Saturday 24 January 2009

Hell Plates

I was feeling a little below par yesterday and the legs were just a bit wobbly so I decided it might be a good opportunity to try out the new chair. We were going to meet my brother and his wife at a garden centre and I knew that the area was flat and there would be propulsive help if required. In terms of manoeuvrability I did really well. The speed over car park was slow and rather hard going but once in the store I quickly got the hang of it. I mentioned in an earlier post how people ignored my wife when she was in her chair and low and behold it happened to me today. I was trying on carpet slippers (pensioners wear these things out) when I asked if they had a particular style in a size not on the rack. The assistant ignored me spoke to my wife who was standing behind me, went to fetch what she had, gave them to the misses and left as though I had some sort of communicable disease. I’m thinking “hello there, the legs might be a bit dodgy today but there’s nothing wrong with my brain”. I never bought any. It was bit of a gamble with some of the isles because they have not carefully thought out whether a wheel chair could get around the store and it took quite a bit of manoeuvring to get around. I never hit anything or anybody for that matter but I think I’m going to have to get a horn or bell fitted because people just don’t see wheel chairs. I might get myself a cap with a slogan which says something like “I’m in a chair but I’m still human, please don’t ignore me” That needs a bit of work.
Using a chair was not fun and something I’ll only be doing as a very last resort.

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