Archive for the ‘Technical Aids’ Category

Bath Reconstruction Neverending Story (last part for the time being)

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

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The Stumbling Rock

 

The reconstruction of my narrow pedestrian bathroom to a

Wheelchair Spa

in the autumn of 2008 with the moving of a wall and the installation of an on grade shower was rather nerve-wracking.

Read the older blogposts “Bath Reconstruction Part 1-4″, and decide yourself if the tears come from laughing or crying ;-)

I was already home from hospital for a couple of days when finally the washing basin was mounted.
The reconstruction was virtually finalized after a few weeks already.

There was just one little thing. The new drain of washing basin and bath tub was ailing a little. The water drained off rather reasonably, but after 25 seconds the drain started to communicate in an unknown language with me.

Just like that:
Gurgle, gurgle, rattle, rattle, bubble, bubble and once again.
Sometimes it seemed to call names.

I had a creepy feeling, everybody knows the pipe ghost, the “Moaning Myrtle” from Harry Potter.

After various unsuccessful attempts to “muzzle” the drain pipe professionally by cleaning it with a spiral I decided to visit the pipe ghost with the help of a camera.

Such a film is quite special if you climb through your own drain pipe.
During the reconstruction work a hardly worth mentionable ca. 4 cm x 4 cm small accident happened to the guys, to say a stone got stuck in the drain pipe.

When the gas-water-heating-bath construction-video expert ;-)

told me that the stone can only be removed from my neighbours underneath I was a bit more relaxed.

Then at least they don’t pry open my brand-new bathroom because of the stupid stone.

I felt so sorry for my neighbours that I didn’t arrange the removal of the stone immediately.

Now, 3,5 years later my neighbours have moved out, and the stumbling rock was finally removed.

Currently I don’t miss the “gurgle conversations” in the morning yet. Should I miss them I have filmed a video with the last words of the stone just in case.

Translator BL

Addendum Techncal Aids Tips and Tricks XLIX

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

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I am always happy when my blog is not only read, but if other tips are sent to me as well.

In my blog of 04.02.2012 I described (see older blogpost), how fast the disabled parking permit escapes in the car at forceful braking and vanishes into the ventilation slot of the windscreen.

A citizen from Potsdam involved in the problem has given some thought and developed a

Parking Permit Holder

.
This object is great and is awarded after a long-time test for several weeks by the unbribable (except for fresh nut slices), independent Rollinator test team, with the new founded

Roll-On Innovation Award on the Silver Axis

for technical aids. The parking permit holder is a holder made from Plexiglas in which the conventional disabled or resident parking permits can be inserted.

The holder has a dovetail on the lower part with which it can be put in the much dreaded ventilation slot. Thereby the construction turns upwards, so that the permit clamps in parallel to the windscreen.

The permit thus will be seen very well, but can be removed any time “tetra easily” from the holder.

It is a well-thought new technical aid which is not only functional, but has a reasonable price as well.

For more information see www.parkausweishalterung.de

Translator BL

Chock Part XIII: It’s my fault!

Saturday, April 14th, 2012

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When I am every 3 months at the beginning of each quarter jumping into the snake pit marked by the sign

“Required medication and medical devices”

I globally put the blame on myself meanwhile. If nothing works out right away despite all my efforts, it has to be up to myself, otherwise it is not explicable to me anymore.

In the novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Doulas Adams there is a truck driver who is always on the road in the rain. Unbelievable… he is a rain god, he just doesn’t know it himself.

It is probably similar with me and my orders of medication and medical devices, otherwise I would have to claim that nobody does his work properly anymore, and I don’t want to be assumptive.

After I paid my 10 €-membership fee every 3 months (translator’s note: as a member of a public health insurance in Germany you have to pay a surcharge of 10 € per quarter for medical consultation) the fun begins. I get a bunch of prescriptions from my family physician, where you can’t expect at 16 positions that everything is filled out correctly. It must be my karma that even the corrected prescriptions include minor errors sometimes.

If everything is correct, the prescriptions are split in two piles, medical devices and medication prescriptions, and then scanned immediately, because I don’t trust myself anymore.

I would like to point out here that I always pretty much need the same stuff.

I place the order of the medical devices per e-mail and attach the scanned prescriptions, and I send the original prescriptions by good old mail later.

