Valencia, an accessible city

Valencia cityscape

Getting to Valencia was relatively painless when we got to Gatwick. We took EasyJet – the flight takes off at an unearthly hour and it gets in after 10 pm. so we ended up having to stay two nights at a hotel, on the outwards journey and the return trip.

Valencia metro

Metrovalencia took us directly from the airport into the city . The metro is accessible but I needed a helper-there is at least a 3-4 inch gap between the platform and the carriage.

We had instructions on getting off the metro to catch a bus to get to our hotel. The buses were mostly accessible in Valencia. We also had the phone number of an accessible taxi if we were ever to get stuck. This taxi was not unkown to me- it took the Spanish Freedom Drivers to Strasbourg. ENIL (European Network on Independent Living) office is based here.

info@solvinde.com, the phone:+34686 241 221(Jose)

The hotel was nice, we had a good sized room and had a clear view of the Science Park. The bathroom was a tad on the small side for me, as I was not able to close the door with my wheelchair. Anyway it was serviceable and I didn’t want it to be an issue. I was on holiday after all!

We  enjoyed wandering around the older bits of the city. Valencia was not as busy  with tourists as Barcelona and, certainly, the pavements were easy to negotiate. It is fairly flat. There was nice architecture to admire all around us and I imagine in the summer it would be buzzing with pedestrians. I love the smooth marble like flooring they have as pavements – it felt like being in a huge hotel lobby with an open sky.

smooth flooring

I was also much taken by the orange trees with their fruit and the sculptures in the city square. I also liked the market with the amazing fish and the stalls selling food around there. Now it would have been much cheaper to eat there -at the stalls outside the market except that all the seats were high bar stools. It might be because of the weakened pound but I did not find eating out there cheap – not in the restaurants anyway. We found a good buffet (and good food) in the East Asian (Chinese) restaurant in the Aqua shopping centre but on the one Sunday, we ended up paying about 20 euros for a paella  in the city, which is a bit pricey. Admittedly we went to that restaurant because it started raining and, therefore, we did not really have that much choice.

Valencia Beach

Yes! of course we went to the beach! it was lovely, it was blissfully calm and quiet. It did not have marked out little plots like some of the beach resorts I’ve visited like the beaches in Remini, Italy, but a wide expanse of white looking clean sand. And it had what seemed like accessible public toilets all along with a wooden ramp going out – I imagine to the sea edge at high tide. I was told by my new friend, Juan, that disabled people have access to swimming in the sea where life guards would help in special wheelchairs and take you out into the sea. This is something to come back to Valencia for in the summer.  I had some delicious fresh whitebait there - incredible.

Juan

Having Juan as an informal guide helped too. I met him at Strasbourg and indeed, he is the person who put Valencia on the map for me. He took us to his brother’s place – Cafe Dublin where we met the family and exchanged a very pleasant evening with cocktails and had a tapas meal at their restaurant. Lisa, his sister in law hailed from Ireland and gave us her impressions of an expat life there.

I also met Diana Birch – she and husband, Tim Birch, have a website – ThisisValencia.com which gives out information about Valencia. Diana said that Valencians love their city and they all tend to keep in close proximity with the city – where else can they go when they have everything in Valencia?

Gorilla

I was not sure about going to the BioPark zoo and I must say we were pleasantly surprised when we did get there. It didn’t feel like any zoo I’ve ever been to – and that includes the Safari Park in Singapore. I normally do not like zoos. But here, the animals looked well cared for there and did not look harassed and it was great to be able to be near these wonderful animals, near enough to take great photos. I watched the lions for some time and one of the gorillas seemed to be cold but he was the odd one out. I do not think I’ll make it to a real safari but this was a good compensation.

Performing dolphins

Feeling inspired by our enjoyment of the Biopark, we set off for the Oceanografic at the  City of Arts and Sciences . It had a calming effect – looking at all the fishes swimming around and on top of us in tunnels. There were marine areas reflecting the Mediterranean habitats, the polar oceans – the Arctic and the Antarctic, the islands, the tropical seas, the temperate seas and the Red Sea. I also enjoyed watching the dolphin show but that was tinged with a bit of guilt – is it right to have performing dolphins? do they really making a spectacle of themselves? The trainers themselves were really good looking – they were as good to watch as the dolphins

Valencia – getting an accessible room with a travel agency

We were in Valencia at the beginning of December. The weather there was not too cold, certainly not as it was later in the month. It took me this long to write about Valencia because of Christmas and all the rushed jobs before Christmas, the shopping, the family..all the normal things that happens at the holiday season.

