Things are moving quick and productive with my "getting to Vancouver" plans...but seriously, sometimes..what a faff!

I promised this blog wasn't just going to be all "oh wow, i had this amazing experience!" So, this isn't a negative post. This is a reality post of stuff i'm having to do at the moment to get places. It's not a moan it's a "This is what i've got to do." it might possibly help someone or it might just inform and make a few people who've never thought of stuff, aware of what i've got to do in order to just be free and go over to Canada for four months on my own.

None of what i'm doing is new. So many eople do this all the time...just thought i'd write it down. :)

To make things simple, and easier to manage what i tend to do when i'm planning anything (like most people) i break things down. Initially i break tasks i need to do, when it comes to "going places" into able bodied/non-able bodied stuff. So your normal "sorting phone, money..." which apparently sometimes people find stressful (seriously, i have to laugh when i see my friends getting stressed by this student finance lark...it is nothing compared to the extra i have to put up with!) Though...as i'm finding right now...it's an extra add-on!

So travelling as a paraplegic 19 yr old with a fringe...
Within Britain...easy. Just attach a wire to top of your boot and shove what you can in there and bam!

Not so simple across seas and continents and as many frank turner-type explanations i can explain my life with...

If you have meds, which admittedly i do, (mainly for acne) you've got to get them in bulk as we
(Britain) are blessed with the NHS and don't want to be paying full wack in another country. The amount i need to take isn't so bad, and if you go face to face to your surgery and say, as I did,"I'm Laura May, i'm going to Canada for 4 months on my gap year and i need that much supply for my medication that's on repeat prescription..." They're pretty good an are like "ok!"
(despite the NHS website saying that a Doctor can only supply 2 months...which proves, as usual, if you just "go for it" you can get it..)

Catheters anyone? i now use coloplast ones and let's face it, i wee a lot!
An interesting occurrence occurred yesterday...i called coloplast to explain and ask if i could get 4 months supply sent over. They're not allowed to...and i found out some really interesting stuff too! apparently  a little box of 30 coloplast speedicath compact catheters is worth £50...so yes, i worked out that every time i go to the toilet, it is worth £1.67 (rounded up)...sad? Of course i am.
So...i could take 750 catheters over the sea and even more land...but what i'm going to do is get my parent to send them over in month-month supply through a courier as again, it would be so much cheaper than buying it when i get to Canada...£50 a week? C-razy!
So that's moving along...but then the interesting occurrence occurred when the lovely lady on the phone noticed that my GP hadn't payed for my prescription for the last few months and i luckily had enough to cover what i needed...otherwise i wouldn't have been able to get catheters. This has happened in the past and apparently happens a lot...it's all to do with the fact that instead of faffing around running back and to to the doctors and chemist i just call up chartered healthcare and they sort all that stuff and i get my catheters delivered the next day...which is great! it's just not when the "professionals" don't do what they should to make life easier...
Hopefully it will all be sorted and i think a renewal for my prepayment prescription certificate is on the cards...don't think i received my last one in the post...even though i did pay!
Oh and then there's the almost faff of trying to sort out getting an indwelling catheter...and needing a travel certificate as you know tubes on legs and stuff...i got a bit of hassle in belfast when they found my intermittent catheters let alone one attached!

So there's a tiny chunk of a day i managed to bundle an hours skiing, mcdonalds and a few rows of knitting into as well...things are getting there and all is good. I'm sad, i get a weird buzz out of getting stuff moving..but it's just me, and i'm lucky i can grab it and do it...

There's a lot more stuff to do!

Mum's gone viral!

No...she hasn't...there's just a few gifs floating around the internet of Jonnie peacock and Adam Hill sitting on Josh Widdecombe's knee and she's in the background...
(She's the woman in the orange cardigan on the left...!!!)
Enjoy!

I wish there was one of her face at Adam's...that was the best face to ever be on a gif...ever!

Quick response to a newspaper cartoon: British government's attitude towards people with disabilities, and i mean "real ones"...

