Another day, another totally gobsmacking story. Seems that the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway, on Lewis had built a 'safe' play area for an autistic student. But due to (and I quote) a communication breakdown between staff and the supplier they actually built this: Yup, that's right, they built a cage. The scariest thing tho' isn't that it got built in the first place but that it took the parents to point out that a cage for a student wasn't actually that appropriate. Really? No-one at the council took a step back and thought "Hmmmm....hang on..." Saying that tho' nothing surprises me anymore. Except maybe old episodes of Night Gallery I haven't seen. You can read the full story here .

Regular readers may have noted that there are quite a few posts regarding the ongoing taxi/escort saga with our youngest. As ever our school has been fantastic but the whole situation has shown up some fundamental flaws in education policy.  I was lucky enough to gatecrash a meeting that one of the education heads was speaking at last week but was unable to get any answers - or be listened to - due to the questions being 'too personal' and not just vague policy/backslapping chat. Never mind, there was probably a charity photo op' to be had elsewhere. Anyway, for anyone new (or anyone too lazy too read the posts - here's a quick rundown of the saga so far.* Enjoy.   "Ello Guvna!" Assessment meeting with parents, teacher from new school, class teacher, deputy head of old school - Unanimously decided an escort not needed. 1 week before end of term 'someone' not involved in the assessment puts in request for escort. After informin...

From Freecycle.....and they say it's us that have problems.

Obviously there are updates on the whole transport/escort farce coming soon (it's the gift that keeps on giving) but the whole point of this blog was to at least try to be a wee bit positive so thought I'd post something of a personal work-based nature to show that it's not all doom and gloom. In my everyday life I work as an illustrator , jumping 'tween horror/TV/film based illo's and more serious stuff. Which keeps me busy. One such project I was involved with was thru' Glasgow Open Museums and involved the creation of an arts instillation exploring the lives of refugees in the city. Originally envisaged as a series of posters - much like the kind of gig poster you'd find adorning every 80s shopfront - the work was first shown in The St Enoch Centre in Glasgow before being put on a huge banner to be displayed at GoMA and then toured for 6 weeks around various points in the city. When it was finally returned the weather damage that...

Came across a really lovely Autie story on the BBC News website today concerning eight-year-old Hayden Geraghty from Limavady, County Londonderry. It seems that he had limited speech until the day Tim Peake was launched into space in 2015. Hayden began to count down to the rocket's take-off and since then his speech has been improving. And if that's not enough to celebrate his love of all things space a company in Donegal - Lottie Dolls - have made a doll called Finn based on him. A Lottie Dolls spokesman said that  their latest figure was created to emphasize that "childhood should be an inclusive place, where every child belongs regardless of gender, ethnicity or ability". The doll also comes with ear defenders and an assistance puppy with a blue bandana to signal that the dog has been trained to support an autistic person. You can read the full story here .

For those following the story of our transport troubles here's a quick update. Well we now have one taxi but still have an escort, no-one knows where the (non-official) risk assessment came from - except we do - so we're expected just to (literally) ride it out for a month and see what happens. Yeah that's likely.