A warning about a piece of autism research whose requirements for participation are at best poorly set out and ay worst downright discriminatiory.
INTRODUCTION
Readers of this blog will be well aware that I have taken part in a number of research projects over the years, many of them based in Cambridge. This is therefore a painful little post to write, but one that I feel I must in the circumstances, due to what I conisder to be a completely unacceptable outlining of requirements.
TRUST DESTROYED
This particular research study demands autistic adults who have at least one GCSE at Grade C or better. This is not a problem for me personally as I actually have a degree, but it does automatically exclude many, and it smacks to me of dishonesty, since my reading of it as that is an attempt to avoid the use of functionality labels while at the same time trying to esnure that they get poeple who they regard as “high functioning”. I could not personally take part in this study because I could only do such things on a basis of trust, and by setting out their requirements in this fashion they have very effectually ensured that trust is not present.
My advice to anyone who is approached with a view to taking part in this study is to refuse to do so, and hope that no one takes part, so that this misbegotten study dies a speedy death.
My advice to those behind this study (I will not name and shame the lead researcher, and kindly do not ask that I do so) is to abandon this version and come up with a more acceptable way of communicating your requirements (including possibly accepting the extra diffculty of opening your study up to all autistic people, rather than seeking to exclude a very significant proportion thereoof). If the necessary work is done and the new version of the study is presented sufficiently sensitively I may be willing to participate, but as it stands at present I cannot and will not have anything to do with it.
Accounts of a very important and successful meeting yesterday morning and of a personally very satisfying moment also from yesterday when it was cinfirmed that I have got anm Arts Award (Bronze level).
INTRODUCTION
This post deals with two things that both happened yesterday, one of huge significance, the other less so but very personally satisfying.
A VERY SUCCESSFUL MEETING WITH REBECCA FROM TAPPING HOUSE
I had arranged to see Rebecca yesterday morning for a follow-up meeting after our first very successful meet-up a little earlier. This meeting went magnificently, with Rebecca making a number excellent and logical suggestions for ways to help me. I have agreed in principle to meet with either an Occupational Therapist or a Physio to talk about ways to improve my physical fitness. She also suggested that I might be interested in courses they run at Tapping House where I would have the opportunity to meet others who have had similiar experiences to my own, which also sounds a very interesting possibility.
Knowing that I need help and support to get through this difficult time in my life I am minded to consider any options that seem sensible, as all of the above do. I finished yesterday’s session feeling much better about life in general for the knowledge that such potentially useful help and support is being made available.
Whatever happens from here on, Tapping House have already proven to be worth their weight in gold, and I am very grateful for everything they are doing for me.
AN ARTS AWARD
One of the last things I did before illness took over my life completely was to submit a portfolio at Musical Keys for an Arts Award (Bronze Level). It has now been confirmed that I did enough to earn to said award (equivalent apparently to a grade D at GCSE), which I am delighted by. In addition to the specific Musical Keys stuff I had to produce something about seeing art in the flesh, and I had chosen something where the only photographic record of the occasion was my own, so this award means, albeit at a low level, official recogniton for my photography. I also had to produce something about an individual artist who had inspired me, and I opted for Maurits Cornelis Escher, for whom there is an official website from which I cribbed (and of course admitted to doing so).
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are some pictures to end this little post:
This globe is on display at my aunt’s houseA cricket themed tea towel being displayed as an ornament in my kitchen.
An account of my recent short stay at Addenbrookes. Features the story of an autistic meltdown, which some readers may find difficult.
INTRODUCTION
I got home latish last night from a short stay at Addenbrookes hospital occasioned initially by a problem with my left leg. This post deals with thise very difficult period of a few days. Advance warning: includes a description of an autistic meltdown. I have two preliminaries to clear up first:
HOSPITAL STAFF DESERVE UNEQUIVOCAL PRAISE
There were times over these few days when I was not fully aware of what was going on around me, but I retained sufficient awareness and understanding of the overall situation to know that the staff at Addenbrookes did everything they could to make things easier for me and that their conduct at what would have been a diffciult time for them as well could not have been improved on. Every subsequent comment in this post should be viewed in the light of this endorsement of Addenbrookes staff.
