Return to Derby - An Accessible City

Earlier this year I wrote an blog about my trip to Derby, and how fantastic the access was for disabled people. After reading my blog, the local council invited me back to Derby to show me around this historic city. Of course I jumped at the chance, and so in April I set out up the M1. I booked into the Cathedral Quarter Hotel and paid a visit to the very talented Derby resident and friend, local photographer Rei Bennett for a night out. She took us for a great meal at a Japanese restaurant called Moonsha. Truly superb food, great service and a totally accessible venue (as well as the yummiest house white I have ever tasted!). Already the joys of Derby if you are disabled were hitting home, as I had spent a great night where the issue of access hadn't raised it head once.

The next morning I went down to the lobby of the hotel accompanied by the darling wife Diane and met up with Andy Smart, a projects manager with Derby council, and Stella Birks, a visitor services development manager with Derby tourist board. As soon as we set out, the heavens opened. So rather than get soaked we retired to Jack Rabbits coffee shops for a latte and yummy cakes. This was already my kind of visit. While the rain fell, we chatted and it soon became clear that everyone at Derby council has a real commitment to making the city not only accessible but fully inclusive. On cue, as we finished our coffee the sun began to shine, so we set off out once again.

We walked down to the river side, and saw the works that have been carried out to create a community space that is used for public events and entertainment while also providing a great public space. Even the grass areas had been ramped and the whole site was a real triumph of inclusive design. impressed we then wondered towards the shopping centre. There are loads of live events on through out the year. As soon as you enter Derby City centre you discover how well shared spaces, once called pedestrian zones, really work. I know that there is a great deal of controversy around creating shared spaces, but Derby has been using them since the early 90's and they have ironed out many of the issues that some groups raise. Andy informed me that this has been done with the full cooperation of local disability groups.

Sure as a wheelchair user I do think that shared spaces are a great idea, but as someone who works in accessible design I also appreciate that there are major concerns about taking this route when trying to create accessible environments, especially within the visually impaired community. However, I must admit that it seemed to me that Derby had found solutions to many of these objections. There is a clear demarcation between the pavement and road areas, created by a dramatic colour changes in the paving around these transitions, for those with some sight, and using the drainage gully to mark where the pavement ends for those who use canes. The dreaded tactile paving, well dreaded  by us wheelies, has not been used through out, which may worry some people I know. The best solution is that huge areas of the centre are closed to traffic during the day. As of 10am all the cars vanish from the city centre and the roads belong to the pedestrians alone. Having said that, later on that night we were walking across one of these streets, now open to traffic, and a car slowed down a let us cross as if it was totally natural. If I'm honest I think that everyone who is interested in the issues around shared spaces should visit Derby and get in touch with Andy Smart.

Next we went to new arts centre, The Quad to meet up with Derby's very active disability group and the council's Equality and Diversity Manager Ann Webster to discuss the cities entry in to the European Award for Accessible Cities. Developments like The Quad are examples of great inclusive design, with all the facilities on offer being open to all, and as we chatted over sandwiches and coffee it became obvious how vocal local disabled people were in the evolution of their city. Just shows what can be done if you get involved. From this fantastic public facility we visited the local Shopmobility Scheme, which was staffed by a great bunch and really well equipped. Then off to see the new fully accessible bus station, which serves a fleet of accessible buses. I think you can see there is theme developing here.

Although this all sounds wonderful, the funny thing was that both Andy and Stella felt that there was still a lot to do. The picture above is of a proposed new access down to the river Derwent, that runs through the city centre. The plans for the new Council House, which is currently being developed, really demonstrates the commitment to inclusion, as do the proposals for the train station. A key element to Derby is the amount of historic and heritage buildings there are. Normally the preservation of historic buildings can be a bar to access and I know I have worked a couple of projects where all of my work has been stopped by the heritage lobby. But in Derby the council is so pro-access that they provide a fund available to local businesses to pay for any access works on historic buildings to ensure access is created that is in keeping with the preservation of the feel of several areas of the city.

This means that for anyone who is disabled and especially those of us with mobility issues, the entire shopping district is a dream. From the Westfield and High Street, through to the boutique shops in the side streets and even the local markets everywhere you go is just easy. In fact it is so good that when you do stop a shop with a step or two it actually shocks you. On top of the access, every one I have ever met in derby was really friendly and helpful. Before we parted I made sure that Andy and Stella understood that if Derby didn't win that award there was no justice. 