For my pharmacy order I use a conventional telephone. The probability that I receive all pills as ordered in the correct quantities and from the correct producer is virtually zero and belongs into the realms of fantasy.

You can’t seriously expect that in a subsequent delivery with 3 boxes on the delivery slip also 3 boxes are included. With 2 boxes still 66% are correct, grade D, passing, okay…

The quantity of pills was correct this time, for a change the delivery slip wasn’t.

Now the delivery guy has put a box of pills in my mailbox which I will return personally today, whereupon I am convinced that I will hold exactly this box in my hands in 3 months time, this is not Aspirin.

Why is it not working, it can only be up to me…

It is not better with my medical devices.

Due to the so-called direct shipments I receive my materials from 4 different deliverers, who honour me with their visit between 10 and 19 h.

The guys always want to put the cartons on my knees and get off, I don’t like this at all. In the evening my corridor wall with all its boxes reminds a bit of the Berlin Wall.

In one of the warehouses they seem to have too much cardboard boxes and filling material. For 4 boxes of compresses and 1 liter skin cleaner they use a box of 60cm x 60 cm. As my friend usually says: Logistics doesn’t have anything to do with logic.

This time it was even the wrong type of compresses, they can pick up their box again, in the meantime it will stand in my way again. Maybe in an act of revenge I will put some old files from my apprenticeship into the box.

I don’t want to get upset anymore and I keep it with Douglas Adams:

I am probably a

God of Wrong Deliveries.

If everything would work out well at once I could certainly take some pills less.

Translator BL

(Deutsch) Eigude Pranger XV

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Eigude Shame Part XXIV

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

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At this stage I would especially like to thank my wife, who consistently takes many great photos without which this blog would never be possible in this way.

The long and winding road that leads to election!!!

I live in Frankfurt/Main near the “Riedhof“ primary school.

Since 2008 I visit these premises regularly for local, federal state and Bundestag elections… (see older blogpost).

 

For years there was a mobile “do-it-yourself wooden ramp” placed at the right school entrance, which according to my perception slightly exceeded the regulated 6 degrees and bridged two steps of a stairway.

I am asking the electoral assistants since years to forward this deficit to the appropriate positions.
I know that there is a wheeler who has to use this ramp regularly.

On Sunday we citizens were supposed to elect a new mayor in a run-off election. Thus I could undergo the ramp test for a second time this year.

Each election has a certain charm for me, if something might have changed in the meantime. This is a good reason to vote ;-)

2 weeks ago at the first ballot my wife noticed immediately that the ramp on the left entrance had to bridge just one step.
The ramp was somehow different, something had changed…???

Actually there was something different, but somehow it still wasn’t any less steeply, or am I misled???

I asked my wife once again to take photos!

When I compared the ramp pictures with those from a year ago, even I was once speechless.

A real specialist has sawn through the ramp horizontally so that it fitted on the one step of the left entrance of the school.
Have a look yourself, although the ramp is shorter, it is steeper than before.

If the person who shortened the ramp or let it shorten has converted the ramp according to the latest mathematical conclusions which I am not aware of, and if today the angle of 6° is something different than during my schooldays, I don’t know.

Just yesterday I came to the conclusion that nobody can be accused for the steepness of the ramp. Angulations like e.g. calculations with old uncle Pythagoras exceed the subject matters of primary school.

If the city of Frankfurt would be engaged one day in the scientific fundamental research of calculating wheelchair ramps, I am hereby offering my help.
I would immediately provide my old set square free of charge.

Are we going to help the city of Frankfurt together with the calculation of the ramp length???

Word problem for you:
To bridge a 90° steep step of 25 cm height measured from the ground, to allow wheelers the civil right to get to a polling place by themselves, a 1,2 m wide ramp shall be built.
How long does it have to be if the angle of elevation must not exceed 6°?
Please disclose calculation method.

Post your calculations as comment, or as usual to rollinator@eigude.de

Maybe I will forward these calculations directly to the Frankfurt electoral office ;-)

Translator BL

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks Part XLX

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Frontpage

As a man you have already evolutionary determined a technical gene. What was in Stone Age the then high tech marble stone axe with polished oak wood grip, is today the 60 inch 3D television with Dolby 16:1. The new shooter console is probably more modern than everything what the German army owns, and of course not to forget the refrigerator with WiFi and integrated ice cube dispenser where you can pre-select the shape of the ice cubes directly with the tablet PC from the couch from an individual CAD file.
In the end it is very simple, if the man is not capable to do he calls for technology…!!!
I am not alluding to the bedroom.

