Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Having regretfully declined to partake of the hideously injured gingerbread person offered to her by a generous colleague earlier this evening, Lady Bracknell bent her steps somewhat wearily towards the omnibus stop.
Imagine her surprise when the driver of the vehicle which eventually arrived
Imagine her surprise when the driver of the vehicle which eventually arrived
- noticed her ladyship's handsome walking stick and, reasoning that her mobility must be impaired, offered to bring the omnibus closer to the kerb; and
- waited until she was seated before driving away.
Lady Bracknell has been a regular omnibus passenger in Liverpool (which was once - and may yet be again - a fair city but which is currently a landscape of mingled rubble and cranes) for well over a decade, and this is the first and only occasion on which an omnibus driver has displayed the slightest consideration for her enfeebled state. Lady Bracknell made sure to thank the driver warmly when she alighted.
This is indeed a cause for celebration, and the editor has been instructed to pop open a bottle of virtual Moet & Chandon the moment her duties as an amanuensis are completed for the night.
In other news...
- Lady Bracknell feels that she should offer some level of sympathy to those persons who were directed to her blog via searches for, "dominatrix in Bracknell" and, "lady canes couple". She suspects her humble blog will have come as a crushing disappointment to them.
- Lady Bracknell is not in the habit of linking directly to the posts the editor has written under her employer's name for the BBC Ouch weblog, but will make an exception in this case. She has also arranged for a link to the Free Wheelchair Mission to be permanently installed on the sidebar of this blog. Readers wishing to donate funds sufficient to supply a wheelchair for an impoverished disabled person in a third world country may do so easily via this link.
posted by
Lady Bracknell | Wednesday, May 31, 2006
4 Comments:
Might I suggest that Lady Bracknell write to the omnibus company in question with the time and date of her successful journey and a brief description of the driver, in the hope that a) this may secure the one decent bus driver in Liverpool his Christmas bonus and b) the bus company will be reminded that the vast majority of their drivers are well crap when it comes to providing a decent service to crip passengers.
I'm tempted to try that Google search now, but I'm worried about my cookies, so to speak.
I would also like to suggest that Lady Bracknell write to the local Liverpool daily, to reprint this blog, sans the Moet paragraph, to provide public commendation of appropriate behavior. This may result in others reproducing said behavior. However, this does not require repeat publications in response.
In reference to your link to the organization that distributes cheap wheelchairs to people in developing countries, may I humbly submit to your readers the name of another organization that also strives to deliver the means of mobility in developing countries, but by somewhat different means.
Whirlwind Wheelchair International works with people with mobility impairments in developing countries to teach them how to design, construct, and repair their own wheelchairs from locally available materials. This gives them the means to establish their own local wheelchair production and repair business, and allows for the possibility of designing wheelchairs to meet the needs of individual users. As Lady Bracknell and a goodly portion of her legions of loyal fans well know, no two people have the exact same needs even when they have been assigned similar diagnostic labels.
Local production also allows them to design chairs to fit local physical and cultural conditions. Standard western wheelchair designs, for example, often cannot withstand the rough, unpaved roads or climatic extremes that are to be found in many developing countries, particularly in rural areas. Also, in some cultures where everything including cooking and dining is done on the floor, a standard western wheelchair may actually serve to isolate the user by lifting them high off the ground, away from where most family life is conducted. So in some countries, they have designed chairs with seats close to the ground to enable the user to continue cooking and dining with their family.
Furthermore, equipping people with the skills to do their own production and repairs ensures that people who need them will not only obtain wheelchairs but will also have the means for obtaining repairs or replacements when their first wheelchair breaks down.
I am not a member or employee of this organization in any way. I am merely an admiring fan of their work.
Those interested in learning more may pursue this link: http://www.whirlwindwheelchair.org/
--Andrea
http://reunifygally.wordpress.com
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