AGAINST BLAME
There is at least one incident in this post that it would be both incredibly stupid and very destructive to attempt to describe by assigning levels of blame to people, so I am making a conscious effort in this post to keep my language as value neutral as possible. I finish this little section by offering an olive branch to neurotypical readers: I accept RESPONSIBILITY for my autistic meltdown, as in proper English that does not imply that I was actually at fault. By extension I categorically refuse to accept BLAME for the meltdown as that would be admitting to being culpable in the matter.
SUNDAY – EMERGENCY TRIP TO ADDENBROOKES
I had had supper at my aunt’s the previous night and had been told that if my condition changed I was to call her. My condition had changed, and the shaky nature of my phonecall that Sunday morning made it very obvious that I was in some trouble. In the event this necessitated a trip to Accident and Emergency, and although it meant a longer journey by far I opted for Addenbrookes rather than QEH, as they know me there and I have been a patient if theirs for some time. My condition worsened during the journey and a nurse had to assist me from the car into the wheelchair.
It did not take long for the decision to be made to temporarily readmit me as an inpatient. I was initially given Bed 12 on Ward D9, because I was familiar with it, which was a kind thought, although it ended up going pear-shaped.
LEADING UP TO THE MELTDOWN
There was a man in Bed 10 who as well as his other problems was suffering from dementia, which meant that his entire hospital experience consisted of a series of incidents none of which he could understand. He was very noisy in voicing his discontent and confusion, and I got very little sleep that first night, and so by the Monday morning was absolutely exhausted and struggling to cope with the situation in general.
THE MELTDOWN
This section is largely reconstructed the morning after it all happened – I have few direct memories of the meltdown. By late Monday afternoon the noise of the patient with dementia had thoroughly got to me and I was in uncontrollable floods of tears. A meltodwn is difficult to describe, and the best I can do is this:
The dominant feeling is an overpowering level of distress, which I suspect is not just quantitvely but qualitively different from any degree of distress experienced by a neurotypical person.
Behind that is a sense of utter helplessness which again is not experienced anywhere other than during an autistic meltdown.
The reason it is difficuklt to produce direct memories of such things is that there is also a third effect which is analagous to several fuses blowing in one’s brain at the same time.
In what was a very difficult situation the staff responded magnificently. I was moved to another bed in a corner of a four-bed unit, where I would remain for the rest of my stay.
I am as certain as a hospital environment allows me to be that I was in my new location by 6PM, which means that I have 14 hours unaccounted for, between then and regaining full awareness at about 8 the following morning. I am aware from further reconstruction that Lisa was in charge that night and that she must have done a superb job of looking after me at a very difficult time because I remember her being around.
TUESDAY – FRIDAY
I was much calmer from this point on, and whenever the opportunity arose I made a point of acknowledging all that the staff had done to help me – their response at my time of greatest need could not have been improved on, and the subsequent kindness I was shown over those last few days also had its impact. The treatments I underwent included blood transfusions (my haemoglobin levels were very low indeed at the start of the week, and still someway below healthy levels by the time I was given the last transfusions on Friday morning), an iron infusion to deal with low levels of that substance and my last dose of Bleomycin.
HOME
I got home about 9PM yesterday, but I had two important communications to make to before I could think about bed – one to Karan who has been an absolute brick to put her back in the picture and one to my contact at Tapping House regarding professional support at a PIP session (I will not get through such a session with Capita without professional support and so I had to contact the person most likely to be able to help).
An account of a very busy and important day in my life, intended to be written as positively as possible.
INTRODUCTION
I am finally relaxing at home after being on the go since about 10:30AM today with various things. This has been a very important and very tiring day for me.
DOCTORS SURGERY 1: BLOOD TEST FOR MAGNESIUM COUNT
Owing to the fact that I was nearly out of chewable magnesium pills (I have been on three a day among the large number of medications I take) I was required to attend the doctor’s surgery for a blood test to assess whether I needed more magnesium or not. This was followed by a return home for…
DISCUSSIONS WITH PEOPLE FROM TAPPING HOUSE RE ONGOING SUPPORT AND PALLIATIVE CARE
This session, which ended up lasting for over an hour, was easily the most constructive I have had with any sort of support workers over the whole time since I became ill. They listened and understood as I told them about the negative effects autism has on me specifically and how that impacts on my support needs. They made some wonderdul suggestions about how best to help me, and it is quite clear that are extremely serious about doing everything possible to support me through my recovery.