Subject today: Golf!!!

Except that I drove a VW Golf for 12 years I didn’t have much to do with the lawn sport of the same name, I was once playing hockey.

If you are not able to stand any more as wheeler the shot at the club house on the golf court can get a bit difficult. The variant that 2 strong caddies lift you up for each shot seems possible, but I think that the guys will slightly flag after the 12th hole. So technology is called again. For this case there is the

Powergolfer!

The Powergolfer is a well motorised, very flexible electric scooter with a stand-up fuction, similar to my standing chair (see older blogpost).

You are buckled up with legs and belly, beamed up until standing, and hits on the innocent golf ball like all the others.

Here the constructor explains in person how this is working.
Unfortunately I could not undergo a self test due to my broken leg not healed yet. I was nevertheless convinced. It is a great technical aid for golfing wheelchair users.

The Powergolfer is also available with small modifications as I call it Powerfisher. However successful draughts of fish cannot be guaranteed.

In the integrated trunk there is enough space for a tool kit, with which the Powergolfer also turns into a wheelchair service vehicle. The hand bar on the side, pimped with a golf ball, is also usable as mounting and repair hammer.

Because of the standing function of the Powergolfer I had to finally surrender after a hard fight in the direct battle with my Minitrac.

On my inquiry if the Powergolfer would also be available with sickle bar I got the answer if I would like to have it… nothing seems impossible!!!

More information and video under www.powergolfer.de

I doubt that the health insurance will cover the acquisition costs of the golf wheelchair, but for next birthday present, why not… ;-)

Translator BL

Training and Test Week Tenerife Part II

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

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Readers who are following my blog know that I was travelling to Tenerife in February for the sole reason to test extensively the modifications and offroad suitability of my Minitric with its new

Tractor Tyre Traction Technology

(see older blogpost)

Exactly one year ago I had purchased the Minitrac over there so that it was running in its home stomping ground again for 12 days.
The Minitrac never showed any difficulties with the hilly landscape of the volcano island yet.

Solid ground, also with stones to a reasonable extent, is manageable quite well for the Minitrac with its special tyres so that hiking trails in the alps should not be too big challenges either.


(Fake!)

With its two new batteries of each 12 V /52 AH you don’t have to worry about distances of easily 25 km.

Rides on the soft sand beach are not possible, the Trac is too heavy, the wheels would spin.
If you urgently need a full-body exfoliation I recommend to drive with the Trac into the sand of a nudist beach and apply full throttle, the flinging sand will do the rest ;-)

The special feature from Swisstrac and Minitrac is that you can move up and down curbs which is still possible with tractor tyres.

Because of the new tyres, the rather friendly-appearing Trac suddenly has got a rather grim appearance which has the additional positive effect that each pedestrian looks a bit puzzled and immediately takes a safety distance in order not to be overrun by my rolling offroad power box.

A cross design on the instep of the foot doesn’t seem to be currently in fashion.

Of course the Minitrac was tested in civilization as well. Due to the rather big turning circle shopping in supermarkets and department stores is a bit inconvenient. The rear exit of the supermarket uncommonly has an 8 meter long tiled ramp with 20° gradient which of course I had to test. Also this ramp could be managed without human push from behind the wheelchair.

A great camouflage, in this row of children’s fun rides I don’t really stand out :-)

In a special area of the beach promenade almost all of the floor tiles were broken so that I was glad that I had also equipped my wheelchair with mountainbike tyres for the test week.

The Minitrac has passed the tests with flying colours, and additional planned modifications can be realized. Firstly the headlights which were damaged on the return flight will be replaced.

I will still report about the battle Minitrac vs. Powergolfer in Tenerife!!!

Translator BL

Wheelchair Tuning Part XXX (Competitor)

Sunday, February 12th, 2012

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That standard wheelchairs, snow and sand are not the best friends is not really the insight of the day.

The low budget mountainbike wheelchair tyres
(see older blog post),

constructed by myself are indeed a big relief for me on bad ground conditions, but the small front tyres are for sand and snow by far the worst solution.

