A day off spent reading and writing

'Little Princess on wheels', by Susie Mallett, Summer 2012

Blogging and bloggers

All about adults on wheels

There are a few blogs that I read regularly, sometimes I mention them here. One that often gets a mention is dean’s stroke musings –

There, amongst many interesting links, you will find another recent posting from the saga of learning to ride a bike, post-stroke –

http://oc1dean.blogspot.de/2012/09/baby-steps-in-biking-2-stroke-rehab.html

Another blog that I enjoy very much and read regularly is Lawyer on Wheels, from the desk of R. Strzalkowski, Esq.

I have just read this –

http://blog.lawyeronwheels.org/2012/09/getting-around.html

As I was reading I was wondering about how it is possible to make people more aware of the associated problems that come with motor disability. Problems that could be described as little things, but as they happen daily are actually big important things.

Like wanting to arrive somewhere well-dressed only to find that the wheels of the wheelchair have left black smudges on the sleeves of a newly, carefully, strenuously, crisply-ironed white shirt, the overcoat having been removed as it was much too hot!

Then there are the many situations, as the lawyer-on-wheels described, like arriving hot and sweaty after a long uphill, or, just as bad, a downhill ride. And then there is the arrival made soaking wet as it began to pour with rain half way along the route.

I have experienced this all while accompanying wheelchair users and to some extent I have experienced them myself as a cyclist without a car. But I do not have a motor disorder I can quickly find a spot to change when I get at my destination. Most wheelchair users would need another extra hour added to an already long journey to do this.

Yes, awareness is improving in some respects. Children attend mainstream schools where some have school assistants, and public transport is more accessible, theatres and cinemas too. Even most buses now have ramps, but not all buildings have automatic doors, and phew are some of them heavy to open, and still not all pavements are lowered at junctions meaning long detours need to be made. Using a manual wheelchair really is very hard work.

Having a manual wheelchair however, often makes it easier to access buildings and transport, they are smaller and it is easier for someone to help if necessary to maneuver it. The alternative, a heavy bulky motorized wheelchair would take the sweat out of the journey but at the end of it you may not get in the lift or through the doors.

I know many people who opt for the hard work so that they can still have greater accessibility. I admire their determination but I also wish, again as the Lawyer on Wheels puts it, that people would take just a little bit more notice of how these wheelchair-users actually ‘get there’ when they attend functions, parties, the cinema, etc.

The offer of a lift on a humid or rainy day would, I am sure, be most welcome.

R. Strzalkowski, Esq., our lawyer on wheels, please keep the brilliant posts flowing!

I look forward to the twice weekly installments about life as a lawyer on wheels, just as much as I look forward to receiving my Guardian Weekly newspaper and reading its Nature Watch.

Conduction... give me a chance and let me try

"Experimenting with colour" by Susie Mallett 2010

“A healthy way to learn”

Meeting and making friends is -

“A fantastic opportunity for children to understand that they are not in it alone”

One little girl explains that Conductive Education “gave me confidence so I can do it. So I am doing it… now.”

Busy lives and conductive living can be seen and heard here:

http://independent-living.co/videos/a-video-introduction-to-the-center-for-independence/

Dissappearing coastlines in Norfolk

Happisburgh and its lighthouse by Susie Mallett 2004

Norfolk beaches

The Norfolk that is dear to my heart is the Norfolk that lies in East Anglia, England. The Norfolk that I was reading about over breakfast this morning is in Virginia, USA.

Both of these Norfolks are experiencing similar problems, their coastlines and beaches are disappearing, both are being consumed by the rising seas. The powers-that-be who are in charge of the destiny of my Norfolk decided many years ago now that because the seas cannot be stopped sea-defenses would not be build. Millions of tax-payer’s money would not be used on a hopeless cause; hopefully it was used to financially support those who lost their homes!

Yes it was sad to watch as after each winter another stretch of our childhood-summertime playground fell into the sea. First the cliffs, then the chalets, followed by the coastal road and some big Victorian guest houses and tea rooms were consumed by the North Sea. In the summer of 2004 I took a boat trip along the Norfolk coast, from Southwold to Great Yarmouth and back. On the return trip our skipper took the boat nearer to the land and informed us that we were now cruising in exactly the spot where he had driven his grandfather’s tractor about twenty years before. We were about sixty yards from shore but well over one hundred yards from solid farmland.

Happisburgh was my family’s stomping ground when my sister and I and our cousins were small. It is now almost unrecognisable for me, even the teashop is not longer there, but our favourite landmark, Happisburgh Lighthouse is still standing. This red and white beacon is however little more than a corn field from the encroaching waters that in winter wreke an enormous amount of damage along our coast.

As Darryl Fears states in the Guardian Weekly this week one of the options for Norfolk Virginia is for its inhabitants to beat an organized retreat from the shore. Our fingers are crossed for our lighthouse that it will also be helped to make an organized retreat inland!

Notes

Guardian Weekly 15-21 July 2011-

www.guardianweekly.co.uk

“Surf’s up. And it’s moving inland”, Darryl Fears, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-new-way-of-thinking-as-sea-levels-rise/2011/06/23/AGq96TmH_story.html?nav=emailpage