4SuitcasesandaWheelchair

Today we visited Meadowside Extraordinary park in Whiteley, Fareham. The playground was that good, I felt the need to do a whole blog post to do it justice, rather than just a short tweet! We loved everything about our visit including the free parking at Whiteley shopping area (5 minute walk and very handy/useful bribery when needing to pop to the shops too!). Despite the gloomy, black clouds, even the weather was kind to us too, on a slightly chilly September afternoon. It struck me immediately how inclusive the park was as I spotted the wheelchair swing, trampoline and roundabout, as well as the adapted bouncers, swings and even a specialist picnic bench with a gap for a wheelchair user. Miss S and her big brother were able to play together in the park more than they had ever been able to do before. Their giggles on the trampoline and the roundabout, just made my heart burst, they finally have a playground they can play in together properly! This is exactly as it s...

Lake Garda, August 2018 – Part Three: We made it and it was Bellissimo!  Our wonderful week…. Sunday: Arrival - We arrived at Bella Italia in the dark. I always find it odd arriving somewhere new in the dark, it’s difficult to get a feel for the place when you can’t really see it! We were impressed to have received contact from a Eurocamp rep before we travelled to gauge our arrival time and provide us with a phone number to call should we need to make contact. This was really handy as having left the airport when the kids were already hungry, we could call ahead and check there would be somewhere we could grab a bite to eat when we arrived. Upon arrival we checked in with the campsite itself and then with our Eurocamp rep where we were given maps, local info and of course our keys to our mobile home. Having located our accommodation and off loaded our baggage, we headed down to the heart of the campsite and picked up some takeaway pizza. Eating pizza at 10...

Review: Flying with the Firefly GoTo seat As a family we travelled to Italy last summer and booked our flights through EasyJet. This was our first flight with Miss S, who has Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy. Initially, we thought we would need to take Miss S’s big, bulky car seat on board the flight to enable her to travel. After speaking to EasyJet’s Special Assistance however, we learnt that they were happy for the GoTo seat to be used on the aircraft. Now in the knowledge we could use Miss S’s GoTo seat on board our flight, it suddenly made the whole experience feel less daunting and all the more accessible to us. It certainly put our minds at rest that she would be secured safely and she would be comfortable in her own seat. We now no longer faced the headache of trying to figure out how her car seat was going to fit. EasyJet were not only very happy for us to use the GoTo seat, they were happy for us to take anything Miss S needed to make our journey as comfortable as pos...

St Ives Harbour Hotel April 2019  Mr S managed to escape work for a few days last week, so we decided a little break was in order. Having lived in Devon for the last 18 months and being so close to many stunning places, we decided to discover a little more of Cornwall whilst we had the chance. The search for a two night stay the following week, was on! Availability was not too much of a problem as it was just before the school Easter holidays were due to start. The bigger issue was finding somewhere that we wanted to stay that was accessible…that old chestnut! Lots of the beautiful hotels I was coming across were old Georgian houses and just not set up for wheelchair users. Phone calls were made to various hotels with varying responses...they didn't have a lift/there was a lift but no access to the floor with all the children’s activities/we CO ULD access the facilities BUT not in the same way as everyone else and a half mile hike around the property was the best...

Getting us to Italy… As a family of 3, we had been fortunate enough to travel a lot and not too much fazed us when it came to researching, organising and booking our trips. Master S was a seasoned traveller having done something like 18 flights over the 18 months we were based in the Middle East, so he knew the drill too! Throwing Miss S in to the mix added a whole new dimension to planning our travel. Just trying to think about all the logistics of how she’ll get from one place to the next, what happens to her wheelchair as we arrive at the aircraft door? Will we see it again the other side? Is there anything extra we need to do or say to ensure it arrives ok? Will it stay in one piece or will I have to take it all apart? What will she sit in on the plane? Would her car seat fit? Can her GoTo seat be used? SO many questions whizzing their way round our minds and making it all just a little bit daunting! After finding the flights we wanted we called Special Assistance ...

Lake Garda - August 2018 As a family we gave a lot of thought to our summer holiday last year. Although we are now a slave to school holidays and the massive price hikes they endure, Mr S and I, were keen to still do something we really wanted to do at a price we were prepared to pay. We have always liked to try and think ‘outside the box’ and take a step away from where the masses tend to go in the summer. We’d love to visit more of Spain, explore some of the Greek Islands plus much more but all of those destinations come in at a hefty price tag during the school holidays, at least doubling what you would pay outside of school holidays. I must admit I do love a bargain or at the very least, feel I am getting value for money! On various occasions over the last few years, we had thought of Eurocamp and quite liked the idea of it. Mr S had been to a Eurocamp in France as a child and I used to stay at Pontin’s holiday camps a bit closer to home, with my Grandparents in th...