Vacuous media whore and real-life haunted cave Katie Hopkins mocking the fact that people with Autism will be entitled to blue badges on Twitter earlier. What makes it all the more bizarre is that she has epilepsy, so basically a woman with a (hidden) disability is insulting other people with (hidden) disabilities. Arse.

Now this hashtag has been trending a fair bit on Twitter recently and to be honest I've been at a loss as to how I feel about it. To those who have no idea what I'm talking about (with regards to masking not in real-life obviously which would be just about everyone), masking - or Camouflaging or passing if you prefer, it's up to you go on knock yourself out - is what we do in order to better fit in and conform to social norms. But before you say "Well we all do that to a certain extent!" let me just say that Autistic masking is oh so slightly different. And also add that I'm not the one shouting sentences at a computer screen. Whereas it's true that NT folk will mask and change to fit in, they do it with full knowledge of the whys and wheres of social situations and the pitfalls that go with them. With Autistic folk, much of the masking is there in order to just fit in with situations that are really alien to us - we're essentially copying wh...

Been away visiting the homeland this weekend and while I was away I got a nice Tweet or two from The National Autistic Society regarding Autism Hour and the thorny issue of times. But fear not as there's more to it than we first thought! According to my info Autism Hour will indeed launch at this time (9 - 10 AM), but shops and businesses will be choosing the times they will be putting on their hours themselves across the week. But what are the chances that they'll listen and put them at convenient times? We'll have to wait and see.

Just found out that Morrisons are starting a weekly Autism friendly quiet hour and guess what? Yup, it's between 9 and 10 on a Saturday morning. Shhhhhhh! I would ask who thinks that the perfect start to a weekend is trying to get your Autistic brood out of the house and at the shops for 9 o'clock but the PR bumf answers it for me as it seems that "many liked the idea of being able to shop in more comfort at 9-10am on a Saturday." So that's me told. I've said it before but part of me (the cynical bit) thinks that first thing on a Saturday morning may be a wee bit quiet anyway, so why not put this in place and get a few more punters in? Surely NT folk have no trouble at all adjusting to change so let's have the quiet time early afternoon instead, I'm sure average Joe and his pals wont mind keeping the noise down a wee bit. And if that's too much hassle how about having it between 8 and 9 at night? - That would suit families an...

As you may or may not know/care I quite like 'the films'- I've mentioned my oh so slightly NSFW film blog before and also posted here about my obsession with Autistic cinema so was interested to see that a character in the upcoming Predator sequel/reboot is on the spectrum. Played by Jacob Tremblay from The Room (not that one) the character is the autistic (and bullied in school, natch) son of Boyd Holbrook’s ex-Marine who discovers 'the existence of fierce aliens but finds that no one believes they exist'. But due to his preternatural ability to learn languages (thanks Autism!) he becomes a key player in the fight for Earth. Yup sounds legit. But let's be honest it's written and directed by Shane Black so it's probably gonna be good either way. And quite possibly a Helluva lot less offensive than The Accountant.

Here's a handy link to the events/plans/general stuff going on at/with Glasgow Museums that have that Autism Aware vibe. Regular readers will already be aware of how much effort they're putting in so show some support! Well that's cheered me up after the whole train thing.

Apologies in advance for the overall rantiness of this post but it's basically a freeform riled piece. You have been warned. Regular readers (of this blog I mean, not just folk who read regularly) may remember this post regarding train travel and the lack of Autism resources when things go wrong. If you've not read it go do it now - I'll still be here when you've finished. Anyway, when I'd finished writing/ranting I tweeted the link to both Scotrail and transport minister Humza Yousaf in the hope of hearing back - folk usually jump at the chance to talk Autism with me - but heard nowt. Maybe an email would have been better? Well I'll never know now. Anyway, as you may - or may not know my twin girls are absolutely Beatles mad and as a treat - and because boychild went to Spain with the school - Mrs Ash decided to take them on a three-day break to Liverpool over the summer. Actually they're traveling today. And this is where the problem...