However this is a holiday with a difference, well the booking anyway….instead of booking my holiday myself, I decided to use the Co operative Travel agents. There is one just around the corner where I live- and I got a survey with this on it: At The Co-operative we place diversity high on our agenda and our aim is to ensure that The Co-operative Travel is “Good for everyone” catering for all types of customers including those with disabilities.

I thought I would test it out for myself. I found them pleasant and they did the booking with a minimum of fuss. I had gone with all my research done before hand – I am not willing to trust them with finding me accessible accomodation. I did my internet search, I asked disabled people I know who have been there and I trawled for information. The travel agent gave me their list of hotels and I picked one which I was informed by a reliable source as an accessible hotel, Confortel Aqua 3/4. They booked the flights and said they would handle all the questions about the wheelchair for me with the airline directly – so far so good. I told them they had to inform the hotel that I need a wheelchair accessible hotel room – which I knew was available at that particular hotel. They said they would do that though they cannot guarantee absolutely specific rooms but they do not anticipate any problems. I signed the papers and thought what could go wrong?

When I went to pick up the papers, the woman there, who was not the same person who initially served me, told me she cannot say with certainty if the room booked is an accessible room, she does not know if the agency they use dealt with such rooms. I was flabergasted and then she pointed out that I had signed the papers so the contract was a done deal, there was not much I could do about it, i had already paid out the money. I said there was no way I could stay in the hotel if I did not have an accessible room. However, I did not see the pont of arguing with her and when I got home I rang the main office for the travel agency and explained that I had gone there on trust and surely they could see that I could not use the hotel room unless it was accessible-for me that was a given understanding. If I as a customer on my own, can get a guarantee from the hotel for an accessible room, surely a travel agency should have no problem. I also said I could not recommend the Co op as a travel agency for to my disabled clients if that is the case. She promised me she would look into it and indeed a few days, I had a letter with the gurantee of an accessible room.

The moral of the story is that that whatever is said, there is no guarantee when it comes to getting the right service if you are a disabled customer. It will still be up to you to ensure that you get no nasty surprises. I have huge respect for the Co op and their ethical policies, I bank with them and I shop at the Co op for my groceries. I think their travel agencies might have some way to go yet when it comes to their disabled customers.

I am used to doing my own arrangements and booking for other people as well – however with travel being uncertain recently, there is more security with booking with a recognised agency if things should go wrong, for example, cancelation of flights etc. So should I give them another try for my next trip?

Top ten accessible entertainment venues in West London

I am delighted to be able to announce the launch of Our Top Ten Accessible Venues in West London with Octavia Housing as part of the Disability Film Festival – http://www.octaviafoundation.org.uk/images/top_ten_accessible_venues.pdf

Together with Maria Zedda of Wideaware and Jaspal Dhani, Equality Link Consultancy, we scoured West London within the Octavia Housing perimeters – Fulham and Hammersmith, Kensington, and Westminster, to find the top ten accessible venues.

As we said in our intro as access advisors -

‘Go out and find ten accessible venues that can accommodate a diverse crowd of disabled and non-disabled people. Their aim – to have a good time, enjoy great food and entertainment without having to worry about access. Highlight the good points, and the bad ones, and compile a top ten.’
That was the challenge given to us by Octavia Foundation. It was a challenge we relished and hated at the same time. We hated it when we found venues claimed to be accessible, but weren’t. We found steps in front of the only entrance. Dodgy stair-lifts. Doors you wouldn’t be able to push open if you were the world’s strongest person. ‘Accessible’ toilets with no transfer bars, and in one case, no toilet seat. Basically the things disabled people encounter every day.

However we loved it when we found places that weren’t just technically accessible but embraced every sense of the word. We found some great places close to transport facilities and parking spaces. They had accessible social space and facilities. They offered food and drink from a variety of cultures. Best of all they had a welcoming atmosphere and good prices.

This is our first Top 10 and we’d like your feedback on other venues we could look at next year. It’s impossible for any venue to be 100% accessible for all types of impairment, we know that. But we hope this guide will inspire more venues to become more accessible. Disabled people have considerable spending power so there’s a huge financial incentive for them to do this. All the venues featured in this guide have an excellent attitude towards making disabled customers feel welcome and included.
And that’s even more powerful than the most wonderful, accessible toilet.
Enjoy your guide and we hope to see you out there!

