Seeing as it's International Mens Day I thought I'd reshare the top Autism dad chat (featuring a fair few Actually Autistic peeps) we did for Scottish Autism a few years back....   Enjoy.     

 Yay! In an excited turn of events Susan Acland-Hood - Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education (DfE) fact fans - has decided that Autism isn't really a thing because we're all a little bit Autistic and it's a spectrum or something. Oh joy. As a plus point it's not like they can cut support any further seeing as there's fuck all in place to begin with. And breathe.

 In a change from the usual Social Work shenanigans and the like here's some photos from the opening of the Autism Through An Autistic Lens exhibition I was involved with, currently showing at The Tolbooth in Stirling. Enjoy.

We have an update on our Scottish Social Security story from t'other day! It seems that no-one has any idea as to why/how a letter was sent out saying we hadn't filled in the forms because everything is actually fine. For all the issues we've had with their (new) computer system and lack of mail send outs I have to say that every member of staff I've dealt with have been absolutely great (maybe Social Work should take note) even managing to not get annoyed/freaked out by my sometimes draining Autistic manner. Which is nice. Next stop, awaiting the 1:1 interview which, luckily, will be held at home. Phew. Still taken 6 months tho'. My life....everyday.

Regular(?) readers may remember way back in June when Social Security Scotland cancelled Cassidy's disability payments due to them accidentally not sending us a letter to say it needed updating. This was, if you recall, not long after the illustrious Scottish Government stated that: "Swapping over disability payments to Social Security Scotland will  be much easier than that pesky PIP as well as being less intrusive and more humane...Also Westminster incompetent and bad!" Well at the time we were told that even tho' it was their mistake we'd have to re-apply for the whole thing which wouldn't be that bad (actually it was) but it also meant having to wait till the schools were back to get covering letters etc meaning we spent the summer with a junior Social Worker accusing us of not trying to fill the forms in quick enough before suggesting we just "change the date" on the old support letter. Which as we all know is fraud. This has impacted on Cas

Bloody typical....got a packed few weeks of Scottish Parliament meetings, exhibition openings and work with the Alasdair Gray archive and my stress-related  psoriasis has flared up leaving me totally deaf (yes, I actually get it in my ears....bizarre I know).  This has come as a huge surprise as there's absolutely fuck all to be stressed about at the moment. Cheers Social Work . It should be OK tho' because according to them Cassidy is more than capable of traveling to and from college on his own....even tho' he needs 1:1 support and is almost totally non verbal. Rant over for now.