Stuff Blogs

The first piece that I'm sort of commissioned to do. Well, commissioned would be an over exaggeration, but I was asked. So, I went to the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco. While I was there, among the many great people, I met a couple of folks that asked if you could attend the race in a wheelchair as I was using one. There was someone they knew that wanted to go, but was concerned, so here goes.

Can you attend the Monaco grand prix in a wheelchair?

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: yes, but you can't just turn up and expect to be able to get where you want to go and it's not going to be easy.

A little background

One challenge of trying to provide guidance is that no two disabilities are the same. In order to put this into context I'll try to describe my situation. I had a spinal injury and am an incomplete C6. I am able to walk, but as I've aged that has deteriorated. I am able to manage a flight of stairs as long as there is a rail for me to hold. I have pretty good upper body strength.

The Monaco Challenges

Monaco is and amazing place with beautiful views, however, it has a number of challenges for someone in a wheelchair:

• It is built into a mountain and has very steep inclines.
• There are stairs in many places. A lot of these also had escalators, but most of those weren't working when I was there.
• It is old and there are a lot of narrow streets - some of which are easier to use than others.
• There is a lot of construction in Monaco. The sidewalks/pavements are closed off where construction is occurring causing detours.
• The roads are not closed around the circuit for the grand prix. There were race driver escorts and VIP cars driving through the crowds.
• Many roads go into tunnels and don't have sidewalks/pavements next to them, so these can't be used.
• (I'd hoped to be able to just push/be pushed along the road as this would avoid any stairs. That can't be done because of the roads not being closed, the tunnels and the construction. The police were guiding you around these areas regardless of whether you were being sent to stairs.)
• The streets are very crowded after the race with a lot of groups gathering and blocking passage. It was really hard to get any momentum going up the hills.
• The buildings are old. The one we were in did have an elevator, but it was not big enough for the wheelchair, so it had to be carried up the stairs.
• The building shut down the elevator after the race to stop it being overused which meant I had to wait and we were on a timeline to get back to the bus.

Recommendations

• Know where you're going to watch the race from. There are wheelchair accessible places in the grandstands. I didn't go to them, but I assume they are fine. If you are in one of the buildings like I was, make sure there is an elevator big enough for a wheelchair or you can stand long enough in the elevator while someone carries your chair to your floor.
• Know where you are going to be dropped off and how you are going to get to where you will watch the race.
  • As noted previously, there were a very small number of VIP cars going to the trackside - I don't know how you would get one or the cost, but it would make it a lot easier.
  • If possible, have someone walk the route the day before to check for stairs and construction that would cause a problem.
  • Do any traversing of the track higher up, then go towards the track. It's almost impossible to move round the edge of the track.
  • (Many people attending used the train to get there. I did not, so can't comment on how easy it is to use or how to get to the track from the train station).
  • There is the option to stay in Monaco and you can even stay in one of the casino's with a balcony that overlooks the track. As you can imagine though, these are very expensive.
• It's best to have at least one able bodied person with you that can push. I'm sure there are many wheelchair users that could push themselves around, but it is steep and the stop, start in the crowd makes it really hard. I had my son with me (he needs the exercise 😁).
• Get to the track early when there are not too many people around. Unless you're on a timeline, also stay late to let people leave.

My Experience

There are a number of things above I wish I'd known before I went. I was only there on the Saturday and Sunday, not any of the other days. We stayed in a hotel in Nice and had a bus in and out of Monaco. The bus left 45 minutes after the end of qualifying on the Saturday and 45 minutes after the podium on the Sunday. This timing caused quite a bit of anxiety as to whether we would make it, particularly on the Sunday after the race when the building shut the elevator down. We did get them to bring it up for me, but not until 15 minutes after the podium which only gave us 30 minutes to catch the bus. We made it though.

On the Saturday when we got there our guide took us from where the bus dropped off to a meeting point. We never knew or found where this meeting point was. We walked about a block and then hit a flight of stairs that went over a gantry across a road. By the time I made it to the top of the stairs, the group had gone. There was then a promenade with another flight of stairs. We also didn't really know where we were going and didn't go in a direct route. We used Google maps walking directions, but there was a lot of GPS drift which made it hard. I think in total I went up or down seven flights of stairs which could have been easily avoided.

