Friday 26 July 2013 - leaving Brisbane

A lot of planning went in to this holiday, with the help of our travel agent to ensure the best possible outcome, particularly for my needs as a disabled person using a wheelchair.  I am a T7 incomplete paraplegic with the ability to stand-transfer.  My husband Terry and I were up very early in the morning to meet my sister Sharney (travelling companion and additional carer) at Brisbane Airport at 6.30 am.  Between the three of us, we had two suitcases, a backpack and a suit bag (for my disabled aids – fold up commode and fold up Zimmer frame with wheels).  I used a Ti-Lite manual wheelchair and I had a SmartDrive fitted to the wheelchair.  The SmartDrive was very useful during our trip, particularly at airports and shopping centres.  It was not suitable to use on footpaths because of uneven surfaces and the camber which meant footpaths were not flat. 

We travelled with Singapore Airlines, mainly because I had been told they had good disabled toilets on board.  I went to the door of the plane before being transferred to the plane's “skychair”.  The SmartDrive was removed and put in the backpack before my wheelchair was taken away for storage.  I am able to stand-transfer though that is still awkward at times.  I was taken to an aisle seat.  We were in the three middle seats.  The plane was an A330 and the plane was not full for our eight hour flight to Singapore.  I don’t use a catheter so when the need arose, Sharney and the cabin crew assisted me to the toilet using the skychair.  Three toilets had to be closed to allow Sharney and me to get in the toilet.  It was not the roomy disabled toilet I had expected and it was very difficult, particularly as the foot plate on the skychair did not flip up so further limited the room we had to manoeuvre.  It was all a very uncomfortable experience and I was very disappointed.

As we were going to land in Singapore, there was a severe thunderstorm below us.  The plane began to land in the storm but the captain obviously changed his mind as suddenly our plane was heading straight up, which was a bit unnerving.  We circled for a while till it must have been safe to land.  The tarmac was very wet.  We had a driver with a mini-van waiting to pick us up at the Airport about 4.30 pm.  It was about a half hour drive to our accommodation, Oasia Hotel, Sinaran Drive.  Terry and I had a nice double room and Sharney had her own room.  The bathroom had a roll-in shower with a flip-down shower seat and good rails.  The toilet had pull-down rails on either side.  So the bathroom met my requirements.

We had a delicious dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.  We were very tired.  When removing my shoes and socks before bed, I found my legs very swollen and painful.  I had worn pressure stockings on the plane, not realising they were not properly pulled up and were cutting in to my legs.  So I resolved not to wear them again.