I actually felt, as I have not in other circumstances over these few months, that I was being regarded as of interest as a human being, not merely as a patient or as an example of an autistic person (though recognition of this last is hugely important and thoroughly welcomed).
I now believe I can look to the future in the certainty that support which is tailored to my specific needs will be available to me, and that is HUGE news.
LUNCH WITH MY AUNT
When my mother and I initially planned today we had intended to have lunch at Pizza Express, but the tightening of the schedule made that an impossibility. My aunt provided an excellent lunch and as proof that my appetite is returning I was able to eat two platefuls of food. Then it was time for…
THE OPTICIANS
My mother had arranged an appointment at Vision Express in King’s Lynn for me to have my eyes properly tested. My current spectacles, which will become my back-up pair in about ten days time definitely address my astimgatism, but they do not fully address the other eye issue I have that lenses can correct, my mild myopia.
I accepted the advice of the experts and for a considerable price went for varifocals tailored to the needs of an IT Professional (which when I am well enough to work is what I what I am).
There do not appear to be any really serious problems with my eyes, although as a safety measure the optometrist made a non-urgent referral to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (which means I shall see them in about six months time – they are permanently struggling).
All in all I was at the opticians for nearly two hours, with a lot of getting up and down and sitting in chairs that may look nice but don’t actually offer a lot of support.
After this it was time for a…
A TOP UP SHOP AT SAINSBURY’S
This was accomplished with a minimum of fuss once we had got there, although there was an incident in the car park that was nearly very unpleasant indeed. A blue van whose driver was clearly about a million light years away mentally pulled out right across our car (it was our right of way – he was bang out out of order), and we came much to close to a crash (of which I would have borne the brunt) for comfort. My mother limited her official response to a single blast on the horn. I can only hope that this near miss woke the driver up properly and he was more careful for the rest of his journey.
We were sufficiently quick shopping to have time for a very short break having…
HOT DRINKS AT MY AUNTS HOUSE
These had to consumed fairly rapidly because of yet another late addition to our busy schedule. I had developed an ache in my left thigh area, which necessitated…
THE DOCTOR’S SURGERY 2: BLOOD TEST FOR POTENTIAL CLOTTING
During my time as an in-patient I had a blood clot around the original site of my piccline, in my left arm, and then a little later an episode of severe chest pain which was mainly caused by pericarditis but contributed to by a small pulmonary embolism, so the possibility of a clot in an unusual location had to be taken seriously.
Thus a tiny sampleof blood was taken from one of my fingers to be tested. Fortunately it came back negative. I have been prescribed extra pain killers but apart from the discomfort it causes there does not be anything serious about the problem with my left leg.
HOME AND PHOTOGRAPHS
Finally, with the clock close to 6PM I was able to leave the surgery and be driven home. I am now somewhat rested from my exertions, and in less pain. Finally for, those of you who have made it to the end, here are some pictures:
This jellyfish in glass is on display at my aungt’s house.All the remaining pictures come from Addenbrookes, taken this Monday.
Accounts of a meal out last night and of the state of play at the MCG (very satisfying for a Pom, who by default supports Australia’s opponents!).
INTRODUCTION
This post deals with two unrelated events – last night’s supper at The Market Bistro in King’s Lynn (another staging post in my convalescence from cancer – coping with an evening out in public, which for an autistic person can be a challenge even at the best of times) and the amazing happenings overnight UK time at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. I have some pictures as well.
SUPPER AT THE MARKET BISTRO
I intended to eat a full meal and have the one alcoholic drink I can allow myself at present. My father arrived to give me a lift there as planned at about 6:30. Then he went to collect my sister from West Lynn where she was staying, a taxi firm having her down.
The food was excellent – I ate an amuse bouche but declined the bread and butter as I had ordered two courses to which I intended to do full justice (and succeeded). My starter was a duck terrine covered by a potato cage and missing (at my specific request) the egg that should have been part of it. It was delicious, though an incongruously small portion to be served in the middle of a monster sized plate. For the main I opted for pork belly accompanied by smoked beetroot, various salad type vegetables and game chips. It was excellent in every respect, and judging from the fact that every plate at the table was clean by the time we finished so was everyone else’s. I washed the meal down with a beer that was brewed in Wisbech and was absolutely delicious (and at 5% alcohol not fiendishly strong – I rejected a couple of other options as being too strong in the circumstances).