Back at the hotel we prepared for another night out with Rei and a gang of local creative types, including local disabled film maker Jen White. This time were we taken to a student pub The Friary and we weren't let down. Fully accessible, and very reasonably priced (hic), we had a great time, even if I was easily the oldest person in there. As we got ready to leave the next morning I felt a little sad. After two days of being able to do what I wanted, when I wanted as easily as imaginable, I was going back to the real world.

Now all this might sound like I am in the pay of the tourist board, but honestly I'm not. It's just that I discovered Derby by chance, and was totally blown away at how easy it was there for me. Every time I visit, I can forget my disability completely. Maybe it seems so good because I live in Camden in London, a place that is world famous for it's appalling access. All I know is that Derby has won a place in my heart. The council is totally committed to inclusion, as I keep saying, and that shows everywhere you turn. I now hold Derby up as an example of what can be done if you put your mind to it when I am talking to my access clients.

If you are disabled and haven't been... get yourself there ASAP! Check out the Visit Derby website for information of what going on and places to stay. I know I'm planning to go back very soon.

The Upload begins....

I am currently at the start of a marathon encoding session, with a pile of old VHS tapes filled with some of the programs I recorded for TV. I thought I'd lost them, but my Mum found them all in the loft of our family home. It's weird experience watching yourself from over twenty years ago. I never really watched myself when these went out, as it made me cringe with embarrassment, so having to sit and watch hours and hours of TV where a younger version of me smiles out of my TV screen fills me with a myriad of emotions.

The craziest thing, other than how young I look, is the fact the I have so many hours of TV footage with disabled people in it. Think of today's schedules and we are invisible, unless it's some kind of stare at the freaks type program (mentioning no names). This series of clips from Beat That really shows how far backwards we have gone. Beat That was a prime time kids series on C4 that got millions of viewers per week, yet it was fronted by a wheelchair user and had a mixture of kids, some disabled, some not. The disabled thing wasn't really mentioned in the publicity or made a big deal of, and C4 was proud of the fact that their first kids series was fully inclusive without banging on about it. This was the future for TV. Disabled people would just be part of what you saw on your goggle box. They were really ahead of the game... so far ahead that no one has caught up, even today. Not even C4 themselves.

Actually that's not really true, CBBC regularly has disabled kids on some of their shows and doesn't make a feature of it. But they are the only ones. The second series of Beat That was transmitted in 1992, so it's exactly 20 years ago yet there are still very few disabled people disabled people on our TV screens at all. Even if there is a change in the representation of disabled people on our screens in the next few months, with the Paralympic coverage, it will only be catching up to the place we were at two decades ago. Why did the TV industry drop the ball in such a big way? I wish I knew. I do know that for someone who was one of the best known disabled people in the media, I suddenly found it impossible to find work around the year 2000. Now everyone seems obsessed with New Talent, but most of the people that are discovered during the many talent searches that have taken place since Beat That went out ended up being ignored by the industry.

I think it is really important that everyone remembers that not that long ago disabled people were on our screens. I mean between Beat That and the BBC disability show From The Edge I alone was on almost every week. And there were quite few other well known faces too. Whatever does come along in the next few years, we mustn't forget that we are only playing catch up.

Over the next few days I plan to put up some of my music stuff too, and if you think the TV industry doesn't like disabled people you wait until I tell you about the horrors I witnessed from music types! Stay Tuned Folks!

Sex: Are We Really So Different?

I read the article "Sex: some facts of life" by Kirsty Liddiard in the April issue of Disability Now with great interest. I once trained to go into social work, with the aim of working with newly disabled people. I also recently decided to change my studies from a Psychology degree (to one in English and Creative Writing) after finding that the medical model is still being taught as the only way of describing disabled people's identity. It was really encouraging to see someone examining the issue of disability and sexuality from an academic approach. With Kirsty being a trained sociologist and disabled herself, I hoped that the article would finally confront the issues disabled people face around sexuality and relationships in a rounded manner. However the piece actually seemed to blame any problems disabled people might have on disability itself and how society sees the disabled, without any broader conversation.

