AGE, MOBILITY and OTHER DIVERSIONS

This time in this year seem to be a procession of milestones. Time truly seems to pass, once slowly, then quickly as events happen. This is what I call relative time…..do not worry….. no quantum physics here….. rather the subjective feeling , than the ticking clock or the turning calendar. Tsitsi turned 60 …perhaps a little reluctantly, but with an enjoyable gathering of relatives and friends. A number of new people whose connection I needing explaining several times and I am still unsure about where they fit in the Mtetwa family tree, and some old friends of hers who came to celebrate.

But now is approaching another milestone, in July, which is almost on us, I will become an official OAP. I have filled in the forms to get my State Pension. Apart from that, I am not sure it changes my status, I already am a pensioner freed from working,  I already have my bus pass and free prescriptions…..In all I am expecting a low key change, I will have to tick a different box on forms asking for age, I suspect that travel insurance etc will increase, though why one day later I am a greater risk, seems to be somewhat arbitrary.

What has struck me though is that it is now 7 years since I worked properly, apart from odds and ends as described in previous blogs …. how many years to go ? and unless we start to count 70, 80, 90 and 100, a number of which are rather unlikely I feel, I am without milestones.

If I survive intact, until say 80, that is 15 years which is a significant period of time and of course it could be longer …………my birthday resolution (have I just invented a new thing !) is to try and put meaning into the declining years. I will not want to survive if my mind and body are not up to the task but as long as I can think ……………….

I also have pondered how adaptable human beings can be. Stories appear about people with great mental strength adapting, I am only suffering from mobility problems, but the ticking of the body clock has caused and will inevitably cause more need for adaptions and compromises. I was struck with that thought when I discovered the Mobility service at Nottingham’s major shopping service, rather by accident. It is a slightly complicated story but in brief, I had to take my car to a Citroen specialist in Ilkeston, about 8 miles from my home, Tsitsi had gone to work, so I was faced with getting home and then returning later to pick up the car. That is a journey almost but not quite possible by bus, as the bus from Ilkeston would leave me in Chilwell, only 2 or so miles from home but insurmountable to me on foot.

So thinking laterally and having scouring the timetables, I determined to leave the car, take a short i.e. 200 metres walk to the bus stop and then journey into Nottingham about 10 miles, I had hoped to be able to hobble slowly around a little and the retire to a cafe and then reverse the journey. It was here that happy chance intervened, I was walking, slowly, from the bus station into the Centre when I saw a Shopmobility office. Suffice it to say that after filling in paperwork and being trained on the machine, I was set free with a four wheel electric scooter and at zero cost !

I have to admit I had tried these before in USA supermarkets, but this one was different, not only could I travel round the Shopping Centre but I could exit and go down pedestrian streets and indeed normal pavements to other parts of the City Centre and the other shopping Centre at the bottom end.

What was of interest was several things, I was now unembarrassed by my use of the device, maybe I am accepting the inevitable, I was surprised that pedestrians do not think and just do U turns, or sudden stops and indeed on some occasions I was clearly invisible (I resisted the temptation to use the horn), but I made progress and was lucky with a dry and sunny day, in the rain and cold it may be a different experience.

Reflecting as I write this piece I now realise that having become a scooter user, I was reluctant to get off it. In retrospect, I could easily park up outside a shop and walk the few yards in with my stick, I will try this multiple mode transport another time. This might allow me to accompany Tsitsi on City Centre shopping trips ………… though on reflection this might create a new dynamic. Though I am sure that even with the disability, I could deploy the tactic used by men everywhere when their ladies are browsing in clothes and ……the ultimate experience to be avoided, shoe shops. “You go ahead Darling, take your time and I’ll meet you in ..(insert favourite cafe, pub etc) later”

Now I am still attempting to get the knee operation I need, that is another story, suffice it to say that The Nottingham NHS Treatment Centre complaints system totally fails to meet time limits for replying, the cynical me surmises that they hope I will get fed up and give up …………. not yet, not yet……….

But assuming I fail then should I get myself a scooter of my own ? That needs some thought, especially since that would need a new vehicle in which to transport it but would give me back the freedom to do as others do…just wander around old streets in old towns, perambulate or rather motor around stately homes, gardens etc etc. It seems an interesting intellectual exercise so watch this space dear reader…………………I feel another musing in the making.