And I thought my own divorce was a bit toxic?! Good grief, James Cracknell and Bev ( my ex neighbours ) are splitting and she is throwing mud at him from every quarter. Bev… please. To piss on his parade as he has just become the hero of the middle aged nation is ever so questionable as good timing. It won’t help him, which won’t help his earning capacity, which then won’t help you either. James’s sport has financed your lifestyle for 20 years. That’s his JOB… You are criticising him for working, and it’s that that keeps your kids provided for too.

Oh dear. The Cracknell’s are making my ex and I look like best friends!? And Bev is accusing HIM of being irrational….?? He’s maintaining a by and large dignified silence while she throws tantrums. One of them definitely isn’t thinking straight, that’s for sure, but I don’t think it’s the one who had the brain injury.

Divorce is unpleasant. Best avoided all round. I don’t think either party is better off afterwards, all too often. And the kids are used as pawns nearly always.

And just as things became better….. they stopped! The Wendy chapter is closed…

I want to thank her for all she did for me. She’s a lovely lady for sure. I won’t ever think otherwise.

Well the buses have improved…. but the other day, for the second time I was humiliated by the same driver. who told me again to move my wheelchair further into the tiny space on this particular bus that is for a wheelchair. He shouted out that he’d told me before about this…. ‘ this’ actually being the fact that I cannot physically get a square peg into a round hole, that being the situation.

He refused to start the bus until I’d done the impossible, and then told me to get off. The other passengers were all incredulous and supportive of me. When another bus appeared, for the sake of my journey time we got off, and onto the other bus, all 4 of us.

I guess the driver doesn’t realise that everything is being filmed by his own onboard camera and this provides all evidence of his own wrongdoing.

That’s the stuff that will lead to his own disciplinary… see email below from TfL in response to the one from Wendy.

10 April 2019

Dear Ms *******

Thank you for your feedback form of 6 April detailing an incident with a driver on a route 237 bus.

I was very concerned to learn of the events you describe. I’m sorry this incident occurred and you’ve experienced similar problems with the driver on another occasion. 

As part of their qualification drivers are required to attend a Disability Equality training seminar. The focus of this training is to raise awareness of the issues faced by disabled customers when using buses. It aims to provide staff with the skills to meet their needs more effectively. It’s extremely disappointing to hear of a driver behaving in the manner described.

The dedicated wheelchair space on all our buses is designed to allow a single rearward facing wheelchair user to travel safely. Drivers should always offer assistance when a wheelchair user is looking to board. We want wheelchair users to feel confident about travelling on the bus network. 

Details of your experience have been passed to Metroline, who operate route 237 for us, for investigation. The operator confirms CCTV footage from the bus has been requested and will be used as part of its investigation. An interview will take place and this will be followed up with appropriate steps in line with the operator’s company procedures.

Thank you again for contacting us and please pass on my apology to your partner. If there’s anything else we can help you with, please reply to this email. Alternatively, you can call us on 0343 222 1234 and we’ll be happy to help you.

Kind regards

Andrew Ackford
Customer Service Adviser
Transport for London Customer Services

Marky P and I went to the RGS last night and listened to the chap that has made all the David Attenborough Planet stuff over the years. Wow, what a contribution to television that guy has made. This new series – Our Planet – is just out. He talked about the making of it and showed clips etc.

He started by saying that it was all filmed in 4K definition and said everyone needs to now go out and get a new TV! Handy then that I just happened to get one of those last week… my word it makes this type of program mind blowing’ly impressive!

My ole chum James Cracknell has qualified for the Cambridge boat in this weekend’s Boat Race.

Ffs he’s 46…

Everyone else is less than half his age.

Having lived next door to him for a decade I know him, and have been in rightful awe of him for some time. He’s a great bloke ( though socially not always that comfortable by virtue of perhaps being a bit ‘ on the spectrum ‘ as it’s called these days ).

We are all somewhere on the spectrum of course. Im way to the end of the uninhibited side, which after my knock on the head got more marked I believe. James ‘ 2010 brain injury certainly led to changes in him, though I’d say that manifested as exaggerating the traits he already had. He’s definitely more engaging and lighthearted than he was before though, which makes him ‘ better’ socially I’d say. For a guy of 46 to make the team in an event like rowing ( at this incredibly high standard ) is truly belief defying. It’ll never be surpassed, for sure, so win or lose the day will belong to James Cracknell.

With impeccable timing his divorce announcement was leaked ( and I’m very sure not by his hand ) Like me, he has been affected by a catastrophic cycle crash, like me his life was altered, and like me he is getting divorced. Ever so often disabling injuries lead to divorce. That bit about in sickness or health, for better or for worse ought be optional I think, and if uttered should be contractual. If parties don’t think they can stick to it, come a calamitous injury to one of them, they should actually leave it out of the alter vows I think. It’s no good for the one who isn’t injured to say ‘ well he just changed after his arms/legs/head got severed and I didn’t like him so much so I’m off, taking the kids with me. Oh and can everyone feel sorry for me ( and not him, the irreversibly injured one ) ‘ is it? That’s not the promise that was made under the gaze of God, was it? That promise was a ‘ solemn vow’.

