IBot got!

Now on a train back.
Lord knows what will happen next 🤦‍♂️

Gina is in charge of my other chair, that has the Triride attached. Not having any spatial awareness or coordination, it’s a mixture of hilarious and bewilderment just watching her ‘ push it along.
I manage to rarely collide with anything whilst in charge of it, despite not being able to look behind me…. Gina manages to collide with everything despite having control of her whole body, and being able to look behind her.
🙄😂

Surrounded by male passengers with ‘ very nice ‘ man bags.. they do like a bit of ‘ can’t see why only women can carry a clutch purse’ here in The Netherlands. #Howverydareyou!

If you think the UK has a problem with its railways… jeez try Belgium.
Absolutely hopeless.

Currently stuck in Brussels and no one knows anything at all, it seems.
My next train has been cancelled but ‘ the assistance’ doesn’t seem to have a plan for what I’m supposed to do next.
I’m going to get to my destination way too late to receive the iBot training that’s compulsory to have.
Honestly it’s ABSOLUTE CHAOS here.

Great day yesterday with my Uncle Charlie.

He was the Best Man at my wedding – you don’t predict divorce when you get spliced, but hey!

We watched the very exciting Wales vs SA game, then I raced him to Richmond. He was in an Uber and I was in my Triride..
Car Vs Wheelchair – only one winner there.

Me! By a few minutes. 😂
And I reckon his driver was actually racing me 😳

We saw a play ( how very gay ). But didn’t hold hands or anything.

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice – really good.

On Friday I’d invited my daughter to see The Seagull in the West End – also very good.
Is the acting better in town than in the peripheral theatres ? Not really, no. Well certainly not if you compared these two.

My Uncle Charlie lives in Hong Pong.
Always lovely to see him!

And my lovely mate Chris, who I’ve only known since after my injury, who lives in Weston Super Mare ( though says he lives somewhere else, posher, that isn’t WSM … ) collapsed last week.
Thé Air Ambulance took him to a hospital in Bristol.. where he was told he had 2 brain tumours.

That’s 2 people I know, that I count as close friends, who have brain tumours. Chris’s prognosis isn’t too rosy, and that’s frankly really really sad.

He seems to be taking the situation and dealing with it head on – no bullshit, no fluff – there aren’t any positives. We talked a few minutes ago and on the topic of making the most of every day.

Chris – you impress me with your coolness under fire, my friend.
I’m going to be talking to Chris a lot, that’s for sure.

…. after years of hoping and waiting… with lots of false starts… I am on the cusp of getting a BRAND NEW iBot.

They now sell them in the Netherlands.. where there is an agent for Mobius Mobility, who make them ( backed by Toyota ) in the States.

To buy one in the States is virtually impossible to be honest – you have to wheel through so many hoops, because in America the iBot is classed as a medical device by the FDA. You therefore have to be prescribed one by an American doctor.
Well I don’t have an American doctor… and you can’t just get one. I tried and tried to get the services of a doctor I had back in 2015, when I was in Kentucky, but such was his fear of litigation, that he actually managed to make me getting one LESS likely, rather than more 🤦‍♂️

I had to undo the damage that he did to my cause.. and convince Mobius that I would be able to use one! Christ it was a mess, and emotional for me for a long time.

ANYWAY… I now go in a week, to the Netherlands, on Eurostar, change in Brussels and then eventually get to my destination. You have to receive the compulsory training… or they won’t give it to you. That takes a day.
So … I’ll be back on Tuesday night, by train, sat in an iBot.
It’ll make a lot of things currently impossible, possible.

Gawd it’s been a long time coming!!!

Oh and because It’s coming from America, and I said I might be doing some primary school teaching, it’ll come fully loaded ( automatic assault rifle on a swing arm )
Well what better way to deter people from carrying guns than shoot anyone that you aren’t sure about.

Lovely to see my folks for the weekend! Always a laugh actually, has to be said.

And just as lovely ( but not more ) to see Yukon Rob and his lady, Belinda ( my own sister, Belinda, she pi***ed out the winda… ) last night! Wayyyyy too much wine ( oh that’s a surprise ).

And I saw the am dram theatre production of The Birds too this week.

Cheep cheep to that !

Blimmin train strike.
Venue half full.

The legend that is Shaggy.. deserves better!

Now here’s an amazing thing.
Most middle aged men on dating websites are ex Special Forces soldiers.

I know, because all women I know who use the sites tell me.

Funny isn’t it, that dating sites are where they all seem to go, once they have stopped their secret mission stuff.

Some of the fellas really really don’t look like they’d have the physical prowess to get into The Salvation Army, let alone Special Forces.
It’s not only the SAS, but sometimes the American Delta Force/ Australian Élite Forces etc etc.

I know they aren’t fibbing because they are all ready to show their certificates proving they were in the Secret Divisions.
It occurred to me that issuing Secret Service certificates stopped it being that secret, but hey, maybe I’m too cynical!

Anyway I had a look online, and it was very easy and only about £20 to get a duplicate copy of the certificate that I got for being a sniper in Iraq, back in the day.

I know, I’ve never mentioned it before. Most people I knew thought I was working for Specsavers, in Staines.

Ha! Had you all going then, didn’t I !

My 9 year anniversary passed without tears ( well not mine, anyway. Can’t speak for my Mum ..)

I’m grateful for the messages I got, and also for the visit from Toby, Glenn and Sam – all there on that day.

Of course I think about what happened to me that day – and it plays out in my head. What I might have done to avoid it.
Essentially, if I’d arrived at that point in the road 2 seconds earlier, or 2 seconds later, my life would have carried on as it was.

It didn’t though.

Gawd to have a Time Machine and go back, and change the outcome.

Anyway… Beck plays tonight in Brixton! Booked in 2019, it’s FINALLY going to happen.
Should be a good one!

The Glass Menagerie

Emotional play.
Disabled girl hopes for love.
Given glimmer of real hope.

Ultimately she was mistaken. She’d been indulged to a degree, then assured that one day her Prince would come.
Obvs the inference was that actually it never happened.