“McDonald’s”, a town in Bavaria???
(sign points to an underpass)
Wheelchair crossing???
I reach such a high speed with cycling that my wife can walk next to me.
Posts Tagged ‘Urlaub’
Hand cycle boot camp Part II
星期五, 八月 26th, 2011Hand cycle boot camp Part I
星期二, 八月 23rd, 2011I got persuaded to travel to the “near abroad” last week for a hand cycle boot camp
Oberstdorf im Allgäu (Bavaria).
I have been to many countries already and was able to communicate with the respective inhabitants in English or French quite well.
Apart from the language barrier, the weather has disturbed my whole training schedule.
My since months proven and tested training schedule with several rides in the rain per day was ruined totally by one week of everlasting sunshine. In London (Paralympics 2012) it rains the whole year, as everybody knows, so you have to be prepared.
My equipment had to be converted rapidly from high speed rain jacket to strongly braking cooling cap and vest.
Due to the beautiful sunsets every day the coaches got so melancholic that there was nothing to do with them any more. They were occupied with writing post cards and painting by numbers.
The signage of the race track must have been the result of
Fools at work.
signs in both directions meaning: all trails
Meanwhile I had completely lost my way, so that I ended up on the
Nebelhorn
middle sign meaning: panorama trail – wheelchair and stroller accessible
and finally on the
Way of St James
(in German: Jakobsweg)
OK, this was driven back quickly .
Back in Frankfurt at last.
Last night I was finally able to exercise reasonably again with 16°C and 20 litres of rain/m²!
Translator BL
Back from the hand cycle boot camp in Bavaria!
星期日, 八月 21st, 2011
London ist near!
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XLII
星期三, 八月 3rd, 2011I have extensively described my enthusiasm about a cooling vest (see older blogpost).
Yesterday evening I have tested a
cooling baseball cap from the company Cooline
www.e-cooline.de
Actually unbelievable, but you are sitting with a black cap in the sun at 28°C in the shade with your head being cooled.
“Only” water is put on this cap, like on the vest, about 0,3 liter. The fleece on the inside of the cap absorbs the water, and the cap virtually sweats and cools.
Ingenious!!!
Unfortunately my match was cancelled, I forgot my tennis shoes.
Translator BL
Chock Part IIX
星期一, 七月 25th, 2011Addendum to the fairy tale from June 29th
星期一, 七月 11th, 2011Technical Aids Test Crete Part II
星期六, 七月 2nd, 2011Freeway T 40
(I don’t mean the bus.)
The White Mountains of Crete
The place on my right is free…
Freeway T 40, the off roader among the shower commode chairs 
The English shower commode chair “Freeway T 40″, not to confuse it with a Ferrari F 40, is a quite useful medical device. The idea to take a commode chair on the island tour with 4 wheelers from the wheelchair Hotel Eria Resort on Crete is great because wheelchair accessible toilets on Crete are scarce.
If you would like to learn more about this great little hotel, have a look in Facebook or press on the link!
Translator BL
Where are the 70.000 workers at Frankfurt Airport???
星期四, 六月 30th, 2011Long “fairytale”, but worth reading!!!
On Saturday I landed exceedingly on time on 22:30 from Chania (Crete) in Frankfurt.
I will never understand why some people are applauding after the landing. Nobody was ever applauding for me when I did my job well. Anyway…
The aircraft was parking on a remote stand, I had as usual a nice window seat and watched very relaxed the totally stressed pedestrians leaving the plane.
As wheelchair user you have the privilege of the last passenger after the landing.
The flight captain stated that he had requested the special lifting bus and adequate members of the ground staff already several times, so that I could leave the plane as well.
But nobody came!!!
Parts of the crew and the pilot provided some company to me with which they apparently had some fun. The unwritten law that the captain is the last to leave the ship is still of great importance at Condor.
Eventually someone from ground staff came and seriously asked me if I could walk. He accurately observed that he could not help me on his own. Insight of the day…
While waiting for the lifting bus the luggage was unloaded, so I asked a crew member to check if my wheelchair and wheelchair tractive Minitrac are waiting on the airfield and hopefully are not loaded on the luggage carts.
He said that this would be the case, the things would be standing there. Uff…
The lifting bus finally arrived around 23:10, I left the aircraft with the help of two strong guys and my beloved plane transit wheelchair.
