My MS
by Ian Heydon

I have to share this!  I will be catching up with good friend Robyn Moore later this week.  Robyn’s son, Toby, is an actor, now living in New York.  About six years ago, when he was at NIDA, he made a short film (wrote and starred) about Alzheimers.  It is based on his own grandmother’s journey and this week it was launched at the Alzheimers Australia Conference.  Click here and take seven minutes and see a powerful piece of cinema. 

If any locals are reading this, Robyn will be appearing at Toowoomba Cirty Golf Club on Thursday (6:30pm to 8:00pm).  Apart from being the voice of Blinky Bill and the female characters in How Green Was My Cactus, she is one of Australia’s most in demand speakers.  I promise it will be an evening of entertainment and value! Email me for more details.

May is the month we fundraise to Kiss Goodbye to MS. 

I am so inspired when I see people like Megan Healey take on challenges and win. 

Megan is just 43 – she has had MS for 15 years and is wheelchair bound. On May 13 she left Melbourne on her trusty ride-on lawnmower with an aim to make Sydney by World MS Day on May 29. She will be raising funds en route with a goal of $50,000 and she’s well on the way.  To quote Megan:

“I want the money that we raise to go towards providing adequate care for people living with MS so they can stay in their own homes when times get tough and at the same time, take the hard work away from the family members so that the whole family can enjoy life instead of often just surviving life.”

Read more about Megan here – she is an amazing woman!

Had a family day in BrisVegas last Saturday… Laura is getting close to going for her licence but was yet to have a crack at city driving and apart from the traffic experience she also notched up four hours towards the 100 required hours on L-Plates.  It was also her birthday weekend and she had some money to spend on clothes.  While Annie and Lorz hit the Queen Street Mall shops I went to Park Road in Milton for a leisurely coffee and a few chapters of a book I’m reading.

The day seemed to have clockwork all over it because we planned for a Mother’s Day lunch in West End, at a restaurant that is nearly always booked out – but we rang five minutes before arriving and they had a table for three.  We love Greek food and usually go for Vagelis on Racecourse Road or Ouzeri in West End but research pointed us at a delightful little establishmenrt called The Little Greek Taverna (corner of busy Boundary and Browning Streets). The name says a lot – there’s not a heap of room with most of the tables on both Boundary and Bowning. There is a lively, friendly buzz, a little background bouzouki muzak and, while unlicensed, has the atmosphere of a modern tavern.

It is a family business that popped up in 2009 and is now one of Brisbane’s favourites, for value as well as quality and service. We ordered the Northern Greek banquet. At first glance it looks expensive at $70, but it is for up to four people so less than $20 a head for some terrific Greek dishes – you get a lovely, large traditional Greek salad (Horiatiki Salata) and a choice of two dips (pita bread extra) – we chose the tzatziki and a red pepper. That came with two serves of haloumi. There are two meat platters – one with 2 x beeftekia (char-grilled beef patties) and 4 x seftelyes (pan-fried pork sausages) – the other was the souvklaki – two lamb, two chicken and two pork – perfect!

If you would prefer just a main course most are around $15, they do kiddies meals for $7 and corkage is $2.  The secret is out but they maintain the quality and value and best to book to avoid disappointment – 3255 2215.  We will certainly be back.  Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays).

I was writing about how to negotiate airports and flights with mobility issues for my Cane and Able website and threw this bit into the mix… the whole article here: http://caneandable.com.au/air-travel/

I have one pet hate. People who use parking spaces reserved for people with a disability when they don’t have one. I guess some people do it without thinking, but I have seen abled people use a friend or relative’s sticker to get the good parking spot. I didn’t realise until recently that there are people without disabilities who request wheelchair assistance at airports. Apparently some requests are just to avoid the queues and get airside quicker (and then have miraculous recovery on arrival). I asked a Virgin flight attendant about this and she said that it is common with people who are just bone lazy but more with people who are at the obese end of the scales who run out of puff when confronted with a distance to waddle. What irritates the helpers even more is that they are twice as hard to push!

Now, I’ve never been a huge fan of ‘bars’ in private homes, but perhaps I could be swung…

You may recall that Dave and I are currently putting together The Functioning Drunk show (recording on May 25)… we were recently chatting about famous functioning drunks and decided that the person at the top of the list, head of the heap, King of the hill would have to be Dean Martin – simply because he made a living out of being drunk pretending to be sober pretending to be drunk and getting away with it beautifully… but a close second would have to be his fellow Rat Pack mate, Frank Sinatra. When Frank performed live he had a small backstage dressing room request…

One bottle each of Absolute, Jack Daniel’s, Chivas Regal, Courvoisier, Beefeater Gin, white wine, red wine and to go with that, well, naturally, twenty-four chilled jumbo shrimp, Life Savers and cough drops. Guess he brought his own cigarettes…