Well that's us celebrating 6 months since the (then) housing officer turned up at our door and the ball began rolling on our "really urgent" house repair job. To be honest it's actually 2 1/2 years since they were meant to actually carry out the repairs but I thought I'd be kind.  Anyway,  as a sort of  tribute to the incredible efficiency, general competence and all round professionalism of Wheatley Homes and their obviously top quality and well trained staff (and for those of you new to this whole sorry saga) here is a timeline of the story of us asking for a leak to be fixed.... Enjoy.  Oh and I've cut down on the sarcasm this time around for a change.    This statement may not be accurate. 30/05/24 – After nearly 4 years of waiting – and thanks to our local MP - repair work begins on the house. A new toilet is fitted and a large piece of wood is nailed to the kitchen floor. Alongside this a huge hole is left in the bathroom wall and paneling is removed...

 The girls had their first appointment with the NHS Learning Disability Health Team last week - the team were fantastic and went out of their way to make them comfortable by the way so kudos to them - and part of the assessment was to put things in place to make doctors/dentists visits etc. easier for - in our case - Autistic (young) adults.   Which is great because Amelia has broken a tooth and due to a mix of sensory issues around her mouth coupled with an abject fear of dentists hasn't wanted to go get it sorted. The LD Health Check team took this into account and made a referral thru' our doctor's surgery for her to see a specialist dentist with experience of Autistic/LD patients. A brilliant idea you might think. Us too. Obviously the specialist dental team don't think so as I've just found out that her referral was refused, it seems that she can only see the specialist team if she first registers with a regular dentist and has a probably traumatizing  examinat...

  The prince and protector of the Glasgow canals, he was a joy to see (and pet and feed) on our daily walks and the girls absolutely adored him - as did hundreds of others who crossed his path (and sat on his bench) every day. RIP Ziggy.   

For anyone interested, I was on Radio Scotland this morning talking about Autism and holidays...as in going on one, not that we should have an official day where you all praise us and buy us stuff obviously.   As an aside I actually got thanked for my expertise and insight.  Check me.   By the way you can listen again (for the next 30 days)  here . 

Huzzah! After over 2 months of telling them that it's full and that the kids (especially Cassidy) are slowly going stir crazy because they can't go in the garden the skip has finally been uplifted! Regular readers will remember that we were given it in March to help us get ready to move in April (to the house that we aren't allowed to talk about) but like everything else pertaining to our move/repairs it ended up just getting ignored no matter how many times we asked/begged for it to be picked up. The main reason it couldn't be moved was truly bizarre - it seemed that because someone in the street had put rubbish in it (as always happens) it couldn't be moved till the guilty party had taken the rubbish out. Housing even sent letters out to the neighbours ordering them to remove the unauthorised junk. Seriously, the letter about misusing a skip was more of a priority to them than actually picking up the thing, so in the meantime the girls haven't been able to hav...

  Trying to get straight answers re: housing, disability and the equality act from our housing association (still) be like:  

A quick real life catch up as it's been a wee bit mad here at the moment. First up, apologies to anyone who missed my dulcet tones on the radio Tuesday , turns out they'd overbooked the amount of English males they needed so I unfortunately got dumped from the panel. I did managed to randomly add a few comments near the end but due to timing they skipped the punchline. Story of my life.  As a (self congratulatory) aside the visuals I produced for the inaugural  David Byrne themed Byrne's Night in Dumbarton seemed to go down a treat!       And on another bright note it looks like there may finally be some progress on the whole house situation that wont have to involve legal action and/or government intervention. Or any more Autistic meltdowns.  Which is nice.     I can't say too much right now except that having such a high stress level every day for almost 4 months certainly takes its toll. My head feels like someone has set a huge bag of firework...

Been getting a fair few responses to the whole housing debacle of late so thought I'd post an as in-depth as possible version of the situation in one handy place save people having to read multiple posts (which they still can if they want). So buckle up and here we go: We've been waiting on house repairs for around 6 years now, what started as a small leak just before lock down turned into a huge leak which left us without a flushing toilet for a year (which was finally fixed at least) and a drop in water pressure which meant that we can't use the washing machine or shower. About 4 years after the original repair report - and after being contacted by our local MP housing did in fact attempt a repair (that's when they fitted a new toilet) but the plumber they sent out hadn't realised that the main water supply was behind the washing machine and because no one had told us to move it couldn't actually do anything apart from tear out some kitchen panels, smash a...

  Just a quick update - hot off the press, well phone - regarding the ongoing housing saga .   Me, right now.     It seems that because we were waiting to order new beds etc for the girls till the move and the fact that the house is full of bags/boxes (because we were meant to be moving, yes I keep mentioning this in the hope that someone from housing reads this...or can even read) we've now been reported to social work (again) and the housing association are insisting on yet another meeting about forcing (sorry 'persuading' us) into a temporary move (to the house we were meant to move to that Cassidy is now dead set against going to).   A move that we've told them (multiple times) just isn't workable. Doing the work around us as much as possible with a week or so in an apartment/air B&B (which would be easier for Cassidy) isn't even being considered by them and any reasonable adjustments for disability (a legal requirement as far as I can tell) aren...

