“I’m too old for this malarkey” I happened to say out loud whilst discussing wedding plans (which I tend to do quite often these days!) The assorted people around me, friends, sisters and daughter loudly disagreed so it was decided that I was to be taken out by said friends over the weekend for my ‘hen night’. Now bearing in mind that I’m a lady of a certain age who’s been married before and is really far too old for this kind of stuff plus when you factor in the availability of appropriate wheelchair accessible places for such ladies, I was a little hesitant to say the least!
But it was all arranged and once I’d managed to convince P that I wouldn’t wheel round Cardiff trying to kiss random men wearing a feather boa and not much else, he agreed to deliver me to the designated pub to meet the girls. I had my hair done, make up applied, a lovely new frock from the lovely people at https://www.scarlettandjo.com/ and off we went. Now these ladies have been brilliant with me since I’d been off so it was fab to be out and about with them. I knew that there would definitely be fun, frolics and an awful lots of fizz ahead!
What I wasn’t expecting was the insistence of the girls that I had to wear all the hen night trappings they had brought along! Now I’m not a snob but I’ve never liked the whole ‘tiara and willy shaped straws’ kind of hen night but I still managed to find myself in a pub in Cathays with a crown on my head, a sash over my shoulder and a bright pink ‘bride to be’ straw playing a game of “Willy Bingo” and wearing silly faces!
To say that I drew a fair amount of attention was an understatement; four shrieking women accompanied by a crown wearing woman in a sash covered wheelchair playing a game that had us comparing, ahem ‘appendages’ out loud was bound to, especially when the pub was full of blokes trying to watch the footie on the screens above our heads!!!
A few bottles of fizz later, we were still playing but it had now somehow changed into “BillyWingo”, a term coined by the gorgeous Bridget and one which will stay with me forever, especially after hearing her screaming it out loud whenever she had won the round!
We felt that maybe it was time to leave the boys to their football and left for the Caribbean restaurant around the corner. This is where unfortunately we faced the first obstacle of the evening. The ‘ramp’ that they had promised was there was in fact a step! There was a bit of “umming” and “aaahing” until a man appeared out of the hotel and managed somehow to heave me up and over the step and in we went. But there was another major hurdle to conquer ahead; NO disabled toilet! But the staff desperately assured us there was a toilet with handrails, great we thought but then she added “it’s in the men’s loo” Terrific…..
So in order to have a wee (which after a few glasses of fizz was very likely) I had to get my wheelchair through the men’s toilet door, get myself into the cubicle and do my business hanging onto the rails. All this with one of the girls hanging onto me whilst one of the girls was guarding the door to stop any men coming in! Not the best accessibility I’ve ever encountered or the most painless moment either but thankfully it didn’t put a dampener on our night.
So my evening was brilliant; it was amazing being out with the girls again, it really did remind me of my former life and whilst there were a few obstacles in my way, we did manage to get past them and had a really good night with great mates!
And apparently (according to Darling Daughter!) I’m having another one soon, woo hoo, bring it on! I’m a hen, I’m a hen……!!!
https://www.sabrain.com/pubs-and-hotels/south-wales/cardiff/the-crwys/
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