This is from the Octavia Housing website -

The idea for the guide came about when we were researching a suitable venue for the festival. We were struck by the lack of relevant and current access information for pubs, clubs, cinemas and other venues. So the Octavia Foundation commissioned an access audit and resident’s focus group (including tenants from Octavia Housing) in the production of this guide. Congratulations to Westbourne Studios for being awarded 1st place.

For a copy of the “Top 10″ guide, click here. For further information on the festival and the “Top 10″ guide contact Dal Farah. For the text only version of the “Top 10″ guide, click here.

The festival aims to spark debate about disability and its representation in the media and takes its name from the Stay Up Late campaign; a pioneering initiative set up by festival performers, Heavy Load.

The campaign challenges the 10pm curfew faced by many disabled people enjoying an evening out and imposed on them by the inflexible contract arrangements of their carers.

London hotel: location or access, which comes first?

Guoman Hotel, Charing Cross

I had the opportunity to stay at the Guoman Hotel a couple of weeks ago and I was asked what I thought about its accessibility. I thought I might as well blog about it.

This hotel is in a Grade 11 listed building which means  a building of special architectural or historic interest. Now as I understand it, not every wheelchair accessible room in this hotel is the same because they are not standard rooms.  And the room I was given this time is bigger than the one I stayed in 2 years ago. But here goes:

This hotel is ideal, location wise, certainly very central. You cannot be better placed in London. Right next to Charing Cross Station in proximity to Trafalgar Sq and over the bridge behind the station is the Southbank with all its tourist delights. In this sense it is very accessible – transport at the door, bus, train and taxi.

My hotel room is reasonably spacious even if the bed had to be shifted for my wheelchair to be parked alongside it. I found the bed to be quite high – not that easy to negotiate transfers given that I am not very tall. My colleague told me he had to abandon a meeting at one point because he had effectively no bed to sleep in – the beds here are not to be used with hoists!

I had another problem and that is that there were  no electric sockets near the bed. There was a socket by the bed for the lamp but this turned out not to be an ordinary 3 pin socket. This proves to be difficult for me as a power wheelchair user. Neither could they provide me with an extension lead. This omission seems strange considering the hotel put in facilities like a switch to facilitate  opening and shutting curtains. However the telephone was located across the room ( this made it tough on other guests if you had asked for an early morning wake up call!) I couldn’t leap up to cross the room to stop the phone ringing.

shower room

I was pleasantly surprised by the size of my roll in shower! It was bigger than my wet room at home! It had an anti slip floor. There was enough of a colour contrast of the bathroom equipment had I a visual impairment.  If I had any gripes, it would be that the emergency cord was tied up high above to be of any use for emergencies . Something the cleaning staff did probably.

Another point to note for wheelchair users, or anybody with a mobility impairment,  is that this hotel has very stiff doors and they are not easy to negotiate on your own.

You can find out more about the hotel from its own website.

Christmas in London

London Embankment, originally uploaded by ewheeling.

 

The wintry evenings drawn in and tonight the Oxford Street Christmas lights will be switched by Jim Carrey, the star of A Christmas Carol from 5pm – 6.30pm.

There’s a reason why they herald the Oxford Street Christmas lights – because Christmas is all about shopping and getting presents. I am afraid there’s a bit of the Ebenezer Scrooge in me and I want to say ‘humbug’ – I don’t like fighting the crowds and I don’t like shopping.

However here are a few ideas for you – either as a present or for yourselves when you have finished the shopping. An afternoon tea at one of the top restaurants known for offering the English tea at its best – with all the trappings of Christmas. Here is a choice of 4 places for you – gift vouchers are available from £23.50 per person (Mandeville).

Its interesting that all these exclusive hotels do still have  steps, which they hasten to reassure me that staff would be more than happy to assist. I have not availed myself of any of these treats yet but if I do – (hint, hint) I will be sure to give a report. All of them require reservations in advance!

Tea at the Ritz

150 Piccadilly, London W1J 9BR
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7493 8181
reservations

A formal dress code is observed in the public areas of the Hotel. Gentlemen are required to wear a jacket and tie in The Ritz Restaurant, The Palm Court and The Rivoli Bar. Jeans and sport shoes are not permitted in any of these areas. Booking in advance is strongly recommended, particularly at weekends.

