I love swimming and I try to go at least twice a week. Recently I’ve been going to a different pool because my nearest one is being refurbished.
The accessible changing facilities at the new pool are much fancier than the ones where I usually go. In each cubicle there’s a hoist, a toilet, a sink, a shower – and a hand-dryer.
In one of them the hand-dryer’s positioned at the end of the bench that I sit on to get changed. The bench is short, the dryer is movement-sensitive, and the result is chaos!
Each of my big motor tics is enough to set it off. This takes me by surprise, I become super-excited, and so my tics increase. This cycle keeps repeating itself, usually with just enough of a gap between each burst of activity for me to forget about it for a moment and be surprised when the dryer leaps into life again.
Yesterday this reached ridiculous levels and had Zoë and me in stitches.
My regular pool re-opens soon and part of the work they’ve been doing is in the changing rooms – fingers crossed they’ve opted for less super-sensitive hand-dryers.