No. 7 Thursday 30 June 2011
I decided to go out today, the weather was reasonably favourable and there was nothing urgent which needed doing indoors. A reason for this expedition was that I felt like having a panini for lunch - ever since I discovered them when I lived in Cheltenham they have been on my favourites list but the things which are available at the supermarket masquerading under the same name are not up to cafe standard. Paninis are also on my list of things I have to go out for, the others being scampi and omelettes. The reason for the latter two is that I've not seen scampi in ready meals and I can't cope with eggs to make omelettes (nor can I cook eggs in any way). Those two I can get in the cafe in Morrisons but paninis need a trip to town. A bus to the city centre solved the transport problem, and I went to a cafe near the bus stop which I have used on a number of occasions.
Lunch over I decided to look around the electronics shops to see what the iPad and similar tablet computers were like, if I could cope with the touch screens and what all the fuss was about them. My exploration found quite a few which, with some difficulty, I managed to use. Now I must think out what use one would be to me - if at all. I have a (relatively) smart 'phone which I changed to a little while ago because I wanted one on which I could put my shopping list - and the one I have does that (and much more besides). The only difficulty is that, yesterday when I went shopping, I forgot to take it with me !!! Wanderings over I took the bus home having been out for about two and a half hours - not very long when the bus travel is part of that time.
Last week, at the club to which I belong, they had a quiz which I had prepared. I must have got something right because, of the 25 questions, the best table scored 20 and the worst 13. I have now prepared two more with a similar variety of questions for future occasions - which gives the lady who had been doing them a well earned break because she is also the club treasurer and is therefore quite busy. This week we had a Beetle evening and next week it is Bingo. The club is pretty active and has other functions outside my ability to attend such as a weekly dance and the occasional coach trip (coaches are not designed to take wheelchairs). My lack of attendance doesn't bother me because a lot of time is occupied with necessary things at home - such as doing my (roughly)weekly blog !!!
Adjustments
No. 6 Tuesday 21 June 2011
The personal adjustments (which I mentioned in my last blog) are more difficult to assess. This is partly because some things which make them necessary are probably due more to the ageing process than to my disability. Those that I can blame on being disabled are, after a bit of thought, fairly obvious - to me at least!! The one thing, probably more than anything else, that I have had to get used to but which still irritates me at times, is how much longer it takes to do even tasks which I found natural before. A major one is when I drop something. When this happened I would just bend over and pick it up but now I have to go to where one of my two "helping hand" gadgets are, return to a position where the item is on my left (due to uselessness if my right hand), pick it up and then return the gadget to its normal resting place (kitchen or bedroom). There is a complication if I drop something which is too flat on the floor to be picked up. In such cases I place a self-adhesive label on it, using the gadget, which then makes picking up possible. The upshot of all this is that I have become extremely careful about dropping things and am probably over cautious.
Another aspect which took some, mostly mental, adaptation was asking for help when things are either out of reach, too heavy or too awkward to lift one handed. Such help was rarely necessary before, but now is a regular occurrence, particularly when shopping at the supermarket. At first I would wait until a likely looking "helper" came along and even then I felt slightly embarrassed about asking if they would help, buit now it is almost second nature. I think this is because I cannot remember ever having been refused help, and quite often it is offered before I ask. It just goes to show how little I understand my fellow beings!!
General living takes up to four times longer, partly due to the time and space needed to move the wheelchair. I have also built up a mental list of how many minutes I need to allow to do things, from getting dressed to getting tea ready. I suppose this harks back to my 33 years in Air Traffic Control where, particularly where radar was not available, exact time was often of major importance. Fortunately modern technology comes to my aid in that I have three clocks and a wristwatch which are all radio controlled - that is they automatically keep time by radio signals from a station in (I think) Cumbria. The clocks are in the main living areas - kitchen, sitting room and bedroom - and they have the added advantage that they are automatically adjusted for the start and end of BST by the same radio signals.
