Summer Cruising to the Land of the Long White Cloud – by Lindsay Nott
Visiting New Zealand, the "Land of the Long White Cloud," had always been a bucket list of mine. Recently, I had the chance to turn that dream into a reality aboard the Diamond Princess with Princess Cruises. This 14-day roundtrip cruise from Brisbane was the perfect way to experience New Zealand’s beauty, with stops in Fiordland National Park (including Milford Sound), Dunedin, Wellington, Tauranga, and Auckland.
Till the wheels fall off – by Alicia Kapa
Running marathons is one thing, but running marathons while pushing a wheelchair is another. You may wonder who would be crazy enough to do that, well let me tell you my dad is!! My dad and I have been running together for about 2 years with the Christchurch Marathon being our annual event.
One size/fidget spinner doesn’t fit all – by Ferris Knight
When shopping for jeans you have a few expectations. One is that they’re sorted out by style and colour (your millennial friend here is still partial to acid-wash skinny jeans). Then you expect they’re organised by size, allocated by weird numbers. And even then, you don’t expect that you will necessarily fit you assume into them because all cut them differently, maybe at the waist, hip, or leg or length. Every day, you expect that the world isn’t cut in one particular way, and that it’s not a case of right or wrong but that different jeans fit different people.
Footpath Frustrations - my experience with accessibility barriers during roadworks – by Natasha Astill
Recently I have experienced some barriers when accessing the footpath while I am on my mobility scooter.
In my local area near where I live, there were roadworks as they were upgrading the stormwater drainage. The council did notify the community back in September 2024 that they were going to start this project soon.
Fast forward to December 2024 a few weeks until Christmas they decided to start the project.
No Strings Attached: The Reality of Living Life My Way - by Marlena Katene
It was recommended I watch a movie the other day on Disney, “Out of My Mind”.
MY JOURNEY TOWARDS WEIGHT LOSS AND FITNESS – by Bill Fuller
When is the “right” time to start on that weight loss and fitness journey? With the New Year upon us, is this your time? From time to time I’ve tried most of the “Secrets” of weight loss and fitness - take this tablet! Have this meal replacement powder! Buy this machine!! Well, over the years I’ve done just about all of them – and that machine sat in the corner of my lounge room for ages and I never lost any weight!!
Expanding Society’s View of Disability: A Hidden Disability Perspective – by Anja Christoffersen
Disability is a kaleidoscope. Even within each medical diagnosis, there is so much variation. As a community we are not homogenous, we are diverse. It feels like mainstream is the circle, and they’ve made disability a square – you must fit into either box, but ultimately everyone is shaped differently.
REFLECTION & ANTICIPATION – by Ian Walker
Kia ora everybody!
As I sat, which I do a lot, to contemplate what to write about for this blog I kept thinking that with it being December means two things.
Firstly, it’s the end of the year 2024 – a time to reflect back on what the year delivered. Be it challenges, successes, and/or costs met, goals achieved, or not and lessons learnt during the past twelve months. I did the same in 2023, looking back at the challenges I’d faced but more importantly, I looked forward with anticipation toward 2024.
REFLECTION:
Reflections on the Paris Paralympics Part 1 – by Susan Seipel
I can’t believe the Paris Paralympics are over already! This is part one of two blogs which are about my experience as an athlete at the Paris Paralympics.
The Village:
Letter to Myself - Finding my Unicorn Support Worker (or not) - By Charlie Park
Dear Past-Charlie,
I am writing to you from the future after 4 years of being an NDIS participant. I hope to make your journey of using Support Workers for the first time easier and less stressful than mine was.
I know you won’t want to hear this, but you must be patient! There is no magical agency that provides everything that you need. Instead, you will go on a long hunt and kiss many frogs before you find your prince/ss.
I gift you these tips to speed up your journey: