I haven’t written a review of my new Travelscoot yet. This is deliberate as I wanted to get used to it and use it in lots of different situations before I wrote anything down but I had such a great experience at Jamie’s Italian in Brighton on Friday that I wanted to share it.

It was my Niece’s birthday and Jamie’s Italian is one of her favourites so we were all meeting there for tea. The mild anxiety started about 2 days before and all the usual questions swam around in my head about whether I’d be physically able to get there.

My lovely new scooter doesn’t have a key so I was worried about leaving it outside the restaurant if I wasn’t allowed to bring it in, if it got pinched I’d be stranded! If I left it outside would I be able to manage the walking required to get to the table, then to the loos and back? I decided I’d better not have any wine as that would exacerbate the problems even if it made the situation more amusing!

I texted my sister in a panic wondering if she’d booked a particular table and where it was in proximity to the toilets and the door and she texted back, “give them a call and see.”

Genius!

I’d been busy allowing anxiety to creep up and overwhelm me but I’d also been stuffing my head further and further into the sand, hoping it would all go away! Denial is a powerful defence mechanism for the MSer facing a new or stressful situation so I picked up the phone and called them.

A helpful and accommodating young man at Jamie’s assured me that the restaurant was “fully accessible” and that my scooter would be no trouble. He took note of all the details so the waiting staff would be aware of the situation and assured me there’d be somewhere safe to stash my wheels while I ate.

I didn’t totally believe him though and started stressing about steps, imagining knocking diners off their chairs, running small children over and general carnage but I needn’t have worried, the restaurant turned out to be “fully accessible.”

There were no steps up to the entrance so I trundled in easily, there was enough room between tables for me to glide past without disturbing anyone, there was even enough room to manoeuvre easily up to our table and get off the scooter without incident!

Naturally the joy and relief at such ease made it necessary to drink 3 large glasses of wine but even this was no trouble as there’s a nifty lift up to the toilets! My sister came with me to make sure I could manage it and we noticed a sign in the lift saying, “No Scooters”, to which we said in unison “denied!” (This is a reference to the 1992 movie, “Wayne’s World” so I’m guessing only readers with bad taste in films will understand) No one stopped me though and it was all easy!

The food was delicious as usual and it just shows that all MSers need to do is plan and communicate and face their needs head on in order to have as lovely an evening as anyone else!