Monday 25th March 2002

The Caravan site
We'd planned to go to Blackpool today. Blackpool is a large holiday resort
on the coast line on the North West of England. We thought we'd probably
be staying there in to the evening so we didn't set off until mid afternoon.
(Which translates as "we're lazy").

Colin having a morning fag
(Picture by Helen)
We didn't realise though just how late we would be staying! Blackpool
has a reputation for lively night life as we found out for ourselves (we
didn't get home until 4am). But more about that later.

A roundabout on a roundabout
(Picture by Helen)
When we got to Blackpool we drove along the promedade. I haven't been
here for a long time and had forgotten just how long the it is. It goes
on for a few miles and is packed with typical sea side frontages. This
time of year it's cold so there weren't too many people around, but in
the Summer it's packed here. With it's bright light frontages it looks
a bit like a street scene from Las Vegas, only smaller, wetter and colder.
OK nothing like Las Vegas then.

Blackpool Las Vegas style
(Picture by Helen)
After the once over we decided that, before eating, it would be a good
idea to get the dare we'd dared ourselves over with. This was to ride
one of the highest roller coasters in the world.(I doubt that.)

The Pepsi Max Big Dipper
Don't drink one before you ride it
(Picture by Helen)
As we queued for it we all went a whiter shade of pale and very quiet
except the occasional nervous glance and laughter. I have to say that
the initial plunge was possibly the worst I have ever felt and even I
whimpered, but only for a few nano seconds of course. OK I screamed and
thought I was going to die.

Me with Helen and Nikki behind me.
We look like we're smiling but trust me that was just the G-Force.
How did Helen's glasses stay on?
I wonder if underneath the rollercoaster there are a million pairs of
glasses.
After the ride it took a while to let the adrenaline fade
away.
While we were looking at the photographs of people on the
rides (see above picture) that appear on a bank of TV monitors I said
to one of our group who has partial sight that she should look at one
of the pictures because she was in it, and it was a good shot. She got
angry about my lack of sensitivity and I got angry back because of her
expectation that I should be thinking about her needs. I wouldn't normally
bring up an argument on here however I thought that this is a very interesting
subject and has parallels in many other walks of life. My point about
it is that it's very difficult to live in a world where we can always
understand the needs of those around us. Like wise if we are not understood
it is our responsibility to communicate those needs without taking out
our emotions on those who don't understand us. I once wrote a song in
which I mentioned watching a woman with no arms at a political type demonstration
held by disabled people against a charity telethon. The woman ran up to
and screamed abuse at a group of people dressed up as Court Jesters on
roller skates who were raising money for charity. For her it may have
been a release of tension caused by the oppressive effect of charity events,
however in her own way she didn't apply an effective strategy that brought
about an understanding of her needs. In the process she possibly furthered
those people from wanting to have any future interaction with disabled
people ever again.

Blackpool Tower (Picture by Helen)
Funnily enough it was my need to find a place we could park
near to Blackpool Tower, a miniature version of the Eiffel Tower, (kind
of), that meant we arrived at it just 1 minute too late to go up it. OOPS!
 
Fish and Chips in Blackpool
Move your mouse over the images above
After a traditional seaside meal of affordable Fish and Chips we went
in search of a fun night. First a bar, then we tried to find a Karaoke
club and while driving around on our quest we stumbled upon a gay bar
called the Flying Hand Bag. This looked like it was going to be a good
place to stop as there was going to be a Boy George impressionist on and
a night club afterwards.

Boy George impersonator
(Picture by Helen)
Lately I've felt a lot more easy going about dancing in public, and enjoy
dancing just for the sake of it. Being at a gay club does mean being careful
about eye contact if you're not gay, so most of the time I danced in my
own world with my eyes shut.

My impersonation of a Helen Picture
I've often seen disabled people in night clubs being treated in quite
a different way to non disabled people, and while I understand some of
the difficult emotions that non disable people face when they come across
a disabled person in such a "physicality orientated" environment,
I did not want to be treated like that. Around the top of the dance floor
was a gallery from which people overlooked. I remembered a South Park
episode in which the message was: better to have disabled people in your
face even with them being hurt by cruelty than to have them hidden away.
So I danced on regardless.
One woman I spoke to, Karen, was a teacher from near London, and it made
me think how funny it is that as kids we see our teachers in a way that's
probably so inaccurate.

Karen
I'm now older than most of my teachers were when they taught me, like
most people I still feel quite young though. Karen said she had kept diaries
since being a child and she didn't know whether she should burn them in
case she ever had kids and they read them. I told her that eventually
it would probably do her kids good to read them as it would make her human
in their eyes. Mind you I haven't read her diaries so I could be wrong.
Next page
Previous page
Home page
|