By the time I drained the last of the beer it was just after 8:30PM and I was feeling the need for home. My father gave me a lift back, and that was the end of my activity for the day.
INDIA TAKE CONTROL AT THE MCG
Over the first two days play in the Boxing Day test match at the MCG it looked like a repeat of last year’s Ashes match at the same ground with the drop-in pitch (in spite of retaining its name the MCG is preimarily an Aussie Rules venue these days) apparently lacking any pace or life. Bowlers could not get wickets and the lack of pace meant that batsmen were scoring slowly. Going into day three the scoreboard read India 443-7D, Australia 8-0.
Suddenly things started to happen. First Jasprit Bumrah bowled magnificently to record a test best 6-33 as Australia were rock ‘n’ rolled for 151. India then decided that a lead of 292 was not quite sufficient to go for the innings win and batted a second time. Patrick Cummins proceeded to knock the top of that second innings, backed up by some nasty stuff from Josh Hazlewood (both bowlers regularly propel the ball at over 145 kilometres per hour), and India closed the day at 54-5 in their second innings, a lead of 346, and almost certainly given the difficulties of chasing big runs in the final innings a victory awaiting. Nonetheless I think Kohli was wrong not to enforce the follow on – I would have much preferred to see him go for the quick kill. In the context of test cricket I would decline to enforce the follow on only if one up in the final match of a series, which this is not. Out of some 2,500 test matches a mere three have been won by teams who were made to follow on – England did it aided by the weather at Sydney in 1894, England did it again at Headingley in 1981 when Ian Botham famously “gave it some humpty” and Bob Willis then bowled like a man possessed to take 8-43 and then there was the Kolkata match when Laxman made 281, Dravid 180, India declared their second innings at 657-7 and dismissed a demoralised Australia for 212 to win by 171 runs (yes folks, the only test team ever to have lost a test match after enforcing the follow on are the Aussies, victims on the only three occasions such a comeback happened).
PICTURES
Here are the promised pictures:
All bar one of these pictures are postcards in an album. Although this Beck mpa is faded I still felt it belonged at the front.
Ending the selection for the album with one about progress.A Thatcher themed £50 note (defo not legal tender!)
This post will consist of some early thoughts about Autism and Cancer and also some pictures from my new abode. However before getting into the main meat of the post there is an issue to address briefly first…
AUTISM AND FUNCTION LEVEL LABELS
In brief: DO NOT USE!! For more detail read the rest of this section. Before moving on to my onw thoughts a couple of honourable mentions: the Neurodivergent Rebel has posted some good stuff about the abuse of function level labels in relation to autism and Laina via both thesilentwave.wordpress.com and her sharing site lainascollectionshas also covered the issue.
I am often labelled as a high functioning autistic (indeed readers of this site will be aware that I was already into my 30s before being recognized as autistic at all) but that is highly misleading and dangerous. People noting my overall intelligence and articulateness and the fact that I devour books at rapid rate assume I need little support. Not true – there are some things that I struggle badly with and where support is needed. The “High Functioning” label is at best misleading and at worst it is downright dangerous.
MANAGING AUTISM AND CANCER
Managing cancer is a challenge but considered in isolation one that can be handled. Managing autism is sometimes a challenge (and sometimes autism works in my favour), and taken in isolation it is not too difficult. Managing cancer through the prism of autism is an enormous challenge. Apart from my regular blood thinning injections (I had two blood clots while being treated in hospital), which are still administered by a district nurse I am now largely responsible for taking my own medications of which there are huge quantities. I also need to do things like monitor body temperature (currently seems to be stabilised at 36.1 C) and weight (one effect of being so ill is that now weigh less than at any time since my mid-teens.
ADDENBROOKES ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A small army of staff at Addenbrookes went way above and beyond the call of duty in looking after me and treating me during the worst of the illness. To name names would be invidious – you all know who you are and you are all absolute heroes. Understaffed and underfunded as it is the NHS is kept functioning by the efforts of people like this, who can still crack a smile when they have been rushed off their feet for 13 hours straight.
