Helping Hands Live-in Care offers our clients the maximum flexibility of routine that their condition allows. We try to ensure that our clients maintain as active a lifestyle as they wish to, and that their condition allows. A shopping trip out into the community, a day trip or even a few days away can break the monotony of life, keeping the mind sharp and the body active.
We will regularly update this section with articles and ideas that make getting out and about a little easier, or a just little more fun.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The world’s most popular flower show takes place each year in May and makes a wonderful destination for a day trip, or even a few days away for the hardier visitor. This year, the 2009 event runs from the 19th to the 23rd May at its usual venue at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, the home of the Chelsea Pensioners.
Described as the ultimate event in the gardening calendar, the Chelsea Flower Show is the highlight of many an amateur gardener’s year. Famous for its vibrant colours and wonderful garden scents, the Chelsea Show is a spectacle of all that is beautiful in a British garden (when the sun shines!).
The first Royal Horticultural Society Great Spring Show, to give the show its official title, was held in 1862 at the RHS garden in Kensington. It has been held in Chelsea since 1913 and is now attended by 157,000 visitors a year, a number limited only by the capacity of the 11 acre site.
Access for Disabled Visitors
Parking is available in Battersea Park and buses with wheelchair access run regularly to and from the show. Visitors needing to use the mobility bus need to advise the parking stewards when they arrive at Battersea Park.
One Carer is admitted free of charge per wheelchair user, visually impaired visitor or other person whose disability necessitates a Carer. You can loan a wheelchair, but they must be reserved in advance and they are limited in their availability. For information on wheelchair loan call 0845 260 7000. The closing date for booking is 15 May 2009.
Buy your tickets in advance
Tickets need to be purchased in advance and vary from £18.50 to £43 depending on the day and time you want to visit. Visit the Chelsea Flower Show website or telephone 0844 209 1810 to buy tickets and make it a day to remember at the gardening event of the year.
Day Tripper
For those clients who are able to venture a little further than their local shops, there are any number of fabulous day trips to be enjoyed around the UK. With a friend, relative or Carer to drive or accompany them, the mental and physical stimulus that comes from a trip somewhere new should not be underestimated.
Cities of culture
No matter where you live around this great country, there a variety of destinations to enjoy. From craft museums, to churches, to Roman ruins or art galleries we are blessed to have many destinations to match our interests and hobbies.
Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, Newcastle/Gateshead and Oxford were all short listed in the competition to find Britain's European Capital of Culture in 2008. Although Liverpool won the competition, all these cities and many others around the country have lots to offer a day visitor.
With many of our clients dealing with limiting conditions and/or physical disabilities, we appreciate that there are limits to what we can do. But one thing none of us should do is use a condition as an excuse and do nothing to change the routine.
Where can we go?
Some of our clients are more mobile than others, and some require a wheelchair or further assistance, but most tourist destinations around the UK cater for wheelchairs and are very accessible, indeed it’s the law!
A good central resource for day trip destinations is the UK Directory of Day Trips. You can search their database by county or region. It gives you a list of potential venues and you can then click on your choice and it takes you through to the venue website where you should be able to find accessibility information.
Find places you may never have heard of like the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick, or the National Botanical Garden of Wales in Carmarthen, or the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading. No matter where you live, using the Day Trip Directory you will be able to find a choice of varied and interesting venues to inspire and excite the minds and lives of our loved ones.