Wheels at the beach

I spent Sunday on the beach at Southsea with family. It was lovely.

Well, most people would say lovely and mean hot and sunny. Actually, it was overcast with a few burst of sun, warmish but with a brisk, cooling, breeze. Proper English beach weather where you wear your swimming costume and a hoodie. So it was my kind of weather!

It is nearly 10 years since I was last at the beach. Beaches are not wheelchair user territory.

With my X8 (which I still can't quite believe I have!) the beach has suddenly become accessible. It's exciting, it's fabulous, it's...hard to explain how lovely it is to be along in traditional family trips and able to be fully involved with everything.

Here are a few highlights:

Having a lovely long chat with my older sister on the way.

Swimming in the sea! (Hurrah for wetsuits - they give my joints a bit of essential support)

Doing crosswords with 2 small ones while wrapped up in towels and hoodies.

Watching a small one play 'shooting robots' with my chair controller. His imagination is awesome :D  (Yes, I'd unplugged and deactivated it, so no risk of him wheeling off)

Discovering that the X8 does shingle more easily than feet do - although I did have to route around the really steep bit with very small stones. The pretty steep bits with slightly larger shingles it managed fine.


Watching small ones on the bouncy castles - and realising that my bootlace was the perfect solution to loose trouser elastic.

(I admit we laughed. A lot. We were helpless in the face of the pants-revealing ankle-trouser phenomenon.)

Eating dinner at the 'Giraffe' and playing at pulling faces through the water jug at a small one.

Utterly exhausting, but totally worth it!

:)