I'm unsure what order December went in but I had some appointments, went out with friends, finished all my assignments did a bit of relaxing and was reunited with Sam. I also saw The Vaccines on Friday 4th December in Blackpool with Katie and Kodaline on Saturday 5th December with Irwin, Becca and Little Meg. My next post was going to be about some issues I have faced this year attending music events with medical needs/disability and so I was considering how to go about it. It will definitely still come I just need to write my piece.
We had quite a terrible experience at The Winter Gardens, Empress Ballroom in Blackpool where I was made to explain myself to about eight different members of staff, had my feed bag searched and was asked 'do you need all this?' and then, after I felt like I had already explained myself to everyone in the building, we were approached by a member of staff and told 'this area is only for disabled people.' I had initially considered posting on my blog the letter that I wrote in complaint to The Winter Gardens, but I think it's a little bit too personal and although writing it was necessary it was also quite demoralizing. Buttttt, I will be putting something together for a blog post to talk about this because going to live music is something that I love doing and there is no reason why my condition should be a barrier. I've been talking to a few of my disabled friends about their experiences with access and attitudes to try and learn a bit more about the range of issues disabled people face, outside of my own.
That said, The Vaccines were absolutely amazing and despite all that happened, it was the best live performance I have seen yet. They are such a good band; my absolute favourite. Katie and I had an excellent night and we both came out absolutely buzzing. So much so, within a week I'd booked to see them again in Cardiff with Stereophonics in June with my Dad. I'm so excited! There was the option of seated or standing room so we've gone seated and I haven't had to deal with accessibility facilities at all which makes things easier.
The days following The Vaccines I was fortunate enough to speak with a lovely man called Gideon from a charity called Attitude is Everything who work to improve facilities for people with barriers to live music. Gideon helped me to contact the appropriate people to ensure that my complaint was heard and dealt with and was really supportive in helping me sort things out and making me feel better about the whole situation. I'm hoping to get more involved with this charity in the new year because I think it's great and I'm now aware how much these sorts of campaigns are needed.
I also want to just mention that some people may be wondering where their Christmas cards got to. Unfortunately because of everything that has been going on this year Christmas cards just never got written. My Mum stopped sending Christmas cards a few years ago and now donates to charity what she would spend on cards/postage. Since I never got round to writing or sending cards I have made a donation to Attitude is Everything instead. I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year though and hopefully next year Christmas cards will resume as normal!
The following night we went to see Kodaline at Manchester Apollo and we had a much better experience on the disabled platform which was situated within good view of the stage for a change. We were really well looked after and Kodaline were also excellent. Everyone had a really good night and the atmosphere was brilliant. They did a pretty similar set to the one we saw at V-Fest but nobody minded because it was an excellent set and it brought back all the memories.
The following week my top student nurse Meggy B flew back from Uganda and we were reunited at Manchester Christmas markets which were good fun. I also didn't buy anything which is so great for me. The same day I got to see Gina and John again after about 5 years (?) at their little workshop in Afflecks. Gina and John taught me expressive arts (which I loved) and drama (which I was shit at) in my first timid year at college and they gave me a whole massive dose of confidence. John also taught me how to play guitar. It was so so lovely to see them both again and have a short catch up.
The next day I went to Chester markets with Laura which was my favourite thing ever. There is just never enough time in the world to do everything we need to do and talk about everything we need to say but our day was cute anyway and I bought some new earrings and a new hat at the market which was good. And I refrained from buying another woolly jumper... which was also good.
Two days later Sammy arrived back from the Isle of Man and within hours my tube fell out and carnage ensued from there and has continued to do so since then. Salford were ever... 'helpful' and even though I'm not under Wythenshawe any more, Radiology (genuinely, my favourite hospital people) sorted me out with a new tube the day after hearing about it. Unfortunately the new tube is leaking but I'm really so tired of dealing with it all so we'll just call 'tube' a swear word and I'll update when the problem is sorted. Until then I'm trying to distract myself and have a bit of fun anyway on hardly any nutrition.
My Uncle Howard and Auntie Pam were over as usual which is always the most fun part of Christmas. They'd been to South Africa this year and Uncle Howard outdid me by cage diving with Great Whites so it was so amazing to hear about that and just generally catch up on everything we'd all been up to this year.
Katie and Tom hosted an excellent New Year party in their beautiful new house with plenty of my favourite people and I had such a good night playing games, listening to good music and doing sparklers at midnight.
Thank you to everyone who has been there for me this year especially my three ace housemates who put up with me at my worst, Becca for being my BFF, Sam for being my bae, YOLO (especially Katie for having excellent taste in music and putting up with me at gigs), the English girls for helping me to not fail and for general loveliness, Rebecca for keeping me sane in Salford, obviously Laura for being the primary reason I have survived this far in life and many more people who don't read this blog. I'm so grateful for everyone. When things are shit I always feel loved and never lonely!
Hope you all have an excellent 2016! Many of you are overdue a good year and the rest of you deserve one!
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