wheelchair
Celtic Ireland
Sunday-10-February-2008 Filed in: Scrapbooking
| Holidays
Last August we went to Ireland for a week - here is one of the layouts from the Dunbrody Famine Ship.
The ships is in New Ross in the South of Ireland (Waterford) and visitors are taken on board to hear from 'passengers' about their journey on a ship to escape the Potato Famine of the 1840's. The boat is accessible for wheelchair users and the only place you can't see into are the very end cabins of the ship (unless you can be lifted over a ridge about 4-6 inches high).
About this page.
Visitors are give a 'ticket' to go on board which I 'aged' using chalks and ink. I scratched the edges of the matt photographs and inked them with a sepia stain which made a good wood effect.
As well as our photographs I also cut out pictures from the tourist leaflet to add to the information and the 12x12 paper is a celtic knot background.
Dwindling Christmas Spirit - thank goodness.
Friday-25-January-2008 Filed in: Independent
Living |
Why is
it...
T'was the night before Christmas... well not really,
it was the Thursday before actually and the venue
wasn't a cosy family scene around a log fire - it was
me and my PA in Tesco!
Christmas brings out the best in people. It is a time of good will to all men and of extra special good will to disabled people.
The charity boxes are filling up nicely giving people a warm and cosy feeling inside...
Note from Editor: Little do they know they may have inadvertently helped another person spend further years in an institution - but never mind.
and people are falling over themselves trying to help.
Ahhhh. How lovely. Actually not. Not lovely at all when you are the recipient of such goodwill. Now I know people are just being nice, and God Bless them for that because it's better than being left to struggle.
However, take this example from that dreaded day.
My PA was selecting vegetables and you would have thought I personally was adding to the variety of vege in that area (Ed. crip joke), when out of the blue an elderly gentlemen beamed at me and proceeded to squeeze my cheeks like you might do to a cute baby in a pram.
For goodness sake, I'm a thirty something woman not 3 months old. He told me how pretty I was followed by a comment that I wasn't to think of him as weird old man - he just thought I had a pretty face and felt I shold know that.
I smiled and wished him a Happy Christmas... but he lingered on. He carried on chatting whilst his wife did the shopping. I was turning a shade of red and struggling on how to politely get away.
"Some people wear a silly hat or have to shave to look beautiful - but you don't".
"I should hope not", I laughed. "If I have to shave my face then I'm in trouble".
He laughed and off he went.
But it wasn't over yet, do gooders were all over the place asking could I reach things and if there was anything I wanted. My Yoghurt Lady (a member of staff who works in that isle and is very helpful every week) spotted me in another end of the store and shouted 'I'll go and get the cherry yoghurts ready for you, how many do your want"? Back she came with my goods and popped them into my trolly.
As my PA was packing things into the car, the guy in the next car offered to help put them in.... there was no end to this jolyness!
If you are on you own then all this help is probably just that - helpful. When you have a PA around and you have to keep declining help and explaining you have your own assistant - it becomes tiresome.
Thankfully, now, people are going back to their every day lives and Christmas goodwill is a thing of the past. No one will offer me help, probably, until next December. And that's the real point of this entry.
We are disabled for life (well a lot of us) not just for Christmas - so spare a thought throughout the year rather use up the annual dose of goodwill all in one go - thanks.
Christmas brings out the best in people. It is a time of good will to all men and of extra special good will to disabled people.
The charity boxes are filling up nicely giving people a warm and cosy feeling inside...
Note from Editor: Little do they know they may have inadvertently helped another person spend further years in an institution - but never mind.
and people are falling over themselves trying to help.
Ahhhh. How lovely. Actually not. Not lovely at all when you are the recipient of such goodwill. Now I know people are just being nice, and God Bless them for that because it's better than being left to struggle.
However, take this example from that dreaded day.
My PA was selecting vegetables and you would have thought I personally was adding to the variety of vege in that area (Ed. crip joke), when out of the blue an elderly gentlemen beamed at me and proceeded to squeeze my cheeks like you might do to a cute baby in a pram.
For goodness sake, I'm a thirty something woman not 3 months old. He told me how pretty I was followed by a comment that I wasn't to think of him as weird old man - he just thought I had a pretty face and felt I shold know that.
I smiled and wished him a Happy Christmas... but he lingered on. He carried on chatting whilst his wife did the shopping. I was turning a shade of red and struggling on how to politely get away.
"Some people wear a silly hat or have to shave to look beautiful - but you don't".
"I should hope not", I laughed. "If I have to shave my face then I'm in trouble".
He laughed and off he went.
But it wasn't over yet, do gooders were all over the place asking could I reach things and if there was anything I wanted. My Yoghurt Lady (a member of staff who works in that isle and is very helpful every week) spotted me in another end of the store and shouted 'I'll go and get the cherry yoghurts ready for you, how many do your want"? Back she came with my goods and popped them into my trolly.
As my PA was packing things into the car, the guy in the next car offered to help put them in.... there was no end to this jolyness!
If you are on you own then all this help is probably just that - helpful. When you have a PA around and you have to keep declining help and explaining you have your own assistant - it becomes tiresome.
Thankfully, now, people are going back to their every day lives and Christmas goodwill is a thing of the past. No one will offer me help, probably, until next December. And that's the real point of this entry.
We are disabled for life (well a lot of us) not just for Christmas - so spare a thought throughout the year rather use up the annual dose of goodwill all in one go - thanks.