Now don't get me wrong, I have an experience all of the issues covered in the article, from abusive relationships through poor body image to a lack of confidence over a change in the way my body functions sexually, and fully appreciate how each one can deeply effect someone's identity and ability to form successful relationships. My own journey to the place I am at now, in a very successful and happy relationship with someone who loves me the way I love them, was a long and painful one. I also appreciate that the way I feel about my disability has had a serious impact on that journey, and is still key to my psyche and effects how I really feel about my own attractiveness. But I do not agree that these issues are something that disabled people face alone.

 

A key factor to being able to begin the task of looking for love is self confidence, and this is an area that effects everyone in our society. We only need to consider the huge growth in the number of people undergoing cosmetic surgery to understand that issues of confidence have an impact on members of society that we disabled people might see as examples of "physical perfection", and that this is not what they see when they look in the mirror. Most sociologists and psychologists agree that low confidence around body image is a growing problem throughout our society, effecting both sexes. However much we might see our issues with body image as being more valid or obvious, the truth is the emotional and psychological impact of low self confidence is the same for anyone who suffers from it.

This lack of confidence can lead on to forming unhealthy relationships, which the article also covered. But yet again the stories of every one of the people interviewed could just as easily be those of non disabled people. I spent many years of my 20's in a relationship with someone who abused me, both verbally and physically, and they went on to repeat this behaviour with their next partner, who has not disabled. I used to feel that it was my disability that caused this person to act the way they did, and this led me to stay in an unhappy relationship so long, but I now understand that is incorrect. While my lack of confidence was tied to my disability, it was the confidence issue itself that made me stay. The same goes for anyone stuck in an abusive relationship.

A deeper factor in disabled people's lack of confidence can be due to a difference in the way our sexuality functions or our inability to have sex in a "normal" manner. While I was disabled from birth, my sexual function changed when my spine collapsed at the age of 15. This led me to spend most of my adult life wrecked with self doubt about my ability to satisfy my partners sexually and to what would happen if anyone found out about what did and didn't work in the trouser department. So I spent years lying to everyone I knew and praying any ex's would keep my secret. When I met my wife, being with her gave me the confidence to "come out" about the way my body worked. When I did so in the most public manner possible (i.e. on TV) I found that nearly everyone of my male friends sidled up to me at some point and admitted that they to suffered from serious sexual dysfunction issues. The fact that Viagra is now taken as a recreational drug demonstrates how big this problem is for all of male society. I do not feel informed enough to discuss the issues faced by those people who might need assistance when having sex, but can see how that might effect not only how you feel about yourself but how you approach sex entirely. I do know that it is normally these people who are expected to use prostitutes if they ever want to have sex.

Thankfully the article did finally dispel the idea that sex with a prostitute is a solution for disabled people, especially men, who are seeking sexual experience. There are many people who campaign for legalising prostitution who use disabled people as an excuse for their argument, yet it should be obvious that it will be an empty experience whether you are disabled or not. For anyone lacking self confidence, visiting a prostitute can only reinforce these issues. No one will feel better about themselves if they feel the only way they can experience love or sex is to pay for it. But there is more than one way of paying for it. I once was in a relationship with someone who expected me to pay their rent, buy their clothes and cover all costs when we went out and seemed to think that was fine as they gave me sex. It made me feel cheap and made me mistrust prospective partners too. If I hadn't met my wife I don't know what kind of barsteward I might have become. I also know from those non disabled friends who have visited a lady of the night that they have exactly the same experience of emptiness afterwards.

We now come to the issue of fetishism. I spent most of the 90's partying on the fetish scene and will admit I found the acceptance and tolerance I was met with really liberating. I even spent a short time going out with someone who admitted they "dug the wheelchair", if you get what I mean. I left the whole world because as it became more accepted by the wider society, the ignorance of the wider society bled into the attitude this underground scene. Once people understood that a disabled person wouldn't be in a fetish club if they couldn't have sex, what ever type of sex that might be, but I eventually found myself explaining on a nightly basis that my wife and I could have sexual relationship (on a nightly basis if we wanted).

