Team Uber...

As most of you will know, my dad (as well as his brothers) is a London taxi driver.  In fact, most Shorey men of a certain age are. You could say that black cabs are in the blood! So I am certainly running the risk of getting disowned by my family if they read this post... 

Famously, taxi drivers across the world (not just in London) have been in uproar since the emergence of an online app, which allows people to type in the route they want and then locate a car in the local area who is able to do it; all via a smartphone. The company only started in America four years ago but global expansion has meant that you can download Uber everywhere now. I have always towed the family line and urged other people to only use black cabs but my view changed last week for two reasons.

Firstly, Uber have recently launched their first ever Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) option, which disabled people in London will be able to request at the push of a button! I have spoke numerous times on this very blog about the fact London black cabs are poorly designed and do not cater well for the needs of wheelchair bound passengers. They're failure to adapt and improve accessibility has forced me to switch allegiance. Taxis are so out of date and have not really changed since the advent of automobiles. It's obvious how I will be traveling next time I need quick, accessible travel across our nation's capital.

The second reason I changed my mind and became a snake is all to do with prices.  I have heard many stories from people I know about how they have made trips that normally cost £15 but it only cost under £10 with Uber. On average, they are 30% cheaper than a black cab and I think that is the winning argument right there. Let's face it, no one in their right mind is going to pick the more expensive option when you are basically getting the same product; a journey from A to B.

So if you have read this post and would like to join the Uber revolution with me, I have secured all my loyal readers a free first ride up to £15. Just download the app and sign up using the code 'GLEN12'. Details below:
Bye for now!

EU referendum...

I have spoke about voting numerous times on here before and have shared why I think it's important to exercise your right. One of the points I made is that you do not really have a leg to stand on (no pun intended) if you abstain from the democratic process then do not like the way Britain is being run. This particular argument is even more valid when discussing the European question because if you do not go to the polls on June 23rd, you cannot complain whatever the outcome is. I mean there is no excuse not to vote in this important referendum. I am even making sure I have my say even though I will be out of the country on the day (I have sent in the application form so that I can vote by post).

With regards to the 'hokey cokey' that is Britain's membership of the EU, it is all very confusing if you are not sure how to vote. All the articles I have read on the subject are heavily laced in bias. They appear to be balanced as they give both sides of the debate but are pushing the reader to take one argument as fact and the other as pure lunacy. I know what way I will be voting in June but I would like this post to help any undecided voters without me imposing my views on them. I will happily tell people my opinion and relish a good-old debate but I do not think this is the best place.

Basically, the question is going to be a wordy version of 'Should the UK stay in the EU?'. Those who want us to stay (Yes) mainly argue that Britain's trade links would be compromised as a result of cutting ties with Europe. Remaining would be better for our wallets. Whereas the main argument for leaving the EU is that immigration is out of control because of  'freedom of movement'. Leaving would put an end to this. There are of course other arguments and counter claims for both sides but they are the main two. Both points seem very different but both are very important in the British public's minds. Immigration or money: you decide!

While I am on the subject of voting, please remember to register either if you have not bothered to vote before or if you have changed address in the last year (just like I did when I moved into my flat). The deadline to register for the referendum is June 7th so there is still a month and a half left to submit your details. However, the deadline so that you can vote in the upcoming local elections being held on May 5th is today so if you believe you need to, I urge you to stop what your doing and click the link: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. It only takes 5 minutes to register and by voting, you could stop the Tory dominance that is UK politics. No wonder 'Dodgy Dave' gets away with so much...

Bye for now

Overrated...

I am guessing you have all been eagerly awaiting my review of Barcelona following my short trip to Catalonia a few weeks ago? Not really. Hopefully you all have better things to be doing with your life than waiting for 'Wheelchair Boy' to pull his finger out and write a new post. I say that because if you have been sitting in anticipation to read my verdict of the grand old city, you will be bitterly disappointed to learn that I can sum up the place in two words. Not historic and beautiful as you might expect but instead that it is nothing special. That may sound harsh and people who have visited may strongly disagree with me but I was not overly impressed. I found Barcelona did not live up to the hype.

As you all know, I did not visit for the culture as I only live under an hour from the greatest city I have ever been to; London. The main purpose of my visit was to see the mighty Arsenal play against FC UEFA in the largest professional football stadium in the world, outside of North Korea. Again though, just like everything else on the trip, the Camp Nou was a big let down. From the outside, it did not have the 'WOW' factor and is just a boring, grey lump of concrete. This is in stark contrast to the Allianz Arena in Munich; the ground looks like a giant red balloon and is visible for miles. Inside was not much better. Visiting wheelchair supporters were positioned at the very back of the lower tier with the home fans, but you could not always tell. It was no Dortmund that is for sure.

Those who follow football (even Tottenham fans because they are obsessed with how Arsenal get on) will know that we lost 3-1 out there so will probably accuse me of sour grapes but that simply is not true. Like I said, I really liked Bayern Munich's stadium even though we were thrashed 5-1 so it's not bitterness behind the fact that I feel Reading have a nicer ground than Barcelona. I expected us to lose, given that they arguably have the best player ever in Lionel Messi and, as always, have an extra player in the shape of the referee. However, we put up a strong fight until the end and I came away feeling quite positive about my team.

