Sunday, 26 January 2014
A message from my brother-in-law
Hi everyone, on April 13th I will be running the London marathon.Hopefully with your support I aim to raise as much money as possible for the MND association. If you would like to sponsor me you can go to my Just Giving website or click on the link https://www.justgiving.com/DaveBarrett1966/ .Or you can text me if you wish. Your support, even if it is just to wish me luck would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
Friday, 17 January 2014
Sunday, 5 January 2014
It Didn't Take Long ....
Didn't take long to find something to whinge about in 2014 although it's bugged me for ages; disabled parking
The blue badge scheme is a great idea but it is subject to so much abuse and misuse, its value is undermined. There are 2 obvious problems and 1 more controversial one. First there are the people without badges who are simply too f***ing lazy and selfish, so simply ignore the restrictions. When I could still speak I used to enjoy challenging these people just to hear there excuses and watch them squirm! The most frequent response was "oh sorry, I didn't realise it was disabled" or "I was only going to be 5 minutes". Even if in the unlikely event of this being true, it's of little consolation when I arrive during those 5 minutes and can't park. The next offending group are those with legitimate blue badges but seem to have forgotten the disabled person! These people are harder to challenge because the number of excuses is greater and occasionally more plausible, such as they're picking up the disabled person, to which you can't really argue, although 95% of the time it's total b******s
I HAVE actually challenged someone using eyegaze computer voice, but eyegaze typing doesn't lend itself to arguments and they are long gone before I have finished typing "you are a selfish c***"!
The final problem is more controversial. I have lost count of the times I have been sitting in Bushy Park car park and seen cars with blue badges park next to me, and someone emerges with the tiniest of limps and proceeds to walk a mile around the lake. I don't want to get involved in a cripple competition but it does annoy me. It's not such a problem in car parks with multiple disabled parking spaces but when the single space outside a London theater has been taken by a "limper", it is infuriating
I don't know what the answer is, I have thought maybe they should introduce a two tier system which helps ensure the most premium spaces can only be used by the most needy. I guess it's too costly and complicated to achieve and like many of those limpers do already, people will simply exaggerate their disability to get the higher level. While on the subject of questionable applications for a blue badge, there is a more serious implication of exaggerated claims. Because one of the criteria for a blue badge is qualifying for the higher level of disability living allowance, it means many people will be receiving several thousand pounds each year with questionable legitimacy.
.
.
The blue badge scheme is a great idea but it is subject to so much abuse and misuse, its value is undermined. There are 2 obvious problems and 1 more controversial one. First there are the people without badges who are simply too f***ing lazy and selfish, so simply ignore the restrictions. When I could still speak I used to enjoy challenging these people just to hear there excuses and watch them squirm! The most frequent response was "oh sorry, I didn't realise it was disabled" or "I was only going to be 5 minutes". Even if in the unlikely event of this being true, it's of little consolation when I arrive during those 5 minutes and can't park. The next offending group are those with legitimate blue badges but seem to have forgotten the disabled person! These people are harder to challenge because the number of excuses is greater and occasionally more plausible, such as they're picking up the disabled person, to which you can't really argue, although 95% of the time it's total b******s
I HAVE actually challenged someone using eyegaze computer voice, but eyegaze typing doesn't lend itself to arguments and they are long gone before I have finished typing "you are a selfish c***"!
The final problem is more controversial. I have lost count of the times I have been sitting in Bushy Park car park and seen cars with blue badges park next to me, and someone emerges with the tiniest of limps and proceeds to walk a mile around the lake. I don't want to get involved in a cripple competition but it does annoy me. It's not such a problem in car parks with multiple disabled parking spaces but when the single space outside a London theater has been taken by a "limper", it is infuriating
I don't know what the answer is, I have thought maybe they should introduce a two tier system which helps ensure the most premium spaces can only be used by the most needy. I guess it's too costly and complicated to achieve and like many of those limpers do already, people will simply exaggerate their disability to get the higher level. While on the subject of questionable applications for a blue badge, there is a more serious implication of exaggerated claims. Because one of the criteria for a blue badge is qualifying for the higher level of disability living allowance, it means many people will be receiving several thousand pounds each year with questionable legitimacy.
.
.
Saturday, 4 January 2014
MND
Here are some links to accompany my video
The Fiat Doblo In Front instructions are here which explain the wheelchair loading procedure
Fiat Doblo In Front instructions
The narrative for the video is here
Video Narrative
The company who write The Grid 2 software and supply a wide range of communication devices including eyegaze systems are Smartbox. I can't recommend them highly enough. Absolutely superb.
http://www.smartboxat.co
The wheelchair computer mount and power supply which powers USB devices were supplied and fitted by Smile Rehab. They also supply a wide range of products including wheelchair controls. They are very helpful.
http://www.smilerehab.com/
The company who do the Fiat Doblo conversion are Wilson Healey
but they now sell the vehicles through Accessible Vehicles
http://www.accessiblevehicles.co.uk/
My Wheelchair
Invacare tdx-sp
This is the standing hoist I use. It gives excellent leg support
sara 3000 standing hoist
I didn't demonstrate my toilet for obvious reasons, but here are the details
http://www.clos-o-mat.com/
The software I use to control the other computers is Dameware Mini Remote Control. It's gone up in price considerably recently, but if you need to regularly control other computers, this is much better than Teamviewer or log-me-in, because no user intervention is required on the remote computer, it doesn't even need to be logged in.
mini-remote-control
These are the details of the bed
volker-3080-bed
Tacky Spray
stickum
.
Happy New Year
Well, looks like I have made it into another year. Have to say I am glad to see the back of 2013. There were highlights including fabulous weather, a very enjoyable cruise and finding an excellent live-in carer. But the year was marred by the totally unnecessary and intrusive dealings with social services. Anyway that's all finished now so hopefully 2014 will be an improvement
We had a good christmas with both of our families visiting. This was the 1st year that the boys weren't up before daylight opening Father Christmas' presents (they probably twigged several years ago). We had a nice afternoon with my family, and played a couple of games in the evening before watching Dr Who. The school holidays have dragged . I could sight the atrocious weather as a factor, claiming the boys would have otherwise been going out on their bikes or playing football in the park. But in reality I doubt if any of them noticed the rain or wind because like most 12 year old boys, they are too busy worshiping Xbox, the god of gaming.
New Year's Eve was the usual affair of watching Top 50 whatever programmes before watching the fireworks. I managed a tiny alcoholic tipple courtesy of an oral syringe, the 1st drink in 3 years !!
So with that, I wish you a very happy new year
.
We had a good christmas with both of our families visiting. This was the 1st year that the boys weren't up before daylight opening Father Christmas' presents (they probably twigged several years ago). We had a nice afternoon with my family, and played a couple of games in the evening before watching Dr Who. The school holidays have dragged . I could sight the atrocious weather as a factor, claiming the boys would have otherwise been going out on their bikes or playing football in the park. But in reality I doubt if any of them noticed the rain or wind because like most 12 year old boys, they are too busy worshiping Xbox, the god of gaming.
New Year's Eve was the usual affair of watching Top 50 whatever programmes before watching the fireworks. I managed a tiny alcoholic tipple courtesy of an oral syringe, the 1st drink in 3 years !!
So with that, I wish you a very happy new year
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
