We did Disney

We interrupt current musings to bring you some light and colour and fantasy courtesy of our DISNEYLAND TRIP!

Hooray!

Now I know there are all sorts of people out there with many and varied thoughts and feelings and opinions about the corporation that is Disney, but let's all forget that for a while shall we? Drop it all at the door as you leave the world of today and enter the world of fantasy.

I love Disney. I don't enter into all the psychology of whether or not Disney Princesses are suitable role models for young girls. Honestly, I couldn't give two hoots. Really. I think it's all a bunch of hoo-ha adults have just applied to an innocence that belongs to children and that they have forgotten.

I grew up watching the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights with my family. Babes In Toyland, Tom Thumb, Old Yeller bring back particularly happy memories. I loved watching The New Mickey Mouse Club in the 70's and my dearest wish was to own a pair of Mickey ears like all the Mouseketeers. I have vivid memories of watching Annette Funicello from the original Mouseketeers but of the Mouseketeers of my childhood the only names I remember are Lisa Whelchel and Mindy Feldman, despite the fact that I adored all of them. As a really little girl I "flew" around the loungeroom with my brothers as we played a 45" record of some of the songs to Peter Pan. To this day I know every single word to You Can Fly, What Makes the Red Man Red? and Following The Leader. Between the ages of four to twelve, I wasn't thinking about the psychological influences princesses such as Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella were having on me. They were cartoons! They weren't real....but they were fun to watch.....and that's where it began and ended.

I was more interested in Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy anyway.

As a child, going to Disneyland was my ultimate dream.

I cannot believe that as an adult I've now been twice. I now own those much coveted Mickey ears, embroidered with my very own name.

My daughter Chloe documented our Disneyland 2014 trip with video. She's editing it at the moment and has shown me bits and pieces of it. On the first day you can hear Georgia and I giggling with excitement as we entered Main St. I love that. I love that we just leave our grown up, responsible selves outside the gates and allow ourselves to become excited little children again.

I take this sign very seriously!

There should be more of it. Being a grown up is extremely overrated.

Day 1: Chloe's birthday. Very excited! I was especially excited because this time we could see the CASTLE! In 2004 it was covered in scaffolding. 

Disneyland is known as "The Happiest Place On Earth" and for Chloe's birthday it really felt like it was. Our first stop was to get her a birthday badge from the Town Hall in Main St. After that it was like every second person would wish her a happy birthday - Disneyland staff (also known as "Cast Members"), ride operators, waiters, strangers....everyone! It was pretty cool.

The crowds were huge, but we had a wonderful time. Last time we were at Disneyland you would be able to go straight to the front of a queue if you were in a wheelchair and wanted to go on a ride. Since then they have streamlined the process so that it is fair and equitable for all guests. They have introduced the "Return Pass" whereby you go to the Wheelchair Entrance (usually at the Exit) and get a Pass that gives you a window of time in which you can return and go on the ride - say for example you wanted to go on Pirates of the Carribean. The Cast Member would give you a slip of paper to say that you could return between 10:15am and 11:15am and you'd be able to go on the ride pretty much straight away. We found it really convenient because you could book Return Passes for several rides in succession and just go off and enjoy other attractions.

One of my favorites is the "World Famous Jungle Cruuuuuuise!" 

Of course there were rides the girls couldn't go on, but in their selfless way they encouraged Tim and I to go.

Here we are waiting to go on The Matterhorn! We waited an HOUR to go on it.


Part of the Disneyland experience is meeting the characters. DO NOT tell me that they're just suits. They're not! We really did meet the REAL Minnie, Mickey, Pooh and everyone else. Real I tell ya! REAL!

Minnie is Chloe's favorite. She is as sweet as....and VERY popular. The line to meet Minnie is something like an hour long!

All in all we had four days in Disneyland and California Adventures. Near the end of our time we kind of felt like locals and knew the park like the back of our hand.

This dude is known as "our biggest fan". He is there every time we do our very own parade down Main Street.

Actually we watched a couple of parades - ones that we didn't participate in!

We had a magical time. Just magical, even though it was crowded, even though we weren't able to use our motorised wheelchairs, even though we experienced a 5.1 magnitude earthquake at 9:30pm on the Friday night when we were waiting to go on Pirates of the Carribean for the second time and had to evacuate the park. Honestly, it was fantastic. 

When we were there in 2004 I made a wish at the Wishing Well. I wished that we would one day return to Disneyland. It came true! This time I didn't wish the same thing. I wished for something more close to home and personal. It's my dearest wish at the moment.  I hope beyond hope it comes true. It's starting to already!

But I do hope we get to go back again one day!

Independence Machine

Yesterday the kids and I returned from a nine day trip to Los Angeles, California. Anaheim to be exact. Anaheim, as everyone knows, means Disneyland and that was our reason for going. Chloe determined on her 23rd birthday in 2013 that she wanted to celebrate her 24th Birthday in the Happiest Place on Earth so she set about planning for it to happen. She researched everything and found accessible accommodation close to the Park, the flights she needed to take, how to take a motorised wheelchair on a plane, how to get from LAX to the motel. She even researched tipping etiquette. All of us saved for a year to make it happen.

