I am like Celia Johnson only with a longer dick.

At least I assume so. Sadly Celia didn't leave measurements.

OK i know that was a little cryptic. Think Brief Encounter. That woman spent an extraordinary amount of time lurking around in cafes near transport hubs. And so, in general, do I.
An aspect of zebra travel that is little remarked upon is that getting anywhere involves help, wheels and waiting. Today I am camped in a small cafe in Limerick called Greenes. This isnt a travelog but I can recommend it. Basic but freindly and warm. Menu not fancy but filling and staff very very helpful with trays and stuff.  I am in the quaint town of five line comic poem because of a conference i attended with a colleague, herein known as the Dark Mistress. (NB she is not in any way my mistress nor likely to be). We had time to kill pre plane so she has gone shopping and I am minding the cases because shopping was not on. I subluxed both my shoulders in the shower this morning (one having a wank and the other picking up the soap) and then popped my hip whilst walking from lne venue to the other so although xmas shopping would be good i cannot really do it. So I am waiting like Celia, enjoying tea and idly wondering if Leslie Loward is going to turn up.
Travelling is the same. Given my level of frequent flier i get to go jnto the lounge at aiports so when i get disabled assistance I get taken there pre gate. Previousky i would be take to a cafe. You have to insist on this at check in or they just leave you waiting at an assembly point and rush you through at the last minute. If you want airport shops or a bite to eat insist on the right to Celia.
Trains are the same. A lot of the disabled seating is in cafes.
I do sometimes miss the ability to just wander around. It made life much easier.
Also I wish they would stop playing Rachmaninovs second piano concerto.

The little things mean a lot.

I seem always to be writing about drugs . They are a large part of modern life after all. About 50% of men in the U.K. are taking a prescription drug at any one time after all so I suppose we should be used to it. My family has the kind of D.N.A that is issued as a karmic punishment beating for soulswho shagged sacred cattle in a previous life and so I have
been taking BP. meds since I was 30.
But since the onset of EDS my pharmacy visits have involved a binbag.
Mostly I collect painkillers of One kind or another. lndomethacin to stop inflammation , pregabalin to stop me Killing myself and hurting too badly, and Tramadol. Tramadol SR. to keep a lid on thing s and quck acting for breakthrough pain. Readers will know that my GP. decided to cancel this last.one recently. Well I wrote him a forceful email not quite stating that I would ha ve him before an ethics comittee anl he backed down claiming a minor clerical error.
Hmmm
That minor error had me in agony of fear over what the hell I would do if he cut me off. These things are Not minor to those of us who depend on them. Other clerical errors like that have left me suicidal.
Everyone is human but dr. you need to see what these things mean. l, had given 3 previous polite queries about that prescription and it was only when I got heavy that it was changed. clerical error my arse.

G .

By Flying Boat to the World's End

So here we go again, the delights of air travel for the zebra traveller. I am sure I can think of some sooner or later.
This is my second flight in two days and so I am more than usually Jaded by the whole lovely experience . First of all there is the shear distance involved. I don't mean in terms of air miles. After all I am often back and forth to Korea which is rather more distant. It's that the twats who design airports care more about fitting In shop frontage than they do about making the airport easy to use for the poor cunts trapped inside.
today I am flying via Heathrow to Shannon. This is 2 flights because no-One in their right mind would fly Zurich to Shannon direct. Shannon is a dinosaur lefr over from the cold war. In those days transatlantic flights could only Just make it across the pond and needed to stop off on the western Irish coast for fuel and potatoes. It you think that Is quaint Just wait. If Russia continues to play silly buggers then flights unable to use the northern great circle may have to do this again. Anyway Shannon remains the only major airport with a flying boat dock.
the last time I was out here l was only Just married. Now I am back for a tiny provincial conference 1 somehow got roped into doing.
The last few days have been rough. Mrs Inky, noble squid that she is is not very well. This weekend was rough as I had to leave her to cope alone, . Also It is close to xmas, he most evil time of the year. Add into that the fact that my shoulders and ribs have spent more time Out of socket than in and it becomes shite. On toast.
BA have been normally helpful and I cannot really whinge but my GP. has been a complete git. He has chosen to change my meds without telling me so that l only found out at the pharmacy counter. the has cancelled the  painkillers I vse for breakthrough  pain. On Sunday these were the only things thatallowed me to care for Foal and Mrs Inky despite bad subluxes. Half an hour after screaming in painbeing helped into a cafe by a 9 year old I was able to function thanks to short acting tramadol. what I will do when it runs out I do notknow. I cannot cope on sustained release alone because he pain varies so much.
I suspect this is to do with tramadol being placed on the controlled drugs list but if so it Is another example of suffering being caused by puritan regulations with no basis in Science. Given my condition will never go away addiction is not a huge worry for me. Crippling pain Is.

The Zebra in the Mead Hall

I suppose you could say I am lucky. I am generally at the light end of EDSery which gets called hypermobility syndrome.
Although i get a lot of pain a lot of the time my joints tend to sublux rather than dislocate and they relocate relatively easily.
This is a blessing believe me. Other nembers of my zebra whoop (or flange) get frank dislocations and regular ambulance rides to play tug of war in A and E. I just get invisible problems.
And I get days off.
Teusday was such a day. I could walk with no stick and my joints did what I asked. Colleagues said how much better I was getting. Tralala.
Then yesterday I woke up and my shoulders were not just normally ouchy they were both subluxed. So was my lumbar spine. And my ribs were extremely bad. With ribs I never really thought they had joints but it sure feels subluxy. So i could barely hold my stick, i couldnt lift my arms above nipple height, sitting was painful and i could only walk in the fixed stance normally used when you have shit yourself and wish to prevent trouserleg escape.
My physio was very short as I couldnt do much with no shoulders.
I should not complain. I got a day off.
But all it did was illustrate for me what my body should be capable of. Just when I get used to being limited, being a cripple, I get a reminder that I am supposed to be a fit man in my prime.
I think it is better not to know what the sun is than to have one day of warmth then go back to the dungeon.