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.

Any road up...

Well, would you look at that! No sooner have the blissful summer hols begun than they seem to be racing towards the inevitable end with considerable velocity. I had a week of overlap with my Tefl course and the first week of Jordan's hols which took some organising to get care arranged, but arranged it was and all seemed to go well. In fact, I was scarcely missed, which bothered me far more than it bothered Jordan. Then we had a week to pack then off to Wales for two weeks, which was fab, thanks for asking. No one had a prima donna tizzy, not even me, and I went on a steam train. Now, holidays are not restful in our family necessarily, as no one lies about on beaches reading Michael Crichton or gawd 'elp us, Dan Brown novels (which are burnt ceremoniously at the England/Wales border anyway). And thus we ruturn to a rather inclement August, even with London's micro-climate. Good heavens, I've even had the heating on! It's an outrage...

Jordan has the day well organised: French toast (his new culinary obsession) for brunch, lashings of hot tea, a go with MY iPhone, if you please, then off he goes on his iPad, which he manipulates like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. He adores YouTube and just the other day found one of his all-time faves, Heigh Ho from Snow White set to an animated film of lego characters which I present below for your viewing pleasure...

Updates and thoughts

I am ashamed to see how long it is since I last blogged!

Any road up, the boy is doing extremely well. Speech and syntax coming along in leaps and bounds. He took part in a Globe production of Midsummer Night's Dream and lost his hat in Lanzarote on the school trip this year. We know this because we have the photographic evidence. It was a big deal to him as these things often are to a person with autism. In other news, he is definitely going to Lewisham College in September and has possibilities of work placements too. This week he has been working with his dad instead of being at home with me. Do I feel left out? Well yes, actually I do, thanks for asking, but that's my problem, not Jordan's.

Thanks for reading.

On My High Horse.

I'm getting pretty fed up with people who, with the kindest of motives, are often to be heard saying 'how you must suffer/worry/wish it had never happened to you' etc., ad infinitum. Ad nauseum actually.

It's not that I'm rejecting the kindness/blindness of strangers but I really am up to here with the pessimism of the 'normals'. By which I mean that band, that happy band who either don't come across disabled people that much in the course of their daily lives (what sheltered lives they lead!) or if they do, immediately adopt that pitying attitude that assumes we sit about quietly martyred and suffering and waiting for social services to take up the slack.

I don't do martyrdom. Fearfully ageing, don't you know. I do having a laugh. I don't think anyone with neurotypical children must be living the life of Riley. No one is. I'm fortunate to have a close family and some good mates who are happy to rock up and be with Jordan when I need to go out. Strictly on the understanding (imposed by the boy) that they don't actually talk that much to him or cramp his style. I pay them too. Above the odds because I value their help. None of that minimum wage malarkey here thank you very much.

My disabled son is a delight. There I said it! He has exceeded every single one of my expectations. I'm really looking forward to the next decade with him.

And so, into 2010 my friends. Having a laugh, cracking jokes, getting annoyed occasionally. JUST LIKE THE NORMALS! Gosh, who'd have thought it..?