Category: Autism

Preparations for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference

Preparations for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference and a post-lunch walk, therefore lots of photos.

INTRODUCTION

Although the Positive Autism Awareness Conference that we at NAS West Norfolk are holding on April 16th at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn on April 15th is at the heart of this piece there are also lots of new photographs for me to share.

AN ORGANIZING MEETING

Today there was a meeting at the home of NAS West Norfolk branch chair Karan McKerrow to assemble ‘goodie bags’ for the event. As she lives out in the country and not on a regular bus route, this meant arranging a pick up for me, so my first task was to get to Churchill Park School to meet the person who would be giving me a lift. Thus before anything else I have to say a…

MEA CULPA

I was almost twenty minutes late at the meeting place because I walked and made the mistake of not sticking to a route that I knew, and lost my way at one point. I had left myself an hour in which to make the journey, which should have been ample but for the mishap. Also, although I can supposedly connect to facebook and my phone I tried twice and was unable to do so, so could not communicate my whereabouts (I had no contact numbers with me either). The confession out of the way I can now attend to the rest of…

GETTING THERE

I set off exactly when I had intended to, headed for the parkland, following roughly the line of St John’s Walk, taking these photos in the early stages…

At this point I was close to the Tennyson Road level crossing, which was in the process of closing, so I walked to the barrier and waited. The train was goods train, and worth a few more pics…

Immediately after this, at the point at which I made my first wrong move (the path forks, and one direction leads through to KES and the main road, which would have been safe but dull, the other heads in the direction of the hospital – closer to my goal, and a more interesting route) I saw something very unexpected given the proximity of a main road and the even closer proximity of the railway tracks – a brace of deer.

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Both deer in one shot

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The incipipent antlers possessed by this one combined the face confirm that it is a species of deer.

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I have shown these as individual images rather than a tiled mosaic in the hope that someone can identify the species of deer (anyone there at whyevolutionistrue?).

Now we come to the point at which things went pear-shaped, near this sign…

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I decided not to venture in to the woodland (ironically I would probably have saved time by doing so), but chose the wrong path, and it was in this section of the walk that I ran irretrievably late. By the time I located Gayton Road (by way of Gaywood Hall Drive) I was already ten minutes late, and as previously mentioned, could not log on to facebook. It was another ten minutes rapid walking before I arrived at the head of Winston Churchill Drive, and was spotted by the people picking me up.

THE MEETING

We had 100 Autism Awareness event packs from NAS HQ, which was not sufficient as we had sold 120 tickets for the event (and had a significant waiting list) an also wanted the people who would be running stalls to have packs. In addition to these the bags (thick brown paper with comfortable but robust handles) were to contain a balloon, a pen, various stand alone leaflets and an NAS flag (placed flag end up so a wide flag rather than a narrow stick pointed out of the bag).

In addition to this activity various timings were confirmed (some setup will be done the night before the event, and everyone who has a stand and/or will be involved in running the event will be expected to arrive for doors opening at 8AM, so that there is no overlap between us setting up for the day and people arriving for the event from about 8:45AM onwards (starts at 9AM).

Before we got started on assembling the ‘goodie bags’ I spotted a couple of interesting cushions…

THE JOURNEY HOME

Very uneventful fortunately. One of the group planned to visit her mother-in-law who lives not that far from my place, so I got a lift as far as Loke Road and had a walk of under 15 minutes to get home. After lunch, the weather remaining bright and sunny I decided it  would be foolish to remain in the flat and took myself out for…

AN AFTERNOON WALK

Since the river was one place I had not been in the morning I started by heading to the point at which the Purfleet meets the river.

From South Quay I headed past old Boal Quay to the Nar Outfall, and the structure I have dubbed Cormorant platform. Today there was only one cormorant about.

I made my way home by way of the parkland, enhancing my stock of moorhen pictures along the way.

About Autism

Various bits of autism related stuff, including an account of a talk by Mel Bruce for NAS West Norfolk, and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

Last night I attended a talk given by Dr Mel Bruce, a clinical psychologist at Starfish Plus. There are also a few other things I will be covering in this post.

