Date Night
I am not referring to the film from 2010 featuring Steve Carell & Tina Fey, although looking at the trailer for it we might watch it one date night in the future, just for ideas for what not to do.
It has been difficult to find date night adventures when I was “mobile”, things had to be within staggering distance for me and often I would get very tired very quickly, so it limited where we could go
Having the wheelchair has opened up more places for us to go, in theory. It is just a battle on a different front. Not only do I have to wonder if the venue accessible for me to enter, (i.e., no steps) but I also have to consider if the doorways be wide enough to allow my slightly wider than normal chair through. I know I have whined about this in another post, but I am astounded at how many modern venues aren’t DDA compliant. I am not demanding that all buildings need to be accessible, for instance it is unreasonable for me to expect access to a grade 2 listed building from the turn of the century where access was never considered for those less mobile, however in a 25-year-old modern business centre I would at least expect to be able to get my chair through the doors to the conference room.
Back to our date nights, so far, we have been Axe throwing, numerous coffee shop dates, visited the cinema to see the new Downton Abbey film, and had a nice trundle down the seafront at Withernsea with the obligatory fish and chips. We have built a blanket fort and played board games by fake candlelight in it and Robin made an amazing curry for each of us for Valentine’s Day date night. We have played card games in Hammonds of Hull, eaten amazing ice cream at our favourite gelato shop and we have even stayed up late one night to have a midnight feast.
What is the point of this post? Mainly to remind myself that just because I am in a chair when out and about, it doesn’t mean I have to stop having fun! I am also trying to challenge myself to think outside the box where date nights are concerned- what would be different and exciting but not dangerous or expensive! We are looking at trying bowling soon and I would love to try archery, but I haven’t found anywhere local that would be classed as accessible, but I haven’t finished that search yet.
We are always looking for ideas for date nights, so if you know us – send us your ideas! R&H