Well, with some special skating wheels as front tyres you might be able to illuminate the snow, but you are not moving any faster anyhow.

Actually I don’t understand it, but the engineers at the wheelchair companies don’t seem to know neither snow nor sand. Even after longer consideration I couldn’t think of any country which would not have at least one of it. Probably they live on trees, otherwise there would be adequate summer and winter equipment for each wheelchair as a standard.
Some day I will build in old MacGyver manner out of an inflatable physiotherapy ball and a hand fan a mobile mounting set with which my rolling vehicle turns into a ground-independent hovercraft wheelchair ;-)

Until I get there I continue combing through the technical aids scene to see what the colleagues are developing.

I am living in the city, but last year even my hometown Frankfurt was full of snow.

As formerly alpine skiing obsessed who was skiing with 2 meter skis in the Alps still in 2007 (no carving ski in children’s length) I already thought several times to cut my 2 cellar decoration skis in homeopathic pieces and screw them to my wheelchair instead of the front tyres to be able to leave my flat in last year’s snow chaos.

A seating test in a monoski on a fair was quite nice, and I was extremely surprised how stable I was sitting in it, until I asked my friend behind me if he was standing on the ski?

He said yes, took off his foot, I fell over, and the project monoski was postponed for the time being…!!!

Who was it, a Swiss man…!!!

When I read the post of a wheelchair hotel in Oberstdorf known to me I was immediately impressed.
Patrick Mayer, what a coincidence, a wheeler himself from Switzerland, who certainly has much more test snow than me each year, developed the Wheel Blades.
The

www.wheelblades.ch


are small blades which can be clamped with an iron clip anytime easily (even for quadriplegics) to the front tyres of the wheelchair.
The front tyres remain on the wheelchair!!! The binding is individually adjustable.

There was a real expert at work. Look at the Video,
he rolls down a flat ski-slope with these things on his wheelchair. The envy factor increases, ok I grant it to him.
He has even added slide rails to the blades so that they keep the track on the slope. Excellent, chapeau!!!

The Wheel Blades can be ordered in advance from October 2012, I will do it.
To anticipate anything, they might get paid by the employer’s accident insurance at best, or you have a good lawyer at the social court!!!

I haven’t heard anything yet about test rides in the snow board half pipe, and the snow and waterski suitability still has to be proved ;-)

Translator BL

Wheelchair Tuning Part XXVIII Minitrac

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Frontpage

I have reported about my wheelchair tractive type Minitrac

already several times (click below under “Tags” on Minitrac to read older blog posts).

After re-importing the roundabout 15 year old Minitrac from Tenerife back to its home country one year ago, replacing all wearing parts and a set of new batteries the Trac was completely ready for use again.

This was proven in June 2011 at more than + 30° Celsius in Crete.

Technically ok again means for me that the Trac can be modified now.
I am still a bit indecisive about the final appearance.

But I had to realize the tip of S. Jakober, the chief engineer of Swisstrac ((similar tractive).

You might call me insane, why you need in Frankfurt/Main

Tractor wheels for Minitrac

Even here sometimes snow is falling, sandstorms are more unusual.

Yippee…, finally it is here, my test snow!!!

At the moment it is snowing since 2 hours at minus 9° Celcius, well, better than Kelvin…

When we have reached a snow depth of min. 10 cm, I will voluntarily leave my cosy warm flat even at – 30° Celsius and drive around outside with the Minitrac, so that I can write a truthful test report, if I will survive it.

OK…, I have to admit that I only need the tractor wheels because our pub quarter in Alt Sachsenhausen has cobble stones. ;-)

Translator BL

 

I have reported about my wheelchair tractive type Minitrac

already several times (click below under “Tags” on Minitrac to read older blog posts).

After re-importing the roundabout 15 year old Minitrac from Tenerife back to its home country one year ago, replacing all wearing parts and a set of new batteries the Trac was completely ready for use again.

This was proven in June 2011 at more than + 30° Celsius in Crete.

Technically ok again means for me that the Trac can be modified now.
I am still a bit indecisive about the final appearance.

But I had to realize the tip of S. Jakober, the chief engineer of Swisstrac ((similar tractive).