MEL BRUCE TALK

The talk was scheduled to run from 7-9PM, and I was required to be there (the scout hut on Beulah Street, as so often for NAS West Norfolk events) early to help with the setup. Mel opened proceedings with a brief account of what she and her team do, and who they work with, before taking questions from the floor. One of the things Mel mentioned when talking about communication was the use of a system of communication cards, which would work rather as the coloured badges at AutismCon did – in that case red was for “don’t talk to me unless it is an emergency”, yellow for “don’t initiate conversations but you can respond if I talk to you” and green for “I am happy to talk”, with freedom to change according to how you are feeling at any given moment (I selected a green badge and stuck with it the whole day as it happens). A great quote which showed how involved she is with the autistic community “Don’t do anything about us without us”. Another excellent point she made was about referring to special interests rather than obsessions.

Although this talk did not deal with issues that relate directly to me, because it was aimed at parents of autistic children, and therefore I maintained a purely listening brief, I enjoyed the evening, and am looking forward to meeting Mel again at the Positive Autism Awareness Conference NAS West Norfolk are holding at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn on April 15th. Meantime, we have connected on twitter.

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Clinical psychologist Mel Bruce introducing the session
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A decent turnout for the event.
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the first of four shots featuring posters.

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A POTENTIAL MEETING WITH
SIR HENRY BELLINGHAM MP

Just a brief mention of the fact that following a very unsatisfactory response by Sir Henry Bellingham on the subject of the cut to ESA, in which he claimed to be talking to lots of local groups moves are afoot to organize a meeting between ourselves and him. Further information about his record as an MP can be found here (warning – it makes grim reading).

ON DIAGNOSES

This section is here because it was recently brought to my attention that there are still problems with doctors being unwilling to diagnose autistic spectrum conditions (ASC for short) and in some cases unwilling to refer people for diagnosis. In the nine and a half years since I was diagnosed (25 years  later than I should have been but that is another story) my life has improved hugely in all sorts of ways.

My message to doctors faced with people seeking a diagnosis of an autistic spectrum is this: if you feel unable to do this yourself, then refer the patient to someone who can. To point blank refuse even to refer someone is unacceptable and indefensible.

HELPING THE NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY WITH A PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN

The National Autistic Society are running a Public Awareness Campaign, to which I am pleased to say I have been able to contribute. In answering the questions I was sent as part of this I referred on many occasions to things that happened before I was diagnosed, precisely because (see above), things have been so much better since I was diagnosed.

A VICTORY – #JUSTICEFORKAYLEB

Yes – a good news story to end the text section of this post. Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a 6th  grade student with autism, was facing life with a conviction for a felony offence. Following a prolonged campaign, all charges against him have been dismissed. More details are available as follows:

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New build in keeping with its surroundings
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I would have started work on this ghastly, out of place building with a wrecking ball, but I am glad to see that something is being done.

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Change point – this is the last of the daytime photos – others were taken on the way to the Mel Bruce talk.

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Book Review: The Burning Man

A review of a book in a new find of mine, the Bryant & May series, with a few other bits.

INTRODUCTION

Although the book review is the principal focus of this piece there are a few other bits that I will be sharing afterwards.

A GREAT READ WITH A MINOR QUIBBLE

Those of you who follow my London transport themed website may recall that I posted a review of a book called Off The Rails which featured a team of oddballs collectively known as the Peculiar Crimes Unit (officially the Peculiar part of the title referred to the crimes being investigated as opposed to the investigators but one might think otherwise).

Since reading that book I have taken every opportunity to deepen my acquaintance with Arthur Bryant, John May and their team of oddballs, and The Burning Man is just one of a number of their adventures that I have recently read.

