Portrait

Jordan's dad knows the artist Marc Quinn and recently commissioned him to do this poirtrait of Jordan. It's a photo-realist picture that measures about 3 feet by 4. We're knocked out by it!

At last.

Good news!

Sanity has prevailed.
Steven Neary will be home for Christmas with his dad.

Hillingdon Council should hang its head in shame.

Don't bother knocking on the door of Hillingdon Council and expect common sense and expertise knowldge to answer.

Apparently they don't have any. Oh, and that goes for respect for the human rights of those with autism.

Read the following link and weep. If you get a 404 message, it's the post on the Orwellian Present you should read.

When you're done weeping take a moment to sign the the petition.

For shame.

It's an outrage!

Yes, you'd think the boy would know when he was well off...

Here he is in the embrace of his lovely PA, Honor, who has become a veritable lynchpin of the household. She accompanies Jordan to Surrey Docks Farm on a Monday to chase the chickens and fettle the ferrets.

Cutbacks

Now I could be wrong, and I'm very happy to have my opinion disproved but I really feel that tolerance of, and provision for, people with disabilities and their familes and carers, is about to take a big whacking. This is due to current financial constraints. In a time of plenty, everyone is more than happy to empower disabled people and trumpet loudly when an autistic man is manipulated by so-called friends and killed by them, or be horrified when a mother and her disabled dughter die in horrific circumstances in a buirning car after decades of abuse from neighbours and indifference from the police but I wonder how much all this will fade away with the tightened budget now proposed by the current government? DLA mobility removed from those in long-term residential care, for example. Well, I suppose they don't wat to upset the normals do they, with their inconvenient demands to move about in society. Really, shame on the PM, you'd think he'd know!

I'm telling you now, all the advances disabled people have achieved in the last few years are about to fade away, slowly but surely. Fortunately disabled people are often a mouthy lot. They may not be able to get out and about (and for some, that freedom will be constrained still further) but they can use the internet. Over on Twitter @bendygirl is a locus for protest. I urge you to follow her and her #BofB campaign. Let's protect the hard-won rights that disabled people currently (I was going to say enjoy) but really, I mean NEED in order to live their lives in the way they choose.

That is all. Rant over.

New developments

Well, Jordan has settled into college very well, I'm very pleased to say. In fact, I was the one sick with nerves and wittering inanely on his first day there, not to say completely unable to find my way out of the building once I'd dropped him off. Doh!

On Mondays he goes with his lovely PA Honor to Surrey Docks Farm to do a little animal husbandry. I commend it to your good selves as a cracking day out!

College!

The boy starts on Wednesday! He's dead keen. I'm in a nervous state.

In other news, I applied for a Freedom Pass for him last November. After a mere ten months, it's here. Or rather the ominous-sounding Letter of Authorisation is here, after many phone calls and finally getting someone to intercede for me. Not that I'm ungrateful for the initiative, you understand, it's just very frustrating to keep ringing only to get no further down the line.

Now all I have to do is get the boy to a Post Office in person. It's one of the Places He No Longer Goes To, so shall attempt major bribe to get him in there.