Terrorvision

From the stadium extravaganza of Muse last month we went to see an equally entertaining band, Terrorvision at the somewhat smaller O2 venue in Islington. We have seen them several times since the mid 90s and they still put on a great gig with a charismatic frontman and a big enough back catalogue to ensure the setlist kept Tracy dancing throughout. Although they actually split up several years back they do 3 or 4 night mini tours every now and again which we try and get to.

You probably know this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hLQCA2h8kA&feature=related

but I prefer this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOOcJobuZTc&feature=related

or this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yw4HYKSZuY&feature=related

Like the O2 Area, the Islington Academy is a pig to get to taking over 2 hours. But as the only wheelchair visitor we had a little area roped off to the side of the stage with a pretty good view.

MPH Show

Made the annual pilgrimage to MPH Top gear show at Earls Court a couple of weeks ago.

Apart from being a very entertaining live show and impressive exhibition it has particular significance as when I went for the first time in 2007 I had just been diagnosed with MND. So I spent much of the show contemplating if I would still be around to see it again a year later and whilst I'm pleased that I not only managed to make it in 2008 but also 2009, I still have the same thoughts each year. I'm determined to be there in 2010 even if I have to take a ventilator!

With the help of friends and brother in law I took the boys for the first time with predicable results. They loved the show and seeing the famous people from the telly, but were less enthusiastic or cooperative looking at the stands.

Trying to effectively discipline the boys from a wheelchair and with unintelligable speech is incredibly frustrating (and may get its own blog entry soon ) but uncle david is excellent at stepping when necessary and being suitably scary.

Jake is not keen on loud noise (unless he's generating it) so standing next to Tiff Needel orchestrating six supercars having their nuts revved off was not his idea of fun, but it was mine!

Halloween

A week later they were still eating the sweets. Testiment to the sheer quantities they amassed as opposed to our rationing abilities!

Family Tree

I have been spending many an hour on an ancestory website, putting together the Evans family tree. Starting with a few birth, marriage and death certificates my mum had I continued by scouring online records. Ordering a couple of birth certificates along the way enabled a dead end to be opened and a correct household in a census to be confirmed. You'd be amazed at how within a fairly local area you can find two families of 4 or 5 members with the same set of names. Having surnames in the tree which include Evans, Williams and Stephens doesn't help! My mum's side had some more unique surnames but has been hampered by her mum being French.

Anyway I have currently got 84 entries on the tree going back to Great, Great, Great Grandparents in 1799.

The process is quite addictive (in an oh god its 2.30am kinda way ) and it takes much patience and perseverance to extract the necessary facts by combining data from multiple sources. Its very easy to get the wrong records or make some information 'fit' for the purpose of convenience. If you don't get corroborating information from at least 2 sources there is a high probability you'll have the wrong person, but it may not become apparent until you've spent hours going down the wrong path.

I became suspicious this had happened when ancestors which had for generations, lived within a few miles of one village in North Wales started living in London's East end. And although it would have been interesting to have had a great great uncle who'd served 5 years in Pentonville, it was probably better to have spotted the error 2 generations later and eventually find that said great, great uncle was a shepherd who lived within a few miles of aforementioned village in North Wales!

Sunny Days

Spent the morning enjoying the sunshine in Hampton court gardens -most pleasant. Going to watch Jenson Button throw away some more points later

Up to London

Ventured up to London today to make the most of the last mild day and for a change of scene from Bushy Park and Hampton Court. Getting up and out now takes the best part of two hours with carer assistance so leave at 11 on chair and head for nearest manned station - Hampton court. Takes about 15 minutes giving me about five minutes to get ramp sorted. Approached staff member with "train dispatch" jacket and get response of "I don't do ramps, go and find the guard" an unusually unhelpful response. so with train about to leave I go to look for guard. Manage to find and get aboard. Reach Waterloo, ramp arrives and off I go. Accessing the south bank is a breeze and on a warm sunny day its a good place to go. I had come up a week earlier with less time available to see if I could get to tower bridge, which I could despite the uncomfortable cobbles around Tooley St. But I also discovered that the Thames Path at Blackfriars has been shut until 2011! So wheelchair users have a half mile detour to rejoin path 100 yards further up. Anyway I thought id go to Tate Modern where there was a Pop Art exhibition. was hoping the trip wouldn't require any tricky tasks but exhibition required ticket which involves following

1)having to speak to ticket counter lady and hope a)she understands my slurring and b)doesn't then treat me like a idiot. Unfortunately neither occur.

2)get her to understand that she will need to get my debit card out of bumbag

3)try and enter pin with knuckle

4)try and get her to understand that the phone she removed to get my debit card needs to be put back in the right way so I can pick it up later.

I know what I'm in for every time and there is a massive temptation just not bothering and as everything gets harder the temptation is given into more - but not today!

with aquired ticket I go in. not sure it was worth £12 but there was some good exhibits including ones by damian hirst.

only other challenge is the constant issue of lift buttons being too high to reach and having to wait for someone to help. I had to wait in a lift for 10 minutes once because the doors had closed and I couldn't reach anything! Finally someone else called it.

next challenge is lunch. Earlier I had got my carer to make a sandwich and put it in the wheelchair side pocket. The challenge now was to get it out! I had only just managed it last week but today - no. so have to ask passerby to help (see 1 above)

sit on south bank and notice how london's skyline is permanently spoiled by at least 20 cranes, but its still a nice place to spend time.

took myself across the millennium bridge and back before heading back to waterloo. got the faster surbiton train (always a bit risky because if they forget to unload me i'll end up in Alton or Portsmouth! ) and came home via kingston and bushy park. home at 5 in time for carer to help me with everything.

despite usual hassle, a good day out.

Expensive Trip to Wisley

went to look at the gardens and ended up buying this. tracy mentioned she had no ideas for my birthday so I mentioned that I liked this. It looks great in our garden.