On Friday night Claire and I went to a local pub for a quick drink. There’s a very big step to get in and just as we were preparing to tackle it I had a couple of bizarre conversations with two strangers, pretty much simultaneously.

The first (by a fraction) was with a man who approached me asking for change. He then asked a question I wasn’t expecting, “Are you a cripple for true?”

Just as I was opening my mouth to respond a second stranger, who was leaving the pub, started lecturing me on the correct way to get up the step in my wheelchair. He was insistent that I was about to do it all wrong and that I should follow his advice and go in backwards.

I said to the first man ‘I’m not a cripple but I am a disabled woman’ and to the second I said ‘Thanks for your advice but I’ve done this before, and backwards isn’t going to work.’ I said goodnight to them both and went inside for a drink (and to suggest to the manager that he should get a ramp).

I told Fat Sister all about this earlier today. She laughed when I told her what the first man had asked. She seemed struck by the phrase ‘Cripple for true’ and even suggested I adopt it as my new slogan. But after careful consideration I think I’ll stick to ‘Changing the world one tic at a time.’