I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles

The above sight makes me happier than I can tell you*. Despite a bit of a miserable day (thank you hormones) where I feel like I could weep, the grin still spreads across my face whenever I remember - I have a bath! A bath, of my own. After 18 months of being a total bath scav wherever I went. My friends were great and all volunteered their baths, but trailing round to your mate's with your towel and sponge just isn't the same as having your own bath, especially as the times I need a bath the most are the times I'm least able to get out and about. 

The record so far is three baths in a day. 

Like I said, the bath makes me very, very happy. So does the rest of my new flat. It's clean, new and there is soundproofing. I love the soundproofing. I love ChildSlave but ChildSlave loves to hang out at the bottom of the stairs, which, in my old flat were the other side of a bit of flimsy MDF. 11 year old girls aren't known for being quiet, especially if they are safely out of their parent's hearing and into someone else's. 

The other bit of particularly good news is the slugs failed in their application for squatter's rights and have been left behind in the old flat. BendyCat is delighted as she feared the cat food loving slugs. She was however, less impressed with the move, although I wasn't sure if that was the actual moving or the fact that it was BendyVet and Ben doing the moving. I found moving, supposedly one of the most stressful life events, to be psychologically restful after several weeks attempting to fill out my DLA application.

 I'm not sure if the hormones or the knowledge that I have to go back to finishing off my DLA form tomorrow was the cause of the pity party I had myself this morning when I thought my mobility scooter had gone kaput. Lovely Carer rode the mobility scooter she'd been storing for me here this morning, and had to phone to say she'd broken down. We weren't sure if it was the battery, some wheel affecting levery thing GangstaGuy had given a lecture that neither of us retained on, or a combination of both that caused the breakdown, but fortunately next door's teenage boy has managed to sort it all out and the scooter works. Woohoo! It even works enough to have transported both the teenage boy and I on a test drive so I'm sure it'll be much happier with just my weight to drag about. It's a good job really as I got myself into quite the state this morning when I remembered it was three years to the day that I wrote about missing out on a local event due to lack of appropriate mobility aid, and had myself a weep about how nothing had changed. 


Then this afternoon as I sat in my front garden watching the Spitfire loop the loop I realised just how much things have changed in those three years. One neighbour passed by and offered to push me to the pub with them, another dropped in to see how I was getting on in the new flat, then the boy next door fixed the scooter for me. 


Oh...and I have a bath...a bath! Which is where I'm headed now....



*Photo is of a bath filled with hot, bubbly water and a clear bath pillow with decorative purple feathers inside it.

Where's The Benefit?

I move flat sometime over the weekend/start of next week, still have DLA forms to do and it's August meaning the blogosphere is pretty dead, so while I'll still be tweeting I won't be blogging much for the next few weeks. 

A group of us UK based disabled bloggers have set up a new blog, Where's The Benefit to try and rally support against the proposed cuts to disability and sickness related benefits. We need all the help we can get so please head over there and check it out.

Helping Hands...

As anyone who follows me on twitter already knows, I'm mired in the hell of re-applying for my Disability Living Allowance. On the upside this means I'm not remotely bothered about moving flats so soon, that's easy compared to benefits applications, although I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a way of dealing with moving related stress. Oh, and if you have to move on the cheap using only 'friend labour'....don't do it in August when everyone's on holiday!

I'm off to visit my GP this morning, his name will be on my DLA application so he needs to know what kind of issues I deal with on a daily basis. How often I fall, what help I might need going to the loo, preparing a meal or during the night are not subjects which crop up during routine GP consultations as they aren't strictly speaking medical issues, but they are the issues the DWP are interested in so TopDogGP and I have to have a chat. Despite the best efforts of lovely physiotherapist J, my ribs and spine are as directionless as any politician so it's also probably not a bad idea to be seen by a doctor, I tend to have a poor perspective on how well I am at the best of times, which abandons me altogether at times like this. I do know I haven't been so ridiculously lax for quite some time. 


It's difficult to get an understanding of what kind of questions and answers are required by the DWP for a DLA application so as I'm currently filling mine out I thought I'd publish part of one of my answers. It's an issue I didn't give much thought to on the occasions it occurred, other than a few minutes sulking about 'dirty, opportunistic, groping bastards' but for some reason having to write it down has been very distressing. The question asks;


Q.31 Do you need someone with you to guide or supervise you when walking outdoors in unfamiliar places? 

"Sometimes I have no choice but to ask complete strangers to help me. Mostly people are very kind and will go out of their way to help, but some take advantage and I have been sexually assaulted by strangers 'helping' me who have groped my bottom or breasts. It is difficult enough to fall and stumble in public and deal with the pain of multiple dislocated joints, which dislocate again while I'm being helped up, but being frightened that the person assisting me might use it as an excuse to sexually assault me makes it even worse.
I need someone I know and trust to be with me whenever I am outdoors so that they can help me when my joints dislocate, get me to safety and I wouldn't have to be worried that a stranger might harm me further"
 

No legged cat 'caught a mouse one time'

The kripped up kittehs just keep coming! Meet Kelly Anne the cat who was chased up a tree by dogs, electrocuted, presumably not by the dogs, then had all her legs amputated. 

Bog Off - Exhibit 27 Bog of Beauty!

This is an extra special BogOff sent in by BSS reader Sam McCallum, thanks Sam! 

It's special partly because it's the most distant BogOff from the UK, even further away than the previous holder of that title from Hobart, Tasmania. 


The other reason this BogOff is special is because the public toilets at KawaKawa in New Zealand are world famous, designed and constructed by the Austrian artist Hundertwasser. 


Sam made sure to point out that the lack of mirror in the accessible toilet was not an oversight, none of the toilets have mirrors-true equality! This may not be the best BogOff for access, but it is definitely the most beautiful and interesting. I particularly like Hudertwasser's philosophy that straight lines are evil and the toilet only contains crooked beauty.
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