The story in this book features riots provoked in part by misbehaving bankers being used as a cover for a series of murders all of which involve the use of fire. The story has many twists and turns. There are also various subplots, principally the antagonism between the PCU and Superintendent Darren “Missing” Link.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, as I have every book I have encountered in this series, and heartily recommend it. It is in that spirit that the following is offered (and I hope will be accepted)…

A QUIBBLE

To set the stage, here is a photograph of the paragraph on page 144 that gave rise to the quibble:

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How many of you can guess without reading on where my quibble arises?

If you guessed that it was the sentence “He worked with some crazy people, borderline-autistic tech-heads who were likely to turn up at the front door, find no-one home and climb through a window.” score yourself 10 out of 10.

The phrase borderline-autistic is meaningless given that autism is a spectrum condition, and the usage of such a phrase is indicative of what Richard Dawkins terms “the tyranny of the discontinuous mind”. I also take umbrage at the notion of an autistic person responding to finding no one at home by climbing through a window. Finally, as an autistic person who is skilled in the use of computers I still object to the conflation of autism and tech-headedness – while the two traits can go together they do not always do so. Finally, I find the entire sentence lazily reinforces damaging stereotypes about autistic people. To finish this section, although in one sense every post on this blog has an automatic connection to autism, you can find more posts in which I specifically deal with autism here.

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In spite of my quibble with a paragraph on page 144 I thoroughly recommend this book.

ANOTHER FIND AT THE BUS STATION

The new information office at King’s Lynn bus station is a treasure trove. My latest find focuses specifically on West Norfolk…

The obverse in full
A close up of the map
The only section of the reverse worth reproducing

PLANS FOR KNIGHT’S HILL

I make no comment as yet on this scheme, which is still at a preliminary stage, just reproducing it in full…

POSITIVE AUTISM AWARENESS CONFERENCE REMINDER

NAS West Norfolk are holding a Positive Autism Awareness Conference at the Duke’s Head Hotel on Friday 15th April. One feature of this conference will be a photographic display by yours truly. I have mentioned this in a number of previous posts.

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AutismCon – A Festival of the Mind

This an account of my day at AutismCon. It also includes pictures of every page of the program for that event, and brief snippets about my journeys each way.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday  was the day of AutismCon, an event organised under the aegis of the National Autistic Society (NAS). The actual organizing of the event was done by a committee of five, The AutismCon Committee, while the NAS’s Senior Events Officer Elly sent out emails to everyone who booked in advance so we all knew what to expect.

GETTING THERE

With the registration desk opening at 10 o’clock, I decided to get the train that leaves King’s Lynn just before 8AM. Not knowing for sure how long the ticket purchase would take I left my flat at 7:15AM to eliminate any chance of mishap (therefore, in accordance with Sutcliffe’s First Law of Travelling by Public Transport, there were no problems and I was seated on the train nearly half an hour before it was due to depart), having had time to photograph a 2016 London Underground map on the platform.

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Apart from the fact that a mob of Spurs fans chose to sit in the same area where I was already seated and maintained a constant racket all the way to Cambridge, where thankfully they changed trains in preference to travelling into London and out again (I should point out this train departed on schedule at 7:54AM and several of this group had already cracked open lagers by then), the journey was thankfully uneventful.

Even fairly early on a Saturday morning King’s Cross was quite busy, so I was thankful that with the event being at Friends House I had only to head for the Euston Road and walk straight along it. This sculpture just outside the station is a new addition since my last trip to London…

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Having covered the journey down, it is now time for the main course…

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Registration took a little time, after which I consulted my program. To set the scene for the rest of the day, here is a close up of the schedule…

Schedule

As you will find out later, I made one change to the plan indicated here. Having shown a close-up of the schedule, here is the entire program for your attention…

I took my seat in Light (the big room, now somewhat smaller in terms of seating area than it once was, but still with a massive capacity) for the introductory session. The biggest change since I was last there however is to the ceiling/ roof structure, from which the name derives..

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The whole event was shunted back fifteen minutes due to the failings of British public transport (not enough people had been able to get to the event for the scheduled start time). The main purpose of the introductory session was to provide a few explanations about where things were. Also, due to the severe sensory issues of some of those in attendance, applause was very firmly banned (the alternative, already standard in international sign langiuage, is ‘jazz hands’).