Just because I spent time in the world of fetishists, that doesn't mean I have no understanding of why so many disabled people find the whole thing offensive. No one likes the stereotype that the only people who might want to have sex with them could be called perverts. Back when I was part of the London fetish scene I filmed an item for Channel 4's "Freak Show" series that I hoped would explore the subject of disability and fetishism in a serious yet light hearted way. Instead it was edited to imply that my wife was only with me because I was disabled, so I know how hurtful this idea can be. It especially upset my wife, as she had actually said that she loved all of me and my disability was part of what made me, me. Never trust a TV producer and their editor. The crazy thing is I admit that I chatted up my now wife partly as I saw she had a scar all down her right arm. I think scars are really beautiful and the way she paraded it so openly said something great about what kind of person she was. But does that make me a devotee of her and her scar, or is it just another facet of how perfect she really is?

All of this is OK and it is only my own opinion, but does it help us find a solution to love, sex and relationships? Well I hope it does. If we as disabled people realise that all of the issues we face around the subject are the same as those faced by everyone, whatever the cause, then we should hopefully feel able to enter the world of love on a more level playing field. Yes we do have our own issues to face, but the way they effect us emotionally is not so different to the way the rest of society's issues effect them. All I know for sure is many of my non disabled friends are desperately looking for the same thing we are all chasing, a happy and loving relationship and they wouldn't care if that was with someone who disabled or not. At the root of this whole subject is the fact that self doubt is part of the human condition and how we cope with it makes us who we are. So let's stop seeing disability as a barrier to love, and instead embrace it as part of what will make us a real catch.

Chairman Scarlet Speaks...

Recently I was challenged by someone claiming "You're Mik Scarlet!". They held their mobile phone up and showed me a photograph of little old me that was taken as part of the Re-Framing Disability exhibition. Now it's not my favourite photo, but before I had the chance to say anything my challenger laughed "It doesn't look like you do in real life", and at that they walked off. Apart from being a reminder of what it is like to be known by the public, it also made me want to explain the project and my photograph in it (that's it below).

The project involved a large group of disabled people examining historic images of disability held in the archive of the Royal College of Physicians, giving our thoughts on them and how they portrayed disabled people and then to have our photograph taken to be added to the archive. From the beginning it became clear that disabled people have always been around and have been of interest to the medical profession, even if they had no real idea of what caused the impairments of the people featured. What was amazing to learn was how much these disabled people of the past had found ways of creating successful careers. Many of them seemed to follow the same path as someone like myself and went into showbiz. Some even performed for royalty and became stars. The strangest thing was looking at the images before we were given any information and as we gave our thoughts it became clear that much of what we said was coloured by our own experience rather than historic knowledge. When we were told who these people were and what they had achieved, I think most of us were stunned to learn that disabled people had many more opportunities way back when than they do now.

When it came time for my photograph to be taken, I chatted with the photographer and got ready. The plan was to create an image that was equally hard to read, and that without any information might cause anyone looking at the picture in the future would read it as wrongly as we had with the images from the past. Now I have always secretly dreamed of being a world dictator, and so decided to play this role in my photo. I think we succeeded. If you compare it to the promotional poster for the forth coming film The Dictator the thinking behind my image becomes clear.

So I hope that in a couple of hundred years, if another project is run to examine the RCP archive then everyone involved will look at my picture and possibly wonder if there had ever been a disabled dictator with peroxide hair? Who knows, maybe one day there will...

(This says more about what goes on in my head than anything else I feel, but hey I am the Great Leader so what I says goes!)

For more of the images and the videos filmed of our discussions on the imagery visit Re-Framing Disability

"Spinal Injury - The Cure That Wasn't A Cure" or "Dude, Where's My Feet Gone?"

Back in 2003 I had a series of surgeries to repair my damaged spine, which had been broken for a second time after a car accident four years earlier. As an unforeseen side effect of this surgery, where I had one of vertebrae replaced with a titanium ring and my spine reinforced with two long titanium rods, I regained much of my sensation and some of my motor function. Everyone was so blown away by this that they all got very excited about the possibility of me getting back up on my legs again. Before I could even begin to undergo the years of physiotherapy and the commitment that required, I needed to have at least two major surgeries to fix problems with my bones that have arisen from spending twenty five years as a full time wheelchair user. This was a major decision for me and when I chatted with a BBC mate of mine about it, a TV documentary followed. I must admit that I wasn't really happy with the programme, mainly as they insisted on finding a load of people who desperately wanted to walk again in the name of balance, but Can Walk, Won't Walk (as the Beeb decided it should be called) did raise some interesting issues. I did the usual publicity, appearing on Radio 4's You and Yours, had an article in the Mail on Sunday and chatted on Breakfast TV about the whole escapade. Mainly as just about everyone out there was amazed that I decided to stick in the wheelchair.