Her sister Sarah had already gone over to the USA with her wheelchair and had no problems charging it with the power point adaptors provided. A friend of hers who was familiar with electronics had warned her that she would need some kind of a transformer to convert the power to the appropriate amps for the chargers, however when she got there she found that the transformer wasn't needed and the chair charged without any issue.

So, when it came time for us to trip over to California this time we thought everything would be the same and we left the transformer in the shed at home...

The thought that there may be a problem never entered our heads. On getting to our hotel we were alarmed to discover that the adaptors we had only delivered 10 amps. The chargers needed 24 amps. The chairs weren't charging. 

The one thing we hadn't planned for was happening. The girls had no means of getting around. Unless we hired push wheelchairs we were going to be confined to the motel for eight days.

Luckily the ever-helpful and cheery Andrew from the Menage Hotel in Anaheim saved the day and hired some chairs for us. Bright and early the next morning he delivered them to our door. Sure they were costing us $20 per chair per day but at least we had transportation!

It was the best option we had. No, the girls didn't have their independence and had to rely on Tim and myself to push them everywhere they needed to be, but we were out and about, and that was the main thing. We still had fun...just a different kind of fun than we had planned for.

But see that little white box on the bottom left hand corner of the picture? Oh how we longed for that little white box sitting uselessly in the shed hundreds of thousands of kilometres away!

I've never understood the mindset of those who view wheelchairs as a more "inferior" way of getting around - as though by having one and using one is a second rate option to walking. Do people not realise that not having one when you need one is actually the factor that "makes" you disabled? In their chairs the girls can do anything, go anywhere, be totally independent. They can plan their own days, catch up with friends, sightsee, explore, make their own purchases and take their own sweet time doing so. They can separate from a group and say, "I'll meet you *here* at *this* time." They can access everything they need to and more.

The week without their chairs meant that none of the above happened - for ALL of us. Don't get me wrong, we had the most amazing, wonderful, adventurous holiday and we'd do it all again in a heartbeat, but there were more considerations to make. None of us could be totally free and independent if we wanted to be. The girls had to consider the energy levels and stamina of the two people who were assisting them. The two people assisting them had to consider the needs and wants of the girls, ensuring that they too got the most out of their holiday experience. Sometimes communicating all this was difficult....but we all tried as best we could. Each of us were acutely aware of the feelings, needs and wants of each other. We relaxed, but not as much as we planned.

We're home now and the electric wheelchairs are on charge; sucking up as many amps as they need. We learned a valuable lesson these holidays - plan as best you can but expect the totally unexpected. Have a back up plan. 

But whatever happens, suck the most fun as you can out of every single moment!

Board on Holidays

In my adult years I've not been one for board games. I'm now kind of understanding how my mother used to feel about playing them when we were kids. As kids we were mad for them - Monopoly, Snakes & Ladders, Cluedo, Ludo, Chinese Checkers and some that I can kind of recall playing but don't know the name of. Collecting jigsaw pieces of HR Puffenstuff tickles something of a memory somewhere. Anyway, Mum hated playing them possibly because some of us were ridiculously competitive and would crack the sads something chronic if we lost (not mentioning any names!). I'm not crazy about them because I feel similar to how I feel when the phone rings - somehow trapped, as though I'm glued to the seat and can't get away. Weird, I know.

For some reason though, yesterday I had a sudden desire to play The Game of Life with the family. Game of Life was one of our favorites as kids and I felt like sharing it with the tribe.

Do you think I could find it anywhere yesterday? Not on your Nelly! I tried Kmart here and even braved Westfield Fountain Gate and searched through Kmart, Big W, Target and Games World to no avail. The Game of Life seems to have gone wherever the HR Puffenstuff Game ended up.

However, we did manage to have a game today. Break the Safe is a pretty cool game where players race against the clock to diffuse booby traps and collect keys to unlock a safe, all whilst avoiding the Guard and Guard Dog who will lock you up if you come within their line of sight.

Unfortunately, our safe seems to now be dysfunctional so we had to make do with a timer on an iPhone. It was still just as fun.

I hope I can find The Game of Life. I'd like to play it for old times sake.

How about you? Any favorite board games in your house?

Holiday projects

I'm at the point in my holidays where I don't know what day it is. In other words, I have reached nirvana, the state of eternal bliss. Time is stretched out before me like an endless sea - well, that's what it feels like to me and I dare you to tell me otherwise! Clothes are selected for comfort instead of style so I spend a lot of time in comfy shorts and well-worn tshirts. Thongs (flip-flops for all you readers from the northern hemisphere!) are optional.

So, I have set myself some goals. First, not pictured, is to finish Chloe's quilt. I've set up my sewing machine in a little corner nook of my room and will determine to finish it before work starts again!

Second, I'll tackle that pile of books! According to Goodreads I only finished three books this year! Shameful! I'm almost halfway through A Clash of Kings so hopefully I'll knock that over in between other projects and when I take a rest in the hammock.

Third I'd like to get that crochet done for a friend!

Fourthly, I'd like to make myself a blanket in red with grey accents. Red is the colour of the moment!

And in between all this I plan to smash my 12km running goal! 

It's going to be a wonderful summer!