Making an impression

Photo for k.

Cleaner due at 9; visitors expected at 10. Perfect timing; Little Fish
goes to school at 8.30 and not even I can destroy the clean factor in
that time. And then the cleaner was late, the visitors weren't, and it
all went downhill from there really.

An appointment at 3.15 at Little Fish's new school meant collecting
Mog from school at 2.30 to avoid the buses. This meant loading LF and
the Wahooligan into our own bus together with all LF's equipment and
leaving the house by 2.25. This was delayed somewhat by the
Wahooligan's extended nap.

I was in Mog's classroom by twenty to three and then back to the bus.
All LF's equipment meant no space for Mog to travel in her wheelchair.
And a nice gust of wind plus judgement error had me swinging Mog not
into the bus but into the door. And knocking her tooth out.
Marvellous. So as I knelt on the ramp tipping her upside down and
trying to excavate the tooth from her mouth before she inhaled it I
was joined by the school secretary, the escort from the girls' bus,
and the class teacher and assistant. I do love an audience when I make
an idiot of myself.

One tooth neatly deposited on the ramp and lots of blood dripping down
Mog's front and my jeans. Many many staff placated and offers of
ambulances gently declined, I eventually manage to get Mog (who seems
to be totally unfazed by it all) into a carseat, and then load the
wheelchair up behind her. This is not helped by the several staff keen
to explain exactly why it won't fit. Eventually it does, and I close
the van door. Only to find it sticking on the handle of the wheelchair
which for some reason has been tightened up so much we can't release
it to fold it down.

We left the chair at school. This means I will have to drive her to
school myself tomorrow rather than have her go by bus, but since we
are in anyway for a wheelchair clinic this is not necessarily
disasterous.

Rethinking my initial plan to carry Mog throughout the visit, I make a
quick trip home to pick up her folding buggy. This upsets Little Fish,
who throws a face slapping hair pulling head banging tantrum of the
kind no one else ever sees. Happily this has the side effect of making
the other two laugh, so we finally arrive at school with at least half
the occupants of the car in a good mood.

School is of course full of parents waiting to collect children. There
is one disabled parking space right by the entrance, but policy
dictates the gates are locked (not much point in the parking space
really then is there?) so we park at the end of the drive and unload 3
children and 4 wheelchairs.

One of the many people joining us for this meeting has handily parked
next to us, so she carries LF's manual chair, LF drives herself, and
I, still covered in Mog's blood, do a push me pull you shuffle with
Mog and the Wahooligan. In this manner we walk past every single
parent of every child in the school. It's good to make an entrance.

We then comprehensively prove you can't fit two large special needs
buggies plus one powerchair into most places in a primary school. We
male plans to tear down walls in toilets and move sinks, we discuss
ramps and tables and lunches and other issues of accessibility. It is
unlikely this will be sorted by September so we discuss interim
measures too.

And then we do the whole process in reverse and limp home soggily.
Where my attempts to research stuff and offload onto the world at
large are met by a big fat silence as my Internet connection appears
to be totally absent.

This post brought to you by my phone. And then the battery died
without warning. And now I want to know what I've done to destroy my
communication with the wider world.

Tia