But that story is old hat and not what I wanted to write about here. This is actually a follow up to the miracle cure story that everyone seemed so fascinated by. You see up until 2010-ish I did have nearly full sensation and tons of new motor function but then I slowly noticed that things had started to change. It started with issues around how my body felt. One day I would feel tall, and everything seemed normal, the next one of my legs felt really long while the other felt tiny. Then things got weirder. My right leg lost the sensation from my knee to my foot, but I could still feel my little foot which ended up feeling like it was floating somewhere below me. I also started to feel like my right side was shrinking, and this caused me to feel like I was twisting into an imaginary black hole that was sitting just off my right buttock. Trust me, if it's hard to imagine that because it is just as hard to describe. It was just the strangest feeling and this is the best description I can manage.

It had already taken me years to get used to the way my body felt after the sensation came back, mainly as I was much taller than my brain expected. Over the years of paralysis my mind had created a body map that had filled in the numb empty bits, but had imagined me to be at least six inches shorter than I actually was. So when the feeling came back, I was suddenly miles bigger than my mind's body map was expecting. It led to me loosing coordination for a while, and caused several accidents with knocking stuff over or crashing my wheelchair. My poor wife's toes also bore the brunt. But slowly I got used to being six foot three, and that as fine. Almost as soon as I felt OK in my skin, the changes started to happen.

Recently I have been ill with an infection, and this was treated with strong antibiotics. Not only did these treat the original problem of infection but it had an effect on the sensation/motor function changes, which came back with a vengeance while I was being treated but are slowly disappearing now. This has allowed me to understand what has been going on. In the past, before the most recent surgery on my spine, most of my nerves were trapped in scar tissue and not damaged or severed. This caused them not to work as if they had been more seriously damaged, but once released they came back. However, any surgery causes scar tissue to form, and it is obvious that some has reformed around some of my nerves causing the recent changes in what works and what doesn't. As scar tissue can become inflamed if you get a cold or flu, or an infection like I have been fighting for a while now (obviously longer than anyone knew), and this will cause the way those nerves work to change yet again. So if you combine the fact that scar tissue grows and forms over a long period and that recently it has been effected by other forces, the reason why the way my body works has changed from day to day, or even from hour to hour becomes clear.

So I am now in the position of not really knowing how I will be left in the future. I may find that things go back to the way they were in before 2010, or they may go back to pre-2003 or end up somewhere in between. I shall just have to wait and see. It's like Christmas morning, not knowing what presents you'll have. All I do know is that regaining so much sensation has not been the fantastic thing everyone else imagines it to be. I had got used to the body I had before 2003, and found learning to cope with full sensation very difficult. Let me explain why...

I'll use the example of a bot bath, as I think that gives the best explanation. Anyone who can feel normally and who can walk will put a tentative foot into a bath and if it too hot they will pull it out quick time. I have not been able to that since I was fifteen years old. But with my feelings working better I can feel if the bath is burning me, but have no more ability to jump out of the bath. Do you see? I can feel the burn but can't avoid it... unless I do the elbow test that I have had to do since going in the chair. The same goes for crashing into things in my chair. My poor feet look like someone has smashed them with a hammer sometimes, as I do tend to crash into doors and walls on occasion and my tootsies bare the brunt. But before I couldn't feel them. Now I can, but can't do anything to avoid the accident... other than be a better driver.

On top of the ability to feel pain without the ability to react to the cause, I also have problems with normal sensations that I had forgotten. Things like socks, that even now are so annoying to me that I spend all day trying to ignore the way they feel. I also keep getting woken up by the sheets laying on my legs, and if I sun bathe the wind through my toes is just SOOO freaky. Of course I was getting used to all of this but now these new sensations are coming and going so I have a new set of freakiness to get used to.