SESSION ONE: SURVEY ROOM

My first session was in the “Do” stream, taking place in the Bloomsbury Suite and was titled ‘Survey room’. There was one written and one pictorial survey per person and one could choose either or both (I chose both, and attached my details to the written survey to enable further contact to be made should the NAS wish to). Once we had had time to complete the survey there was a discussion session which was very constructive, and then the session ended.

SESSION TWO: QUIZ AN MP

For me, it was back to Light for sessions two, which featured Labour MP  for Bermondsey & Old Southwark Neil Coyle and Conservative Councillor Claire-Louise Leyland.

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Neil Coyle MP introduces the “Quiz an MP” session, with Claire-Louise Leyland sat next to the podium.

 

This was a very lively session, with many people from the audience using the question and answer part of it to express their hostility to the Tories (though nothing personal was aimed at Councillor Leyland, who after all had had the decency to show up for what she must have known what would be a tough session). As for why there was so much hostility to the Tories in that room, one general and two specific points can sum it up:

  • As Neil Coyle pointed out, in 2010 the UK was the international leader on disability equality whereas in 2015 the UK became the first country to be investigated by the UN for its treatment of disabled people.
  • The Tories introduced the bedroom tax.
  • The Tories have also just passed a  cut to ESA for the third time, ignoring concerns from the Lords for a second time.

After the end of this session there was an hour’s break for lunch. I looked in at the Arts and Crafts session which I had initially intended going to but decided instead to head back to Light for the session on….

AUTISM AND SEXUALITY

This session was opened with speeches from Keran Bunker (an autistic gay man) and Marilyn Misandry (an autistic femme queer person talking about autism and drag) before being opened up to the floor…

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One point that came up several times from the floor was that autistic people who wish to transition find their autism used as an excuse to deny them this wish. This provoked an attempted response from someone who works in a gender reassignment clinic, but he was quite rightly shut down by the chair – this was a day for autistic people and he had no right to attempt to over-ride their lived experiences with his comments. At the end of this session I stayed seated because the next session I was attending was also in his room, being the one session that felt I absolutely could not miss…

AUTISM AND EMPLOYMENT

This session featured John Wilson, a former solicitor diagnosed with autism at the age of 50 (I met someone during the first session who was undiagnosed until the age of 61) and Kerry Bover, who has worked part-time at Clarks for 14 years and who also runs AutismCo.

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There were many stories both good and bad told during this session. It was here that I heard about the restaurant owner who when faced with a group of customers who asked not to be served by an autistic waiter not only upheld the law of the land (it was John, the trained lawyer, who brought up this story, and his opinion as regards the law the I am using) by refusing to accede to this request and supporting his employee (just substitute ‘black’ for ‘autistic’ in the request by these customers to make the appallingness of their behaviour unmissably obvious) but then subsequently put up a facebook post instructing anyone whose attitudes were like those of this group of customers not to book places at his restaurant as if they made that request he would kick them out.

For music lovers there was to be a live performance from autistic singer/ songwriter Lauren Lovejoy (apparently she was a massive hit on X-Factor in 2013) immediately after the end of this session, but for me the end of the session was also the end of the event.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE EVENT

I think that the boldness and organisational skills needed to get 600 autistic adults together in one place should be complimented. Overall, the late start not withstanding, the event was superbly run. I for one thoroughly enjoyed the day and look forward to next year’s event.

THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY

The train back to King’s Lynn left platform 1 of Kings Cross at 17:44 (not the lowest numbered – in true thermodynamic style Kings Cross has a platform 0, which I arrived at this morning). Platform 1 has a very fine clock…

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Having walked the length of the platform (the train splits at Cambridge, most of it terminating there while the front four coaches go on to Lynn) I took my seat for what was thankfully both a quiet and an uneventful journey back to Lynn. It was some twelve-and a half hours after leaving the flat that I arrived home.