I realise this post has been quite downbeat on my mini-break but I have to admit it was not all bad. It took us ages to find but the Cathedral was pretty impressive; certainly more breathtaking than the Camp Nou. Also, the Wheelchair Accessible Van we hired was mostly positive. In fact, I must give a shout out to the owner of Brec Auto, Miquel, who was very helpful even though his English was fairly limited. I urge all my readers to please like his Facebook page as it will make his day: https://www.facebook.com/llogueradaptatbrecauto/?fref=ts\
I recommend this company if you are looking to hire a WAV in Barcelona but only if you're shorter

Bye for now!

Crash for cash...

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that in a post from October 2015, I mentioned that I was involved in a minor car crash a couple of months earlier. As soon as Motability heard about the accident, they grew deeply suspicious and suspected that I had been targeted for some sort of insurance scam. Now, I was never going to go into the nuts and bolts of what happened but a few things have made me want to share my story. Not least that I am very angry a) with myself for being royally mugged off and b) that these low-life criminals exist. I would like to get my grievances off my chest.

I shall begin by explaining exactly what took place on that Thursday afternoon in August. My carer and I were driving to a garage in Watford to look at a potential new car when the accident happened (quite ironic really when you think about it). For those familiar with the area, we had just left the M1 and were about to go on the dual carriage way heading towards the town centre when the collision took place. The car two in front seemed to suddenly change it's mind and dart off to the right, causing the driver in front of us to perform an emergency stop. You can imagine the rest...

Immediately after the accident, the car in front of us pulled to the side and put on it's hazard lights. Three men then proceeded to get out of the vehicle. My carer and I were obviously quite shook up from the crash and felt scared if honest. This next part was extremely naive of us as they could have been anyone (turns out they were crooks but luckily for us, not kidnappers). My carer got out of my car and went over to exchange details. She then returned drenched (it was pouring with rain by the way) and said they knew a car park nearby that we should follow them to so that we could safely speak away from traffic.

In hindsight, the fact that they knew about a small car park down the road is very suspect and suggests that they have staged other accidents in the area before. They cannot even claim they live local and are aware of the surroundings because the address they gave was Luton. There were other blatant giveaways that the whole thing was an insurance scam but we again only realised this later. For example when the driver discovered my Kia was a Motability car, he kept asking my carer if she was insured to drive the vehicle: obviously if she was not, it would have mucked up the scam.

The final clue that the crash was planned by these scammers came a few months after the accident. A letter (at least 50 pages long) was sent to me by a solicitor outlining everything that the other party claimed happened and that they were going to take me to court regarding the allegations. Obviously, they sent the document to my home address instead of my insurance company to try and intimidate me but it failed to have the desired effect. I was not scared of their blatant lies as history has taught me that the truth always prevails. Hopefully the CPS have seen through this transparent scam and have thrown the case out of court because I have not heard anything about it in months.
 
Please read this article if you would like to learn more on what to look for:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/ztqt39q

Also, if you get a spare half hour then watch this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yjshw
There is a very similar story to mine.

Bye for now!

Seeing the whole game...

Back on December 3rd last year, I went to the Emirates Stadium for an event to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I decided to accept the invitation because I thought it would give me something interesting to write about but look how that turned out (it has took me over two months to post). One of the reasons I have not mentioned the day until now is because, quite frankly, it was all a bit Tottenham*. That is probably harsh of me because I am sure a lot of hard-work went into organizing the event but for the first hour or so, I thought to myself "why am I here wasting valuable blogging time?". I especially thought that when someone tried to play catch with me. Needless to say, my hand-eye co-ordination is awful so that was a disaster.

The day did improve though as Arsenal & England's Jordan Nobbs made an appearance (I should not have to say this in 2016 but she plays football at the top level and is better than quite a lot of men) which, being an Arsenal Ladies season ticket holder, I was particularly pleased with. There was then a Kick It Out workshop fronted by the first British Asian to captain a professional football team in England Anwar Uddin. Although I am not a Chelsea fan and do not need to be told that racism is wrong, I found the talk very interesting as Uddin's story was pretty unique. It is certainly more inspiring than any of this Jamie Vardy nonsense.

I have spoke before about how my sight (long distance) has deteriorated in recent years and that glasses do not seem to help the situation. It is not really an issue in day-to-day life but at football matches, the problem does become noticeable. Normally, in the first half, Arsenal shoot away from the North Bank where I sit and I struggle to see where the ball is. I only know if we have scored because of the crowd reaction. However, I had accepted that I would always miss about 50% of the matches and would have to keep getting my brother to talk me through the goals.

That was until the third session of the day run by Arsenal's Disability Liaison Officer Alun Francis and veteran broadcaster Clive Tyldesley who had managed to shake off Andy Townsend for the day. They spoke about audio description and how it is a very important service for supporters who cannot see as it means they can still enjoy the match. Although I am not fully blind, I still have a Visual Impairment that affects my enjoyment of the whole game. So, at the next home match, I was given a radio set and I have been using it ever since. It's a shame they do not have them at away grounds I visit although I think I would get annoyed by the bias.