This sums up the current British government’s attitude towards disability pretty well…”oh wow you can win a marathon, you don’t need dla…”

Followed a link on twitter today...and there was simple but informative article in the mirror about how many actually think the paralympics has had  a negative effect upon people's perceptions of disability..

Now, as a very bad person (apologises to History skills) I'm going to sort of sit on the fence, but dangle two legs over one side...personally, i think the paralympics have been great for what people think of people like "me" as not only, to be a paralympian or just cool like me and do cool things, i have to adapt and use different things to function as an "ordinary" human being and then on top of that to do the things i do...well...i just do extra..A lot of people are now aware of that, (and have been for sometimes) but instead of going 'oh isn't she marvellous?" every time i roll into town...now they don't need to!  Which is good, right? But sadly some people only see the superhuman mask, which being big headed, we deserve...but some, especially those who think they know it all, like our government, forget the "human" side.

So here's my initial reaction to the article/cartoon:
No, you Tory twonks. if i, and a lot of other people didn’t have dla we wouldn’t have the money to do ordinary stuff that then enables us and allows us to do ordinary stuff that then enables us and allows us to do “amazing things”…what i do, doesn’t just come out of thin air it comes from me being able to afford, thanks to dla, petrol so i can travel independently, wheelchairs, prescriptions, extra medical supplies, rent is higher in accessible housing(when you can find it) the list goes on….being a para is expensive and in order to be ‘me’ i have to have the tools to make myself into who i am…but sadly this government will probably take away benefits from people like me but will allow lazy arseholes who refuse to have ambition and are quite happy sitting at home, slip through the net. while people like me who yes, have physical “issues” but are open and adapt and strive to live life to the full will suffer…Do they not realise that these cuts to people who are able to work will make amazing, skilled people stuck at home and won’t be able to work and so..hmmm triple dip recession? So not only will people not be able to get in shops to spend money (access here is shit)…they won’t be able to work in the first place and that, my friends is why i am like…you know what, I’ll do what i do and hope that i enlighten myself and a few others and be happy. Sometimes, most often to be honest, you can change the world without trying.

I'm sure you can all pick at it, and argue...but seriously...

Adam Hills: The last leg of the year

Right. Adam Hill’s last leg of the year is on tonight. I was at the recording and he made an embarrassingly funny joke about my hair on camera…half hoping they’ve edited it out…half hoping i will be on channel 4 dying, having josh stick up for me!

Either way, please watch it. Simply because the last leg, Adam, Alex and Josh have done so much this year to allow the world to realise that well…it is ok! It’s ok to giggle at stuff that’s a bit different, it’s ok to laugh at the team gb rugby guy who’s face landed in his opponent’s lap. It’s ok to have silly stories. It’s ok to punch someone in a wheelchair if they’re a knob. It’s ok to be an Olympian, Paralympian, hairdresser, teacher, dentist, instructor, waiter, petrol station attendant…basically it’s ok to be you. No, it’s great and amazing to be you. And also, this show made me feel that it’s more than ok to be proud to be British. We showed the world that we don’t half know how to put on a show, hold about 5 national parties and get together through a difficult, depressing economic time through smiles, laughter, flag waving and rain, lot’s of it. So…who can say they’re not a superhuman for being true and the best of themselves they can be? Thank you 2012, you allowed us all to do ourselves proud!
If you’re reading this give yourself a pat on the back for ANYTHING you have achieved. It could be something everyone knows about, something no one but you knows about about, it could be anything…!

Much love...and yes, now nanna's gone i can get to work on laura May's last leg of the year. :)

<3 

Taken time of from running round...look what i did on Christmas eve/Boxing day!

It's pretty much an owl sanctuary and is also pretty much the first "thing" i've ever knit! Now, my friends are all "busy" with family...new year is creeping nearer and i promise to do my Last leg blog before then, and before Adam Hills last leg is broadcast on 30th December.

