And I want to say hi to Gisela …that I worked with when I was 22..in Camden Contact Lens Centre ( ahhh the stories I could tell 🤦‍♂️ ) and is/ was a crazy Venezuelan chick – who now lives in Barbados.
She’s a tonic for sure, as my Nan would have said. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that talks so fast. And given that English isn’t even her first language, that’s saying something.
No such thing as a short phone call with Miss G, but always always entertaining !

Obviously it’s not ME pedalling…. the pedals go round and take my feet with em.
But that’s gotta be good for legs that haven’t done that stuff for years…?!

And Happy Birthday to my youngest daughter – Amber – who is 17 today.
I sincerely hope she’s had a brilliant day.

On trains they have a ‘ disabled carriage’, right.

That’s where ( some ) staff want you to be. It’s not obligatory because often I’m not put in that one. What’s ESSENTIAL though is that the staff in the station where you are getting off know which carriage you are in, so that they know where to put the ramp…
Today, after a sequence of calamities with the tickets, the delays and confused staff, I’m eventually helped into a train to Sevenoaks.
The very next stop and there’s another chap ( profoundly disabled ) In a very large powered chair ( assisted by his Carer ). Where do they want to put him ? In the Disabled carriage, with me. All the wheelchairs together.. except there quite clearly isn’t enough room… because I’m quite long with my Triride, and he’s like a juggernaut in his vehicle. Tbh it’s absolutely bloody obvious that two into one won’t go, yet still they try 🤷
Ultimately it’s left to ME ( voice of logic?? ) to suggest that I get off, and they put me in a different carriage, and tell Sevenoaks that I’ve moved carriages.

But good grief… it’s really not rocket science, is it ?

I was totally observing the veggie diet regime… then 2 hours ago I met up with Lily ( outside ).
She said shall I get us something to eat – a sandwich? I gave her some money and said yes.

As I finished the sandwich she said ‘ hang on, aren’t you a vegan?’ I said yes, pretty much.
Then she laughed and said ‘ well you’ve just eaten a coronation chicken sandwich..’

🤦‍♂️

So I forgot!
I blame her for giving it to me ! 😂

And being in mourning about Wales not completing the Grand Slam last night What a game!

The Big Question.
Is Viz comic as funny as it used to be …?

The answer is YES! 😂

Lizzy bought me a year’s subscription, and it makes me laugh out loud!

Well after 80 days of 2 hours a day arm cranking… I have a 34 1/2 inch waist… which is a lot less than I had at the end of December.
At the time of my crash it was 33 ( and had been for decades.. ).
Goes to show then … you do the right/ enough exercise and you get results, but it’s not an overnight fix.
Im probably about 10 pounds lighter only … but I’m ‘ redistributed ‘ and muscles weigh more than fat…

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿👍

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.