Honeymoon, without a Honey. (Part 1)

The flight to Fuerteventura was smooth and 4 hours long. Made friends with the old couple sitting next to me and apparently found out that they have a house in Fuerteventura and go there every year during the winters. Nice!

As I didn’t have breakfast, I was starving. After a long wait, our on-board hot lunch arrived; it was rice with curry, a glass of orange juice and a cup-cake for desert. It wasn’t very delicious or the most scrumptious meal but good enough to fill up my stomach. After this I slept for the rest of on-flight journey, in fact everyone slept. At around 2:00 in the afternoon I was awaken by an announcement, ‘we shall be reaching Fuerteventura in a few minutes. I donno what exactly is the temperature’ announced the pilot, ‘But I am sure its much warmer than back home...as you can see the sun’. He pointed out Lanzarote, Tenerife, and Spain to us from the plane the panoramic view was breath taking. He also told us that the local time of Fuerteventura is the same as UK as Fuerteventura is located on the same longitudes as UK (which was good I thought no jet-lag).

I then took out my mirror, wiped my face with a wet-wipe to freshen up, put a bit of mascara to get rid of my sleepy-eyes, dabbed on some lip-stick, brushed my hair and made sure I look decent. I was all smiles, yes, to check out the sun! Seriously as the air-craft landed, I just couldn’t stop smiling (I’ll show u the pics) I was so delighted to see the sun and the warm climate. In fact everybody coming from UK (which was almost all of them) were glad to be in a warm country.

As being on a wheelchair I was the last one to leave the aircraft (which was fine with me). Soon an aisle wheelchair was brought; I was transferred from my seat onto the aisle wheelchair and wheeled out of the aircraft. My own motorised wheelchair was waiting for me out side, then I was transferred on to my wheelchair. After showing our passport I was then to proceed towards the luggage arrival area. I just had one light suit case and the person assisting me took my luggage and we were soon outside. Oh God I just could not stop smiling, it was so warm and bright, especially from where I came from it was minus four.

Outside a Thomas Cook member of staff was waiting for me, she greeted me with a pleasant smile and guided me towards the wheelchair accessible taxi. I was soon in the taxi and on my way to Elba Sara Hotel. The roads were very clean but, due to the warm winds blowing from the Sahara Desert in Africa it was, very dusty.

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Decisions, decisions, holiday decisions.

Its November, cold already, now the temperature is six degrees centigrade and soon its going to be minus one and even more, icy and frosty, burrrrr!

As you can tell I don’t really enjoy the cold except if I am going skiing I the snow or ice skating (if I do have the proper equipment). Now Christmas jobs as yet, no permanent jobs as yet, even my PhD at Queen Mary University of London shall begin next year September. ‘What to do? What to do?...’ I thought aloud, ‘lets check-out the sun. Brilliant idea! But where to go...as I am on a wheelchair and I am on a limited budget?’

(Figuring out wheelchair accessibility while travelling and having a limited budget can be an daunting issue. Not to worry my friend, the trick is to be persistent and not to lose hope. One has to be determined that no matter what I have to get my way through. Even if your travel agent gets annoyed with you because you call ‘em everyday to recheck and reconfirm your travel trip, which happened with me and I am glad I rechecked a million times, will tell you all about it. Because, you know what folks! At the end of the day it is your money and safety.)

It was the second week of November, cold and raining outside. It was 10 in the morning but it looked like evening already. Well it was a miserable day out there but that does not mean I should feel the same. No, no, no! Was having a warm cup of tea, sitting next to the window beside my laptop, listening to the pitter patter sounds of the raindrops hitting the ground as they tumble from the sky. Nut so thinking about the sun! ‘Affordable sunny wheelchair accessible holidays’ I googled. My search came to an unlimited number of hits. They were a few weeks trips to Egypt, South Africa, sunny California, Morocco, Australia, Sahara desert.... Wish I could go to all these expensive atleast a minimum of £700 which not only included flight tickets but also wheelchair accessible accommodation in a hotel, airport transfers, food and drinks. Well a bit too much for me as my budget was around £400 or rather the cheaper the better. The I googled for travel agents, which was a good idea. Found one http://www.personaltraveladvisors.co.uk/, well they are many out there but this is whom I consulted. You just fill out your name, number and travel detail in the online contact form. Soon a travel agent calls back who, has been assigned as your personalised advisor and provides tailor made holidays. Nice, which is just what I was looking for. She confirmed all my travel details with ‘And you said you are on a wheelchair, Miss Ahmed, and you’ll be travelling on your own?’ she asked. ‘Yes, I am a permanent wheelchair user and I’ll be travelling on my own’ I confirmed. She also asked me if I wanna go somewhere in particular and for how long approximately. I told her ‘well where ever its warm and as I’m on a limited budget of around £400 preferable or essentially rather it should be an all inclusive holiday’. After a short silence she comforted me by saying: ‘not to worry, I am sure we’ll sort something out for you’. And yes we did sort out something.