I have been a little concerned that my readers might get the impression that these blogs are me moaning or complaining abouit my lot to get some sympathy. That is definitely not the case. The intention was, and is, to give people an understanding of what living with a disability is like, and how changes can be made to adjust to it.
The personal adjustments (which I mentioned in my last blog) are more difficult to assess. This is partly because some things which make them necessary are probably due more to the ageing process than to my disability. Those that I can blame on being disabled are, after a bit of thought, fairly obvious - to me at least!! The one thing, probably more than anything else, that I have had to get used to but which still irritates me at times, is how much longer it takes to do even tasks which I found natural before. A major one is when I drop something. When this happened I would just bend over and pick it up but now I have to go to where one of my two "helping hand" gadgets are, return to a position where the item is on my left (due to uselessness if my right hand), pick it up and then return the gadget to its normal resting place (kitchen or bedroom). There is a complication if I drop something which is too flat on the floor to be picked up. In such cases I place a self-adhesive label on it, using the gadget, which then makes picking up possible. The upshot of all this is that I have become extremely careful about dropping things and am probably over cautious.
Another aspect which took some, mostly mental, adaptation was asking for help when things are either out of reach, too heavy or too awkward to lift one handed. Such help was rarely necessary before, but now is a regular occurrence, particularly when shopping at the supermarket. At first I would wait until a likely looking "helper" came along and even then I felt slightly embarrassed about asking if they would help, buit now it is almost second nature. I think this is because I cannot remember ever having been refused help, and quite often it is offered before I ask. It just goes to show how little I understand my fellow beings!!
General living takes up to four times longer, partly due to the time and space needed to move the wheelchair. I have also built up a mental list of how many minutes I need to allow to do things, from getting dressed to getting tea ready. I suppose this harks back to my 33 years in Air Traffic Control where, particularly where radar was not available, exact time was often of major importance. Fortunately modern technology comes to my aid in that I have three clocks and a wristwatch which are all radio controlled - that is they automatically keep time by radio signals from a station in (I think) Cumbria. The clocks are in the main living areas - kitchen, sitting room and bedroom - and they have the added advantage that they are automatically adjusted for the start and end of BST by the same radio signals.
I have been a little concerned that my readers might get the impression that these blogs are me moaning or complaining abouit my lot to get some sympathy. That is definitely not the case. The intention was, and is, to give people an understanding of what living with a disability is like, and how changes can be made to adjust to it.
Changing my world
No. 5 Monday 13 June 2011
On a day-to-day basis I have, over the years, adapted my life to things I cannot change and have changed those which I can. The biggest example of the latter is housing. On leaving hospital Social Services found a house in Cheltenham which I could buy on a shared ownersship system. This meant that I bought 65% of the house and the other 35% remained with the company who sold it and to whom I paid rent for their part. I was lucky enough to get a grant from the Council to have a lift fitted (so that I could get upstairs) and to have the bathroom changed to a proper wet room. The guiding light in this was my O.T. (Occupational Therapist) who included things that I didn 't know existed such as a warm air blower in the corner of the shower to make drying after showering very much easier. This house served me well for four and a half years but its limitations (such as hinged doors of a normal width) meant that change had to come sooner or later.
When compensation made a change possible I started looking around for somewhere which could be altered to fit my requirements. I found what is proving to be ideal in Gloucester - a bungalow (therefore no upstairs to access) close enough to shopping and public transport, and relatively easy to adapt. It originally had three bedrooms but I had things rearranged so that the smallest became the front hall (where I park my other wheelchair). Other alterations meant moving the kitchen forwards thus making room to change what was just a toilet into a wet room (just like my previous one) with the original bathroom being downgraded into a utility room. All the doorways were altered to 4ft wide archways, and where doors were required they were changed to wider sliding or folding ones. Those were the main structural changes, but there were many detailed bits of work which I won't bother to list here.
