Noticed I'd been a wee bit serious/ranting/rantingly serious of late (cheers to all who replied!) and looking back I realized I'd totally forgotten to post about how brilliant our local Morrisson's has been during lockdown. After the experience we had with the mad woman shouting at Amelia back in March - which was dealt with brilliantly by George the security man - the shop and staff have been absolutely amazing, from telling us to phone for items we needed during the great food shortage wars to allowing us priority access and generally being lovely (always asking how the kids, and myself, are) we as a family couldn't ask for nicer folk. And it's even more appreciated when you realise the pressure they're under too. It's refreshing to find anyone - not just a shop - that's willing to listen and then actually act - on the advice and needs of the autistic community. Brilliant. Also have to say a big 'thank you' to our local Aldi

A really quick post about the whole Dominic Cumming/autistic wean thing currently exploding on 'the Twitter'. Sorry if I'm way more ranty than normal but to be honest - which I always am - I'm bloody raging. So according to an anonymous leak, Dominic Cummings son is 'severely' autistic and that's why he had to travel 250 odd miles to his parents house to celebrate his wife's birthday or whatever. Seriously I so saw this excuse coming, a perfect way to shut up critics and to frame him as a caring type. It's the perfect excuse - it's not like we can say "Well he doesn't look autistic" is it?  Which would be OK I guess if he wasn't one of the architects of the whole herd immunity/DNR orders for autistic folk idea who pushes eugenics theory at every opportunity. It's a mazing how, after Cumming's says his child is autistic that everyone and their fucking dog has an opinion. If that's the case at

I'd posted t'other week about how the routines put in place for us autie-types over lockdown can sometimes have a detrimental effect in the long run as they're not actually our routines, mostly folk have assumed that it's what we need to cope and this can cause lots of major upset along the way. You can read that here by the way. But what do I mean by this I hear you ask. Well hear you type obviously but you get the gist. Well just talk to your friends (virtually obviously) and you'll see the difference between how (NT) folk cope and how autistic folk are 'meant' to cope. NT people:   "I'm in lockdown and a wee bit worried.....bottle of wine and loads of snacks for me every night! Sod it I'm staying in my PJs today! Shave my legs? Screw that!"  And so on.... Autistic folk:   "This is all mental.....I can't do the things I need to do and it's driving me mad.....I'm going to stay in bed till it's all o

One of those lockdown updates and surprisingly the kids are doing great (a few wobbles here and there but that's to be expected) but scarily I'm really struggling. As I've said before I usually work from home so I've gone from having my own space and routines to a houseful of folk all with different needs and routines plus (as mentioned here ) I do a fair bit of 'social mapping', which put simply means that before I indulge/partake in any social situations  I spend an inordinate amount of time planning and then revising how the situation may play out. So being in a situation with absolutely no rules and with no idea how it will end is basically wearing me out. I have no energy or idea how to cope with anything on a day to day basis and the whole lockdown thing feels like I'm drowning in loud emotional treacle. The basic stuff like getting up (eventually), getting dressed and eating is OK but even that is taking way more effort than usual.

The transformation is almost complete.... # lockdownLynchlocks

Autistic folk: Hello, we're autistic and enjoy various hobbies and subjects whilst sometimes moving around in ways that are really meaningful and important to us. Academics: What? They're having fun? Drug the freaky f*ckers.... Seriously, get in the f*cking sea.

So my autieness can tell if oatmeal is steel-cut or not?  Well that's a really shit superpower. Oh yes and this...