HOSPITAL TALES: WALKING STRENGTH BACK INTO THE LEGS
For about the first two weeks I spent at Addenbrookes I was effectively completely immobile (for a few days I was wired up to an oxygen mask), and for about a week before that I had hardly been mobile at all, so I lost a lot of strength from my legs. Once I was able to be mobile I took to walking up and down the ward when I felt strong enough, starting with small distances and working my way up gradually. Before I finished I could on a good day walk up and down the ward 20 times without stopping. I felt a benefit of this yesterday when I did a small amount of walking in King’s Lynn town centre to do my christmas shopping.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I promised some pictures and here they are:
Cricket Corner! (some of my cricket books are on other shelves as well but this is most of them)Display items in sitting room
Thomas’ Cabinet of Curiosities (units assembled by Simon from NAS, treasures arranged by my father) – named in honour of Ian Stewart;s “Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities”.A close up of one section.
1907 railway map (facsimile)
The Morden Map of Norfolk in its new niche.Two views through the windows to finish – being able to look straight at green space is a privilege.
A personal A-Z, inspired by a post on The Cornish Maid.
INTRODUCTION
This post was inspired by The Cornish Maid’spost “A-Z about Me!!!“. Like the post I have just referenced there will be one entry for each letter…
MY PERSONAL A-Z
A FOR AUTISM
I am autistic myself, and also branch secretary of NAS West Norfolk. This entry is a very appropriate starting point because it was my diagnosis and the role I then had running a support group for Asperger East Anglia that led me to create this blog.
B IS FOR BOOKS
I have always loved books, and am a very voracious reader. In addition to my own collection I am a regular user of several of Norfolk’s libraries, and yes I do use them to borrow books.
C IS FOR CRICKET
I have been an enthusiastic follower of cricket for over 3o years (my attempts at playing the game foundered on a chronic lack of talent). The fact that my employers had an auction yesterday and have another on Saturday means that I am off work today, and therefore able to listen both installments of the Women’s T20 double header. Here is the feature image from Saturday’s upcoming auction:
D IS FOR DETECTIVE STORIES
This is an extension of my love of books as a whole. I regularly borrow large quantities of detective ficition from thbe libraries. Among my very favourites are Edward Marston’s Railway Detective stories.
E IS FOR EAST RUDHAM
The village in West Norfolk where I began to rebuild my life after mental health issues had nearly destroyed me. I lived there for just over five years and was a regular visitor until my parents recently moved to Cornwall.
F IS FOR FERRY
I have travelled on many ferries in my lifetime, but the one I particularly think of nowadays is the Lynn Ferry which has been running for over 800 years.
G IS FOR GREECE
I first visited Greece for a family holiday about 35 years ago and have been back mnay times. It remains a favourite holiday location. I have produced a number of posts about my most recent visit.
H IS FOR HISTORY
One of the many subjects I enjoy reading about. One of the reasons I enjoy going to Greece so much is the presence of so many historic sites.
I IS FOR IRRELIGIOUS
I have been a staunch atheist for my entire adult life. For those who take the approach that the Northern Ireland census form used to I am a “catholic atheist” – that being the specific religion that I rejected. To paraphrase Richard Dawkins most people are as atheist as me about almost every god who has ever been believed in – I just go one god further than they do.
J IS FOR JOURNEYS
I love travelling, and being a lifelong non-driver am able to make good use of almost all my journeys – if the route is not familiar to me I will be observing the scenery and taking photographs, and if it is it represents reading time. K IS FOR KERNOW
Kernow is the Cornish name for Cornwall (this is the only entry in my A-Z that overlaps with The Cornish Maid’s), and although unlike the person who inspired this post I do not live there I have been there a number of times over the years and my parents have recently moved to that part of the world. It is a Cornish picture that appears on the reverse of my personal cards:
L IS FOR LONDON
I grew up in London, and still visit the place on occasion. Also, I run a London Transport themed website, www.londontu.be. I will be back in London during the latter part of next week, for Marxism 2018 which runs from Thursday to Sunday.
M IS FOR MATHEMATICS
Another lifelong interest, and something that I am very good at. Here is a frecnet problem from brilliant.orgthat took my fancy:
N IS FOR NATURE
Nature has always been very important to me, and I love being out and about in nature with my camera for company. My name is often to be found among those supporting campaigns to protect nature, and as a thoroughgoing internationalist I take pride in having been the first non-Swede to sign the online petition to save Trosa nature.
A spectacular creature, presumably some form of dragonfly.
