#WordyAndWheelyWednesdays: Boosted

 Hullo my lovely readers

Successfully blogging for the second week since restarting! That feels like an achievement after not managing for so long. Especially as I had my Covid booster today. 

 

Me - a white person with short brown hair and brown eyes - sitting in my powered wheelchair in a GP surgery waiting area. I'm wearing a white mask, which I'm smiling behind, blue trousers and an orange t-shirt. I'm leaning forward, so the t-shirt slogan is out of shot, but it says, "That's How I Roll".

So this will be a fairly simple post. But the booster is why I want to post. Because my beloved NHS is beleagured. 

It's underfunded and understaffed, and the staff who are there are so overstretched and underpaid that they've been pushed to striking recently - at all levels - with more strikes scheduled. And a day on which I got my latest booster feels an important day to sit in specific solidarity with the people who carried us through the lockdowns, and who continue to carry us through now, in the still-ongoing situation around Covid - and more generally.

As a disabled person, I rely on the NHS. I have done since I was born. (It's something I have written about before - both on this blog, and in this Instagram post for the seventieth birthday.) But that means I know that, if it isn't properly supported, it can't properly support us. I also know that we are lucky to have it at all. And I want to express my gratitude alongside my solidarity.

So my post-booster fog doesn't turn this into more of a ramble than it already is, I'll end by sharing a link to the words of a fellow wheely doctor (of the medical rather than the theatre and performance studies variety), the wonderful Dr Hannah Barham-Brown. I cited Hannah in my PhD thesis, so it feels apt to do so again here, because she gives a powerful dual perspective as a patient and practitioner.

Which, conveniently connected to my own specialism, also illustrates the importance of representation.

So thanks to Hannah for being an eloquent #RollModel and allowing me to reference her, to all of you for reading, and to the NHS for ensuring that I, and other disabled, older, or otherwise vulnerable folks, can be boosted this Autumn. I believe it deserves a booster of its own.

Sharpish.

Until next week,

J

Still Bisexu-WHEEL (and Still Blogging)

Hullo my lovely readers!

It's been a wheely long time, eh? 

The thing is, the past three-and-a-bit years have been a really tough time to be wheely, and that also turned out to make it a really tricky time for me to be wordy. Or, more accurately, for me to find my words. (For reasons I've written about previously, as well as the more immediate experiences of living through the - still ongoing - pandemic as a disabled person.) Particularly in terms of more the more structured sharing of thoughts required by regular blogging.

That said, I've spent the last year or so attempting to recover, and rediscover, my relationship with writing. Helped by some exciting creative projects - including the Letters from the Grief Club anthology with Let's Talk About Loss, and my work as writer-performer on CRIPtic Arts' current Launchpad development scheme. Both of those will get their own posts, but the purpose of mentioning them here is that they've shown me I can still express myself through words and get not just solace but joy through doing so.

Indeed, the second project, still being developed with support from CRIPtic, has at its heart an emphatic exploration of queer and disabled joy. That's what's inspired me not only to write this post, but to publish it today - because it's Bi Visibility Day. And, as I've written about before, being bisexual has long been as integral a part of my identity as being disabled. 

Those two things are also intrinsically entwined.

That means today feels an apt day to start posting again.

Because I'm still bisexu-wheel, still proud and still punning.

Me - a white person with short brown hair and brown eyes - sitting in my powered wheelchair in front of a window with a view of a big tree and the sea beyond it. I'm wearing a grey t-shirt with a triceratops painted with the bi flag colours (pink, purple and blue) printed on it. I'm grinning.

 

Which means I'm still wordy, too.

And being away for three-and-a-bit years means I have a fair amount of content to offer as compensation for that absence. So, following this initial Triumphant Return, I'm going to attempt a relatively regular post for my old series #WordyAndWheelyWednesdays. The "relatively" is to allow for the fact that I'm also making a concerted effort to be flexible around my body, brain, mind and work. All of which will get their own posts as I get into a rhythm of writing again.

Hopefully you'll want to get into a rhythm of reading again.

For now, I'm glad to be back, and grateful to you for your patience during what was a rather longer hiatus than expected!

J