At Christmas The Ritz becomes more magical than ever; a spectacular Christmas tree takes pride of place in the lobby, cascades of lights hang from the rotunda above.

Christmas Afternoon Tea

From Monday, 14th December – Thursday, 24th December 2009, Christmas Afternoon Tea will be served at 15.30, 17.30 and 19.30 (traditional afternoon tea at 11:30 and 13:30) Enjoy a special festive afternoon tea in the spectacular Palm Court on selected dates over Christmas, which will include a glass of Champagne along with our traditional choice of several varieties of tea, finely cut sandwiches, freshly baked scones, jam and clotted cream and a range of delicate pastries. Your tea will be accompanied by carol singers. Reservations must be made in advance to avoid disappointment.

£50 each but you can go to lastminute.com and its £82 for 2 people.

Access – best to go through Piccadilly entrance.

Brown’s Hotel

Brown’s Hotel, Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BP
Tel : +44 (0)20 7493 6020
reservations

Throughout the festive season, The English Tea Room at Brown’s Hotel serves its award-winning afternoon tea accompanied by the resident pianist playing well-known Christmas carols. The festive tea includes Yule logs, mince pies, turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce, scones and Christmas cake, plus a choice of 17 different teas. From £37 per person.

Access for wheelchair users – there is a small step to negotiate (about +2 ins or 5 cm) to get into the hotel but a ramp will be made available.

Claridge’s

Brook Street, Mayfair
London W1K 4HR
T: +44 (0)20 7629 8860
Email: reservations@claridges.co.uk

Festive Champagne Afternoon Tea (21st November – 3rd January)

The special menu will include a selection of finger sandwiches, a glass of fine champagne, freshly baked apple and raisin scones, assorted French pastries, a tea or coffee of your choice and a selection of traditional Christmas pastries. Festive Champagne Afternoon Tea is offered at £45.00 per person or £50.00 per person on all Saturdays and Sundays before Christmas, accompanied by Christmas Carols performed live by the Southend Boys Choir.

Access: Get onto pavement at corner with Davies and Brook Street and its ramped access into the main entrance.

The Mandeville Hotel

Mandeville Place
W1U 2BE, London
T: +44 (0)20 7935 5599
E-Mail: reservations@mandeville.co.uk

Renowned for its afternoon tea offerings, the Mandeville has created a Christmas Afternoon Tea that is sure to get everyone in the holiday spirit and will provide a much needed break from Christmas shopping! Choose from a sumptuous selection of treats such as devils on horseback, clementine and walnut tarts, mince pies, fruit cake, stollen and gingerbread. After tea, indulge in our festive cocktail selection in the deVigne Bar. The new Mandeville Gingerbread Martini, created exclusively for the deVigne Bar by bar manager Claudio Grisorio, is a rich and warming cocktail made with vodka, orange curaçao and honey and muddled with homemade gingerbread.

Vouchers from £23.50 per person

Access : Staff reassures that there is no problem for access for the tea room from the bar

Strasbourg in September

I was looking at for a more interesting way of presenting photos and found animoto to be useful – turning it to a video:

Accessible travel or holidays for disabled people?

Today I was told there is another travel service out for disabled people. Of course I was curious and interested. It is not a question of competition as I am not so profit minded – which might not say much for my entrepreneurial spirit – but for me, I think the more the merrier, its about time disabled people had more choice.

I am more orientated to offering an informational service, Connect Culture is not geared to taking commissions from hotels or restaurants. However this new service is a customised service  tailored to your exact needs. On the one hand,  it is commendable on its intentions but the way it is offered makes me groan because the focus is still on your ‘needs’, so medical model. This customised service boasts of experts who would sort it all out for you. I am glad they have found experts who can take on the world as a destination. So much for inclusive tourism. This company also offer you dream honeymoons. I ‘ ve been told that there is such a market – especially in places like Las Vegas or in this case in a tropical island by disabled people. I question whether the disabled person – yes the CEO is disabled- has actually sampled the delights he is offering. He is relying on his team of experts (where did he find them?) to get it right for his disabled customers. Yes he knows some of the barriers that disabled people faces when they travel but has he been a traveler? Has he been a consumer of holiday destinations? I suspect not. Is he not being just a broker then? Is that wrong per se?