Afterwards they helped me into my own wheelchair which unlike my Minitrac was fortunately still there.
Anyway, so we had to get my Minitrac at the bulky luggage claim.
With the bus we were not brought as usual to the FraCare Service (Service for handicapped at Frankfurt airport), because this area was already closed at this time, but to a different entrance.
There a friendly employee from FraCare was waiting for me.
She said that our luggage would be in the reconstructed building C, and we would have to see how we get there at this time because some of the elevators were switched off.
She used her phone virtually as GPS and lead us confidently like a bushman in the desert through the corridors of the building.
When we finally arrived at the luggage belt we didn’t have to search our luggage for a long time, our 3 bags were rotating around and around.
The whole baggage claim area was almost deserted, there was not even a luggage thief.
My Minitrac
stood with its 65 kg a little disjointed in a plastic box on the bulky luggage belt!
My wife reassembled the Minitrac to begin with.
It is unbelievable, but at 23:44 nobody responsible was there nor could be reached by telephone, who could lift my little box from the luggage belt.
In the meantime even the last passengers were gone who we could have asked for help.
At last my wife has magically lifted my Minitrac from the luggage belt together with two men whom I just call Mister X and Y here. At this point I would like to thank them and the employee of FraCare again!
I left the terminal at 23:55!!!
My pre-ordered wheelchair taxi was kindly waiting in front of the terminal.
I have sent this “fairy tale” in a slightly modified version to Fraport (operating company of Frankfurt Airport) requesting their comments. I will keep you informed.
To my shame I have to admit that I used to work 9 years at the Frankfurt airport before my accident.
Translator BL
Technical Aids Testing Crete Part I
星期三, 六月 29th, 2011Ingenious: A cooling vest which only needs water!
My spinal cord has decided in 2007 that sweating is stupid.
Since then my skin is quite dry 
This phenomenon is nothing unusual with para- or quadriplegia.
As a consequence my body temperature rises and rises when it is above 25° C and sun.
This can lead until fainting at approximately 40° C.
A water sprayer for flowers can work miracles (see older blog post), but is not the best solution either.
There are special cooling vests, with thermal packs or fans, well… I think it is too complicated, and you are depending on thermal packs and refrigerators. So I prefer hiding at home and waiting for the winter.
In May I met Sepp Jakober on a technical aids trade fair, the chief engineer of the wheelchair tractive Swisstrac who gave me tuning tips for my Minitrac.
He gave me a vest from the company E-Cooline and said that I would absolutely have to try it. He borrowed it from another booth.
The vest would cool you, you just have to put water on it, the water would not flow out, hard to believe!!!
The vest would absorb the water, virtually sweat and thus cool you.
It was invented for fire fighters.
The cooling vest was working!!!
A quantum leap for quality of live.
I underwent a two-week stress test with the cooling vest in Crete.
The E-Cooline vest is really cooling, ingenious!!!
It doesn’t get wet, the body feeling can be described as cooling-clammy, but it is not unpleasant.
Be careful with filling water in it as 4 liters fit inside, and then you would have to wait approximately 3 days until you are able to wear this “lead vest” again. There is no water dripping off. 0,5 liters are more than enough for approximately 4 hours at 30°C in the shade.
The Cooline vests are available in a simple design with velcro tape, see picture above, or two rows of snap fasteners and additional removable lower part.
From the same material there are scarfs and caps available which I would like to test as well.
I was able to stroll around at the beach promenade with my wife in the afternoons at 30° C in the shade without water sprayer or wet towel.
The cooling vest made a great holiday possible, and I have just ordered a black vest and cap.
The price of approximately 300 € is not low, but if you bear in mind what you have to pay for good winter clothing or trivial cotton jeans I consider the price justifiable for a vest out of such a high tech material.
This vest opens so many possibilities for me, I don’t have to hide any more in summer!!!
The only disadvantage is that the vest weighs around 4 kg after washing and you have to wait 3-4 days until it has dried again.
You can purchase these vests from E-Cooline
Unfortunately these vests don’t have a medical device number. With an adequate prescription and statement from the doctor some health insurances would bear the expenses.
For question as usual: rollinator@eigude.de
With all this verbiage Karl Lagerfeld would probably be proud of me!
