So a bit of a late start to the day with a lay in until 10:30ish and a controlled fall, step by painful step downstairs after fussing Loki on the landing (who was very cheerful as Dee had let him into the bedroom before we arose). Sausage and scrambled egg breakfast (for us, not Loki) and it was decided that I needed to wheel up to Aldi to get a bit of shopping as Dee is still in quite a bit of pain and can't drive, walk, raise her arms much at the minute.
It was a lovely sunny day though so I got wrapped up warm in my ATKDA jacket from Master McNally and my Clash badge cowboy hat ready to go.
That sounds nice and easy when I'm writing it but having to get ready from a seated position, getting the jacket out from an understairs cupboard in a narrow corridor, opening the door a couple of inches then reversing a couple of inches, stopping and opening the door a bit more, then reversing again until I could get the door open. Then drive forward to the back of the door, turning the power off on the chair when I'm close enough to pull myself to a standing position so that the drive switch doesn't get knocked and send the chair off wildly where I don't want it to go whilst I struggle to stand and lift the jacket from the hook. Then I have to try to balance the jacket on my knee whilst I reverse the door opening procedure bit by bit. And finally I'm ready to move out of the hall corridor to put my jacket on. But once again from a seated position with the back of the wheelchair against my body. So here I'll stop going into detail about the stages of getting ready and the difficulty of actually doing it before I get to go out, and the amount of planning to get out of the door, up the ramps and out the gate, and then the journey down a very bumpy back lane, finding the flattest bits if possible. It used to be so easy before I became disabled, and I've not mentioned it because I want sympathy, I've mentioned it in the hope that anyone reading this starts to realize how even the simplest tasks become a challenge when you're stuck on your arse all the time.
Anyway, I got to Aldi (I won't begin to mention the challenges of getting there, dodging people in the shop, struggling to reach items, being stared at, having to put my shopping up on the belt using one hand whilst sitting down etcetera, etcetera.) But on the way in, as I passed the empty racks where the nice tomatoes usually are, I noticed several packs of half ripe Morrocan Cherry tomatoes and had to wait until a space appeared that I could drive into to reach some, but I got some rare fruits :-) I also got some dog food, eggs, Shiraz and other stuff but headed home for a nice chopped salad smothered in Encona Original Hot Pepper sauce.
Shopping trip over, getting bored of writing about that now, and Dee has made me a lovely Auchentoshan and Fever-Tree ginger ale.
So after my lovely salad I decided that I would take Loki for a walk (Dee usually does this but as I mentioned earlier she is a bit incapacitated). I won't detail the difficulties involved in preparing myself and Loki and actually conducting the walk because it's all worth it in the end and it's something that you learn to accept.
So the journey started off well, but then Loki decided to have a poo earlier than usual and did it on some grass about a metre away from the path. That's fine if Dee is with me but I'm on my own on a very heavy powered wheelchair with a very heavy old git sat on it and I know from experience that sometimes this weight causes wheel spin and steering difficulties on damp ground. So I'm now worrying that I'm going to get stuck and have to phone Dee who will find it very difficult to get to me. But to cut the story short, there was no problem at all and I just put it in to be able to post some photos of Loki. And I'm now absolutely knackered, sipping my drink slowly and looking forward to some Shiraz later.
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