On the way back to the bus on Saturday we made an accidental discovery. The College Charles III is very disabled friendly with a public promenade and public elevators. We used this route on Sunday and it made it very easy with no stairs. It's easier to show on the map picture below. The bus dropped us off at the stadium (point A at the bottom of the map). Follow the arrow to the x (point D) which is where the elevator is. You have to take it up 6 floors to the college, point C (it makes sense when you're there, you get on at -6 and it goes up to 0 which is the promenade). Once you are on the promenade you can get to the major roads and head into the track avoiding all stairs. (The green is the track).


Was it worth it?

Yes! Look, the Monaco Grand Prix is the most boring race on the calendar. It's all about qualifying on Saturday as there's no place to overtake. The race itself is possessional. But it's Monaco which has an amazing atmosphere and feel to it. And there's also those yachts!

I seem to have a fated hour ride right now. There's a loop where I live that I've tried to record on a few occasions and something has prevented me from doing it. Either I've had the phone on the wrong settings, or my new GoPro has overheated or something or other. I did get a clip from the ride when my crutch flew its holder on the back of the bike, which you can see here if you're interested.

This past weekend saw my camera stop recording shortly after the start. I'm not too sure what happened, but it was disconnected from its power supply when I returned so it was either that or it was moaning about the power supply which it seems to do all the time. Side note, the recommendation to stop the overheating is to not charge it which won't work as the batter doesn't last long enough. If you have to charge it, remove the battery and power from an external power source. When you connect to an external power source it tells you it's not delivering enough power even though it is ..... annoying.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the main story and my crutch went for a fling in exactly the same place - essentially it's when I hit the cobbles at speed that bike is very unforgiving and it rattles everything loose even though I'd fastened the crutches in with velcro straps on top of the holders they are in. The crutch didn't fully fly off this time, so I just pulled over and re-seated it in its holders and went on my merry way. When I got home, I noticed that there was only one crutch on the bike. It appears that both of them had come loose on the cobbles and the other one (not the one I reseated) had subsequently fallen off. This isn't a major problem as it's only an old pair and I have several old pairs lying around. They're only on the bike in case of an emergency if I need to get off and walk somewhere.

This was around lunchtime and the downtown area had been quite busy. I did decide to mount a search and rescue in the afternoon. More because I was concerned about littering than anything else. I hate seeing litter and I don't want to be contributing to it if I can help it, so I took the truck along the parts of the path you can drive on. I was looking in the gutter along the way and the crutch was nowhere to be seen. I figured I'd give it a second pass and just as I was about to start, the thought of an old lady jumped into my head. The old lady that finds a glove on the floor and puts it on top of a wall or a railing spike so the owner can find it (assuming they're looking up instead of down). Well, what do you know? I don't know if it was an old lady or not, but someone had obviously found my crutch and decided to leave it where they thought someone would see it if they were looking for it. Having driven by it once, there's no way I would have seen it unless I'd have taken the second pass and started looking where someone would have put it.

I guess the main thing is that I've now vindicated someone taking this action. I'm sure they've passed by, seen its gone and patted themselves on the back for the good deed they've done. I am thankful as it did allow me to retrieve it and dispose of it properlly.

I needed to get a new elbow brace and when I searched on Amazon, I came across this one:



Clearly I had to buy it with a name like that. I do believe I'd make a great spokesman for them as shown below"

Just went to pay my tax bill and was greeted by this message on my personal details screen. Clearly not using the money for education, especially grammar.



Way to go Contra Costa!

Unfortunately this is right on the frame of the camera and you can't fully see what happens because I'm in the way, but Zaphod jumps off the bonnet of my truck onto the ledge underneath the window on the garage door. Only there isn't a ledge under the window on my garage door like there is on the windows in the house. You do get to hear the splat and the crash as he hits it then falls on the floor.