Now I thought I should explain why I wanted to put all of this online. Well, firstly I wanted to put something out there that follows up on the story of the "miracle cure" that the press jumped on and then forgot once I chose to stay in a wheelchair (oh boy they couldn't work that out, but were very cross as that's not a good story - Man Happy as Cripple is not the headline they wanted). But I also wanted there to be something online that might be found either by someone going through a spinal injury or by someone in the medical profession that explained how fluid the outcome of nerve damage can be. Even before my last operation, what worked and what didn't had changed. Bits slowly came back for years after I came out of hospital as a paraplegic, and I found my right hip returned totally over ten years after my first injury in 1981. Nerves are slippery little buggers, and no one really knows if they are totally knackered or dormant and in shock. If they are in shock they might come back in a week, a month, a year, two years, five years, ten years or... never. You just don't know.

That's why I am so glad I made the decision I did around not even trying to walk again. Imagine how crappy I would have felt if I had undergone two more major operations and spent years in physio, fighting to get up on my legs, only to find that I then lost the ability to do it all thanks to new scar tissue forming. All I do know is that whatever the outcome of a spinal injury, and whatever might come back as the years go by, the best reaction is that you embrace it, and try to learn to love it. If stuff does come back, it's gravy. If the stuff that came back goes away again, you've lost nothing. Personally I am actually happy that things seem to going back to the way they were pre-2003. I have never really got used to having full sensation without full function, and as things disappear I do not find myself mourning for what is going. Instead I aim to get on with whatever my body does in the future with a smile.

Now that's news headline that you will never see... Cured Cripple Happy That Cure Goes Away! Tee hee.

Reasons to get yourself to this show!

I have just got back from attending the fantastic Graeae musical Reasons To Be Cheerful, and had a great night. It's a great show and I can't recommend it too highly. In fact I wish I could be in it, although trying to remember all of Ian Dury's lyrics might be a bit beyond me! I have already written a few reviews of the show, so I will just say "Get yourself to this show ASAP!" They are playing at the Hackney Empire until Sunday and then move on to the Nottingham Playhouse from the 3rd to the 7th.

Do yourself a favour, it's one not to miss.

Travelogue 2 - Penzance, Cornwall

As promised, here is piece about my recent trip to Penzance down in Cornwall. You would never believe it from the photos, but Diane and I made our most recent visit in February. During the long drive, and at over five hours it can be a bit of an endurance test, we both noticed that as we got nearer to our destination spring had sprung much sooner in the South West. Typically it rained for the entire drive down there, but the trees had green shoots on them and the already green grass at the road side was filled with Daffodils. However bad the drive can be, letting the train take the strain can be worse. Last time we tried it it took over seven hours, and the disabled toilet was broken. Not the most fun I have had ever had. But I did not plan to make this an article on my dislike of public transport.

It is funny, but as we got closer to our destination we both started to feel more relaxed. We began visiting this part of the world when Diane's Mother and Step Father moved there. During our first visit I fell so in love with the place that I stated talking about moving there, causing much panic for my city girl wife. But I do still love the place. It's beautiful and rugged, with a relaxed attitude towards life. There is also a fantastic artistic and creative community. On top of that, property is much cheaper that here in London, but then I suppose there aren't many places where it's more expensive. Maybe living on the moon. Of course it's more the travel costs involved with commuting when you live on the moon than the cost of the moon base. So as our journey ended and St. Michael's Mount came into view the journey was all but forgotten, other than my very numb bum.

As we booked into our hotel, The Queens on the sea front, it kind of felt like coming home. It exudes a feeling of warm comfort that wraps around you like a blanket. It's a typical seaside hotel built during the Victorian expansion of the railways, and has loads of original historic features. The staff are fantastic. Really friendly and helpful, and a stay there does kind of feel like you are staying with family. Just family who have to do there best to make your stay pleasurable. So nothing like family really, but you get the gist.