O IS FOR OVAL
Because of their shape many cricket grounds have Oval in their name. The two with which I am most familiar are The Oval, in South London not very far from where I grew up, and served by two stations, Oval and Vauxhall; and the Adelaide Oval, which owes its name to a transplanted Surreyite who suggested it because he wanted to be reminded of home. Of the innings I have seen live at the ground the most memorable at either of these two venues was played by David Gower in 1990. England could do no better than draw the game, which as it happened was enough to give them the series. Gower made 157 in that innings, and by the time he was out the draw had long since been secured.
P IS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY
This is a hobby of mine, and also something I do at work. Here are some recent pictures:
Three recent bird pictures
This was lot 840 at yesterday’s auction – some good tools but the box being solid iron makes for an extremely heavy item.
Lot 2188 in Saturday’s upcoming auction.
Q IS FOR QUIZ
With my eclectic interests and retentive memory I am pretty good at quizzes (unless they are overloaded with questions about pop music), and generally enjoy taking part.
R IS FOR RAILWAYS
Railways are one of my special interests. I have travelled on railways in many different countries and have also built up a decent collection of railwayana. I may add to my collection on Saturday.
S IS FOR SCOTLAND AND SWEDEN
These are two of my favourite countries to visit, both very scenic. I could find no way to split them so I have decided to honour both places.I have produced a number of posts about both Sweden and Scotland. Here are a couple of pics: A view from Strome Castle, Scotland
This river is in Northern Sweden.
T IS FOR T20
Yes – another cricket related entry. T20 (where each side bats for 20 overs) has been a great success since its introductiuon in 2003. However the new 100-balls per side competition is being too clever by half (and consigning the County Championship to the start and end of the season when conditions are least suitable for long form cricket).
U IS FOR UNIVERSE
I find it fascination reading theories about our universe, its possible origins and its possible place in a wider cosmos. I also find the history of how we moved from considering our planet to be at the centre of a fixed universe to recognising it as pale blue dot (hat tip to Carl Sagan who wrote a book of that title) in the immensity of the cosmos to be fascinating.
V IS FOR VARIETY
One of the things I enjoy about my current job is that there is plenty of variety there. I am firmly in the camp of those who say that variety is the spice of life.
WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE
Jerry Coyne’s 2009 book with that title remains a firm favourite (along with his more recent Faith versus Fact), and it is also the title of a blogrun by Professor Coyne that I follow.
X IS FOR EXHORT
As I near the end of this post I exhort you to produce your own version – it is time consuming but fun. You have seen my version, and if you followed the opening link you have seen the version that inspired me to take on this challenge – now go and do likewise!
Y IS FOR YARBOROUGH
This is a bit of a cheat – it is my way of mentioning the game of Bridge which is a firm favourite of mine. A yarborough is a hand with no card higher than a nine and 4-3-3-3 distribution, and is named in honour of Lord Yarborough who had all bridge players at his house contribute a guinea to a kitty, while if someone had the misfortune to be dealt the hand that now bears his name they got 1,000 guineas (he was on to a winner – the actual odds against the hand coming up are 1827 to 1). I do not get to play very often but I am a pretty good player of the game.
Z IS FOR ZOOM
A zoom lens can be a real boon for a photographer (my current camera has a zoom capacity of up to 60X) – a little tip from experience is to not stretch the zoom lens right to its limits – leave a bit of space around whatever you are photographing (you can always crop it out during the editing process). This post was inspired by a Cornish blogger, so I end with a Cornish picture.
The second post in my personal series about #autisticspecialinterests.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to my second ‘special interests’ post for the month of May. The first, which set the scene can be seen here. The first post dealt exclusively with London, where I grew up. This post looks wider, although it still deals with events from before I was diagnosed. NB – undiagnosed means just that, not diagnosed – it DOES NOT mean “not autistic”.
ST PETERSBURG
This overlaps with the first post, because I visited St Petersburg in 1991. The two week visit I made to that city in 1991 was significant in many ways – it was there that I learned to eat a more varied diet, because I was just mature enough to appreciate that it was a choice between eating what was served or not eating at all and make the best of things. Also, because the family I was staying with were living very close to one of its stations I gained a considerable acquaintanceship withe the St Petersburg Metro, and also experienced the trolleybuses and trams that were a feature of daily life there.
