Mr Blue Sky!

“Sun is shinin’ in the sky
There ain’t a cloud in sight
It’s stopped rainin’, everybody’s in a play
And don’t you know
It’s a beautiful new day, hey hey”

Yes!! Another bucket list item achieved, accidentally. Arsenal has won another major trophy before I expire!!! For my international readers, Arsenal is a football (soccer) team which sadly I have supported and have been regularly let down by for 45 years. However, they finally came good at the weekend. Next on my list, meet Dame Helen Mirren! Does anyone know her, Introductions please?! A meeting with Joanna Lumley would do, I suppose, if I cannot source Dame Helen!

Back to life, back to reality. In my last post I spoke about planning a visit to our local theatre.

Rewind to last week when it all happened. We arrived at the theatre car park, and all the disabled parking spots were taken. Darn, this appears to be happening quite a lot! Hint to the authorities, or the political parties “What do we want? More disabled spaces! When do we want them? Err last Wednesday!”

However, we did find a suitable space very close by.

I, of course, used my rollator walking aid, which I now nearly always deploy except for only the shortest of walks. Not only does it enable me to move more safely and easily, but Jean can really relax without the worry of me falling over on to concrete or into a rather buxom lady getting in my way. Why are there such a lot of well blessed ladies on my ventures? But seriously, the rollator just makes things easy.

Within minutes we were in the theatre foyer and located a seat in one of the bars. They had Maltesers, so it was a proper theatre! Jean queued for a couple of drinks and we sat and enjoyed some fabulous people watching!

I was kindly given a pass for the lift by an observant attendant to enable us to reach our seating level and was looked after so well by all the staff. I was slightly worried as all of us mobility challenged were herded towards the lift. Were we being taken somewhere strange and suspicious? No, all was well when the door opened and there was the marvellous theatre. Jean was shown where to stow my rollator in a cupboard at the side of the stalls.

The play was fantastic and we are already planning our next visit. We do have another entertainment event coming up very soon which will require some very careful planning. More on that as it unfolds(tease, tease).

Looking out over the crowd of theatre goers, I noticed that there was a vast sea of silver/grey hair!

Lord Bragg should have been there, he would have made a killing with his Braggian 2017 natural looking hair colouring! An opportunity lost for a 1000 bottles! His wonderful hair colouring is suitable for all body hair, and for that reason he believes his product is totally and utterly unique in the market place.

He would like to make it known, that Lady Braggian 2017, the feline formulation has been fully tested and the reports of slight scorching and blistering have been dramatically overplayed. He gives the following advice, and it has now become the motto for his product,

“If in doubt, miss that bit out!”

Thanks to the Chichester Festival Theatre. A fully accessible venue.

So what has been in the non-political news since I last wrote? Remember onein400 is 100% politics free!

Well, I caught an article on the radio news that discussed how people were not receiving feedback after failed job interviews. You know the sort of thing, “Why wasn’t I successful for the role?” It did sound like a lot of applicants did not actually request feedback.

Anyway, Lord Lee Bragg has already reacted to this story and we have received early exposure to Bragg Enterprises Job Interview feedback form that will now be automatically sent to candidates. It was leaked by a concerned employee!

Seems very reasonable to me. Don’t know what his employee was worried about!

For those of you not familiar with H from Steps please click here for a few photos and biography.

With the amazing weather here in the UK, my trike has been used everyday. I have mentioned before that I often get comments from passers by. This week I was out near the local train station, when a couple of (I am being generous here!) young ladies walked past me and questioned,

“Is that a comfortable ride?”

Many years ago I might have taken this comment as a chat up line! Mind you when I remarked, with my now infamous MND voice, it proved more scary than attractive!

“Wweeesss it twis”

The absolute highlight of last week was the London to Brighton Mini run. It seems only yesterday that we were there last year. I am very aware of how lucky I am to have been able to participate in the event for yet another year.

These time landmarks enable me to compare how I am progressing health wise. Last year, was our first year that we didn’t camp, and again last weekend we again stayed in a hotel.

I have definitely lost some walking ability and it was harder to venture around the Crystal Palace park (grass), but I was still able to with my two walking poles. A fall on grass is somewhat potentially more survivable.

We had planned everything. The most worrying bit for me was the fact that we had to arrive at 5am on Sunday morning, ready to line up, and then the cars don’t start leaving until 8:30. That’s 3.5 hours of waiting and all before my morning constitution, if you know what I mean!? The time inevitably came and I had to visit the portaloos, which were quite a distance from the car, and of there were, of course, queues. But the “blue badge advantage” or as I call it the cripple look got me to the front of the queue! All was good, but by the time I got back to the mini, the bacon roll Howard had bought me was stone cold!

Here is the scene at the start of the mini run on the Sunday. 2000 minis! There was a bit of delay getting going as there was a queue for Lord Bragg’s parking fee machines. Parking was only £5 for the day, and he had installed handy machines that only took £20 notes, no change dispensed. Chaos!

It’s a great event. However, it cannot be said that is environmentally friendly. But, boy! What a great sound of roaring mini exhausts! We do have a particularly noisy one!

On arrival in Brighton, again, I used my rollator. We both love Brighton, and it is a place I like to walk around and people watch. I am now planning on renting a scooter on our next trip or perhaps buying a small transportable one. As I have said before on this blog, I am most definitely not falling into a wheelchair and will continue to slowly adapt and use appropriate assistance.

Hold on I hear you say! How did you get your rollator into a mini? Well here it is…

I have several rollators, including this one which folds into a very compact size. Look out for my rollator review in an upcoming episode with the famous Jay Kay Bragg and his extensive collection! Having more than one has become essential.

The Mini event is so friendly with people who all share a common interest. They love their minis, the way of life, the adventure and memories of driving days which involved “Might we get home without a breakdown?” Driving down to the coast in convoy, hundreds of onlookers waved. Along the route there were families who picnicked sitting on deck chairs along the roadside. We felt like royalty. The camaraderie is so important. Passing by the occasional broken down mini, we all commented “arhhhhhhhhh, poor mini“. Jean changed gear and accelerated into the outside lane and sped past and we all waved saying “I hope they will be ok“. You just don’t get that nowadays.

And finally. There was another reason for this week’s title, and lyrics. Mr Blue Sky, by ELO, was played at my friend Jim’s Funeral last week! Rock on. In the words of Jeff Lynne…..

“I’ll remember you this way!”

That’s it for this week, folks. Have a great Bank Holiday (in the UK). Back next week. Plans are afoot for changes in my weekly blog!! But not just yet…….