I’ve talked to J over the last week, while he’s in training camp. I must emphasise that the thoughts and words above belong to me and not him. He’s focused rightly on today and the task of winning ( because James always backs himself to win – and that’s a big part of his winning formula. He’s always in it to win it )

Head injuries and physical injury that leads to mental torture alter your life for ever in a way that you cannot possibly forcast. You don’t ever think that it’s going to happen to you, and if it does then trust me it messes you up forever. A friend’s highly successful boss has recently been paralysed whilst skiing. He sent a message out saying he’d be ‘back at work, normal business resumed in a few weeks ‘ From experience I’d say that’s unlikely to happen. The repercussions of being doubley Incontinent aren’t exactly helpful at work… as he will find to his horror ( and yes, I don’t exaggerate ). If it’s possible I’d like to meet this chap and talk ( helpfully ) about the realities of paralysis. I wish I could have met my future self back then, and been advised of what might happen next…

Anyway, today I’ll be cheering for Cambridge. I’ve never had an allegiance to one side before, so that’ll be good. I used to go down to the river, but now I won’t be able to see past all the peeps standing up, so I’ll watch James and the rest on my TV. I actually have a new one… ever so HD it is too. I’ll see the droplets of sweat and river in fine detail, I will.

Shame you can’t see into the athletes ‘ heads though… but I think I can into one of them- the one with the greying hair. Gold one last time is my prediction.

To Marky P for his DIY help. I now have a shelf just above me when I lie in bed, from which I can reach everything that I need whilst in bed.

When you can’t actually get out of bed to get things, the only solution is to have all those things either in bed with you, which is how it has been, or within reaching distance. Since my metalwork restricts me so much, I can’t get things from a bedside table, as I can’t turn, so above my head is the only option left. I don’t think it would be sensible to have hot drinks put there… one slip and I’m boiled alive etc, but anything else is ok.

Also thanks for repairing the blind bracket that was coming off, and unpacking the TV that bloody Curry’s delivery service did not… today I shall be wheeling up there to kick off bigtime. I don’t like complaining, but Jeez they really let me down.

Do go and see The White Crow at the Flics.. excellent film about ole Rudy Nureyev, the ballet dancer who defected from Russia back in my childhood. Amazing how much the world has changed since then… but I guess I’m quite old so actually it was a long time ago!

8/10 for me for the film.

Having got out all my leather gear – gloves, cap and studded jockstrap, we went to Heaven to see Kimbra.
Leigh ( girl’s name on red blooded bloke ) was there, Bev ( girl’s name on girl ) and Wendy too of course, all appropriately attired ( say no more ) with me in the special box reserved for the wheelchair. Can’t complain, it was definitely a good view from which to see the cool lady herself. She’s pretty out there is Kimbra, and looked as fit as…… in her tassled suit kinda thing- like a walking and singing beaded curtain she was, to an audience probably well acquainted with beads for all sorts of ‘alternative’ reasons. You’ll have to google it if you don’t know, cos this is a family blog….

Kimbra 7/10 for me – great but not my thing really. Leigh ( girl’s name on macho guy ) probably gave her 9 or 10, so yes, she was good.

Russ

My eyes started to itch/ be uncomfortable about a month ago, just occasionally at first, but with spates of real discomfort. I am a qualified but not practicing optometrist, and it is different being the one with the symptoms, but not being able to look at my eyes with the instruments I used to have to examine other people.

So I just bought some Allergan ‘intensive drops for dry eye’ from Boots and they did sort of work, but the effects were short lived. Then I lost those and after another attack I bought some other ones ( Boots own ) They didn’t help AT ALL. I thought that it was quite possible that the mild excema that I get in my eyebrows was spreading to my eye lashes, so I used the special medicated shampoo daily. That did seem to work… but only for about 2 days.

It was getting a bit confusing, and getting worse. I also bought eye wipes that had impregnated tea tree oil in them, and that worked too…but only for 3 days.

I was already taking oral antihistamines btw, so that wasn’t the cure either.

Then I saw my friend Jo, who’s a hospital optom, and she said to buy an Eye Bag for dry eye. Dry eye is chronic and to do with your eyelid margins. It doesn’t ever really go away so I thought I might be stuck with this problem for ever. So I did buy one and it came in the post the next day. You heat that up, put it over your eyes and then massage your lids.

Guess what? Good for 3 days… then suddenly a LOT worse, as in completely distracting and stopping me from thinking about anything else. I started to get large amounts of white discharge, bad but actually for me very useful as a diagnostic clue. It wasn’t pus, it was mucous- that was obvious to me, cos I know this sh**… Mucous is an important tear component, but ought be dissolved in the tear film. When it’s visible it’s because there is overproduction of it. That was the clue as to my problem. There’s an eye drop called Opticrom, which I’ve been recommending for decades to patients who overwear their soft lenses. Those people then became allergic to the build up of their own secretions on their own lenses, was the theory, and the insides of their upper eyelids became quite lumpy, with a consequent over production of mucous by the mast cells in the eyelid tissue. Stopping lens wear and using Opticrom was the fix. The thing is that I don’t wear lenses and it’s not the season really for seasonal allergies yet, and certainly not a month ago, so why did I have an allergic condition? I’ve no idea, but even 2 hours after instilling Opticrom and it was feeling massively better. 24 hours later and I now have no symptoms at all.

I imagine it’s a little used eye drop overall, but Jeez was it effective. Obviously I’m not advising peeps to self diagnose all eye irritations, but this drug is available over the counter for the treatment of eye allergy, and the hay fever season is approaching…

Remember where you heard it first. …

One of my Carers does make me laugh. She was telling me about a time when she went to the cinema with a couple of guys. The guys were playing with names by swapping the first letters of their names around – like Din Viesel and Rulia Joberts etc.

They’d stopped doing it for a while and she went to buy some snacks. When the lady at the counter asked what she wanted, my carer said I’d like Large Cock Porn please…

Oh deary me….

That’s the kinda story KT T ought to have in her repertoire…