Entrepreneurs need all sorts of management skills, including the ability to sustain interest, stamina to continue wanting and making a success. The process isn’t easy and its no different for a disabled entrepreneur and in actual fact, there are more barriers to jump over – and its not always nice. I should and do applaud disabled entrepreneurs but why just target disabled people and label it as such.   I am fastidious I  do not want segregation, holidays for disabled people. I want holidays for everybody, disabled or non disabled to be able to have the same holiday. Inclusive holidays – it means having the widened doors, the wet rooms, level access, deaf alarms, facilities for assistance dogs, good signage built seamlesslyinto the architecture/culture so that families, lovers, friends, couples can go on holiday together.

I know Scott Rains has worked tirelessly at getting the message of inclusive/universal design accross. I consider him evangelic in his zeal – in a good way.

he writes:

The concept of Inclusive Travel is itself traveling around the world. It is leaving an infrastructure that will allow the pleasure of world discovery to generations to come. It enables generations present to do so through all stages of their lifespan. That’s the vision of Universal Design applied to tourism — Inclusive Tourism.

I am left wondering if I am a ’snob’ in the sense that I have my eye on a vision and deny the fact that disabled people need their holidays to be located in ‘holidays for disabled people’. I, myself, seek to lessen the stress for other disabled people in the 3 cities I know and love, London, Paris and Strasbourg with Connect Culture. I would not promise I can provide information on access in places I am not familiar with. (Actually if anyone wants to have a honeymoon or wedding in Las Vegas I can deliver because I have done my research there or go to Disneyland – these places have access built into them because of the good customer service in US and the ADA and I have just found the perfectly accessible hotel in Blackpool.)

What I am trying to articulate is that having a holiday means being in a different environment, culture and being able to sample, meander and get lost in a new sense. It shouldnt be focused just on your access needs – I agree that we can’t get away from our access needs but can we not segregate ourselves? I try to tell people I also help families (as I have done) and solo women travelers. The research I have done leads me gain knowledge of other information not just access – for eg. vegetarian, halal restaurants.

I look to the day when disabled people can go into any holiday booking office and book their holidays. I was extremely frustrated today because I went to book my flight and hotel with the Coop Travel Agency. I bank with the Co op and they have a card which would give me points if I use the travel agency. I did my own research for Valencia – I found out which hotel was accessible and told them which I wanted. I also said I wanted a wheelchair accessible room. To my chagrin, after I had paid, the agent now tells me the wheelchair access room is not guaranteed. Now in an inclusive world the agent should not need me to tell her that it is essential for me to have that, it would be part of her training to check that. In fact I would say it should be common sense!

accessible hotel rooms?

These past two weeks I have been to 2 different cities and stayed at 2 hotels, both these hotels are from hotel chains: the Radisson SAS, Leeds and City Hotel, Manchester.

I asked for wheelchair accessible rooms both times and got one both times – however neither of them had showers/ wet tooms that I could use. And the Radisson had quite a double bed that I could not really park my wheelchair beside the bed.

Double bed with little space on either side

and the bathroom had a shower with a ledge and glass doors which virtually made it unusable for an independent traveler because you cannot park the wheelchair to transfer to the shower seat.

boxed in shower with doors

universal adapter

The staff was quite helpful but they were not very knowledgeable. I had a dual voltage charger and stupidly left the adaptor behind and they did not seem to be able to cope with adapters other than the EU ones. Somehow in a reasonably cosmopolitan city like Leeds, is it too much to expect an universal adaptor? One of the staff actually scoured the city centre for one but could not procure one. Am I unreasonable to think they should be able to provide an adapter.

My room in Manchester was nice and spacious. The door to the room was incredibly stiff.

Spacious room

I was really surprised by the design of the bathroom. The shower was a level access shower which would be perfect had there not been a glass screen which meant that the space was restricted and transfer could be hazardous.

shower with glass screen

The sink, although it was not a pedestal sink was set so low that a wheelchair user could not use it comfortably especially with a towel rail in the way. The shelf for toiletries was more than an arms length away making it really annoying when it came to teeth brushing.

badly designed sink

I find it puzzling and wonder who they consulted in designing these so called accessible rooms. They could be so obvious to wheelchair users had they asked some of us. These are not just adapted rooms. My fellow  wheelchair traveler preferred to have a bath – he has good upper body strength and can transfer well and he did get one of those adapted rooms. But I do think it is such a waste to have these details wrong because they rendered the wet room un usable for those guests’ access needs. The wet room was made to cater for those access needs – a bit more attention to detail would have served those needs better.

