A chance to blog

Too many issues!

2011-10-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in ages which extremely slack of me. However there are that many issues going on right now not sure which ones to deal with!
Home life - am still battling to get my son on a fair level of DLA. For some reason, the government in its' wisdom has decided that a young lad with Autism who needs support for just about everything in the real world, including cleaning his flat, going to the bank to get a statement, taking two buses to attend kick boxing sessions, shopping and cooking and trying to find a job in a market not sympathetic to someone who needs everything explaining slowly to them is less worthy of support than someone with a physical injury, not helped by lack of exercise, but who could work if the job did not involve too much physical activity. Support not required for everyday things. My son has to pay rent, £30.00 a week out of his combined low rate DLA and incap benefit. Also has to pay bus fares for the support person taking him places. Other person doesn't but gets top rate DLA. Hmmph!!!
Work Life - Work is OK and glad to have a job but would really like to take on another challenge but have no idea what just yet.
Politics - Just about everything ticking me off. Thought carefully and deeply about how grateful I should be to Mr. Pickles whose priority seems to be giving me a weekly bin collection at great cost to the tax payer for now and the councils further down the road. I thought and have to ask - Isn't this a step backwards?? We have learnt to recycle better therefore managing our waste levels better and there is always the tip if something fails. Yes, we are lucky and have decent sized blue, black and brown bins unlike some areas who have tiny little boxes. In Canada, years ago, we had blue bags and brown bags for plastics and cardboard - bigger than boxes so could be one option. Use some of the money to upgrade containers for areas with small boxes for recycling but for goodness sake, there are better ways to spend money than backing up on a decision that many people have got used to now.
Neighbours - Driving me nuts. Nuff said!
Have been really grateful for the weather this past week though it looks to be over now. Did enjoy it while it lasted.
Am also looking forward to our 5th Wedding Anniversary this week!! Been together 7 years and married 5, how time flies! :):)
Have also hooked up on Skype with a great friend from my childhood days in Malawi! It is lovely to reconnect and also find that members of her family are living close by! :)
Well thats it for now. Will ponder another blog that has some direction this week. Still, got some stuff off my chest :):)

Who would have thought!?

2011-07-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

Last night Steve, Dan and I went to see Iron Maiden in Nottingham at the arena. Steve and Dan are avid fans and I like most of the music and rather fancy Bruce Dickinson! Win, win and win situation! :)
Dan has been waiting 8 months since we got the tickets and the only other gig he has been to was Status Quo.
We got to Nottingham, wondered around a bit, had coffee and then something to eat and headed to find the nearest pub to the arena. We couldn't miss it, it had been taken over by the Iron Maiden fan club and there were rockers of all shapes sizes and abilities in Maiden t-shirts everywhere! The atmosphere was great and Dan said he felt really comfortable in that crowded environment with masses of rockers of all descriptions. Hmm... an autistic person comfortable in a crowd!! Then we headed for the venue and he had every imaginable sensory experience thrown at him. Crowds, LOUD noise, extremely bright flashing lights all of which would have caused a complete on the floor, eyes shut and hands over ears meltdown!! How far we have come!!!

I believe that continually exposing him to "uncomfortable" situations and having to deal with the melt downs as they have happened has resulted in him now being able to cope. He also understands himself really well and that showed when I asked him a couple of hours before the show if he was excited. His response was that he was "keeping himself calm and not allowing himself to get excited until the show starts." He said he sort of switches off if he feels himself starting to overreact. That sometimes gives others the impression that he doesn't care when he actually does but is trying to keep a handle on himself.
Thinking back I exposed him to small family get togethers, then sports such as bowling and little league football, then the circus, then larger football events and eventually large venue events. It is great that he now is comfortable participating and is able to go and attend events of his musical or football heroes and participate.
His face when his favourite band came on the stage was a picture and so rewarding!! A great night was had by all! :):)

What did you Want to be when you Grew Up?

2011-07-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Looking at what I now want to do career wise it made me remember what I said I wanted to be when I was a kid. From my first flight on a plane at the age of three I want to be an Air Hostess, as it was back then. It then changed to Stewardess and then Flight Attendant. I used to line my teddies and dolls up in overturned stools and practise wiggling up and down the "aisle" with a tea tray in my hands and my red rose patterned plastic coffee and tea sets, forcing pretend beverages on the unsuspecting cuddlies! I continued with that idea all the way through school having decided being a vet wasn't an option since putting animals down was beyond my emotional realm. I tried hard at French in school knowing that I would need a second language, and worked on other subjects knowing I would need a few "O" levels. I left school having decided that "A" levels weren't for me and returned to Malawi where after being home a week decided I needed some sort of job in the meantime as I could not apply to be a stewardess until my 18th birthday. I did not want to be shipped into further education so work seemed the best option. I applied for a job as a reservations consultant for a new local travel and tour company and miraculously got the job. Knowing the GM helped a little I think. Bless him, I still adore the man. I loved the work in local hotel reservations and the got sent to "school" to learn how to calculate airfares, do airline ticketing etc to become part of the new Travel Agency part. The schooling was not easy back then - everything had to be calculated, air miles counted and there were various ways of calculating fares. The trick was to find the cheapest. If you didn't, you failed. No such things as computer generated fares back then. It really was a skill. At 18 I was offered an interview with British Airways but to cut a long story short, disagreements at home meant I decided to go and spread my wings and left my job and the country and headed for the Big City, Johannesburg in search of freedom and independence! Silly child! I chucked the chance at two great job offers, travelling the world with BA or working in London for a large tour company! Duh! I loved my first job and it was a fantastic experience. My goal now is to be as excited about work as I was back then.
Please tell me what you wanted to be, and tell me if it ever came true. Cheers!

