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[ewt]

Tuesday night - Pembury with pfy, hairyears, livredor, doseybat and pplfichi. Yay.

Yesterday morning with livredor, then lunch with her and daneres, then brainhacking, then home and ended up having abigailb and ali_anarres 'round for dinner. I made soup with baby corn in it and it was yum. Baby corn probably came from far-away places though; will have to see if I can get locally-grown stuff as it is TASTY.

The cat continues to be a delight. She's beautiful, and wonderfully affectionate. What more could one ask?

Today - osteopath. Must remember to ask about calf cramps, wrist weirdness. Probably not Aikido, much as I'd like to, because Aikido right after osteopath is bad. Might get out for a walk though. pfy says he found morels and I want to get out foraging again.

I have let the washing-up build up a bit too much today. I will do a load in between other things, doing it all at once will just hurt me. Once I get back to Isle of Cats I must resume investigation of dishwasher options.

I have been practising horn each day. I get about 10 or 15 minutes before it starts to hurt... both wrists, right elbow and shoulder, sometimes left shoulder as well. That's sitting down. Sometime soon, I'll need to take my horn with me to the osteopath - only, I can't carry it to do this. Bah. There should be a support tool on its way here, so at least I'll be able to play for longer. It's good to be playing again. High range and low range have suffered a bit but not as much as I thought they would. I need to get in touch with my horn teacher and arrange to have a lesson sometime soon-ish, help get me back on track, but until then it's exercises and Brahms. At this point I'm not even getting all the way through my warm-up, so... yeah. I hope the horn support helps. It should do, as it will take most of the weight of the horn.

Next weekend is looking VERY busy - B-Movie, Suzuki, various assorted birthday things, teaching re-starts, and so on. It's just as well this weekend is long. I shall try to mostly spend it relaxing; apologies if I seem a bit of a hermit. Then I need to start making an earnest search for part-time work again - I have many problems which could be solved or eased by throwing money at them, and not enough money to throw at them. I do wonder how I'll find the time though; by the time I've done physio and horn practise and general life maintenance my mornings are full, and various afternoons have appointments of one sort or another, and if I'm doing anything in the evening then in the afternoons I mostly need to rest. How did I ever find time and energy to attend classes and rehearsals? Oh, yeah, I didn't practise properly, and I felt awful much of the time. Duh. Well, I'm gradually fitting more stuff in and feeling less awful, and if I have a particularly bad day I just start again the next day. Knowing why the physical pain is there helps a hell of a lot, too.

Comments

[mubeimmik.livejournal.com]

Would a rolling cart of some sort help with the carrying bit?

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Yes - until I have to use stairs (many Tube stations still rely on them), or carry more than will fit on the cart (not unlikely if I get a small cart to try to minimise weight). Finding one that is actually tall enough for me to use without bending is also a challenge. I suspect there is another rolly suitcase in my future, not unlike the Timberland one I already have (and love - and it's a shame that I can only get my horn OR my other stuff into it...)


This is another "I could solve this problem by throwing money at it, if I had any money," thing, really.

[mubeimmik.livejournal.com]

I hear ya on the "finding one tall enough" part. I haven't found something that was comfortable to pull behind, myself. Didn't think about the tube either. I am still getting used to this crazy European no escalator life ;) Still when you got to a point where you were strong enough to carry it up and down the stairs, if you were able to find a cart tall enough it would certainly less the wear and tear on yourself if carrying was reduced to only the stairs.

[403.livejournal.com]

If so many of the tube stations don't have no-stairs access, how do people using wheelchairs navigate tube stations?

[pfy.livejournal.com]

With great difficulty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_underground#Station_access).

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

With the help of carers and station staff, or not at all.

Newer stations do have step-free access but remember that the Tube has been around for over a hundred years...

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

London is effectively a closed city for people with reduced mobility: have a look at the Tube Map (http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/downloads/tube_map.html) and see how many of the little wheelchair logos you can spot. The DLR and the newer parts of the Jubilee line are almost all of it.

The situation is far worse for the rail network: I am not aware of any rail station outside zone 1 with step-free access and very few of them have elevators. Within zone 1, the major termini have lifts for wheelchairs, which are usually in working order, but there is of course no step-free interchange with any other part of the mass transit system.

That leaves the buses. These are, on the face of it, available for all, with 'kneeling' platforms, ramps, and wheelchair parking areas. However, I have never seen a disabled person using a London bus: they are voting with their feet, so to speak, and I would be interested to know why.

Above all, there is the issue of overcrowding. London transport in the rush hour - and at any time on a Saturday - requires physical strength, endurance, agility and a constant willingness to deal with rudeness and inconsiderate obstruction. As such, it is the preserve of the fit and unencumbered; all others who use it do so because because a car is not available.

It is always a surprise to me, on visiting suburban shopping centres and towns outside London, how many disabled people there seem to be; this is a sadly distorted perception, as London's disabled are equally numerous but far less visible - not quite housebound, but definitely an underclass subject to curfew. The mobility services provided by the borough councils are nothing like the freedom of movement we take for granted, and of no use whatsoever as reliable transport to work... Which is, of course, the reason why the facilities provided by all the banks in Canary Wharf and the Square Mile remain unused: we do a lot of outwork and homeworking for staff with impaired mobility but this is a drop in the ocean when London's transport system effectively disbars disabled people from professional work in the major centres of commerce.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I've seen people in wheelchairs on buses, but only in suburban areas. I suspect central London is a bit of a nightmare in a wheelchair, also getting from Zone 4 to Zone 1 on a bus would take HOURS and why do it if you can get a lift to your local high street for most things you need? Is there much on Oxford Street that can't be ordered online?