The Next Day

Well, the next day, I woke up with a feeling of excitement. Did that really happen yesterday? Did a man called Glenn call me up and say that I'm going to Las Vegas to jump out of an airplane? I think he did, you know. It's a really nice change for me to wake up with a frisson of excitement, rather than just a frisson of menopausal sweatiness. Sorry, that may be disgusting,  but that's just how it is at the moment.

But it was a work day and I had plenty to get on with, including a Funding and Fundraising Fair to attend and I had to find a new grate for my tenant's Raeburn. If only I wasn't so distractible. It's quite usual for me to set out to check my emails, which should really only take about 10-30 minutes, depending on how many need urgent responses, but then get side tracked by something or nothing. Which I did. So then it was nearly time for my Home Care worker to come and empty my ashes. And then a quick bath, out to find the Raeburn grate in Lampeter and then home again, a quick coffee and toast and out to the F&F Fair. Some good freebies and a few helpful chats with funders and back home via the supermarket in Aberystwth. Any time I'm up that way I like to go to Morrisons because they have an electric scooter that one can borrow, and after going round and round the F&F fair I was in no fit state to be walking round a supermarket. So I asked for the scooter keys and jumped aboard (I use the term 'jumped' loosely). However the scooter was having none of it and I had to call the nice lady who gave me the keys back again. She apologized and said that someone had been out on it for 2 hours earlier and that was probably why it was responding. Great, thanks very much. What on earth can you do in a supermarket for 2 hours? So I ended up in a manual wheelchair, with a device I call 'the cage' shackled onto it, and a very pleasant, if rather spotty, youth to push me around. I don't like having to resort to that but I needed goat's milk and beer and the walking thing wasn't going to happen, so I had little choice. I just hope someone at Morrissons HQ reads this (yeah, right, I know) and decides to send another scooter to their Aberystwyth store. That was the second time that happened in a row, and the previous time I'd just gone without the shopping, this time I submitted to 'the cage' but only bought the essentials on my list. So it's actually just good commercial sense to have enough scooters for all number of customers likely to make use of it.

So ok, that whole last paragraph may seem like a bit of a distraction from the whole Bluehook goes to Las Vegas thing but in a way it's not. If you have limited mobility, life is a series of misadventures with access equipment, people and their weird attitudes, and all the wider barriers that people who have an impairment or two, or several, have to face in a world that still disables us in so many ways. And this will be relevant when I go to Vegas. Already I was starting to think about how I'd get home (6pm by now) and my very good friend and sometime P.A. (I'll call her J.C.) was visiting next door so I called her in for a chat and asked her how she'd fancy the idea of a high octane trip to Vegas, as my P.A.? With what amounted to almost negative hesitation, she said she'd be very much up for it and when are we going. She'd previously instructed me to win a holiday to the Bahamas, but this would do nicely.

So I had a look at my email then to see if there was any more info on the trip from 'the sponsor' and indeed there was, including the date of the trip, and various forms to fill in.

From: Jo@perform.co.uk Subject: THE BUCKET LIST - NEWS OF THE WORLD WINNER Date: 19 March 2008 14:22:37 GMT To: bluehook@madasafish.com Cc: carl@perform.co.uk

Hello Rachel, Congratulations on winning the trip to Las Vegas. We will be handling the arrangements and you will be travelling with other international winners on the same dates. I have attached some documents that need your attention and these are the information sheet, which contains details needed to book the trip, and then the waiver forms. The waiver forms need to be signed by you and your guest and returned please. We cannot process the booking until we have these 3 forms. I have also attached a basic itinerary and we will update this with the flights once we have the forms back from you. Any queries please don't hesitate to contact me. Regards Jo Foley Performance Entertainment Ltd Tudor Barn West Well Lane Tingewick Bucks MK18 4QA England Tel. 44 (0) 1280 847755 Fax. 44 (0) 1280 847740 www.performance-entertainment.com

The itinerary didn't tell me a whole lot more than Glenn's email from the previous day but here it is anyway.

THE BUCKET LIST   SATURDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER 2008            ARRIVE LAS VEGAS TRANSFER TO HOTEL LUXOR 3900 LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH LAS VEGAS, NV 89119 TEL.+ 1 702 262 4450 www.luxor.com SUNDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER            CASINO & DINNER MONDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER            TANDEM SKYDIVING TUESDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER   SHELBY FACTORY TOUR & GO-KARTS WEDNESDAY 1ST OCTOBER            HOTEL CHECK-OUT 12:00 TRANSFER TO AIRPORT DEPART LAS VEGAS

And check out that hotel.... wowee. I've never stayed anywhere like that before. The poshest hotel I've ever stayed in before was a couple of nights in Portmerion, in The Dome Room, and that was pretty amazing. I was doing a presentation for the NOEA and it was a freebie, otherwise I'd never have had an opportunity like that. Anyway (see what I mean about getting distracted?), I had an agenda, a P.A. and now I just needed to fill in the details. 