Other than being horrendously overcrowded the St Petersburg Metro was a significant improvement on the London equivalent – a far more frequent service, and no delays. Also the underground portions were much deeper than in London, with often two colossally long escalators (far longer than any London equivalent) between the platform and the surface. This was my first major experience of public transport anywhere other than London.
GOING SOLO 1: SCOTLAND 1993
My first solo holiday took place in the summer of 1993, when I travelled to Scotland for two weeks. I travelled all around Scotland in those two weeks. As well as some seriously scenic journeys on mainline railways (I experienced both the lines the head towards Skye among others) I also made the acquaintance of the Glasgow undeground system (a single, circular route).
This holiday was a splendid experience overall, but a mere curtain raiser for…
A SCANDINAVIAN HOLIDAY
This happened in the following summer., Equipped with a rucksack and a two week rail pass for Norway, Sweden and Finland I started by taking a plane to Gothenburg. From there I travelled north, pausing in Stockholm. From Sundsvall I temporarily abandoned trains to take a boat across to Vaasa in Finland. From Vaasa I headed for Helsinki, and then the longest single journey of the trip, to Narvik, the most northerly railway station in the world. I continued my northerly exploration by bus as far as Tromso, before switching to boat for a journey along the coast to Hammerfest, the northenmost town in Norway. I varied my route back by taking a bus from Hammerfest to Alta (a mistake, this place is the Nordic equivalent of Brandon, only with even less appeal). Back in Narvik I selected a bus to Bodo, Norway’s other northern rail outpost. This decision cost me a night spent on the sgtatiopon platform at Bodo before I could head south to Oslo. From Oslo I headed east to Stockholm, and my last journey of the holiday (other than the flight home) was from Stockholm to Gothenburg.
Not having previously explored any foreign public transort systems in this kind of detail I was highly impressed. Although there are many ways in which Nordic public transport is a vast improvement on British I note a few things in particular:
Comprehensiveness – although the terrain in these countries is much more difficult than anything in Britain pretty much anywhere of any size has some sort of public transport connection.
Integration – there is not much duplication between bus and train routes. The buses tend to cover the routes that the trains do not. The only small flaw I noted in that first visit to these countries was that en route from Helsinki to Narvik we had to disembark at Haparanda on the Finnish side of the Finland/ Sweden border to transfer to Boden on the Swedish side for the last leg of the journey to Narvik, and even that was handled efficiently.
Reliability – never once in these two weeks, nor in my more recent trip to Sweden, did I encounter a service not running precisely when it was supposed to, and there has never been a two week period in my lifetime when one could be in Britain, travelling by public transoort most days, and get that kind of service.
FUTURE POSTS AND PICTURES
My next post in this series will look at public transport in various cities that I have experience of. Here to end are some public transport themed pictures…
Lot 86 in our next auction – see my post about my first week as a commuter on the Lynx njumber 49 re the rarity of such uncut cigarette cards
Lot 110Lot 181
Lot 199 – second behind on lot 86 on my wanted list……not least for this.Lot 200Lot 223Lot 224Lot 278
The first in a series of posts about #Autisticspecialinterests that will be appearing here during May.
INTRODUCTION
Here as promised is the first of a series of posts I shall be doing about my special interests. I am starting with public transport, and in this post I shall be referring to events that took place long before I was diagnosed as autistic.
GREAT ORMOND STREET HOSPITAL AND THE BIRTH OF A SPECIAL INTEREST
I was a patient in a child psychiatric unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital for over a year in the early 1980s. The trigger for the illness that put me there appears to have been a bout of chickenpox. For the first half of my time there I was an in-patient, at the hospital 24/7, and then when they deemed it safe for me to sent home at nights I was a day patient. Although I cannot remember a time when trains did not interest me, it was during this period that I would say that my special interest in public transport was formed.
My family moved to London in 1979, when I was four, and I have a London Underground map from that time:
Now, here is an edited version, highlighting the two key stations:
Tooting Bec was our local station, just about a mile from our house, while Russell Squareis the station for Great Ormond Street Hospital. My father would take me there in the mornings and pick me up in the afternoons, using London Underground. We took some very bizarre routes, as my fascination grew, which sometimes led to my father getting awkward questions from ticket inspectors (yes folks, in those days London Underground had on-train ticket inspectors).