POSTSCRIPT: POSITIVE AUTISM AWARENESS CONFERENCE

On April 15th NAS West Norfolk are holding a Positive Autism Awareness Conference at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn, for which we are sold out! After the experience of AutismCon in London I am even more enthused about this event at which I shall be displaying some of my photographs.

 

 

 

 

Norfolk’s Special Needs Shame

A pointer to an article in the EDP that highlights a grave failing in Norfolk, along with raising the possibility of submitting an appropriately worded FOI request.

INTRODUCTION

A single issue post here – I may put another more general one later today…

NORFOLK’S SPECIAL NEEDS SHAME

This starts with an article, in the Eastern Daily Press, by Sophie Biddle which points out that to quote the headline “Only one other place in England expels more children with special needs than Norfolk“ – and I urge you all to read the article in full. 

I wonder how many of these pupils were autistic or had autistic traits.

Since this post is written with my NAS West Norfolk hat on, I conclude with a reminder that we are holding a Postive Autism Awareness Conference at the Dukes Head, Tuesday Market Place, King’s Lynn on April 15th.

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The venue for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference.

Positive Autism Awareness Conference Now Open For Bookings

Pointers to the booking site for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference and a poster advertising the event.

INTRODUCTION

I first made mention of this conference, organised by NAS West Norfolk, in  this post, and have featured reminders about it in several other posts. However, I have two pieces of news that warrant a second whole post devoted to it.

BOOKINGS

We are now able to take bookings for this conference, which takes place on April 15th. The booking site can be accessed here (acknowledgements to Claire King of NAS West Norfolk for posting the link).

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The front of the Duke’s Head Hotel where the Positive Autism Awareness Conference will be happening on April 15th.

THE OFFICIAL POSTER

The other recent development in connection with this conference is that we now have an official National Autistic Society poster for the event. This is a version I have edited specifically for being viewed on a screen…

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Thanks and acknowledgements to Rachel Meerwald and Karan McKerrow of NAS West Norfolk for various posts and links in connection with this poster. I have a full print size version of this poster saved on my computer as well, and will happily email people copies of that file.

 

POSITIVE AUTISM AWARENESS CONFERENCE

An entire post dedicated to publicising NAS West Norfolk’s Positive Autism Awareness Conference, which will take place on April 15th, starting at 9AM.

INTRODUCTION

This brief post is the first of what will doubtless be many about this event, being put on by NAS West Norfolk.

AN IMPORTANT DATE FOR YOUR DIARIES

West Norfolk NAS’s Positive Autism Awareness Conference will take place at The Duke’s Head, King’s Lynn. I have three images to share to complete this post, a screenshot of Claire King’s facebook post about the event and jpgs of a map and a google earth image showing the location…

Positive Autism Awareness Conference

Positive Autism Awareness Conference MapPAAC Google Earth

Not mentioned specifically, but already lined up as part of the event is a photographic presentation by yours truly.

TWO TRIUMPHS

Accounts of England’s triumph in South Africa and of a local fund-raising triumph for NAS West Norfolk.

INTRODUCTION

My title refers to one great sporting triumph and one fabulous fund-raising triumph, which I shall cover in that order.

SOUTH AFRICA SUCCUMB TO
STUART’S BRUTAL BROAD-SIDE

An extraordinary Test match at the Bull Ring in Johannesburg ended on the third day. South Africa batted first and reached 313 without anyone managing a half century. England gained a lead of 10 largely due to the batting of three people, Root (110), Stokes (58) and Bairstow (45). South Africa had a tiny bit of batting before lunch which they achieved without loss, before things started to happen immediately thereafter. Stuart Broad settled the match, the series and the destination of the Player of the Match award in 10 overs which brought him 6-17 (I heard the commentary on the first five, but had to leave with South Africa score 67-8, and by the time I was back from my engagement, the last two South African wickets had fallen and England had knocked off their victory target for the loss of three wickets).