 A wee bit of a change from the (by now usual) housing woes and I thought I'd update everyone (anyone?) on the other major thing going down at the moment which was my exciting (to me at least) adventures in photo-therapy up at Gartnavel Hospital in 'sunny' Glasgow. My home from home the last few months.   You see I've just finished my - 3 month - course so I reckoned it was time to review the whole hospital visit/treatment situation from an Autistic viewpoint. I've briefly covered the treatment in a few posts previously (but refrained from posting photos of my oh so lovely Psoriasis scabs) so this is less about the treatment and more about staffing and attitude. Oh and how they did putting up with me for 3 plus months. As regular readers will know it can be a wee bit hit and miss when it comes to medical matters - some folk, like the physiotherapist  I had to see a few years back, have been utterly fantastic - she even incorporated my wrist/hand stims into my treat...

 It's been a fair few years since my dulcet tones graced your airwaves  but it looks (sounds?) like I may be back on Radio Scotland in the next month - but not alas playing a mix of obscure Eurohorror tracks (tho' that might happen if enough folk ask for it).   The BBC are holding a Caring Matters Week with a variety of programmes and interviews which may, in fact, feature me ranting excitingly - and angrily - about various issues around and affecting carers. Including housing support no doubt.  First up is the recording of  the Caring Matters live roadshow next week - now what to wear for radio? - with (hopefully) a few interviews to follow. Updates to follow.    

 Thought I'd post a (very) quick house update for those following the whole sorry story .... Well, after finding out that we're no longer moving permanently (which was the actual reason we agreed to a move rather than doing the work around us due to the kids complex needs) we've heard nothing else since.   I did get in touch with housing (a stage 2 written complaint seeing as we can't actually submit a stage 1 as we don't have a housing officer since the old one went AWOL) that, according to their website would at least be acknowledged within 2 working days. That was Tuesday 14th, it's now Sunday 19th and we've still not heard back. Could it be that they're inundated with repair complaints or is it just a lack of actually caring? I wont say incompetence as I'm not that bitchy. So we're sitting here nearly 3 weeks after our initial moving in date (1st April), just over 2 months since we were threatened with a 'forced move' and just over 2 ...

  Been a wee bit quiet on the whole house moving front at the moment, partly due to having absolutely no idea what's going on but mainly due to the fact that there's probably going to be pretty harsh legal consequences to how it's been dealt with by the housing officer so reckoned it was best to keep quiet and make notes in the meantime. However all that seems to have changed a few weeks back when we received a phone call to tell us that the housing officer had left their job suddenly for a new one (who knew there was a huge job market for sociopaths?) and that we needed to get a meeting regarding the house move as she'd not done the job handover or put anything in place. Obviously we then kinda assumed that we wouldn't be getting the keys on 1st April as promised and wouldn't be able to start moving stuff. But as a plus point we now don't have to deal with what was probably the most vindictive, manipulative and downright rude person I have ever encountered ...

A distinct lack of meaningful posts of late seeing as we're in the middle of packing up the house for our move as Cassidy frantically tries to unpack everything whilst shouting "FIX IT!" in an ever higher voice. The mad thing is when you take into account that so far we've only had 4 half days to do it (girls are at college 3 days which we have to take them/fetch them from plus my 2 day hospital appointments couple with dance performances and stuff like cooking, laundry, shopping etc)  we've actually done not too bad. 40 boxes packed and a skip half filled and no major breakdowns, tho' Cass is getting there and I'm not far behind. Our house right now.   Anyway we've decided to take the girls out of college this week so we can try and fire thru' the rest of the job and finally attempt to clear the terrifying cupboard in their room. A job I'm dreading and excited about at the same time. As an exciting aside it looks like we may finally get to see...

Well that's me back and (almost) fully recovered from this years Frightfest and I have to say I needed that! After what must go down as THE shittest week I've ever experienced that culminated in a very public Autistic meltdown (alongside having to cancel my hospital treatment due to how my stress levels had affected my Psoriasis) it was so therapeutic to get to retreat back to my safe place, 2 full days of horror films in a dark cinema where I could lose myself in the sounds and visuals. And seeing my work on a huge screen - as well as emblazoned across folks chest on T-shirts may have helped my sense of worth and belonging.    I got home Sunday morning to see my skin visibly less blotchy and sore and with an (almost) clear head. True our home no longer feels like ours and we still have a few more battles along the way but cinema has empowered me like it always does. And for that I'm grateful.  I'll probably not post much in the way of what's occurring over the next...