How many years does carnival have left?

Maralyn was early again this morning which is great, it gets us both a head start for the day, in theory anyway, but inevitably we end up talking about stuff, putting the world to rights or taking the piss out of anything and everything that we gain the sum total of nothing, we do however have a really good laugh. She has become more of a mate to be honest, I respect her no less than I did when I first met her, if anything I respect her more for how she carries out her treatment. She explains things and talks through things, suggests things and tries things and aside from the acupuncture she does, we do have some very random conversations. She is great. Topics today were actually very sensible and out of character for us both, so not much really to say about them but I know she had a pretty full day, that would have kept her out of mischief for the best part of the day anyway. She left my place a bit later than usual because we were obviously chatting and booking the next appointments for the week coming.

Weather was crap again so I haven’t actually left the house today. It is rubbish going out in the rain in a wheelchair. Powerchair, not too bad because I have a poncho which covers me from head to toe, I leave my arms inside the poncho until such time that I have to use them as this keeps my control box for the chair dry as well. Aside from those reasons which are all valid ones by the way, if it properly dumps it down and there are no building overhangs to get under, I can stop against a wall and pull my hood right down over my face and I am absolutely waterproof. In my little “tent” I can use the mobile and call for a lift. In my manual chair this is a whole different story. Waterproof jacket, 2 minutes the rain has run off of the jacket into my crotch area and the day is officially ruined. I will have to try the poncho on the manual chair I guess and see how that goes.

I had my physio round this afternoon to practice more transfers. I showed her the letter I had received this morning with reference to a standing frame application that had agreed to my having one which is amazing news. It is now just a case of waiting for the day that it arrives which I have not been informed of yet. I spent some of today building models again, the Harrier is now at the stage of transfer application which will finish it off. I need to visit the model shop tomorrow to see if the paints are in for the fuselage and wings of the Liberator Bomber so I can get that to the point of construction, that is going to be a size able model which will look great provided I take my time.

My wife went swimming tonight so I challenged my son and daughter for a Wii night. `Pickle` was asleep so I thought it might be nice for me and the two older ones to play games. Tonight I realised just how rubbish I was, I lost on everything. The kids enjoyed themselves though so it was actually a good night, nice to spend time with them playing the games. They are looking forward to going to the carnival tomorrow night. I can remember standing out for over two hours at Ilminster and Chard carnivals as a kids, it is a shame that the pressures and desires of clubs to be the best with more and more moving parts, louder and louder sound systems with greater clarity, brighter floats with more and more bulbs and more detailed costumes have meant the members subscriptions have got to a point where so many of them do not have the disposable funds left after the bills are paid and as a result more and more floats are disappearing. The days of going out on a float that has been a good laugh building with friends and going out to enjoy yourself putting on a show for the crowds seem to have turned more in to a business. I wonder after Ilminster was barely an hour long last week, if our grandchildren will know anything of the carnival anywhere but in newspaper archives. It is such a shame that peoples desire to outshine one another has actually become the one thing that, as far as it looks by the distinct lack of floats now, will kill the carnival. Unfortunately though, rather than the clubs thinking “What happened to the carnival?” it will be “At least we were the final carnival winners.”

Goodnight all.