Multi-faith rally: Birmingham fights back against prejudice

Not too long back a US TV host from Fox News made some pretty startling claims about England's Second City, Birmingham. As someone who lives less than fifteen miles from the city in question, the prejudiced claims took me by surprise. Had they been on a less serious and controversial subject, I may well have laughed at the ignorance of other cultures displayed by the man in question.

Birmingham has responded to that and the other recent international faith-based incident - the Charlie Hebdo shooting - with a multi-faith rally which included speakers from six of the city's major faith groups; Muslim, Jewish, Christianity, Hindu, Seikh and Buddhism. Having been to the city many times over the course of my life I thought that maybe I would share some information about the city from my own point of view.

I have been a wheelchair user for a number of years now and have to admit that unless you are planning on driving somewhere, then travel in Britain can be quite annoying for the less mobile. However if you either phone ahead or talk to the ticket office then train stations will make sure that someone will sort out ramps to get on and off the trains. Lifts are available on all Birmingham's train stations for disabled visitors, with plenty of escalators and stairs also available.

As you may already know, Birmingham has some award-winning modern architecture as well as more traditional architecture. The new library shown in this image is next to the recently renovated Rep theatre, which has been home to some fantastic shows. Within easy walking distance is Symphony Hall, where I had my own graduation ceremony, as well as several other halls where some exciting events have taken place in recent history (aside from my graduation, that is).

If traditional architecture is more your thing then you may want to investigate the Art Gallery and Museum, which is located close to the City Hall and the infamous 'floozy in the jacuzzi' as she is known locally. Well, she is nekkid and sitting in a great pool of water!

There have been a lot of changes to the Birmingham of my youth, which was far less pleasant than it is now. Once of those casualties was the old rag market, which has been replaced with a modern version that is lovely to have a wander around. If shopping is your preference, you could do a lot worse than visiting the rag market, located within walking distance of that other widely talked-about piece of modern architecture, Selfridges.

Although it is physically impossible for me because of the medical conditions I have, Birmingham City centre isn't too bad to get around for wheelchair users who are otherwise fit. If you do have a mobility impairment and cannot self-propel over great distances I would recommend either making sure that you have someone fit to push you, or hiring an electric wheelchair or electric mobility scooter. However you choose to get around Birmingham, it is definitely worth a visit.

Not-New Year's Resolutions

I have a tendency to flit from hobby to hobby, largely because I have the attention span of a flea - not that I know how long a flea's attention span is, I must look that one up at some point. I become semi-skilled at something then boredom sets in and off I go. Anyone else do that?

When the New Year started and everyone started talking about New Year's resolutions I pretty much ignored it. I never stick to it, so why make myself feel bad? Now, however, I think that it may be time to set a resolution or two;

1. I am going to make sure that I spend a little time each week writing
2. I am going to continue to sketch
3. I am going to find something that interests me every week and photograph it.
4. I am going to continue to enter competitions - sorry folks!

Yes, there are a lot of other things that I need to do, but if I start out with things that I actually like I think that I stand a far better chance of doing them.

Get off your arse and do it.

I took part in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) writing initiative back in November last year. The idea is to challenge yourself to get your novel down on, I was going to say paper, but more likely the computer nowadays with the aim of achieving 50,000 words or more. Unfortunately I didn't manage to achieve that the last time that NaNoWriMo happened because my health conditions decided to kick in on overdrive. Rather than getting my novel done via my talk-to-type software I was flat on my back in bed - most likely snoring (yes, women snore too, I admit it - though not me, obviously...)

NaNoWriMo is a fantastic idea because it gives us the kick in the butt that many of us need, but just because it is over it doesn't mean that we should rest on our laurels. I am starting to feel a little better than I have done for the past few months so it's time to get writing again. And I would like to encourage you all to do whatever it is that you have been putting off whether that is writing a novel, getting a new job or dancing naked in the rain...

The truth about pain

Here is the thing about pain, the truth; once you reach a certain level of pain, or have a particular type of pain, no amount of medication or happy, positive thinking is going to take it away. You will, to some degree, have to learn how to live with and manage your pain. Oh, you'll undoubtedly get all sorts of platitudes from people who - through no fault of their own - cannot possibly understand what you are going through. Often the people who are trying to comfort you and tell you that it is all going to be okay, that the medication will solve everything, have experienced nothing more painful than the occasional headache. How can we possibly expect them to understand just what constant, unending, nerve-searing pain can do to a person?

What you are going to have to do, as someone living with a pain condition, is try not to explode too many times. Much as you may want to just shove everyone out the door and scream "Leave me alone!" I'm here to tell you that that just ain't healthy. Been there, done that and have a whole room full of tee-shirts (I wish! I could sell them and make some much-needed cash). I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will tell people to just leave me alone at some point in the future, but I am trying to be a lot more polite about it.

How on earth do you describe pain to someone who hasn't experienced long-term pain? It is like trying to explain blue to someone who has never been able to see. Yeah, okay, you can come up with comparisons "Blue is like a warm summer's sky" but that doesn't really explain the true nature of blue, does it?

Likewise I can say that one particular element of pain has made my skin so sensitive to touch that it is like my clothes are made out of sandpaper, or that I permanently feel as though I have the flu. Those descriptions may help a little if someone has tried rubbing their arm with sandpaper or if they have had flu, but... You see where I am going, right? It can give an idea but doesn't get across the constant wearing down that comes with constant pain.

That said - I still think that we should talk to people and try to explain as much as possible. We all know that pain is invisible, it is one of those conditions that is ignored and ridiculed: "It's only pain, why are you making so much fuss?" "Drama Queen!" and so on. If we want people to better understand pain, then we need to talk about it and the impact it has on our lives.