So the next day I email a response asking various questions and, because I'd read that sometimes sponsors will chuck in extras for free, I thought I'd have a go at asking for a second room and a mobility scooter. I also outlined my impairments for her a bit (no point giving too much detail to start off with, it just scares them). Within half an hour she was on the phone to me. The conversation went something like this:

Jo - "I'm assuming then that you won't be taking part in the skydiving or go-karting?"

Me - "Why not?"

Jo - "We'll need a doctor's note then"

Me - (silently rolling my eyes) "Of course, and I'll be having a conversation with my doctor about the whole thing." etc.

I try to keep sounding positive, cheerful and generally not like the stroppy crip that I am, when I'm having these type of conversations. I find that if I do let out the stroppy crip, people get frightened and are less likely to try and help. So she confirmed all this by email...

From: Jo@perform.co.uk Subject: RE: THE BUCKET LIST - NEWS OF THE WORLD WINNER Date: 20 March 2008 17:57:52 GMT To: bluehook@madasafish.com

Hello Rachel As per our conversation, answers in red. Many Thanks Jo From: Rachel Stelmach [mailto:bluehook@madasafish.com] Sent: 20 March 2008 13:59 To: Jo Subject: Re: THE BUCKET LIST - NEWS OF THE WORLD WINNER Hello Jo, Thanks very much for sending all the details. It's very exciting. I've never done anything like this before. And now, I do apologize but I'm going to ask you lots of questions... As I've not been out of the UK for 10 years my passport has run out so I am applying for a new one. Should I wait until I have that before sending back all the forms or should I send in what info I can give you now and then update the passport number when it arrives? Please send forms back and under passport, put TBA or renewing. I know it's a way off yet, but perhaps I could discuss my access needs with you at this stage. I have a number of impairments, including being one handed, Asperger's syndrome and very limited mobility. Need doctors note to advise fit for travel and able to take part in events. I have a wheeled walking frame that I use for medium distance and an electric mobility scooter for longer distances. I don't think I'll be able to bring the latter. Do you think there's any way of hiring one at the other end? http://www.scootaround.com/avis/ I might not need it for everything, but certainly the Shelby Museum tour looks like it would be a lot of walking. I will be traveling with a Personal Assistant as my guest rather than a partner. Would it be possible to get two adjoining rooms rather than a shared room? Additional room cost approx £300.00. We can ask if you share a room for 2 single beds. And finally, I'm a little unclear about the travel arrangements, and what is and isn't included. Will I need to get myself to an airport and if so, which one. Yes, Gatwick or Heathrow. And will I need to arrange my own transfer to the hotel at the other end. All transfers are included in Las Vegas. As I mentioned once we have your forms back and confirm your flights, we will send through an updated itinerary which will have more information on it regarding the transfer company, contacts and flight details. ...

So no freebie upgrades but I know that American hotels don't do single beds, most rooms, even in the scuzzy motels, have 2 double beds, and not just what we, in the UK, think of as double beds, but huge big giant double beds, so we'll be fine with that, though it was worth a try. The link she gave me for scooter hire was for hiring a scooter along with a car so not much use, but I'll have a dig around and see what I can come up with. 

It's the doctor's note bit that made me roll my eyes. I've been go-karting (my spell checker doesn't like 'go-karting' and has suggested 'go-farting' instead) before, and I have a driving licence so there's really no issue there. Any why would it matter whether I've got one hand or that I can't walk very far when I'm going to be strapped onto somebody who knows what they're doing? However, I shall play the game and get the doctors note. It's probably about time I checked out the results of my last bone density scan anyway, because if I am heading in osteoporosis (not unlikely, given the family history and my own medical history) then, perhaps, the whole jumping out of an airplane is a bit daft anyway. I get scanned every 2 years but I'm pretty sure that if I did have osteoporosis I would find out long before the scan showed anything up since I do, fairly regularly, fall over,  walk into things and have other more bizarre accidents. I don't think there will be a problem getting the doctors note, but I have learned to expect the unexpected when it comes to me interacting with doctors. In fact, I never actually see a doctor if I can help it. I fax in my repeat prescription form and pick up the medication at the chemist. If I do need to see a human being, I'll see one of the two Nurse Practitioners instead. For a start there's very seldom a wait of more than 10 minutes, unlike seeing a doctor which will typically take an hour to an hour and a half in the waiting room.  And, more importantly, they treat me like a real person, they take what I say at face value and treat it accordingly, unlike doctor's who always want to put their own spin on it, especially if they notice that I have a mental health 'record' as well. Doctors seem to find it much easier to assume that, because I've had mental health issues, everything else is down to that. It's an attitude I've unwittingly colluded with over the years, telling myself that whatever symptom I'm experiencing is 'in my head', that it's not real. I have dreams in which people are taunting me that my right hand hasn't really been amputated, that I'm just hiding it up my sleeve, and I look down, and there it is, not always intact (I lost the hand in several stages) but more or less of a hand. It's very embarrassing. So I won't actually be going to se a doctor at all, but I will get a signed note to satisfy Jo.