TEENAGE YEARS – GOING SOLO
In later years I was able to explore on my own, and when I was in my early teens the child rate for a one-day travelcard was only 90p, so I would often go out on a Saturday and explore London transport in detail (I used various local railway lines as well as the Underground, though in those days I did not make much use of buses). It was also in this period that I discovered the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden.
A big moment for me was the opening of The Docklands Light Railway (I travelled on it on its first day of operation way back in 1987, and it was a huge buzz to be there at the start of a new development in public transport). In particular I first developed the method of visiting Greenwich described in this post on www.londontu.be as a teenager, and since the DLR was then pretty much brand spanking new I claim to be the pioneer of that method.
Like most who have been regular users of it I came to despise the Northern Line, and later in my teenage years it was a thing with me to make my excursions without using the Northern line (this meant starting and finishing at one of various railway stations which were walkable from home – Tooting, Streatham Common, Streatham, or Streatham Hill). A frequent finish to my excursions was to take the Hammersmith & City line to Hammersmith, get an eastbound District line train to Earl’s Court and then cross the platform to get a Wimbledon train, finally changing to railway train to Tooting.
At the same time as I was exploring public transport in London to the full I was also learning more about its history and development.
Very late in my teens I became a regular commuter, because after finishing at my local comprehensive I decided to resit my Chemistry ‘A’ Level and do the first year of Maths and Physics ‘A’ Levels at Richmond Upon Thames College of Further Education, whose local station was Twickenham, two stops west of Richmond. I had two regular routes there, either travelling in my mother’s car as far as Baron’s Court (the nearest station to the school she was teaching at in that period), District to Richmond, train to Twickenham, or from home, walk to Balham (about a half-hour walk, perfectly manageable for an 18 year old), get a train to Clapham Junction and change for another train to Twickenham. The fastest trains over the Clapham Junction – Twickenham section were those going to Reading, which did it non-stop. Those trains were also the only ones that still had manually opened and closed doors (two choices folks, either slam the thing, making a monstrous crash, which most people did, or learn, as I did, how the catches worked so that one could shut the door quietly).
FURTHER POSTS
When I revisit this series, probably at the weekend, the story will move away from London, as I did, and will indeed go international. To finish for today, here are some old pictures of Tooting Bec Station, taken from the book Bright Underground Spaces:
The Stapleton Road sufrface building agt Tooting Bec, which was the one I used to enter and exit by.Both of Tooting Bec;s surface buildings (from 1926-50 the station was called Trinity Road).
Setting out my stall for May, including a forthcoming series of posts about my #Autisticspecialinterests
INTRODUCTION
April is behind us, so I am going use this post to set out my stall for May. As a lead up, here is a screenshot of a tweet by Autism Mom:
A NEW SERIES SPECIFICALLY FOR MAY
Eve Reiland of internationalbadassactivistssuggested a theme for #actuallyautistic people for May:#AutisticSpecialInterest – a theme I am more than happy to run with, so, starting tomorrow I will be producing posts dealing with my special interests through the month.
THE EFFECT THAT THE NEW BUSES HAVE ON MY WORK
Those who have read my blog recently will be aware that today was my first day travelling to work on the Lynxnumber 49, which has replaced the Stagecoach X29 route. It runs considerably less frequently, but the buses are comfortable, the staff are friendly, and at the moment it has a score of 1/1 for punctuality, which after Stagecoach feels near miraculous.
AN UPCOMING HOLIDAY
I will be off for a week in Greece, leaving King’s Lynn on Friday May 11th, late in the evening so as to get to Gatwick for the flight to Kalamata, which takes off at 5:40AM. Therefore I will accept that sleep ain’t happening that night, and spend a few hours waiting at the airport. I will arrive back in the early afternoon of Saturday May 19th. I will endeavour to keep up to date with everyone during that period, but there will almost certainly be days on which I do not manage to access the internet.
IMAGING FOR MAY’S AUCTIONS
In May we are having a one-day cigarette card auction, followed by two days of military badges (and these will be on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after I return from holiday). Here to finish things off are some images…
My employer wanted an insert of badge pictures for the catalogue, and to enable that as well as in the interests of speed the badges were numbered up on their boards, and I took pictures of the entire boards and then extracted individual images from the whole.
There are 750 lots of cigarette cards, in a total of 67 albums, of which I have imaged 51, covering four whole albums and 1 from a fifth.
This river is in Northern Sweden.
aspiblog 