Our room was lovely. We always request a sea view, as it is a must when staying here. Every time we've stayed our room has been large, very clean and a real joy to come back to. This time our room was even bigger than normal, with a gorgeous Art Nouveau brass fire place and a massive comfortable bed. The bathroom was large too, and I could easily get round our accommodation in my rather large wheelchair. I do think I should mention that none of the rooms have been fully adapted for wheelchairs. There are no handrails, and the rooms have baths and not wheel in showers, but I personally prefer that. I have always found that retro fitting older hotels for wheelchair access tends to be a hit and miss process and there is nothing worse that badly considered adaptations. Who needs handrails at the wrong height that are fitted badly, or sinks that are too low for anyone to use without getting their feet wet? I understand that this means some disabled people would find the Queens a little difficult, but I would still advise you to give it a try. I also know that there are other hotels nearby that do have full access.

One of the key benefits to having a sea view is waking up in the morning with the sun shining into the room, which really sets you up for the day. We ordered breakfast in our room on the first morning of our stay, which is a bit of ritual. Sitting there, scoffing toast, croissant and muesli while drinking fresh coffee with the beautiful vista outside your window is just sublime. Even in February, the blazing sun made our room so hot we needed to open the window and it's was warm outside! As soon as we had stuffed ourselves, we got ready to go for a walk along the promenade outside the hotel. It's one of the key reasons why Penzance suits us. It has a long and very flat promenade, that run from Mousehole, a little fishing village next to Penzance, all the way to the town centre. This is pretty rare in Cornwall. We have visited other places on our trips and they tend to mould themselves to fit the rugged contours of this area. Beautiful but not exactly wheelchair friendly. Penzance itself is still pretty hilly, but they are at least manageable. We once went to St. Ives, but found we couldn't get out of the car. This artistic tourist trap is built on the side of cliff, and so the roads are so steep that unless you are lucky enough to be able to park in the small number of blue badge bays on the sea front, you can forget it if you use a wheelchair like me. It actually felt like something from a comedy show, as we sat parked at an angle that could have been used to launch us into space trying to work out how we get the chair out of the car, and more importantly how we would ever get back into it. Cutting our visit short, we made our excuses and left driving, back to the safety of Penzance.

Diane and I have decided not go travelling this stay, instead we wanted to unwind and just enjoy Penzance. As well as seeing the relatives, of course. There is something that lifts the soul about a walk by the sea, with the bracing wind blowing through your hair on a gorgeous sunny early spring day. If you combine this with amazing views out to sea, and the fact that from Penzance you can see that arc of land that runs from Lizard Point to past Mousehole (which is truly beautiful and is such a large area that you can watch the weather rolling in off the sea) and I must admit I started dreaming of moving down there all over again. After wondering the sea front, we made a left turn next to hotel and fought our way up the hill. One thing for sure, if we did ever move there I would get even bigger muscles very quickly. Either that or a jet powered wheelchair. Now Penzance isn't all wine and roses for us wheelies. As well as some of the steep hills, the pavements are a little lumpy, and not all the shops are accessible. But it is pretty good, for a town with so many historic buildings. I personally found my campaigning head getting all passionate but I have enough battles in my home town to take on the access issues of a place that far away. If any locals want some advice, drop me a line.

Diane really wanted to visit a shop she loves, Mash, that does amazing women's clothes. After our obligatory shopping, we wandered the high street, stopped for a coffee and then used the handy lift in the Wharfside Sopping Centre that leads back down the promenade. Nice. Once back in our room, we relaxed and got ready to go for dinner with Diane's Mum and Step Dad. We met in the bar and then went onto Baba Indian Resturant just down the road from the hotel. All I can say is yummy. Just the perfect mix of traditional Indian restaurant feel with up to date modern cooking. We haven't been there before but it will now become a requisite of future trips. Always the way, find a great Indian restaurant that is a five hour motorway drive away from where you live. After a delicious meal, we went back to our room. Waking from a great night's sleep, which is amazing for me who finds sleep a real chore, we were full of beans and very relaxed. We went down for breakfast and then got ready for the drive home. One last wander down the seafront and we hit the road. It is always the low point of a trip to Penzance, leaving. We promised ourselves that next time we stay it would be for longer.

So if you've never been, I would definitely advise a visit to Penzance. If you want to just unwind it is perfect, but there are also loads of activities to do down there to. While we packed someone was waterski-ing in the bay for instance. Whatever you fancy, Penzance is great place and it is also a fantastic base to see the rest of this beautiful part of the world. We love it, and just writing this has made start thinking of booking another trip there soon.