*just to clarify for any of my readers who are not Arsenal fans that I have substituted a word that rhymes with 'hit' for 'Tottenham'.

Bye for now!

Lift ettiquette...

I went to see Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled being recorded last Thursday and came away feeling quite disappointed. Not because the show was bad or the guests were poor (it was my third time in the audience and I would definitely go again) It was completely the opposite actually. We were lucky enough to have the National Treasure that is Stephen Fry on our episode so he only added to the entertainment with interesting and witty anecdotes. Sandi Toksvig, Sara Pascoe and this is really awkward but I cannot remember the other comedians name were all very funny but no one can captivate and dominate a room quite like Stephen does.

Anyway, enough of the Fry love in. Back to my disappointment. It stems from the fact I quite like both Alan Davies and Sara Pascoe. Apart from being hilarious, they have always come across as decent well-mannered people. So, I felt slightly let down when they used the lift instead of unselfishly taking the stairs like most people do when there is a queue of disabled people waiting. It was almost as if their egos were telling them they were too important to walk upstairs. I am not saying able bodied people should never use elevators but it is only right that those who cannot walk are given priority.

They would probably say in their best Arséne Wenger impression "I did not see them" but I do not think that is acceptable. Fair enough, they might not have seen 'Wheelchair Boy' because the queue stretched out the door and I was at the back but the other people clearly had walking difficulties (indicated by sticks and frames). Yet Sara and Alan ignored this and got in the lift regardless. I just think no wonder there is so much ignorance and selfishness in the world if that is the example those in the public eye are setting... Also we were only in The Hospital Club, not The Shard!

It is commonly said that "You should never meet your heroes" because it will probably end in disappointment but I would like to change the phrase to "You should never see the lift protocol of your heroes".

Bye for now!

Planning ahead...

My last post was about how 2016 could be a very exciting year for disabled people in general with the media (just Channel 4 at the moment) stepping up coverage. Since Monday, it has emerged that LEGO are launching a figurine of a 'Wheelchair Boy' (http://bricksfans.com/2016/01/27/lego-releases-first-disabled-minifigure/) which again is extremely positive news because young kids are the main target audience and, as I have mentioned before, the only way society can change is if children are taught from an early age that disabled people are just like them. All this talk of what a promising year it could be has reminded me that I have quite a busy one lined up... although after researching flights to Barcelona, I probably will not be able to tick everything off my list.

First up on my 2016 itinerary is a couple of nights in Barcelona. Unlike most intellectual beings, my main reason for visiting Catalonia is not to soak up the culture. Some of you have probably guessed why I am looking to go there and it's for the Arsenal of course. Why else would I go away for a few days in March? I would probably enjoy looking around the Gothic architecture and other tourist attractions but it is the Nou Camp that excites me the most. We have got a Cathedral in St. Albans but not Europe's largest football stadium.

Before any bitter Tottenham Hotspur or Manchester United fans chirp up (by the way, they are not even in this prestigious tournament so it is just jealousy), I am 99% sure we will be sent home with our tails between our legs but the home of FC Barcelona is at the very top of my 'stadiums I want to visit before I die' list and I want to see first-hand what it is like. Also, anything is possible in football. Even if the inevitable does happen and we do lose, just like in Münich, I will not regret making the journey as it will no doubt be a once in a lifetime experience.

I was just looking through a list of the largest football stadia in Europe and as of writing, I have been to four of the top 10 (Signal Iduna Park, Allianz Arena, Old Trafford and Wembley). As I said earlier in the post, hopefully that number will rise to five in March. Then, all being well, I will be going to three other stadiums in France for the 2016 European Championships in the summer. I have had the tickets for almost a year but only discovered in December that the first match I will be attending in Paris is going to be the World Champions versus Northern Ireland. I was over the moon when I heard that draw because I desperately wanted a home nation and the fact it is against Germany makes the game an even more exciting prospect.

You are probably wondering why I have bought tickets for the Euros, especially when I have explicitly said that I do not enjoy International football as much compared to the club game. The truth is because France is not that far away and it is a better way to spend my life than sitting around, waiting for Arsenal to return. Also, ferries are cheap and we will definitely need the car during this trip. The other two matches are a few days later in Lille and Lens respectively (only twenty minutes between each other) so after watching the match in Paris, we can stay in the Capital for a couple of days before driving Northwest to the Lille area for the two remaining fixtures.The teams who will be playing are not clear as it depends on how the final group table looks.

Last on the list is a return to Cyprus for a family holiday (obviously it depends on how much I spend on the other two). We had such a brilliant vacation last year but hopefully my older brother and his girlfriend will be able to join us this time. I still want to go to California but I guess that will have wait for another year. I am not made of money and after those two football excursions, I will most definitely want a relaxing break; chilling by the pool and soaking up the sun. I envisage visiting the West Coast of the USA to be more of a sightseeing trip.

Bye for now!