London ‘is the most creative city in the world’

Something to celebrate for London!! I don’t think we celebrate enough about what/how wonderful it is as a city! I do not live there but only being a short hour by train away, I feel benefit from all the capital has to offer without having to pay for the privilege of living there…..but I get a buzz everytime I get there! I am not surprised that it has been given this accolade.

London has taken the top spot as the most creative city in the world, according to The Cannes Report, the new rankings system published by the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

With its 24 Lion lead over New York in 2nd place, the €149 (£139) report’s authors say that this ‘is an achievement that illustrates that London is once again regaining its position as a worldwide creative hotspot despite the current economic climate.’

The report also says that, after a couple of lean years of slipping down the rankings, creativity in the UK as a whole seems to be back on track. It ranks agencies, regions, and even cities by success at the festival. After a decline in the number of Lions won, the UK has this year been awarded 30 more than its 2008 total.

The Cannes Report includes worldwide creative rankings, seminar analyses and jury presidents’ insights.

from Digital Arts

In Leeds for Projecting into the Future, charger problems and access search

I went to Jo Verrent’s Projecting into the Future: Representation & Interpretation of Disability in the Visual Artst last Friday – yes I am slow again but I needed to recover from the whole experience and then prepare to go to Manchester for the Equality 2025 Public Meeting. One thing that I have to get used to is to learn to conserve my energy when I take jaunts on the train…its getting harder and harder for me to bounce back.. I went because I wanted to experience some Disability art, to see the Light Night and Simon McKeown’s Motion Disabled. And to meet up with some friends – Peter and Carol from the days when I used to live in Chapeltown.

Anyway, according to Paul Darke’s blog on the event, I’ve missed quite a bit! I miscalcalculated the time I needed to get there and then the train was delayed. I was not a happy bunny having missed lunch and then found myself waiting on a drafty platform in Birmingham waiting for the train. I was there to hear some of the artists express themselves about their art and thier motivations. I felt somewhat deflated by the fact that it was not a numerous nor as diverse as I would expect from a city like Leeds. I understand that art is very personal and certainly people use art for all sorts apart from creating something out of personal experience. One of the presenters reminded me of classes for art therapy – her talk was peppered by remarks that she found beauty in the art of these disabled people pursuing art as part of community art and how they were happy to be there. There seems to be a lack of what I consider to be an awareness of disability culture but hey, what do I know?

Later that evening was Leeds City council’s Light Night where we would go as a group to see Simon’s work projected onto to the side of Leeds City Technology College Building. However I nearly missed it…

I went to the Radisson to check in and found that I could not really access the shower inspite  of being allocated the accessible room with the roll in shower.

Never mind and then I found that while I brought my wheelchair charger, I had not replaced the adaptor on it since Strasbourg and a conversation with the hotel made it clear to me that I would not be able to go very far if I want to make it home the next day.The staff at the hotel was very accomodating and offered to go out and buy me the correct US adaptor because they did not have adaptors other than European ones. (my charger is a compact dual voltage charger)

This is always the bugbear as a disabled traveller – to remember to charge and bring the charger! and all the associated paraphernalia! So I missed  the reception (at Carriageworks, Millenium Sq)  by being at the hotel and when I did get there, the group had already set off and I didn’t know where they had gone.

So this intrepid wheelchair traveler went looking for some food. I saw the Spice Quarter Buffet in Millenium Sq I fancied that so I meandered there only to be frustrasted by not finding the access to get upstairs – no signage. Someone told me to gain access from the lift in Carriageworks but when I got to the basement I was still baffled at how to get upstairs..finally I asked someone at the bar and he asked me to wait while he clear the lift and path leading to it. It took him at lest 20 mins and when I did get up there, I was dismayed by the question if I had booked because the restaurant was full! They offered a table apart from the restaurant – I suspect it is a waiting space – and was given waiter service, the food was scrumptious!

Replete and happy, I was wandering in the Square looking at various exhibits when I saw Jo waving at me and she showed me where Simon’s work was – not far away and went with some of the others to have tea at the tea caravan ( 2 ladies from Chapel Allerton) and then to stronger drinks back at the hotel.

All in all it was a good day and slept till midday the next day to have lunch with Carol and Peter at Red Chili – a lovely Chinese restaurant within a stone’s throw away and caught an earlier train home because my meetings with 2 others did not materialise.