300ZX_666

Thanks guys, glad to be back.

Hi everyone, Sorry it has been some time since I last logged on here, I have had some difficult times, but getting over them now. I have missed everyone and the banter with you all. So back again now and for good hopefully......lol

On another note, I notice that nobody that have expressed views either way on this thread have not taken me up on my offer of using a wheelchair for 1 month, wonder exactly why that is???

Tell you what buddy, I will pay my road tax, and swap places with you as long as I can go back to my career, and as long as every 5 years you shell out the money for a new wheelchair. You have to pay road tax, I have to buy wheelchairs, do you know which one I would rather have to purchase, or is that a bit out of your thinking spectrum?

lol, cheers Ian, you know what buddy, I have many similar stories, I could go on for ever telling them, but a few of my favourites are here. One of our local chinese restaruants is ok has accessible toilet once inside, however there is a large step to negotiate to get into the place. Well we went for a meal there one night, and it was quite dark when we were leaving, now one of the perks about being in a wheelchair is you can let someone else (in this case my Mrs) settle the bill......lol. So while she was doing that and Ian Jr and Yvonne were with her, I decided to try and be a smart arse (not much practice needed there).....lol, and get out the door on my own. Unfortunately there is a rain channel under the step which I hadn't noticed, my chair front wheels got caught in it, and hey presto, I am there spread eagled on the pavement!!!! Luckily the were two big burly blokes just come out of the pub over the road, and in their drunken state proceeded to help me back up and into my chair, you have never seen an act quite like it......lol, brilliant, they did manage in the end though, so thanks to them blokes incase they ever read this. Second one and third one, I was chairperson of Liverpool wheelchair handball club, and the training session this one night was going really well, I wasn't actually playing, but was on the sideline with my back to the court, and I am only in my ordinary wheelchair. Well, one of the lads lost control of his wheelchair, believe me you can pick up quite a speed in a sports wheelchair, he smashed into the rear of my chair, he was ok, but my chair with the force of the impact actually ended up tipping backwards, again me spread eagled out on the handball court. And last one as I think I have bored yuo long enough, but this one was purely my fault for being the aforemeantioned smart arse, again on the handball court, I wasn't playing again this particular night ( sounds like I am crap at it and no-one wants me in the team.....lol) but it was because I was welcoming some new people, and sorting funding applications out. Well there was only around 10 mins of a match to play (again only a training match), one team was a player down, so I said I would go in goal for the remaining ten minutes for the team a player down, now Mary (our coach, and is a real stunner looking, so there's definately something about Mary).....lol, said to get into my sports wheelchair, but by the time had transfered the game would have been virtually over, so I just said I'll be alright in my normal chair, after all it was only for ten minutes. So soft arse here goes into the goal, match is going greay when Mary (who is able bodied) knew the bast way to beat me when in goal is a lob shot, she took the shot and I reached backwards to try and stop it completey forgetting I'm in my normal char, and yep, it tipped backwards, and I hit the deck with some force from that one. Needless to say I never played in my normal chair again.....lol. Hey bird, cheers for your reply and kind words. I am going to be a little big headed here, hope no-one minds....lol. Wheelchair handball is still in it's infancy, so there are no official rules printed for the game, so different countries play with different rules (this is why it is not yet and olympic sport in the para olympics). However, another first for the UK and Liverpool is that we have the oldest running team in the world, and I don't just mean our ages.....lol, it's been longer established here than anywhere else, so when the European Handball Federation wanted to sit around a table and write the first official rules for the wheelchair game of handball who do you think got invited over the Vienna to help write them, Mary as our coach, and myself as chairperson of the club. There were only about 20 delegates attended from various different countries France Sweden Norway and Japan, and they relied on us to tell the rules the way we play the game, so we did, and they are now ready to publish the first ever copy of the official wheelchair handball rules. It will then be introduced as a demonstration sport hopefully for Brazil 2016. So when you see it being played at the para olympics you can say I know a guy who helped write the official rules for this game.....lol. So with them not being published as yet we don't know what they will take from the way we play it and what from the other delegates that attended they will use, so I can't really say for sure as to what they are going to decide, but yes there will be a pointing system in place. I have a beautiful cut crystal medallion that I and the other members received to commerate the event that took place in Vienna. If anyone going to JAE would like to see it, I can bring it with me. Think I may be able to dig out a DVD if anyone is interested in seeing it.....lol.

Yes bud, JAE can't wait. See you there, and thanks buddy.

I know you weren't buddy, I think I owe you the biggest apology of all to be honest bud. This is in no way an excuse, but I had been out to our local (who do have disabled facilities) with my buddy Mike who I started in the ambulance service with (that is 29 years ago this month) time flys. Anyway, I had had a few sherberts, and was a little merry, and drink does not usually have the effect it had on me last night, if it was the drink......lol, but I just had the red mist decend last night for some reason. So my sincere apologies bud.