You might call me insane, why you need in Frankfurt/Main

Tractor wheels for Minitrac

Even here sometimes snow is falling, sandstorms are more unusual.

Yippee…, finally it is here, my test snow!!!

At the moment it is snowing since 2 hours at minus 9° Celcius, well, better than Kelvin…

When we have reached a snow depth of min. 10 cm, I will voluntarily leave my cosy warm flat even at – 30° Celsius and drive around outside with the Minitrac, so that I can write a truthful test report, if I will survive it.

OK…, I have to admit that I only need the tractor wheels because our pub quarter in Alt Sachsenhausen has cobble stones. ;-)
Translator BL

Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XLIX

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

Frontpage

I heard that disabled parking permits can virtually vanish into thin air and can’t be found in the car anymore.

They possibly fall into black holes. Partial drifts in the space-time continuum are nothing unusual anyway.

Everybody knows it when you are looking for something, can’t find it, and suddenly it is back again.

As rumour has it, the permits are also stolen at night by SUV and cabriolet driving pedestrians.
But there is also the variant that the permit has never left the vehicle.

The permit is not gone, you just don’t see it any more…!!!

The permits are laminated in plastic foil and therefore quite slippery. Apply the brakes forcefully a couple of times, and the parking permit vanishes rapidly between front screen and dashboard like in a letter box.

Then a good fisherman or the new application for the VIP permit is required!!!
I can’t advise the extraction of the car dashboard to anyone, something is always creaking afterwards.

It’s absolutely clear that most of the people with walking disability have fixed their parking permits in their cars in some way.

But if you are regularly taken along by different people in their cars the parking permit should stay removable and can’t be fixed with a “final solution”.

OK…, it could…!!!

As “final solution” I recommend to adhere the permit to the windscreen with a special glue which hardens under ultraviolet light (the sun will help), e.g. Loctite 30xx.

A theft of the parking permit is only possible including the screen then. ;-)

If I am on the road with a friend in his car, I made the experience that the dashboard jump for my permit is nothing unusual.

The easiest way is to stick some self-adhesive rubber pads or non-slip mat underneath the permit, or to put it like in the picture below in a thick cover.

The non-slip mat is available in the do-it-yourself store around the corner in car accessories or from the company Dycem, (see older blogposts Technical Aids for Quadriplegics Part I und Part IV), who makes very good technical aids which I have tested myself.

This special English disabled parking disc is good for maximum 3 hours parking, presumably like in Germany in restricted parking zones, is new to me.

I am currently thinking about illuminating my disabled parking permit with a LED matrix as you can see on television if a new CD is presented.

Click on tag “Handicap Parking to read other nice stories! ;-)

Translator BL

Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XLVIII

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Frontpage

I am currently testing a technical aid, it is a

Knife Holder

of the company www.Mehal.de

This holder has been developed mainly for quadriplegics like me with limited or no finger function.
You notice immediately that this part has been built by insiders, it has been really well-thought on.

The knife is fixed at the hand adaption. The holder is dishwasher safe.

There is no finger function necessary to use it.

I was convinced by the knife holder already after the first test.
With the weight of your own arm only you have already a strong pressure with the knife on the evenly to be sliced test objects, in this case out of pork.
The cutting could be done without effort.

My first test was not representative yet because thanks to the cooking skills of my wife the test samples to be cut were tender pieces of pork fillet.

Now I was in a dilemma: To complete the test series I had to try to cut tough meat as well!!!

To order a steak “well done” is against my nature, I am not a Botswanian who empirically puts a steak 20 minutes on the barbecue until it is dead for the 2nd time.

I decided that it wasn’t necessary to test if it would be possible to cut a tough piece of meat with the special knife or not. I wouldn’t like to eat it then anyway.

An appointment in the test lab “Charisma” in Frankfurt was made to come to a final conclusion.

As you can see on the picture the test object in this case was a beef steak with fried onions, fried potatoes and for the better gliding of the knife, a little herb butter.

The cutting of the meat was done extraordinarily well, I didn’t expect that.

The knife is very sharp, and the knife holder convinces all along the line.

It has to be decided on an individual basis to what extent the purchase of this technical aid makes sense.

I am convinced by this technical aid.

Unfortunately it doesn’t have a medical device number, thus only suitable for self-payers, whereas the price is absolutely fair.

