A disabled room for able-bodied people

I was quite sad to leave the train in Adelaide. I had so enjoyed the experience. 

I took a taxi to the apartment-hotel where Lily had checked in the night before. She was furiously negotiating a change of room when I arrived. The disabled room that her daughter, Janice had booked for us was anything but.  

It did have a disabled bathroom, however, to get to it you needed to squeeze through a narrow gap between the bed and the wall. 

Joshua on Reception could not have been more helpful. He must have taken one look at me on my mobility scooter, and Lily pushing her walking frame with one arm, (she’d lost the use of the other one following a stroke), and thought “oh dear”. He sorted out a couple of alternative rooms for us to look at. They weren’t disabled rooms; they only had the one! So it was fortunate that both Lily and I could manage an ordinary shower. The first room he showed us had more space to get to the bathroom. It was much better. And he had upgraded us to a bigger apartment. We relaxed. 

We went to the Adelaide Markets, just off Victoria Square. I bought some Haigh’s chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Haigh’s are the chocolatiers of Adelaide. Delicious doesn’t do them justice.

The tram was busy for the three stops back to the hotel. There was a builder standing in the corner of my scooter space. “There’s room,” he said. “Come forward.” “I’m just a bit worried about running over your toes.” “Oh I’ve got steel toe caps in these boots. I don’t care.”

The tram jolted to a stop. “Bring back the women drivers,” he said. “They’re good.” “Really? And that coming from a man,” I replied. “I can say what I like about the men, “he said. “But the women? You can say what you like about other women, because you’re one of them. But if I say anything about them it’s classed as discrimination. It’s clever.” 

And with that, we arrived at our stop and left.