Thanks very much Gary, that is the hardest thing of all, the fact that no amount of anything will get my previous life back, and please believe this, I lived for my job, it was the best job in the world, and I miss helping people every single day. As stated I would happily trade places with any able bodied person as long as I can go back to being a paramedic.

Cheers buddy Thanks mate, and I fully agree with your thoughts on non nationals and non contributors. I could have gone on to say that I had to pay for the extension to our house to allow me to have a bedroom and bathroom, but I had to go on a waiting list for that, so spent 5 years living in the back of our garage with no windows, only one way of escape in case of fire, and no toilet facilities, single brick garage, I had to use a commode, and getting washed was a nightmare. There is also the cost of the disabled equipment that I have had to purchase myself, including near £2,000 on an adjustable bed, these are just some of the things that all add up, so road tax and some free parking spaces does not begin to cover any of what I have had to pay for. However there are some people (my brother in law was one of them) think that disabled people got everything for nothing, his eyes were certainly opened when I had my accident, he thought that once I was registered as disabled my mortgage gas electricity and just about everything else would be free.........how wrong can people be?

Firstly let me apologise for my little outburst last night/this morning but the thread about disabled drivers last night got me a bit hot under the collar. I am sorry if I offended anyone at all, that was not my intention. I would however like to put something straight, a disabled wheelchair user can have a bog standard wheelchair free in most cases from the NHS (really really heavy). However if you require something that is a bit of a specialist wheelchair for the lightness, seating positions, specialst cushions, foldability say for the boot of a Zed etc etc they have to pay for their own. My particular wheelchair cost me (yes I had to pay for it) £3,500, (my Zed didn't cost that). I have to change it every 5 years, so it costs me £3,500 + however much they have hiked the price up (and believe me, mention disability and the price trebles). Therefore my next wheelchair will probably be more like £4,000. So road tax and the odd free parking space doesn't come near to my personal outlay of thousands of pounds. My offer still stands, I have a spare wheelchair here, if any brave person would like to use it for one month, then come back here and state what the experience was like, please get in touch. The first thing you will notice is that 99.9% of your friends houses will not be accessible via a wheelchair, and even if you can manage to get into the house, most properties have the bathroom upstairs, so unless you want to make a mess of that new carpet your mate has just had laid, you have to make your apologies and leave. The second thing you will notice is that at least 50% of pubs/restraunts, cafe's, shopping centres even though the Disability Discrimination Act of 1989 1995 and 1998 (DDA) stated that any business offering their services to an able bodied person must make reasonable adjustment in order to offer the same service to a disabled person.......lol, don't make me laugh, most don't even have accessible toilets. Has anyone ever tried telephoning a caravan site and enquire if they have any disabled accessible caravans to hire for a holiday, the ones that do have them have a maximum of three, but most don't even know what you are on about. Please take the time to look around you for the next month, and see just how many things you see that a disabled person in a wheelchair could not do, or would have extreme difficulty doing. It doesn't really strike able bodied people until they themselves find themselves in the situation of being in a wheelchair, hence the offer of a month's loan of one, £3,500 quid if you break it though (lol, just messing). Anyone going to JAE can use my wheelchair and take themselves off to the accessible toilets, I will guarantee that you would not make it on your own. (This is in no way slagging the JAE venue or organisers off, but a wheelchair user could not make it to the accessible toilets by themselves from where the 300zx stand is). It is such a pitty that wheelchair handball is not yet an olympic sport, that is the sport I play (so I have to have a sport wheelchair that wont tip, watch some of the para-olympic games and you will see the chairs I mean) the cheapest of the cheap sports wheelchair costs £1,000, and they can only be used for sports, they would never go over the bumps and cracks in the pavements as they have very small wheels at the front.These chairs go from the £1,000 to many thousands of pounds, another outlay if a wheelchair user wants to play sports. I could go on all night, but I think this may help some understand that disabled people do not just get everything handed out to them on a plate, and have to fight for a lot of things to change the present mentality of some. I am an ex paramedic as most of you will know, even from going into a wheelchair from that career was eye opening, even as a paramedic you do not realise just how tough it is for wheelchair users. Cheers Ian

Welcome to the forum.

Had a laugh and got a quote for Jr. on the Range Rover, just short of £40,000.00 was the cheapest!!! And they wonder why youngsters are driving uninsured.

lol, welcome back to Zed ownership.

One defo has to dunk, it would be wrong not too, and probably against the law.....lmao.

Very sad news. RIP Neil Armstrong.

^^^^^What he said......lol. Welcome to the forum.

Didn't realise you were a lot older than me Graham.....:lol::lol:

^^^^Seconded^^^^ RIP

Welcome to the mad house....lol

:happybday:.....:happybday: Hope you enjoy your day bud.....:happybday:.....:happybday:

Good luck with the new venture bud, I hope it all works out for you, but with your skills I can't see that it wont.

Thanks for your support buddy.

lol, enjoy.

Correct bud.

Yeah Allan, if you are connected to your home network it won't eat into your 1GB of data.