FABULOUS FUNDRAISING SUCCESS
AT COSTA COFFEE (HARDWICK)

Molly, a barista at the Hardwick branch of Costa Coffee who has an autistic brother and whose mother is a former chair of NAS West Norfolk decided to do some fundraising on our behalf. She managed to raise £335.20 in cash which Costa will be matching with a direct payment into the NAS West Norfolk bank account, meaning that in total the organisation benefits to the tune of £670.40 from her endeavours.

We had arranged a presentation and photo-shoot at Costa Hardwick at 2:30PM today (not being clairvoyant I had not realized when I agreed to the arrangement that it would mean missing England sealing their series victory over South Africa).

Of course, it was not only at Costa itself that I got some photos…

The railway line viewed from Hardwick Bridge – this would be a suitable location for new station to serve the Hardwick Industrial Estate.
The solar system in mosaic form.

Now for the fundraising pictures…

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For reference NAS West Norfolk chair Karan McKerrow is the one in the middle, Molly the fundraiser is to her left as you look and the store manager is on the other side.

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A GREAT START TO THE NEW YEAR AT NAS WEST NORFOLK

An account of a talk given by Georgina Sait of Contact a Family to NAS West Norfolk at the scout hut on Beulah Street.

INTRODUCTION

I attended my first NAS West Norfolk event of 2016 today, a talk given by Georgina Sait of Contact a Family, a charity which exists specifically to help families with disabled children. As so often with NAS West Norfolk meetings the venue was the scout hut on Beulah Street.

GETTING THERE

Refusing to be daunted by a day so foul it simply did not appear ever to get light I walked, up to the Tuesday Market Place, out to the town end of Bawsey Drain, along to Lynn Sport and thence round to the scout hut, picking up a few pictures along the way…

THE MEETING ITSELF

The talk was done as a slide show, and the slides were very well produced, containing enough information to enable one to follow the talk but not so much as to cause sensory overload (I have seen many talks accompanied by slide shows but few where the slide show element meets with my unqualified approval). I will provide pictures of some of the slides, and also a few important bits of paperwork…

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The title slide.
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Possibly the single most important slide of the show.

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A lot of the slides about specific benefits were colour coded like this to differentiate between fact and myth.

There were a couple of important print outs as well…

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Georgina herself.

MORE ABOUT CONTACT A FAMILY

I have contact details, including a picture, and also a location map showing where their London HQ is.

CONTACT DETAILS

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Contact Details page.
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Location map.

NAS West Norfolk

An account of a couple recent events run by NAS West Norfolk, with some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This post covers two recent events run by the National Autistic Society West Norfolk branch. Read, enjoy and please share!

A FAYRE IN THE FENS

On Sunday a Christmas Fayre took place at Walton Highway Village Club  (a few miles outside the town of Wisbech) raising funds for NAS West Norfolk. Judging from the hour or so during which I was present it was an extraordinarily successful event – the place was heaving, and lots of stuff was sold at the various stalls, including two bespoke calendars, each of which raised £5 for NAS West Norfolk.

THE NAS WEST NORFOLK COMMITTEE CHRISTMAS LUNCH

This took place today at 12:00 (I had booked a day’s leave for the occasion) at the Lynn Restaurant. Although this is situated practically underneath my flat I did not, as people who live closest to venues often seem to, arrive last.

As part of the festivity we were doing a ‘secret Santa’ whereby we each bought someone whose name we had been given a gift, and had to ensure that they did not know who it was from. This went splendidly. I have put up a post about the gift I received on www.londontu.be and suggest that you visit this post for more information. The gift that I had purchased as part of this was probably the second most popular behind the one I received!

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The picture I took of the other diners in our group.
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The photo that includes me.
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Secret Santa struck gold with this gift!

Incidentally, the picture above was my second shot at the Tea Towel, the first had been spoilt by the fact that the lens was steamed up. I cleaned it up and tried again (using nothing more sophisticated than a Glasses Wipe – £1.49 for a box of 54 wipes from King’s Lynn LIDL).

I opted for garlic bread to start, followed by spaghetti Bolognese. Both were excellent.