Stunt Saturday

Eoin arrived at the castle early yesterday afternoon and together we headed off to our friend Sophie’s party.

There were games in the garden and in the evening we had a delicious meal at a Caribbean restaurant. Later still we went to a salsa club.

Everything had been organised by Sophie’s friend Rachel, and in addition to making sure we all had a load of fun she’d made sure everything was very accessible. But in spite of this, Tourettes, with its uncanny knack of finding danger, managed to find an unforeseen one in the form of a fishpond.

Don’t worry, I didn’t actually end up going in, largely thanks to Bunny’s lightening fast reactions, but I did spend a lot of time threatening the fish: “I’m coming to get you, fish”.

Attempting to jump into the pond wasn’t the only stunt of the day. I was extremely excited when Rachel produced a piñata. I’ve loved these since childhood but I know it’s not a particularly tic-friendly activity. Hard sticks, bashing things, blindfolds and shouting definitely make Tourettes-piñata an extreme sport both for me and anyone else nearby.

When it came to my turn I crawled into position and put my helmet on. Eoin and Bunny bravely stepped up as my beautiful assistants (emergency stick removers) and I took my go with vigour, enthusiasm and lots of squealing. I was certainly very glad to be wearing a helmet. My assistants bravely redirected my efforts to the piñata and I bashed away at it. When I took my blindfold off I was relieved to see only mashed-up papier-mâché and that all the other guests were intact.

My last stunt was at the restaurant. There were two or three stairs up to our table and while I could’ve jumped out of my chair and scooted up on my bum pretty easily, the very friendly staff were keen for me to wait for the ramp. This turned out to be an old tabletop carefully adapted for the purpose. But it was quite narrow and as Eoin pushed me up the shiny surface I felt like a combination of tightrope walker, human catapult and ice skater. We made it up safely, though only just – for a large part of the journey one wheel hung dangerously over the edge.

The meal was delicious and more than worth the risks involved in getting to it.

Stunt Saturday was a joy and I was touched by the thought that’d been put into making sure everything was wheelchair friendly. What a lovely night!

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