God I am SO glad that Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty.
I’ve been a bit obsessed by the Epstein/ Maxwell abuse saga, if I’m honest.

Let’s hope Prince Andrew is next to be in court, with the right verdict arrived at.

This Christmas I’ve declined a very kind offer from my lovely Ex, and instead extend an invitation to my refugee friend. He’s a long way from his home and family, has no money and no other means to celebrate, and I feel I can do my part for someone else. Most of us here have it reasonably easy. definitely compared to those in some countries ruled by dictatorships with consequent broken economies, anyway.
Even my probably hopeless efforts at Christmas lunch preparation will DEFINITELY be better than anything he might otherwise get, so that’ll be a step on the ladder to Heaven for me… sadly I can’t think of anything else I’ve ever done to climb any more rungs up… and anyway if there’s not a wheelchair ramp I’m stuffed in any case.

As he’s actually a professor of mathematics… I think I might get thrashed at Connect4 as well.. in which case I’ll challenge him to arm wrestling or something. So long as I win at something, I’m happy! There’s a limit to how magnanimous a Welshman can be!

I think we’ll have a fun day.

Another piece of lockdown is probably going to be upon us very soon. It’s Christmas week and just the one bought and paid for bit of entertainment is still on – everything else has been postponed.. so I’ve wheeled/ tubed it to Camden ( where I once worked for a couple of very funny years .. to the Roundhouse, to see Ocean Colour Scene.
Well it’s fairly packed in here, to be fair, though the wheelchair balcony bit is actually the only socially distanced part! That’s probably good, given the rife new variant in London in particular.
You wouldn’t know it from the amount of people not wearing masks on the Tube though – there isn’t an awful lot of respect for the Mayor’s decree that masks are compulsory, and again it’s the racial minorities that are the most numerous ‘ law breakers ‘.
Pre wheelchair I think I’d have been vocal in asking people to put masks on.. but I’m a bit helpless now if someone gets aggressive. Given an 83 year old lady was stabbed in Brentford just a month ago outside the kebab shop… I don’t think being in a wheelchair protects me from much. Once upon a time it just wouldn’t have been right for someone to stab me.. but now it’s a case of ‘ no rules ‘ I sense.

It’s a cold and foggy night, but hey I’m glad I made the effort. My friend Sarah pulled out today, so it’s just me on my lonesome. But no matter!

It is actually quite funny seeing how people are reacting to not being to do this and that during the pandemic.

Eight years ago, overnight 99 % of the things I used to do became impossible to me, for ever.

People did (very helpfully ?) tell me that I just had to focus on the things I COULD do and not the things I couldn’t.

Well now when I watch how some of those same people are doing, when deprived of the odd little thing, it’s interesting to see them manage it so badly!

Lots of people are abjectly failing, with all sorts of mental health crises and breakdowns.

Lordy, you really haven’t experienced one percent of my world…

🤦‍♂️

I met up with my refugee buddy today.
Because they don’t have any money, any possessions they have are because they’ve been given them.
Well like most people, I have way too many clothes for one person, so a big paring down ( with the help/ drive of Lizzy ) was with a view to passing stuff on to my friend. He ‘ lives ‘ in a hotel near Heathrow airport, along with a LOT of other asylum seekers/ refugees, and the arrangement is that anything he doesn’t want that I give him, he can distribute to other people that might.
I can only carry one bag at a time on my lap in my chair, but he got the first bag today.

He was telling me what it’s like in the country he fled from. If he goes back, he’s sure he’ll be killed. His family ( wife and kids ) have a police car permanently parked outside their house, and every day they are questioned as to his whereabouts. Their phone is tapped, as is any WhatsApp conversation they get. He said that the regime has an arrangement with the Chinese whereby they have the tech to tap into WhatsApp conversations… so they have to use a different internet chat, which of course they do.
Most citizens earn minimum wage, which is equivalent to £120 per month, and food shortages are getting steadily worse. People are arrested for any reason at all, and don’t have the right to question why. Their families and friends aren’t allowed to question why either. No information is given as to where the arrested person is, or whether they are even alive.

When I said ( some ) that people here in Britain are bitterly complaining about ‘ infringements to their liberties ‘ during the current pandemic, he couldn’t stop laughing.
Although he has very little, he is evidently VERY pleased that he’s here, and not in the country of his birth.