Countdown Begins!!

2011-07-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

Well, having just had my 49th birthday it suddenly occurred that the next one is the big 5-0! I am way too young be be turning 50 so have decided on a definite makeover. I have a stone to lose in weight so have already started with that. The other biggy over the next year will be a new job/career. I like my job but after almost three years in it I am ready for a change. I would like something that I can put my 49 years of experience into and those experiences have been really varied!
I have lived in four countries, umpteen houses, lived in a caravan, had loads of different jobs. Have had two children, one I haven't seen in 7 years and miss like crazy so a plan has to be made there. The other is doing pretty well despite his autism but its ongoing. A definite learning curve there!
Am sick of having not enough money to do what we want so need to earn more.
There are charities I want to be more active in supporting as well.
I have already started getting more opinionated as far as politics go and will now argue the point on things I don't like or agree with. If someone can prove I am wrong, thats OK. But, I will give it a go.
Have lots of research to do and decisions to make on the work front. All I know is that this time next year I want life to have improved in all aspects.
Well best get on with it.... will be filing a running commentary on this blog. Hopefully I won't bore anyone!

Save the Children

2011-07-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

After watching the interview on Daybreak a while ago with Christine Mosler, Tracey Cheetham and Lindsay Atkin, in which they discussed the importance of all countries contributing to the funding of vaccines for the underprivileged in overseas countries, I was reminded of why I have the utmost respect for the Save the Children's organization.
My first job was working for a Travel Agency in Malawi and the Save the Children representatives used to come in regularly to reconfirm or alter their flights around Africa and back to the UK. One day, a gentleman from Save the Children came in who had a problem getting flights to Lesotho and needed to be there for an emergency situation. Someone else had quoted him an enormous amount of money to alter his ticket and had not been able to even confirm flights for him. With the help of local and international airlines, I was able to get his flights rerouted, and actual seats on planes to Lesotho and back to the UK without costing him an additional penny.
A few weeks later, my boss received a letter thanking me for helping out and adding that by not needing to charge any more money for the flights, it meant that the money now saved could be used directly for helping communities. How nice of him to thank me and how comforting to know that every penny saved on overheads goes directly back to helping others and saving lives.
That was a very long time ago but that one letter gave me a lot of faith in an organization that does so much good for so many!

Achievements!

2011-06-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

With this week being the time of the Special Olympic Summer Games in Athens, I thought I would comment on the importance of sport in young peoples lives, particularly for those with Learning Disabilities.

When my son was first (and wrongly) diagnosed with "Mental Retardation" at the age of three, I was told that he had no eye - hand coordination and would never be able to play sports that involved using that skill.

So, we played baseball with him, badminton, tennis, and five pin bowling. He has played bocce, basketball and has gone skiing. He has played football and street hockey. Hmmmm...... but they said he couldn't! Oh and did I mention he can swim and plays pool? Oh, and at the moment he is not playing badminton for a while but has just got three kickboxing belts in a mainstream club!

My son has had bowling trophies, (from playing with mainstream teams), football trophies, mainstream again. He achieved Gold standard at tennis lessons and played Badminton for the West Midlands at the UK Special Olympics in Leicester two years ago and played for England in Four Nations Tournaments. He has the gold, silver and bronze medals to prove it.

I have been following the Special Olympics in Athens and team GB is doing so well. They are coping with heat, severe tummy bugs, and rioting. They are doing Great Britain proud.

Thank goodness he has since been correctly diagnosed with Autism/Asperger's Syndrome and am I glad I didn't take "their" word for it and not let him try anything!

If anyone has a chance to support their local Special Olympics, please go for it and check out the amazing skills of these athletes who are as deserving of their medals as those in the ordinary and Para Olympics but get no lottery funding to support them.

A brilliant idea!!

2011-06-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Having taken a look at the Face Cards products I have received from Dunedin Multimedia Ltd, I have to say I am very impressed. For Autistic Children and possibly those with different facial recognition difficulties, they are ideal, as the pictures are of “real” faces as opposed to the “happy face” type often used to demonstrate expressions. . The products have a variety of pictures that are gender and ethnically diverse and can be easily related to.

The charts and cards illustrate so many different facial expressions and the cards are easily portable in a plastic holder that can fit in pocket or bag.

