Appleby

It was one of those sort of frustrating weeks. I had a meeting to attend in Appleby, a very pretty town not too far from Penrith. The initial meeting point was Tourist Information, easy to find and central. I arrived in good time only to find there was nowhere to park. And I mean no where, or rather I couldn't see any obvious spots for disabled drivers. As I say time and time again, it is not that I need to be near where I'm going but I do need to have the space to open the car door as wide as possible so I can get out. I did eventually manage to park and just about squeezed out, honestly I have to have the agility of an acrobat these days. But no matter, I'm sort of getting used to the fact that nothing is very easy these days. So I've got myself out of the car and start to make my way over to Tourist Information. Oh- Oh there is a problem. It seems that the whole of the town is in the process of having the pavements relaid which looks really nice, the trouble is although the path outside Tourist Information was just done this week, someone forgot to put any dropped kerbs in, so I couldn't get up the kerb. Pure genius eh? Naturally if you visit the town and are disabled you certainly wouldn't want to visit the Tourist Office would you? The only way for me to get in there would be to initially cross the road, go quite a way UP the main street which is on a hill, cross over, come back down the street, cross back again and hey presto I'm there. Don't tell me you are not impressed? Neither was I , infact I think it is totally unacceptable that I had to sit by a group of parked cars risking life and limb because I was basically denied access because of this blunder. To add insult to injury the disabled loo was right next door, so just as well I don't have to worry about that anymore! The staff were totally mortified, and while I try to give the impression of 'oh isn't this funny' I was really very upset. I cant even put my finger on it, you feel sad, and angry and frustrated at the same time, and in this day and age we expect better don't we? Whatever happened to best practice? Honestly I feel like I'm whistling in the wind, what is the point!?