Those of you who have been following The Movie Boards for awhile maybe aware of a few years ago of my ill-fated road trip with the Old Man to Sydney the highlights of the trip being that due to my beer barrel physique combine with my use of a wheelchair meant that I was unable to get on a plane to Sydney (that part of the trip I was originally going to be taken by myself) and after driving to Sydney with the Old Man we had to turn around and come home again due to the fact that the door bathroom of the hotel room that I had booked was to small for my wheelchair to fit through.

It should be noted that this time around I learnt from my mistake and decide not to fly to Melbourne, so I could go to the opening night of the St Kilda Film Festival. Instead I had originally thought that I would take the train down to Melbourne but as it turned out the wheelbase of my wheelchair left me with a six-centimeter overhang on the ramp that would have gotten me on to the train and in turn this left me with only two options available to me. Option A to drive down to Melbourne with the Old Man and Option B not to go at all. Considering that I am writing this article you probably know what option I chose. Option A.
I have a couple of questions, which I suppose can easily be answered by saying it’s because your overweight. But how many of you who transfer from a wheelchair favor one side over the other? And how many of you consider themselves ambidextrous with their transfers?
Prone to acts of not planning I’ll admit that before leaving home, well before leaving home I should have checked on my ability to get into the passenger side of my car. For those of you who might be wondering I did not become aware of this fact until I had driven to where we stopped for breakfast in Gundagi, where I intended to let the Old Man take over the driving. Not wanting to turn back and admitting to the Old Man that this was a crazy idea I decided that I was going to be the one driving all the way to Melbourne. Though road trips with your parents are good bonding moments. They are a possible way to inflict upon them a vehicular induced panic attack on them. One of the highlights of the trip to Melbourne was the fish and chips that I had for lunch at the Logic Service Station near Yarrawonga. Oh, and just in case you’re wondering the Old Man survived the trip to Melbourne.

Now, the Bayview Eden is a little fancier then I was expecting, and I found that the door to the room of their wheelchair accessible room was a tight fit but if I was lighter I probably been able to get into the room easier. But when we got here we did not have to turn around and go right back to Canberra. The food at the Bayview is good, I can recommend their porterhouse steak and their chicken & chorizo jambalaya. I’m also reliably informed that they do a good burger.
The size of disabled bathrooms is something that I have heard many jokes about before. I’ve heard some comics with a disability joke about how the have looked around disabled bathrooms that they have been in and thought about how they would furnish them, because let’s be honest people there are more then a few disabled bathrooms out there that are big enough for a lounge and a big screen television. Well it is my firm belief that the lobby for the Bayview Eden has the smallest disabled bathroom that I have ever seen. It might not be THE smallest, but it certainly is in the top 3. And no, it doesn’t have room for a couch. We saw a little bit of St Kilda road and my Instagram duck Gerald claimed a picture I took of two trams for his account

As I said in my article about the opening night The Palais theatre is actually a very good-looking theatre (you just have to look and the building’s façade to know that and I love the chandelier in the foyer) and was accessible and easy to get into, though I was informed that some of the accessibility was only a recent development. There was also brilliant collection of short films shown on the night. And on a personal note I hold the Palais theatre in higher regard then the Capitol Theatre in Manuka Canberra (the third floor in the Capitol REALLY needs to be sorted out from an accessibility point of view).

For those of you wondering the Old Man survived the trip back to Canberra, I believe that some of his panic in regard to my driving can be chalked up to not being in control in Melbourne. Which is perfectly understandable. On our way out of town it should be noted that we missed one turn though through the magic of Google Maps we seemed to avoid the toll road that brought us into Melbourne.

The Old Man is already asking me if I am going to make another trip, perhaps this time by myself. Considering this question of his came during dinner the night we got home its really to early to tell. Though I have said that perhaps if I make another trip to The St Kilda Film Festival I’d stay in a less fancy hotel so that I could afford to stay for longer and perhaps even see more of the festival and Melbourne.