The amazing thing is though, is that his home country is a place that most Brits wouldn’t think twice about going to on holiday, and you have probably been there. Tourists get a very different experience, and their money is very welcome, but for the populace, who aren’t allowed to talk to foreign press, things are dire.

Referring to the wheelchair person as a Spac.

I went to a party tonight. It’s definitely the case that once you are in a wheelchair you get invited to stuff less and often ( it’s the ‘ well what if he/ she can’t get into the loo ?! ‘ etc for a start ..) but my good friend Russ sees beyond that and invites me every year.
Thanks so much to my date, Kerry M, for her help/ company/ dance floor accompaniment … since I an currently officially single … and to Russ and Yolanda for the invite.
It was a real laugh tbh, despite the presence of an ‘ old life of mine ‘ couple that were both very rude/ ignorant to me. OK so now that I’m in a wheelchair you can forget all the hospitality that I gave you pre injury for 30 years and treat me like scum?
Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was somewhat infamous for sneaking my urine into people’s pints … and once you know how.. well you don’t find it particularly difficult, because people definitely don’t expect it!

So it was very satisfying to see these 2 people sup on my wee ( as sterile as it it almost certainly, is to be fair )

So Cheers Both ! Great night all round!

A bit ago I signed up to an organisation that seeks out and ‘ employs ‘ volunteers as Befrienders. … I’m going to be deliberately vague about details because the people it needs volunteers for are to befriend/ help asylum seeking refugees to this country.

People who seek asylum here are only successful if repatriation to their home country would mean persecution for them… as far as I understand it, anyway.

I was approved as a Befriender after an online interview, and various form filling in, followed by a chaperoned video call with the proposed refugee. I actually used my status as a Spazzer to jump the queue – well in this day and age all organisations need to prove themselves ‘ inclusive’ before anything else… ( bonkers I know, but true ). I therefore went straight to the top of the list for my own refugee.. and one was offered straight away… I know this sounds contrary but there are actually too many volunteer Befrienders and not enough refugees ( that the organisation deems suitable ). Of course it’s a fact that there are a lot of asylum seekers that are here very much NOT because they are persecuted at home, but rather that they are just trying to take advantage of the UK’s ‘ humanitarian treatment ‘ when it comes to immigrants… so the organisation weeds out those that it thinks are unlikely to be here for the right reasons.

Refugees here are put up in accommodation, and fed… until they go through the process… after which they are either approved or they are sent back to their countries. Whilst in this limbo situation they aren’t allowed to work ( in a paid sense ). I met my Friend today, face to face for the first time. The Org suggests that my role is to spend 2/3 hours a fortnight with the Ref, during which time I do my bit to make him/ her feel less alienated in British society. They suggest a coffee and perhaps some sort of ( free ) activity.
Well anyway… I have enough coffees.. and if I am going to try to make someone’s week then I can do better than that.
The ONLY advantage to being disabled is that generally when I pay to go into some venue, I am entitled to have an able bodied person come with me for free ( as my help )… so that means I actually don’t have to pay anything to get my Ref into venues.
So today, I asked my fella to meet me at London Bridge tube station at 4.30, which he did, we went for a coffee.. and then as a pretty cool first outing we went to the top of The Shard ( it’s called The View )

I have to say that my Friend didn’t stop smiling and giggling for 3 hours. When you are given EIGHT POUNDS A WEEK for all your ‘ entertainment’ then you obviously can’t afford to do very much… so today’s experience was way out the league of what he would be able to do himself. We talked and smiled throughout. He was a charming and friendly man, who in his own country was a Professor… and who was then jailed for speaking out against the dictator that had seized control of his country. After a year and a half in prison, he was temporarily let out to be admitted to hospital, and then managed to escape when his electronic tag was removed for him to have surgery.
Now here for the last 6 months, he works as a volunteer in charity shops, and awaits a decision by the UK authorities on his future. As a professor he was actually allowed to enter the UK officially, so he will almost definitely be granted Right to Stay, after which his wife and 3 sons can possibly join him here.
I can’t post pictures or details because he’s a wanted man .. and if he goes back he’ll be immediately jailed.

It gives me an enormous sense of well-being to do this to be honest. Perhaps it’s even better for me than it is for him?! Who knows.., but what I can say is that I do sense that it’s the start of a Beautiful Friendship.