The built-in furniture is of the same wood (beech) throughout and the curtains (except the kitchen) are all the same material - a fairly random pattern which I managed to find on the Internet. This consistency means that the house feels, to me at least, free from irritating differences. My personal adjustments take some thinking about, so they will come in the next blog. Meantime, on a brighter note, when I went to the club recently it was a Bingo evening and, on one card, I won £5. Must have been my lucky day!!
On a day-to-day basis I have, over the years, adapted my life to things I cannot change and have changed those which I can. The biggest example of the latter is housing. On leaving hospital Social Services found a house in Cheltenham which I could buy on a shared ownersship system. This meant that I bought 65% of the house and the other 35% remained with the company who sold it and to whom I paid rent for their part. I was lucky enough to get a grant from the Council to have a lift fitted (so that I could get upstairs) and to have the bathroom changed to a proper wet room. The guiding light in this was my O.T. (Occupational Therapist) who included things that I didn 't know existed such as a warm air blower in the corner of the shower to make drying after showering very much easier. This house served me well for four and a half years but its limitations (such as hinged doors of a normal width) meant that change had to come sooner or later.
When compensation made a change possible I started looking around for somewhere which could be altered to fit my requirements. I found what is proving to be ideal in Gloucester - a bungalow (therefore no upstairs to access) close enough to shopping and public transport, and relatively easy to adapt. It originally had three bedrooms but I had things rearranged so that the smallest became the front hall (where I park my other wheelchair). Other alterations meant moving the kitchen forwards thus making room to change what was just a toilet into a wet room (just like my previous one) with the original bathroom being downgraded into a utility room. All the doorways were altered to 4ft wide archways, and where doors were required they were changed to wider sliding or folding ones. Those were the main structural changes, but there were many detailed bits of work which I won't bother to list here.
The built-in furniture is of the same wood (beech) throughout and the curtains (except the kitchen) are all the same material - a fairly random pattern which I managed to find on the Internet. This consistency means that the house feels, to me at least, free from irritating differences. My personal adjustments take some thinking about, so they will come in the next blog. Meantime, on a brighter note, when I went to the club recently it was a Bingo evening and, on one card, I won £5. Must have been my lucky day!!
Going out
No. 4 Monday 6 June 2011
Last week, as the weather was kind for folks like me, I went out on two days - Thursday and Friday. These outings were both to the City, but for different reasons which I will explain below. To make my getaway I resorted to the local bus service which, despite the curious routing, is at least reliable and has very helpful staff. The first to come along on Thursday was one without wheelchair access so I enjoyed a fifteen minute wait in the sun rather than go the short distance to the next stop and the confines of a shelter. The second bus was accessible and twenty minutes or so later I was in the City centre.
The target for that day was the docks and Gloucester Quays about which I had heard little and had no idea how far from the centre they were. Following the assorted signposts got me there surprisingly quickly and the entire route was wheelchair friendly (as, I have found, is most of Gloucester). The descent to the docks from road level was by a ramp which zig-zagged down to the lower level. Once there I did a little exploring and soon found Gloucester Quays. I was surprised to find a modern pedestrian mall in such a location and wondered why I hadn't caught up with the publicity - I certainly was not aware of its existence despite having lived here for over eighteen months. I wandered through the arcade and bought a fair sized garden ornament from one of the shops. This was followed by an ice cream at a cafe and a trip back up the zig-zag ramp and the streets to the bus stop. The bus trip home brought an end to an enjoyable and instructive day.