Even better, the CD Rom once again illustrates expressions but has the added learning incentive of games! The four games allow the user to choose and guess expressions with “Find A Face” and “What Face” and to draw their own expressions with “Draw a Face” and, finally, to have a lot of fun with “Face Goo” which will definitely have everyone chuckling!

Also on the CD Rom is a section called “Eye Gaze”. This is a very innovative exercise for those who have difficulty maintaining eye contact and I believe to be really useful.

I would highly recommend the Face Cards Products for everyone working with people with problems recognising facial expressions. They make a difficult subject a lot of fun.

One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

2011-06-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

I am feeling really frustrated today. It is the start of Learning Disabilities Week and I feel just as frustrated today as I did when I first found out that my son had a learning disability. It just doesn't go away. On one hand I am so happy with the progress he has made in 22 years but on the other I could scream when he does things that set him back and neither he or I know why he does them.

However, most of his issues stem from too much information in his head that has not been processed properly and that just leads to stagnation. It takes so much digging to find out the root cause we both end up with headaches.

In addition, it does not help when some of the confusion has been brought about by government "experts", put in a position to help him progress into work that have no concept of how an Autistic mind works. He has had two meetings with one such person and is no further ahead than before he saw them. And...they get paid for this type of service!

Now the process begins again of helping him get into his mind and sort out the important stuff and make sense of it; get rid of the irrelevant jumble of information that just clouds his thinking. It's a bit like an oil change that needs to be done on a regular basis, or, something like sorting out the recyclables from the general waste.

Once done all will be well for a while until the complications of trying to adjust to a world full of red-tape, paper work and other such things that are difficult to explain raise their ugly heads again!

Can't get the staff!

2011-06-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
Had a lovely trip to the hospital to check on the progress of my recent foot operation. Today I got to see a member of the surgical team that I had not met yet. She was not exactly the warm and fuzzy type and a smile was obviously not on the agenda for Wednesday mornings. We went through the rigmarole of removing bandages etc and keeping in mind that this lady had not seen me the week before, she informed me that the progress was "disappointing"! Well, she should have seen it the week before and she may have said the improvement was incredible!! She then told me that I could remove my sexy elastic anti - DVT stocking and that she would re-bandage with a light dressing. She told me that I had better make an appointment for the next week as there was no way I could start my rehabilitation yet. My husband was with me and we both left thinking that I had been spoken to like a naughty child!! Not once did this lady ask me about diet, the actual amount of activity I had done on my foot, nothing. I came home and stuck myself on Vitamin C supplements as it seems like a practical idea but at no time was anything suggested by the so called "professional". I have researched the operation and know that not everyone is ready to start wearing trainers two weeks after the operation but was led to believe that my progress should have been better!!

As a patient I have had that experience, but I only have to go and see the medical team for half an hour, once a week. I just feel so sorry for the patients in the hospital who are made to feel that way numerous times a day by hospital ward staff. A smile costs nothing and neither does giving a patient some encouraging words and advice. I could get up and walk (or should I say, limp) away but that poor elderly bed-ridden patient cannot.

That's my whinge for the day!

Back to Blogging!

2011-06-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well, have decided that I will begin to blog again! It has been ages but at the moment there are a ton of topics I would like to get into so it seems like the best way to do it! At the moment I am laid up with a sore foot since my operation so have some time to get back into writing before going back to work. So from tomorrow, will be back with whatever is on my mind!! As long as everyone is aware, the opinions are my own and just reflect my view of the world! Some people would say that's an odd view, but, hey!

See you soon!

Andrea

Chimps in captivity

2009-02-17T03:56:00.001-08:00

Didn't think I would get back to blog so quickly but just read something that made me both sad and furious. A woman and some policemen were attacked by a chimpanzee that had been kept by a family in the US. Consequently the chimp died a horrific death. Apparently, according to the news feed, the animal was trained to wear clothes, drink out of glasses etc etc. When will people learn that we have come a long way since believing that chimps are very cute little creatures that drink tea, ride bikes and have picnics while wearing five year old's cast offs! They are a very intelligent, social and yes, naturally aggressive creatures that have no business being in people's homes. For better news about rehabilitating these poor mistreated animals have a look at the Monkey World website. Monkey World have done an amzing job of rescuing various apes and endangered species, providing them with as close to a natural existance as is possible for those too damaged to go back to the wild.

Why blog?

2009-02-17T02:46:00.000-08:00

hmmmmm... decided to have a blog site rather than a website. Why? I think I feel more relaxed about a blog and it will make a change from the more formal writing that I am getting back into. Having not written anything much in the past five years, I am about to submit new articles to Suite101.com and can't wait to be back in the fold so to speak. I "met" some fantastic and very supportive writers on there the last time I wrote for them. However, this blog will give me a chance to be my grasshopper brain self who loves to skip from topic to topic! There is usually something in the papers, on the news or happening in the street that I have some sort of opinion about so now's my chance!

We will see how it progresses!