 

Have a look at the older blogpost with my self-developed electric

Tetra-Spaghetti-Fork

(Click here for blogpost with video) ;-)

Translator BL

Eigude Shame Part XXI

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Home

There are various reasons for somebody to make himself comfortable in a wheelchair. I won’t go into any more detail concerning this point. With a little practice you can guess what has happened to this guy who crosses your way twenty meters before you’re close to him.

I would like to mention at this point that most of us just aren’t able to walk or to walk anymore, and apart from that the neuronal networking is at least at the same level with the average population.

It is not necessary to reject anybody who isn`t able to walk anymore and send him into retirement. There are too little jobs for wheelers!!

On TV you sometimes see actors doing pleasure rides in a wheelchair. An affected person would never take a seat in such a crap chair. A real wheeler brings his own requisite.

At advertising shots for technical aids like wheelchairs, handcycles, wheelchair accessories and special clothing I demand a few jobs for us. Indeed due to the paralysis the belly gets a little bigger, but with Photoshop you can retouch this without any problems. ;-)

Recently a glossy promotional sheet for wheeler clothing fluttered into my mailbox.

That’s not bad though so you always keep up to date what is hip regarding clothing, colours and accessoires during the next wheelchair season.

The supposed „colleague“ has a top handcycle with motor support harnessed to his wheelchair. This is even a special type of handcycle for a quadriplegic like me, who barely can or are completely disabled to grasp. When driving the hands are fixed and you change gears with your chin.

At least the model, probably a pedestrian or a paraplegic who has never seen a handcycle before, should have had to be told how to grasp the handles.

Does that always have to attract my attention only?

There they are, our jobs…!!!

Hands in handles should look roughly like this, look at my picture:

I don’t look too bad for a model, do I? OK, the belly is cut off 8-)

Translator Teo

Technical Aids Test Week Lanzarote Part 3

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

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The bungalow complex Nautilus in Lanzarote

is extraordinary. I haven’t seen anything like this before. You are living there a bit like in the Frankfurtian Museum of Modern Art, I will write a particular blog about it some time.

It begins with the fact that the trails for wheelers are bare of potholes and painted in stylish swimming pool blue. The only ramp which is a bit steeper was lately defused to a

Spanish 6 Degrees – Ramp

Additionally there are rest areas set up for „tired warriors“.

The classic mediterranian flair with down falling plaster, clamping doors, blank cables, wiggly door handles, busted sockets and washbasins you miss immediately (not really).

Also the 500 g of hair in the sink will hardly be found. Thus the holiday feeling slowly starts.

44 bungalows are set up wheelchair accessible, and it is to mention that the grab handles next to the toilet are better fixed than on some stands of a rehab fair. The type of the

Raised Toilet Seat


is designed very individually and is even new to me, but it seems to be functional. Even a

Makeup Mirror

was kept in mind, which is optimally suitable for a wheeler to shave himself. Curiously it is the same type I introduced in my blog on June, 10th 2010. Seems that somebody has read my article. (see older blog post). ;-)

In newer bungalows some floor cupboards in the kitchen were saved maybe because of a lack of money. This results in the negative effect, that you as wheelchair driving man can reach the stove and will therefore sometimes be compelled to kitchen duty during the holidays by your partner.

The approximately 32 inch flatscreen TV is secured by an alarm system and definitely too big for the hand luggage on the return flight.

In this complex anything time-tested is different. In front of every bungalow you will find two sunbeds on a little terrace, and you will find plenty of them around the pool. So you are cheated out of the sporting competition on holiday to place your black-red-gold coloured towel on a sunbed at 03:30 o’clock in the early morning before any English could do so, just to claim your territory.

For us four-wheelers there is a

Poollifter, operated by water pressure

available which firstly reminds of a bottling plant of a brewery, but with a little practice the usage is fine.

To be continued!

Translator Teo

 

The bungalow complex Nautilus in Lanzarote

is extraordinary. I haven’t seen anything like this before. You are living there a bit like in the Frankfurtian Museum of Modern Art, I will write a particular blog about it some time.

It begins with the fact that the trails for wheelers are bare of potholes and painted in stylish swimming pool blue. The only ramp which is a bit steeper was lately defused to a

Spanish 6 Degrees – Ramp

Additionally there are rest areas set up for „tired warriors“.

