Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Greetings, this is my second entry. Yesterday was all about working tonight's edition is about Leisure. Which to be honest I've not had much time for since starting to work. When my then girlfriend, now wife, was first living with me I was not working because I was recovering from having heart failure. So we could go places, see things and eat out more often. We couldn't go out every day because she has chronic pain and neurological diseases caused when a drunk driver crashed into her car which pulverised her leg.
I had heart failure in 2010 which was definitely an event. I took a sabbatical from University and came to realise that I didn't have any future in Animation especially because I wouldn't be employable as an animator. It already took me longer to do something because of my co-ordination or lack there of.
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| Sit-down skiing is not quite the same thing. |
I had done a few sessions of sit-down skiing in Aldershot while I was at University. I was completely disappointed with the experience though. The wheelchair users would have to split the time because there wasn't the equipment or the volunteers to help us all. It was nothing like skiing or sit down skiing it was like sitting on a big sledge that someone always held the back of. There was no control; I wanted control. It was then that I realised how people treated wheelchair users so differently. I'd only been using a wheelchair for less than a year. So it was all new to me, a lower perspective.
While I was at university I had some funding for PAs so I could arrange for someone to take me to Aldershot the last time I went I talked to the instructors about if I would ever get a chance to develop this so I could do it independently. After a patronising session full of subtext it was obvious that I wouldn't get that opportunity. I ended my membership and even stopped my subscription to the Disability Skiing UK magazine.
But early in 2011 I revisited the dream of sit-down skiing it was something I discussed with some occupational, disability case manager or something -I was going to a disability centre once a week even though it was entirely pointless it was at least something to do. I found a group that did a ski session for disabled people in Southampton. I explained to them about my previous frustration and experience of sit-skiing. I went for a taster session. Unfortunately I haven't been back since, not because I don't want to, it's impossible for me to get there and adult social care is not suitable for young adults. The session was really good and quite difficult. I even used the ski lift to get to the top a few times, on my own.
One time it went a bit wrong and i ended up upside down being dragged up the nylon. Which was refreshingly painful. The first time I was sitting at the top I was feeling a bit of fear. It was good to be in control. I'd like to get good enough at sit-skiing to allow me to go abroad and just ski. Like when I was younger. Alas time, money and other things get in the way.
Before I had decided I wasn't going back to university I asked A to marry me. She said yes and we set a date over a year in the future. I'll probably write a blog about the whole wedding planning process because it was a huge amount of work -that she did most of. It was complicated because A needed to return to the USA to apply for a Visa, I'd just started a job and we wanted to get married in a castle on Halloween. Anyone who knows the Visa system will know that it is a long expensive process which is very frustrating. There is little relevant advice because they change the rules constantly. The stuff we learnt about the process is probably out of date now.
Yesterday I talked a bit about a wheelchair fund. I'll be setting up some sort of thing on line to hopefully speed that up. Well as soon as I can squeeze it into my schedule. Electric wheelchairs would improve our lives and I'm at the point where I'd like the option of just effortlessly scooting around. Being able to go out and explore.
Almost a month ago I said to A that we should go out fortnightly to the movies as a date night (Orange Wednesdays) unfortunately they are more like 3 or 4 weeks apart because I am working so hard and so is she and because of her pain it's been difficult for us to get the time. We saw The Conjouring which was very scary and two weeks ago we saw Alpha Papa which was very funny. Probably one of the funniest films I've seen in the cinema. The annoying thing about the cinema is that the wheelchairs must park at the front and you have to get a neck injury by constantly looking up for the duration of the film. We need to find a better venue.
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| Derelict with booze |
Before I had decided I wasn't going back to university I asked A to marry me. She said yes and we set a date over a year in the future. I'll probably write a blog about the whole wedding planning process because it was a huge amount of work -that she did most of. It was complicated because A needed to return to the USA to apply for a Visa, I'd just started a job and we wanted to get married in a castle on Halloween. Anyone who knows the Visa system will know that it is a long expensive process which is very frustrating. There is little relevant advice because they change the rules constantly. The stuff we learnt about the process is probably out of date now.
Yesterday I talked a bit about a wheelchair fund. I'll be setting up some sort of thing on line to hopefully speed that up. Well as soon as I can squeeze it into my schedule. Electric wheelchairs would improve our lives and I'm at the point where I'd like the option of just effortlessly scooting around. Being able to go out and explore.
Almost a month ago I said to A that we should go out fortnightly to the movies as a date night (Orange Wednesdays) unfortunately they are more like 3 or 4 weeks apart because I am working so hard and so is she and because of her pain it's been difficult for us to get the time. We saw The Conjouring which was very scary and two weeks ago we saw Alpha Papa which was very funny. Probably one of the funniest films I've seen in the cinema. The annoying thing about the cinema is that the wheelchairs must park at the front and you have to get a neck injury by constantly looking up for the duration of the film. We need to find a better venue.
