National Key Scheme for toilets.

I have had a 'Radar' National Key Scheme key for some time.

I find public toilets impossible, they are smelly and unhygeinic with wet (urine) soaked floors, rudimentary handwashing facilities, and only slightly better than wetting myself. I will only use one when absolutely desperate.   I therefore thought that as I was Autistic I would get a key so I could use the 'disabled' toilet.

Problem is, I cannot bring myself to use it.  I do not have a wheelchair or have physical problems using a 'normal' toilet.  The problems I have are a mental aversion.  On the odd occasion I have used the 'disabled' toilet (what a strange name, it is not the toilet that is disabled, it works perfectly!) it is because the normal one is out of use.  And it has always been a lot cleaner and more pleasant.

So should I just grit my teeth and bear the normal toilets?  Or should I ignore the (perceived) thoughts of those who think I should not use the disabled toilet.  Or is it the case I should not use the disabled toilet at all as they are only intended for those who are physically disabled?

  • Lonewarrior, lets start a new topic. But what shall we call it... and where to start it - adult or miscellaneous chat?  And what should the name of the topic be :-) 

  • I don't get what your issue is. I have a RADAR key. I use it when needed. Who cares what anyone else thinks. 

  • I understand what you mean by feeling/sensing the thoughts. You’re simply picking up on their thoughts but it’s better to think of it as simply energy. This takes practice, or rather it took a lot of practice for me to remember to do it all the time. You simply surround yourself with an energy force field that will not allow any negative type of heavy energy to enter your energy field. This will protect you so you don’t have to wrestle with what they may or may not be thinking. They’re probably thinking some heavy depressing type thoughts or whatever about something else but if you’re sensitive like me, you’ll pick up on their thoughts and they’ll effect yours because they go against your thoughts, your honest nature and your strong sense of right or wrong. But it’s just a clash of energies really. Us sensitive souls seem to suck up all the energy around us and take it on as if it were our own,  then we feel confused. Refuse to take on the negative energy of others and your good energy will not then be effected and you will only attract people of like energy. 

  • Are the horse pictures from Appleby fair? 

  • Hi trainspotter really enjoyed the pictures, you could sell them easily if there is a resource available to do that, I am not clued upnon suchbthinfs, But your sharp quality and vibrant colours are so well framed and the perspective s amazingly good,

    really enjoyed them ()

  • This picture.my beard isn’t quite as big yet, but will soon catch up. Mine is more white and grey.the shirt is so similar,and the hard worked face and hands most definitely. ()

  • Thank you Procrastinator for the link to old Russian colour photography. Wow! Amazing colour and so sharp images, the one outside a farm house with a family has the man who resembles my look, especially the beard,

    ()

  • No, me neither Robert, I’m not as quick witted as DC and I would have thought the same as you about the review, even after realising the writer was a woman! I like other people making me laugh anyway so I don’t mind not being quick witted, I leave that job to those who are. 

  • Well, I'm not as quick witted as DC.

    I was once reading hotel and holiday reviews on trip advisor.  And one reviewer was complaining that "the ladies were smelly and dirty", I spent a couple of minutes wondering, just what kind of entertainment this hotel was providing?  

    Then I realised, the writer was a woman and she was probably talking about the toilets!

  • Excellent DC ~ you are very quick and witty as well. Thank you for the laugh. 

  • :-) 

    Thank You for "getting" my pun. There are more possibilities, but I suppose it is too late at night, now...for anymore of this kind of sh*t...? And I usually do not speak using toilet language, as you can read of this Post here. Others may Post similar puns, however, since the weekend is coming....?

    It is almost not fair - it should not be so difficult to start a "lighthearted" Thread upon this site!

  • My photography is art.

    If only I could sell it for a price of a Picasso ( whose work is true c r a  p).

  • I think that 'wheelchair' symbol for the disabled has something to do with it, it implies to me a 'physical' disability as the qualification. 

    ...Apologies, Me again, probably writing something a bit "not nice"...

    Here in London at least, the "Wheelchair" symbol seems to mean very little in favour of actual Wheelchair-bound persons: The area is kept cleaner, and, if you have a perambulator/pushchair, then it is virtually a "Green Light" for doing whatever is wanted...

    (Sorry.)

  • I can 'feel' the thoughts rather than 'hear' them ... or have some inner perception, however misconceived that perception may be.  The fact is, I have some sort of 'inner conscience' of what I consider right and wrong, and however entitled I may be to use the toilet, I cannot get through my own conscience to use it as a matter of course.  I think that 'wheelchair' symbol for the disabled has something to do with it, it implies to me a 'physical' disability as the qualification.  And no, I would not think the same about someone else, I would assume they had a hidden disability if I saw someone using the key to enter the disabled toilet.

