Post #73: Taking A Break From Facebook

Yes, I'm the first person to say that I lack empathy, but I really cannot help it.  I like to assist others, but not when it's detrimental to my own (often fragile) wellbeing.  Fair enough: so what's sparked this off then?  Well, it's nothing specific, but a bit of a build up of a number of issues ...

In my experience, which is limited in certain ways, blokes tend to talk at you more than to you.  I mean, as an Autistic woman I tend to befriend neurotypical men more than any other group of people, but it does come with its own issues; self-absorption is one of them.  You may advise me to cut off, which I often do - Facebook Messenger messages are often left unread and not replied to and yes, I've even managed to turn off the 'dings' and the stupid face icon functionality. That said, sometimes something more dramatic is required and this afternoon I've deactivated my Facebook account.  I feel better already - I mean, I've deactivated it a few times before and even if I haven't, I've made a thing of removing the Facebook app from my smartphone and tablet.  I usually last about a week, but even seven days counts as a digital detox in my opinion.  I'm still retaining Twitter and Instagram though as I find those much more impersonal and quite frankly, more fun.

Post #72: My Son And Super Mario Bros

We have a Wii U games console at home. Yes, it's not a PS4 or an X-Box, but the Wii's more of a family device and to date, there's never been a Grand Theft Mario on sale. During the autumn and winter months, my son becomes more and more obsessed with certain games and spends ages perfecting his performance. 'Fair enough' you may think, but he does get rather angry whilst doing so - for example, when he loses, he's oft to hit himself in the face or state awful statements such as "I want to kill myself."

His game du jour is Super Mario Bros U. I have helpfully included a picture of the cover below.

I quite like the concept: a diminutive Italian plumber and his lithe younger brother are tasked to save the pink heroine, Princess Peach, from the clutches of supervillain/antagonist, Bowser and his cohort of angry acolytes. It's really quirky: you can hitch a ride on the friendly reptilian back of Yoshi, or zoom around on a cloud. That said, I do get moaned at by my son when I have the audacity to lose a life during a two player game.

I fear that this is going to be a rather protracted half-term holiday.

Post #71 - School Assembly Angst

Yesterday morning myself and my husband attended our son's Year 5 Harvest Assembly.  My, it was crowded: the chairs were pressed far too closely together, also quite a few parents had decided to fill the rows from the middle and therefore we had to literally climb over their legs.  Thank you for your consideration, as ever.  The combination of the noise from the school orchestra, the shouting and generally the ambiance is my idea of an aspie hell, plus it seemed to go on and on - in total, it was nearly an hour in duration.  I could see our son, sat at the end of his year group, stimming away, looking more and more different from his peers.

I try to tread a line between wanting to support our son at school activities, but also being mindful of just quite how stressful they are for me.  I did have to laugh though, because the assembly went on so long, quite a few parents had to run out of the hall before the parking restrictions in the roads surrounding the school began at 10am.  Please don't get me started on parents who insist on driving their precious ones to school when they live much nearer the aforementioned educational establishment than I do.

Post #70: Lego

OK, I admit it - I'm a bit of a child; it's fun and I don't see why, even in middle-age, that I should change anything. I'm playing with Lego today and yes, before you ask, I *did* buy it all for my son and no, he shows absolutely no interest whatsoever and didn't even appreciate the school's trial of Lego Therapy either.  I've always liked Lego - I owned loads of it as a child, my favourite being town and castle Lego (they had horses, swords and wimples!)  and used to create storylines for my characters to act out - so much for Aspies not having any imagination!

I'm embracing it now and have just made this parrot:

Yay! Long live Lego.

Post #69: Caring For Elders & Helping Others

If you know me (and quite frankly, I'm an online presence, so why would you?) You'd be aware of my family's care back story, but in a nutshell, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law are both now in residential accommodation following quite a few stressful years of juggling their care needs with the various agencies/social services/Uncle Tom Cobley etc, within their former flat. It was so much fun that it pretty much ended my husband's career (he took early retirement) and ruined his health (he's got tachycardia now.)

Anyway ... MIL is ninety-one, has vascular dementia and is no longer eating. So, I'm up in London today and I'll pop in first thing and help her. I'm also seeing a friend for lunch, a former colleague who suspects that one of her daughters may be on the spectrum. I do hope that I can help.

Post #68: Here's (Yet Another) P45

Last Friday's post brought a cheque for the holiday pay I'd accrued whilst working that seven-and-a-half-day assignment for Brook Street in September. Today's mail included ... wait for it ... my P45. How very pleasant indeed; another one for the collection.

Adecco haven't called back either; clearly the guy who promised that "I was on his list of top temps" was talking out of his backside? Huh.

Post #67 - The Future Of Work

Guess what - regarding my 'career' - I haven't heard a 'dicky bird' from The Other Agency!  I am so glad, but on the other hand, it's clear that if a disabled member of staff requests flexible/part-time work then they've pretty much 'had it'.  Oh what a joy!

In other news I'm volunteering with a couple of local charities and am off to see a couple of their representatives tomorrow morning to determine some suitable roles.  I'm hankering after a kind of policy slant, well, I was a career civil servant.