Hope everyone's having a great Christmas!

Laura :) x

London...it was supposed to be the last time this year...

London 6-9th December
For the final part of my self-planned birthday celebrations I dragged Mum down to see Viva Forever! (the spice girls musical) and American Idiot the musical (for the final time...honest!) In London.

My attempt at wheelchair hip photography!

We had a good few days, wandering around a place i spend far too much time in, enjoying the Christmas lights and decorations...and of course, we had to go to the imperial war museum.

We met up with my cousin who i've probably not seen in around 7 years and walked "The Laura May tour of London". yes, it exists...I did my usual spiel around parliament square and Portcullis house, over  Westminster Bridge and then to the museum itself! There was a really cool/inspirational exhibition on bravery with individual stories of how some people, have had moments where they've gone with their guts, against orders/the norm and done what's right that in the long run has saved thousands of people's lives. Then there was a not so happy, but important and informative exhibition on the holocaust. That feeling that you first feel properly when you're about 15, sat in a history classroom, crept back again...frustrated anger. It just kills you inside to think how powerful human beings are, how we have the amazing ability to use what's inside us for good but also for evil. It makes you want to punch yourself in the face and say "do good, not bad!" As, we're also naive, believers of "them", society, scary, big and extreme ideas that can easily flip and cause mass destruction.

So...the following day we met up with our friend Katie and went to the  Hollywood Costume exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum. While waiting to go in, we wandered around the main gallery and i couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the mentality of a lot of humanity. There was a  "fashion design" area where you use the renaissance section as inspiration to design your own costume...which, is pretty cool. I'm rubbish at drawing but i'm a history geek and i like clothes. The woman, who i believe i a top designer/lecturer said to me, "are you a textiles student?" I giggled, "no." "ohh...an art student? design?" I could't help but smile. "Na, i'm going to do a degree in outdoor education." she actually burst out laughing, probably at how daft she felt. apparently my blue hair suggests "art student"...i thought it suggested..."yep, that's Laura!" Now, she meant no offence by this, and i take none by it. But it just shows how the world loves putting people in boxes, does't it? You can't like politics but want to work outdoors, you can't be a massive Green Day fan and appreciate shakespeare. You can't be totally inspired by historical leaders and movements of the past and not want to do a degree in History...Well I can, and you'll find a lot of my friends and a lot of the world like lots of things. It's school, though i experienced it as college...that pass on the mindset, "if you like this, then you must therefore do this!" I like a lot of things, i do a lt of things but i have specific sections and things that i allow to take over my life...i.e. adaptive adventure/disability stuff. I sometimes worry, that it's wrong for this to b my life now, but...it's what i care about so...
Anyway, my interesting italian-inspired by old steps jumper picture got hung up, i found the costume exhibition really interesting (if not  a bit of a squeeze) from a drama perspective in how much colours and certain items of closing are paramount into fitting into the context of the film...
We then headed over to the science museum where i got over excited by the agricultural section, and the "who am i?" area, in which i tried and failed to become a man...and then got  a little lost on a straight road, attempting to walk 3 miles to American Idiot the musical.
We ended up just getting the bus.

Frank Turner

Frank Turner!

The half-arsed folk punk english country singer was bloody brilliant! Initially we got put into some really rubbish seats...i went to the loo, bought my t-shirt, re-appeared and Rose informed me that the guy with one leg had asked to be moved upstairs. So i flicked my fringe and i got, arguably the bets seat in the house...balcony, looking straight at him!

It was incredible, i sang every song and was prevented from jumping into the crowd....!

We met him (obviously)...there is no point in going to see one of your favourite people and not trying to meet them...that's just crazy. So we waited and waited and waited in the cold and he appeared.

We had a chat about kayaking and i got  a hug...dunno how we ended up talking about what i'm up to but he was like "that's wicked do it! why do you do so much stuff?" i went "well you write songs about doing what you want to do!" "oh ye..sorry about that!"

...good giggles. :)