    I know I have great problems in using a normal public toilet.  I once went nearly twenty four hours and was really bursting when eventually I went.  My support worker suggested I get the key, (which is VAT free for those with a 'substantial impairment', you just have to declare it}, it costs £2.50 (plus postage and without VAT) online from

    https://www.radarkey.org/prices.php

    I would add there is no 'check' made on eligibility, it is just an 'honesty' thing, although I think a substantial fine might be the case for declaring a substantial impairment when one did not exist for the purposes of avoiding the VAT should this be found out!  But Autism is considered a 'substantial' impairment' so I believe if you were diagnosed you would be exempt from the VAT (which would be payable on the postage as well).

    Copies of the keys are also available from ebay, amazon, and argos, at various prices,  but as such there is some possibility it seems that they may not work in all locks.Well that is what I am led to believe anyway from some of the reviews.

  • To MrRobert123... Goodness me, you have deposited some *very filthy* picures, there! Are you taking the p*ss out of this Thread, by posting such c r a p??

    ;-) 

  • Off topic but ...as I started the topic I can go off-topic if I want .....!

    ...Yes you can. But it does make it a little difficult to find such conversation or helpful insights, however. 

    I have said in other Threads that a "Photography" Thread should be begun (or re-begun). I myself am only *told* by others that I am "good" at photography, and so it is not a profession for myself, and so I may talk about starting a Thread yet not do so...

    (I suppose this is a sort of complaint, but, well, it is difficult to tell even for myself even as I am the one writing it...!)

  • hoooooooly Moses (I have never used that expression before, but there is a first for everything!) 

    Wow! I looooveee (if I had mathematical symbols on my keyboard I would put 99 in superscript to the love) your pictures. I only got through the first two pages and I realise I am quite happy just staring at one picture for quite a long time. I wish I could show my uncle. How cool is that! 

    I don't have a yahoo account. But I feel inclined to subscribe.

    Thank you so much also for this great tip of using flickr. It is a bit embarrassing because really my photo's are a lot of junk. It is a bit like clearing my inbox and my house (the latter has gotten a lot better since my diagnosis).

    I'm curious about the people I presume to be blackfaced Morris dansers. Was that a chance sighting, or do you know the scene? I am curious about the link with Moresca dancing. But I heard people say these English Morris dancers painted their faces so the Lord of the manor wouldn't recognise them?

    I might take one artistic photo every once in a while just by luck. If I don't check myself I compulsively take pictures of pigeons and I also love overhead tram wiring, train cables, tram tracks, train undercarriages (only sideways ;-) ), water, scaffolding, ducks, metal work and especially the little stone posts at the sides of old garages intended to protect the wheels of carriages!

    Thanks for putting a happy smile to my face, which appeared when I saw the engines appear! By the way, the colour filter you use reminds me of those colour photographs taken at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia: Old Russian Colour Photography I might be imagining things, as I have a dodgy visual memory.

  • Off topic but ...as I started the topic I can go off-topic if I want .....!

    Procrastinator wrote:

    "In the old days, I accepted my photo's got lost if I didn't do something about it, but now as it happens automatically I can't bring myself to actually delete them, and the next I-cloud back up is very expensive. Have you got a system?"

    I upload all my pictures to Flickr.  You can set it to upload automatically when you take them if you like  You can tag them, make them visible to everyone or just to friends or family, or keep them for your private viewing only.  It is free and you get a terabyte of storage (which is an awful lot, it would take half a million pictures to fill it up ... and if you did you could just open another account keeping your original one as well.  There is an app you can use or you can just go to the link below.  It will also automatically sort your pictures into categories - animals, insects, architecture, etc.

    www.flickr.com

    Some of my pictures (not of toilets!) you can see here:

    My flickr pictures

  • I have collected all the receipts I have ever had.

    I have almost all of them.

    It is amazing to know that someone else does the same.

  • I struggle enormously with the lack of privacy in many toilets, but I have always worried that I didn't deserve it, or how I would feel if I walked out to find a wheelchair user waiting.

    I experience exactly the same.

    I tend to avoid drinking whilst out to avoid using toilets. That's my usual method in any public space or someone else's house. I would love more freedom, but don't know if I could bring myself to actually use a key.

    The same here.

    I also need more space as I feel claustrophobic in small spaces.