The Friday outing was altogether a different expedition. I had decided that, having a roughly brown and pale cream colour scheme in the bedroom, I would continue that into the adjoining bathroom. I had already bought some brown face flannels from the market (some time ago) but hadn't put them to use, so my aim was to get cream towels to complete the job. The bus was a bit odd in that it looked like a mobile advertising hoarding which I thought would be very dark inside because adverts covered all the side windows. It was only when I was inside that I realised that the coverings on the windows were, in fact, very fine mesh which didn't obstruct the view too much. On reaching the shops I went to one which would, I thought, be most likely to have the towels. The lift to the appropriate floor was very shallow (front to back) and thus my presence in it made it very difficult for anyone else to get in. On reaching the relevant department I found a distinct drawback to this shop - the displayed goods were on islands which were all formed from square platforms about ten inches high and were positioned too close together for my wheelchair to fit between them conveniently. Luckily I could see from the main aisle, by peering through the other displays, that they didn't have any cream towels. I left without wasting any time looking around this store which obviously didn't want wheelchair users as customers. The other store I tried was much more covenient except that, to get to the upper floor, I had to be taken up in a goods lift which had manual doors (which I couldn't manage) and control buttons out of my reach. Fortunately there was a staff member nearby who did the operation. I found the towels I wanted, and to reach the face towels, used the lifting facility of my wheelchair for the first time. Normally, if I can't reach anything, I ask a nearby person to reach it for me, but as there was nobody near it was a good opportunity to try out the chair's lift - which worked entirely as expected. Shopping completed it was back to the bus stop and the bus home - coincidentally the same mobile billboard as I had used earlier.
All told they were two very different but, each in its own way, useful additions to my understanding of Gloucester.
Last week, as the weather was kind for folks like me, I went out on two days - Thursday and Friday. These outings were both to the City, but for different reasons which I will explain below. To make my getaway I resorted to the local bus service which, despite the curious routing, is at least reliable and has very helpful staff. The first to come along on Thursday was one without wheelchair access so I enjoyed a fifteen minute wait in the sun rather than go the short distance to the next stop and the confines of a shelter. The second bus was accessible and twenty minutes or so later I was in the City centre.
The target for that day was the docks and Gloucester Quays about which I had heard little and had no idea how far from the centre they were. Following the assorted signposts got me there surprisingly quickly and the entire route was wheelchair friendly (as, I have found, is most of Gloucester). The descent to the docks from road level was by a ramp which zig-zagged down to the lower level. Once there I did a little exploring and soon found Gloucester Quays. I was surprised to find a modern pedestrian mall in such a location and wondered why I hadn't caught up with the publicity - I certainly was not aware of its existence despite having lived here for over eighteen months. I wandered through the arcade and bought a fair sized garden ornament from one of the shops. This was followed by an ice cream at a cafe and a trip back up the zig-zag ramp and the streets to the bus stop. The bus trip home brought an end to an enjoyable and instructive day.
The Friday outing was altogether a different expedition. I had decided that, having a roughly brown and pale cream colour scheme in the bedroom, I would continue that into the adjoining bathroom. I had already bought some brown face flannels from the market (some time ago) but hadn't put them to use, so my aim was to get cream towels to complete the job. The bus was a bit odd in that it looked like a mobile advertising hoarding which I thought would be very dark inside because adverts covered all the side windows. It was only when I was inside that I realised that the coverings on the windows were, in fact, very fine mesh which didn't obstruct the view too much. On reaching the shops I went to one which would, I thought, be most likely to have the towels. The lift to the appropriate floor was very shallow (front to back) and thus my presence in it made it very difficult for anyone else to get in. On reaching the relevant department I found a distinct drawback to this shop - the displayed goods were on islands which were all formed from square platforms about ten inches high and were positioned too close together for my wheelchair to fit between them conveniently. Luckily I could see from the main aisle, by peering through the other displays, that they didn't have any cream towels. I left without wasting any time looking around this store which obviously didn't want wheelchair users as customers. The other store I tried was much more covenient except that, to get to the upper floor, I had to be taken up in a goods lift which had manual doors (which I couldn't manage) and control buttons out of my reach. Fortunately there was a staff member nearby who did the operation. I found the towels I wanted, and to reach the face towels, used the lifting facility of my wheelchair for the first time. Normally, if I can't reach anything, I ask a nearby person to reach it for me, but as there was nobody near it was a good opportunity to try out the chair's lift - which worked entirely as expected. Shopping completed it was back to the bus stop and the bus home - coincidentally the same mobile billboard as I had used earlier.
All told they were two very different but, each in its own way, useful additions to my understanding of Gloucester.
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