PG-13 prohibits to show my “six-pack” stomach!
Translator BL
Back from Technical Aids Testing!
星期一, 六月 27th, 2011
Test reports will follow shortly.
Wheelchair Tuning Part XXV (Competitor)
星期四, 六月 9th, 2011I don’t want to keep the beach wheelchairs back from you 
I think the Sopur wheelchair for children is awesome. A good pusher is a must.
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXIII
星期二, 四月 12th, 2011A very well-known wheelchair hotel is the
“Mar y Sol”
on Tenerife.
Everything accessible, 2 pools with lifters, a store for medical supply next door, etc.
Everything great, apart from one little thing:
Tenerife is a volcano island, and the hotel is on top of a hill, fantastic…!
A Paralympics participant might be able to conquer this mountain by himself, but not me, never ever.
Many hotel guests bring their own electric wheelchairs from Germany which often become victims of the airlines, or they rent a scooter during their stay.
I once got the tip when I am down at the beach and would like to go up to the hotel again, to wait for the next electric wheelchair driver and tow myself on to him.
Well, I didn’t rent a scooter, but already for the second time a wheelchair tractive.
I already reported in October 2010 about my positive experience with this tractive type:
Minitrac
By coincidence I got the offer in Tenerife to buy a Trac in black, even fitting my wheelchair colour.
I could not resist and acquired my approximately 10 year old, new toy.
The re-import of the once in Germany produced Minitrac from Spain was a little bit difficult.
At the check-in at Tenerife airport, a slightly panic flight passenger broke off the steering linkage. The thing was fairly crashed.
In Frankfurt my own wheelchair was damaged as well so that I could not ride it on my own because the wheel was rubbing at the brake.
With all the luggage and a little overstrained lady from the airport handicapped service it was a perfect mess.
Without the help of my wife I probably would still be standing in Terminal 1.
After a first repair of the steering linkage of the Minitrac and a set of new batteries the first rides in Frankfurt could be made.
This thing rides only with 6 km/h, therefore doesn’t need a license plate and doesn’t have any constraints from the technical control association.
Some ideas come to my mind immediately what could be changed . 
Wait and see…
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXII
星期三, 四月 6th, 2011If you are typing with only one finger like me some tips fall by the wayside for lack of typing. But therefore one talks to another!
If ideas are helping other handicapped, and they are publishing these in other medias, i.e. typing for me, then I take the freedom, do it like Guttenberg and copy it:
Many tips are received on Tenerife in the health resort Mar y Sol from other concerned people. Steffen (alias for Rollinator), wheelchair user as well, brought me to a great medical device:
Both my wheelchair and my stairlift have sharp edges on which I hurt my heels occasionally.
Additionally my legs angle spastically in the night and thus the foot is rubbing tightly across the bed sheet with the heel.
Result is a bedsore at the heel.
Although there are special cushions which are fixed with Velcro strips, they are not useful for me. Due to strong leg movement unfortunately the cushion is not where it should be any more the next morning. Steffen recommended a
Tubular Bandage from towelling
(Nobafrott PZN 7094346), which usually doesn’t slip off and led to the healing of the bedsore.
I bought the bandage rather low priced at the HAD pharmacy (vitaware.de) for 85,09 Euro. The length of the bandage should be generously measured – can be cut from the 5 m.
Source: Olaf
When I sleep a night with the “socks” I don’t have swollen feet in the morning anymore.
The use of the tubular bandage has to be discussed with the physician for possible thrombosis risk or blood pressure problems!
We don’t want to harm anybody and assume no liability.
The photo with the crossed socks reminds a bit of a pirate flag, “Mouse Ahoy”!
Translator BL
Wheelchair Tuning Part XXIII (Competitor)
星期四, 三月 31st, 2011I am looking for a text for this picture since weeks!
When “Tracy”, an employee of a store for medical supply next door to a wheelchair hotel on Tenerife drove out of the lobby with this vehicle I was completely perplexed, and I had tears of laughter.
I introduce it, probably the first world wide
Electric Inko Scooter
Tracy is a male nurse and makes everybody laugh with his sweet-and-crazy manner.
This guy is awesome, we need more of these!.
Look carefully, Winnie Pooh meets Mowgli
Back from Technical Aids Workshop in Tenerife!
星期五, 二月 25th, 2011