It took me two weeks to sort out an appropriate trip.

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Bit 2, Making our way to the Brighton beach:

Soon we all stuffed ourselves in the train. Wow! There is air-conditioning in the South Western train Service, cause in the South Eastern trains the top windows are open thus air-conditioning the entire train naturally. The reason I use the word ‘stuffed’ because they were way too many passengers and it was very warm and stuffy. I was kind of grateful to be on a wheelchair at that time, otherwise I would be sitting, all squashed beside someone. Mind me saying this, but we were all smelling of sweat. Then I decided to visit the loo on the train before I get off at Brighton. Me and my bright ideas! Thank God my Mom was with me (Brilliant moms!) I asked my Mom to accompany me to the loo and hence she did. Please always and always please do keep wet wipes, thank you! Both of us made our way through the crowded train, good for me the loo was just next to us so no one created a fuss. Well when all was done I reached out to flush, goodness me, there was no water, then checked the taps no water there as well, that was not good. Anyways, thankfully my Mom had wet wipes, which was good. Finally we got seated back and after the loo episode, who ever wanted to visit the loo we always told them there is no water. As the man who went before us had experienced the same issue as the loo was not flushed and did not bother to let us know. Well visiting a waterless loo is not a pleasant experience. (By the way due to the lack of rains in summer and intense heat, UK is suffering from a drought; on media they showcase the news as if the circumstances are as bad as it is in Africa!).

In a few minutes time a mum along with her two tiny babies (who were a pair of twins, sleeping away in their double push chairs) came and sat next to us. She was really cool, and great to chat with, soon my Mom, I, another young boy, and the mum were all involved in a conversation. I found out that she was aged more then 30 and was a film-maker and worked at BBC, I was delightful to know that and soon got a number of tips to get into BBC (which I have been trying since the past 3 years and its tough), she had even coached a BFT Award winner, the young boy was 29 and studied engineering from some fancy University in London. Apparently his father owned a Pub in Brighton and he was just going for the weekend to visit his folks. The mom who is a film-maker and had temporarily suspend working as she was working as a full-time mother these days, and was going there to meet up with her friends. All four of us had built up a great conversation, we spoke about falling in love, having kids, career, fashion, art, travelling, sports, politics, babies, and therefore we didn’t even realize, the one hour passed by quickly and soon we were in Brighton. We all gave a good bye wish to all and went our very own ways.

While I was in the train I was also busy sending text messages to my Cousin in Brighton. She lived there so asked her if she is free and would like to join us. She agreed and decided to meet up with us at the train station. As we made our way out of the station my Cousin was right in front waiting for us. We one by one gave a ‘hello’ hug to each other and made our way out to the station. She asked us where would we like to eat, at the beach, or sit in somewhere, or just grab a snack, I just said ‘cousin I am here for the beach is it possible we can do all this on the beach?’ ‘Sure you can, there is loads to eat and do at the beach.’ All sounds great, we all trotted off to the pebble beach.

On my way I took out my mobile as it has a very good camera. Although using a camera stuck in the phone is not convenient at all. (I am at the moment in search of a digital camera, I just can’t find a good, cheap one! Something having 12 mega pixel, high performance, 4 x zoom optical that is, and chargeable. If anyone can offer a good deal please do contact me, thank you). Anyway, so my camera comes out and I because of the scorching sun that blinded me had no clue or rather was not able to see a thing on the mobile camera screen, was just clicking away randomly pointing at streets, building, people around me and even myself, and I got a few pretty good pictures. As we were passing by streets there were many shops, restaurants and open street cafes and people everywhere, it was very colourful and vibrant. We can across a closed shop and there was a poster in the shop window saying ‘homosexuals are possessed by demon’, (I took a picture of and shall put it up in my blog) not very welcoming it sounded. Come on now, its a free World and Brighton is known as the Capital Gay City of England. There are all sorts of people in this world and we have to learn to share. My Mom stopped at many jewellery shops on our way to the beach which created delays. I just wanted to check out the beach. It was like please lets go to the beach.

Do stay in tuned for the other Bits of my day trip in Brighton. Looking forward to read your comments. Love you all and take care X.

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