Shopmobility

The day after the snow fell I walked to work, along the deserted roads, slipping and sliding on the frozen ice. The paths were clogged with frozen snow and there were banks of the it too, making walking very difficult. I walked down the slope to the underpass and stopped short as I couldn't believe my eyes. There in the middle of the underpass was a lady being helped by two others to get her and her motorised wheelchair up the other side. Apparently she had been stuck in the middle of the pass for quite some time. What I couldn't understand is how she got there in the first place, the slope down is steep and even once in the middle there was no smooth areas for her wheelchair to go. I have no idea where she could have come from, as the houses are some distance away and no idea how long it would have taken her to get there, why on earth would she want to leave her house in the first place.

The thing is Bracknell has developed this culture where if you hit the age of 50 your legs become useless and you have to get a motorised shopping buggy. There is Mr and Mrs shopmobility, fifty somethings with matching shoppers, the Howards and Hildas of Bracknell town centre. Others that hire the shoppers just to ride around town, you can hire them per hour and obviously there are people that do need them to have a more independent life.  Don't get me wrong I am not knocking people with needs, but if you walk through the town you have to watch all around you so that you don't get run over. Get to the shops, they nip off their buggy and more or less run inside to get the the front of the queues.

The car parks are very PC too, looking for any space to park is getting harder, as all the spaces are allocated for the disabled, is there something wrong with the water around here, are the majority of car owners really in need of special spaces and should they really be driving in the first place?  Tesco car park can be entertaining though, I have actually seen people park in the disables space, jump out of their car, realise that you have looked to see if they have the obligatory parking sticker and if they don't they start limping their way into the shop.

Some of these people need to visit France where the elderly take their Sunday walks and keep active. I have only ever seen one motorised buggy in France and guess what, the women riding it was English!