The classic mediterranian flair with down falling plaster, clamping doors, blank cables, wiggly door handles, busted sockets and washbasins you miss immediately (not really).

Also the 500 g of hair in the sink will hardly be found. Thus the holiday feeling slowly starts.

44 bungalows are set up wheelchair accessible, and it is to mention that the grab handles next to the toilet are better fixed than on some stands of a rehab fair. The type of the

Raised Toilet Seat


is designed very individually and is even new to me, but it seems to be functional. Even a

Makeup Mirror

was kept in mind, which is optimally suitable for a wheeler to shave himself. Curiously it is the same type I introduced in my blog on June, 10th 2010. Seems that somebody has read my article. (see older blog post). ;-)

In newer bungalows some floor cupboards in the kitchen were saved maybe because of a lack of money. This results in the negative effect, that you as wheelchair driving man can reach the stove and will therefore sometimes be compelled to kitchen duty during the holidays by your partner.

The approximately 32 inch flatscreen TV is secured by an alarm system and definitely too big for the hand luggage on the return flight.

In this complex anything time-tested is different. In front of every bungalow you will find two sunbeds on a little terrace, and you will find plenty of them around the pool. So you are cheated out of the sporting competition on holiday to place your black-red-gold coloured towel on a sunbed at 03:30 o’clock in the early morning before any English could do so, just to claim your territory.

For us four-wheelers there is a

Poollifter, operated by water pressure

available which firstly reminds of a bottling plant of a brewery, but with a little practice the usage is fine.

To be continued!

Translator Teo

 

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks Part XLVII

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Frontpage

Recently I visited a concert of the “Blues Brothers” in an event hall called “Hall of the century” (Jahrhunderthalle) in Frankfurt!

This event hall was built in 1960. In that time people spent extensive thoughts on the accessibility of the building. To get as a wheeler from the foyer up into the hall there is, after a little sightseeing tour with the paramedic on duty through areas of the housing technology, a spacious, appealing freight elevator with the „Red Liftboy“ available.
The accessible service of the Red Cross is top!!!

During the break I wanted to go down to the foyer. Suddenly it stood in front of me.
Everybody knows it, the classic among the wheelchairs, the vintage and honorable

Iron Pig

also known as AOK shopping trolley (AOK is the main health insurance in Germany (translator’s note)). The two stickers:

I`m an energy saver! and Who will go ballistic in a jiffy!

allow to guess the approximate age of that wheelchair (in the 1970s there was an appeal to save energy due to the oil crisis). It was noted by the paramedic that energy saving is true because he is pushing the chair.
The paramedic positively mentioned the off road capability of the Iron Pig in action to cross the parking lot for the ambulance.

I must admit that I had to grin slightly that the city of Frankfurt isn’t able to afford a newer wheelchair, but this oldtimer is high class workmanship and maintained regularly as you can see from the new tyres.

I’m curious about how many years I will still meet this classic wheelchair!!!

Translator Teo

Technical Aids Test Week Lanzarote part 2

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Frontpage

Lanzarote, like Tenerife, is very accessible for handicapped, including a top service at the airport. Professional wheelchair pusher inclusive who also helps with additional perceived 100 kg medical devices luggage to get to the wheelchair taxi.

The island is a mecca for triathletes, people are training for the Ironman Hawaii there.
The fact that there are 2 bicycle lanes on the promenade might be a bit unusual for a holiday island, but is quite favourable for us wheelers. You could ride with your handcycle on the island until your arms fall off. In Puerto del Carmen you can borrow a recumbent handcycle which a former triathlete has provided who also moves around on 4 wheels now since a couple of years. Unfortunately only suitable for paraplegics :-(

Lanzarote is mostly accessible. OK, the curbs are sometimes lowered quite creatively, and the ramps have “Spanish 6 degrees” gradient, but we don’t want to be too pedantic here!

With all the hard work in the manual mode of my wheelchair (as I had to leave my Minitrac at home) I also had to deal with sand drifts.

With all this you have deserved a “hop blossom ice tea” (= cold beer) in the evening ;-)
I have already seen a lot, but a

wheelchair bypass sign

to the next beer due to the steep ramp (in the background) into the Pub is somthing new.

Translator BL