July 2020 – Accessibility and Hedgehogs

The COVID restrictions were lifting, and it was lovely to have a few trips out – including visiting my local pub for lunch – happy days!

Then on Thursday – local lockdown hits! I’m on the border of Greater Manchester, ironically my local authority had the smallest number of cases and even with the increase are not in double figures, but we still got the restrictions.

My village has a local authority border running through it, so half of us are affected and the other half can carry on as normal. My local (which takes me less than 5 minutes to push there) is over the border so not affected by the new changes!

I also don’t understand why I can’t have a friend around for a drink in the garden, yet I can go to a public park and meet up to 6 people? There seems to be little logic in this.

My uncle had been discharged from Southport, returning back to a nursing home to recuperate but unfortunately ended up being readmitted again. Its been 6 months now since he broke his leg and went into hospital, getting COVID after being sent to a nursing home.

Accessibility

I’ve debated for a while whether to mention this, it is a massive issue. Being in a wheelchair means spontaneous trips are a thing of the past. Trips needs to be planned with military precision, is there a step? can I actually open the door? a loo big enough for me to access? Parking (no we aren’t being lazy wanting a spot near the door – we need the space to be wide enough to reassemble the chair from the car and transfer)?

I find this very frustrating! Places that I could previously access without any thought are now off limits. My local post office, for example, I can only get in if the weather as warm because they leave the door open. Local Spar is somewhat ironic, they have a lovely ramp and automatic doors – yet I can’t get up the kerb to get on the pavement. These are the only 2 food/general shops in my village.

The accessibility building regulations should mean this gradually gets easier with time, however, this doesn’t always work! I went to a newly built pub for lunch, excellent – no step should be accessible. Yet, the front door was so heavy my able bodied companion found it hard! Next time you are out, look how many places have steps to get in – these are all off limits to me.

My current rant is prompted by my recent Lord of the Rings fest (I love Lord of the Rings and have regular sessions where I’ll watch the films together). I then wondered about a tour of LotR locations (a girl can dream!). Found a place that did a 14 day guided tour, so tentatively asked if this was accessible, saying I appreciated it might not be completely accessible, but as long as I could do most of the trips that would be fine.

I got a reply saying, “yes, of course they are accessible, we’ve had a really good feedback from other wheelchair users”, this was then followed by “you just need to bring along a couple of friends to help lift you in and out of the mini bus and help you get to the more remote locations”. Ermm????? That is definitely not the definition of accessible! As lovely as my friends are I’m sure they won’t be queueing up to spend a small fortune travelling to NewZealand on a LotR tour to have the honour of lugging me in and out of a mini bus!

Words fail me…..

Hedgehogs

Sonic the Hedgehog is still visiting, he’s also now officially more popular than me. His Instagram page has more followers than I do!

He’s also got a wife – Amy, and he sometimes brings his brother Mario.

Stay safe!

Julia x