So, Zaphod has turned into an escape artist and now darts past me into the garage when I go in there. I'll figure out a two door system like I've done with the front door and the cage around that, but it doesn't really hurt for them to go in there as there's nothing much for them to get into trouble with. Right, so I got my new bike and went out on it and realized it needed some adjustments, so I came back and decided to work on it in the garage. I figured I'd let the cats come in and look round while I was in there. Zaphod lept in, whereas Trillion was a little more cautious, but she did come in eventually. It was actually quite cute. If I called Zaphod, he'd come running over and start rubbing round my legs. Kind of an I'm here, don't worry type thing.

And then I fell over. Hearing the noise, Zaphod came trotting over and decided to rub round my head. Very cute to start with, but he pushed right against my head and, as he came past, he wiped his arse across my face. It's quite disconcerting to have a cat reverse up and push its bumhole against your nose.

I don't have a video of that, but I did pop a camera in the garage the following day in case something similar happens. What you see here is my obedience training proving that it works really well and then me trying to rationalize with a cat (or two cats in the end). Sorry about the fact that you see my arse. Maybe if you push your face to the screen at the right time you'll get a similar effect as to what I got.



Just FYI - that's not the new bike, that's the old bike. The new one is hidden behind it.

My gardener had told me I'd got racoons digging up my lawn to eat the grub worms, so I setup an outdoor camera to see if I could capture them and sure enough, it wasn't long before they came along. They look so cute, but I think they can be pretty nasty. Not sure what they'll do to my cats when I let them out or, worse, if they'll chase them back into the house through the cat flap. Time will tell on that one. In the meantime, here's a montage of the little lawn diggers.

After saying I wasn't going to create more blogs about bike rides, here we are again. But the thing is, there's a clip that I thought warranted its own blog and I've not duplicated it in the video section, so I think this is valid. Anyway, so I was on my bike ride and a squirrel decide to run in front of me. I was pretty worried when it did that it was going to throw me off my bike or make me crash, particularly as I was at the fastest part of my journey. I was surprised that it literally had no effect whatsoever. Then again, being hit by a fat bastard on a handcycle at 30mph is probably going to instakill. I didn't go back to look at the carnage as that would have meant going back up the hill. The video plays at full speed and then back in slow motion. In slow motion you can see it come back to the left and go under the front wheel accompanied by a thud.



If you really want to see it, here's the full length video of the bike ride.

Pretty much the same loop as last time, but I decided to take a path behind the shops on the way back that I'd seen on the map. The path isn't very wide even though it's marked as a cycle path. There was one bit where the path drops into a gulley and I didn't realize how steep it was to get back out again. I've posted the clip of this bit below so you don't have to watch the full length video. I've watched the clip several times while editing and each time I watch it, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it or not. I think I do. If not, I'm not sure who's writing this blog. I really like the kind woman who offered to give me a push, but I'd pretty much made it up the hill by the time she came.

One thing that does occur to me after watching it back, there was a point where I was just going to back down the hill, turn around and go back, but looking at it, I'd have had the same problem going back as it looks like the hill is as steep on both sides of the stream. It took me a while to figure out that I was just going to have to crank a quarter turn at a time to make it up. I just couldn't get the crank over the top with enough force to make progress doing full rotations. Good job I have good brakes too in order to stop me sliding all the way back down the hill. I was also worried about the wheel spin I was getting too as it seemed that at some point I just wouldn't be able to make any progress. Still, where there's a will, there's his dad.



If you really want to see it, here's the full length video of the Clayton loop.

Decided to go out on a ride to celebrate William's birthday. Went for a relatively quick loop round downtown. The position of the camera isn't great and it's more like a shot of the back of my head. I wouldn't bother watching the video, but if you do, here are some useful timestamps:

• 3:44 Adjust leg and manage to throw foot into front wheel
• 5:39 Crutch flies out of it's holder and lands on road (sadly you don't see it happen)
• 13:44 First Big Skeleton (on left)
• 18:38 Two big skeletons (on the right)
• 18:52 - 19:30 Top Speed Run

If you really want to see it, here's the video of the Clayton loop.