many people who’d want to do that ( understandably ). That factor also places an odd dynamic on a trip – im totally at the mercy of my companion’s degree of engagement into my absolute needs. If they aren’t into it much, I’m stuffed.
I see a future ahead where my travel is going to have to be with paid help quite often. My cataclysmic spine surgery certainly did alter my future 20/30 years In a way I hadn’t even imagined.

After my buddy, Roy the Boy, invited me to Kew Gardens, I joined up.

It’s £70 odd to join, but then you can go as often as you want… and take a friend. Given I live practically next to it, that’s a no brainer.
Unfortunately there’s a river to cross, so it’s about a mile and a half to actually get there, but I’ve been 4 times in 8 days and it’s beautiful in there. Obviously I’d been before, but not that often. Daft how you don’t visit stuff that’s on your doorstep.
Great to go there with Catherine, and another time with Leigh, with plenty more visits to go, I’m sure.

Cranking 2 hours a day, every day, hasn’t lost its appeal. When you look in the mirror and think ‘ blimey, I look different ( better ) ‘ then it’s a strong motivation to keep doing it. It’s not that I weigh significantly less ( 4/5 kilos ), it’s that my muscle vs fat distribution has altered a LOT.
I found the same crank machine on EBay and had it delivered to Sevenoaks, so I can still do it there. Then Lizzy adopted it as her exercise regime… with remarkable results. Because it’s quite an unpleasant exercise, most people don’t want to do it. Cycling or running are both more ‘normal/ palatable’ but because it engages far more of your body ( not in my case, because more than half of me just refuses to work at all ) than those two exercises, it has more effect. The rowing ergo is much the same. You don’t see a queue at the gym for the rowing machines, and you don’t see many ( any ) fat rowers. I wonder why that is …?!

After watching a program called What the Health on Netflix, both of us have become ‘ plant eaters ‘ . It’s quite compelling that humans are physiologically designed like plant eaters – same digestive system, and teeth. Also given they aren’t naturally agile enough to actually catch animals to eat them ( you ever tried catching a chicken or a deer ? ) I don’t see how they can have evolved as carnivores.. can you? Our systems respond far better to a plant based diet ( far less cancer/ high blood pressure and obesity etc ) not to mention that farmed meat and fish is rammed full of chemical contamination that also kills us slowly. Also the livestock and dairy industries have led to MASSIVE deforestation all over the globe, surely is enough to persuade humanity to do a logical about turn ..? Except it won’t, since there’s way too much money involved in food, and then medicines necessary to keep us alive, because that food poisons us … and money talks far more loudly than human health and planetary survival.
Yes, I’d go and live in the woods too… except they aren’t accessible…

I watched the Harry and Meghan interview yesterday. Their next door neighbour, Oprah, did it. Why can’t Oprah say her name? It’s Meg that rhymes with smeg, not Meg that sounds like May. I don’t think Oprah is that bright, so perfect to interview the very dim Harry, who seems to have been brainwashed by his wife into thinking that of course they can go and live in LA, and lead ‘ totally normal lives’ in their 14 million dollar house, living next door to Oprah Winfrey, and signing billion dollar deals with Netflix, yet still being outraged that the British taxpayer won’t pay for their million quid a year bodyguarding, and that their kids aren’t called Prince and Princess ( when that’s quite clearly just a rule of succession – they are about a hundred’th in line to the throne, so no, you aren’t princes and princesses ) and then… when she ( May-Gan ) can’t have it all, screams the ‘ it’s because I’m Black ‘ card … at every turn…. well to me, America and far away is the best place for them. Had Harry married a Sloan from Surrey, he’d DEFINITELY still be a normal royal, but he didn’t, he was seduced by the sultry May- Gan. Poor kid didn’t have a chance I’m sure. Apparently May-Gan didn’t know she had to be deferential to The Queen, yes even behind closed doors… thinking that she was just like any other grandma. Seriously? What the hell did those 2 talk about in the months before she was introduced to The Queen?
I fell asleep before the end of the program, so did it not class of anything of importance, but it was irritating. THEY are irritating, and irrelevant in every way.

And Happy St David’s Day to all Welsh people out there, as well as to all those who want to be Welsh.
In this age when you can trans to being a totally different biological sex…. and flit from one ‘ persuasion’ to another on a whim… then I propose that it be possible to convert to being Welsh.

I know there’ll be a rush when this gets out… so get in early boys and girls ( and gender neutrals too – obviously )

Oh and isn’t it a nice bonus to have thrashed England yesterday… On the back of our wins against Scotland and Ireland already. Bit unexpected all this.. but it’s ever so nice ! 👊👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