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Last week I went out with friends to a pub, which turned out to be so disability unfriendly it was funny. You know when you encounter situations is so bad you end up laughing at it? This was one of those.

Having noted that the toilets were up a set of stairs, and that the platform lift was the home of high chairs, we asked the staff if they could move them off the lift so I could use it. This was the point when I found out that the reason the high chairs had overtaken it - the lift hadn't worked in years - brilliant! Apparently the head office were aware of this but hadn't done anything about it despite being told a number of times.

To the stairs! With the help of Ben and a drunk (but lovely!) customer I got up the stairs, clutching the banister and Ben lugging the chair up the stairs, and made my way to the loo.

Ah, the loo. On first glance seemingly harmless but on actual use an accident waiting to happen. As I was leaning on the drop down bar, the following happened:

Yes, that is the drop down bar on the floor, which I believe is the incorrect place for it. Luckily I was holding onto another bar as well, which DIDN'T fall out of the wall, otherwise it could have been a painful face-plant to the floor.

The almighty crash was followed by Ben's voice floating through the door:

"Sanchia? Are you all right?!"
"I'm fiiiine...I may have broken something..."

Fleeing the scene of chaos, I returned to my table whilst he went to explain that their accessible toilet may be a bit, erm, broken.

The staff themselves were lovely though and gave us the head office's number.


I didn't get a free pudding though, grrr.

Disabled Loos

Ah, Disabled loos, it really is like a lucky dip with them - I always enter them with some trepidation. What really bugs me is that there isn't separate female and male disabled toilets - in my perfect world there would be female, male and Unisex. I don't see why abled people should get a choice and not me!

Not to tarnish all guys with the same brush, but men can, shall we say...miss, on occasion (not that women aren't gross, I have seen some horrific sights in female toilets, but I'm deliberately being pernickety here). I would just like some choice in the matter is all!

Anyways, today was one of those days when I wished there was more than one user-friendly facilities available. On approaching the toilet, horrific bodily sounds were heard emanating from inside (Another thing that bugs me about them - we just get one door, that's it. Other people get a door, then another door. You really feel quite exposed inside those things!), and I knew only bad things could come from this.

I had to wait quite a while, and in that time I heard the loo being flushed a few times. Oh dear. Now I'm sure we've all been in an awkward situation public toilet wise, but I would hope people would leave it in a state that they would wish to find it!

After a further wait, the facilities finally became free. Edging veeeeeeeery slowly in, I then promptly backed out speedily! Oh God, the smell. The smell. I peeked in again, approaching the dreaded toilet. Even from a distance I could see that it was blocked.

Nooooooooooooooooooooo.