Regular readers of this blog may be aware of our adventures of late trying to swap over our Motability car, something that should be easy and accessible (clues in the name). As previously mentioned it's the first time we've ever had to swap over our car (you initially get it for 3 years) so we reckoned it'd be fairly straightforward - the staff on the phone at Motability have been great - tho' there has been a noticeable delay 'tween getting information on the phone and it being passed along the chain to the actual hard copy paper department, for example we phoned one day to extend the lease and were told it was no problem only to receive a letter a few days later saying the lease was up and we'd stolen the car(!), turns out 'the system' hadn't updated. An excuse that NT folk seem to accept as a given even tho' the new information would have been updated manually and almost instantaneously - the real reason was no-one bothered to inform anyone f...

 Just a quick post to cheer up your day. Was getting the train to college with Cass this morning (as I always do) and it was surprisingly busy, no seats together except on the triple/table seats which as luck would have it, is where Cassidy likes to sit. True there was a guy sitting there but it still left 5 seats. Or it would have if he hadn't spread his bags across the 2 seats next to him and laid his jacket out on the other side.  Obviously Cass went to sit down where the jacket was as the guy loudly tutted, then sighed and finally lifted his coat. And all whilst glaring intensely at Cassidy. Who blatantly ignored him.  A man on a train for illustrative purposes.   This failed (and frankly embarrassing) attempt to intimidate Cass seemed to make the guy angrier and as I politely said "Thanks so much for moving your coat, he absolutely loves this seat and tries to get it everyday!" whilst making sure Cassidy's Sunflower lanyard was on show he just stared the pair of...

  I find train travel (especially rush hour or long journeys) a wee bit of an issue so it's usually the only situation where I wear my Sunflower lanyard so just a reminder that pointing at it (and me) whilst giggling and taking the piss isn't the good look you think it is. Oh and I hope your team get gubbed tonight.  That's the end of my TED talk.  Thanks for listening.

I have a very important and very serious meeting on Friday regarding transitioning from school to further education and realised that I'd not updated the whole Social Work/transition to higher education efforts for quite a while. Or posted anything of any worth probably. The reasons for this are twofold. One is just the whole stress of the situation with getting support for the kids has had a fairly negative effect on me health-wise (stress-inflicted psoriasis covering about 60% of my body and bleeding everywhere anyone? Absolutely great when suffering from that old Autistic bugbear of Body dysmorphic disorder - which I've had since my teens - which has reared its ugly head again) add to this the whole lack of sleep and trying to get the house repaired after 3 years of waiting and get paid - cheers Paypal) and you can probably see why I've stuck to amusing and light posts of late. The other is the fact that it felt that after almost 2 years of being left in limbo (and almo...

  Well 3 days into the new term and I think I managed to upset the escort this morning (which is pretty good going for me). Taxi (according to official letter) is due between 8:00-8:30.   Arrives this morning at 9.   I jokingly say "I thought you'd forgotten us!" whilst smiling.   Escort (frowny/grumpy face) "I've had to travel from the other side of the city!"   Me taking this as a sign she made need help planning explains how when I was working in London (or nearer) I use timetables/watches/etc to assure I'm on time and how useful these skills/tools can be.   Luckily I was trying to have some humorous 'bants' instead of pointing out that transport rules only allow a 3 minute waiting time for the taxi, if you're over that it drives off and is cancelled and how I was confused that this rule about time-keeping doesn't go both ways or is maybe even a wee bit relaxed.   Only I did.   Sometimes I forget that non-Autistic folk struggle in soc...

Heading down to good old London Town in a few weeks for a really important (and very exciting) work project so the last few days since finding out (and the next couple of weeks or so) were/will be filled to the brim with me nervously trying to plan my trip in the minutest detail.   Hopefully I don't get this lost.   Regular (?) readers of this blog may remember my posts regarding my last journey to the big smoke and have an idea of what Autistic planning actually entails. You see, as I wrote previously , your common or garden NT type of journey planning would probably go like this: Whereas I need printed pages of Google Maps, timetables for every form of transport I'm getting (2 trains and the London underground) alongside notes of when to snack on the journey and a load of emergency phone numbers in case I get lost, for example here's a - small - sample of the information I needed last time I visited in order to answer the simple question: "How do I...

In a brilliant case of 'can I copy your homework?' it's great to see that Douglas Hutchinson (Executive Director of Education) has found a use for the old 'presumption of mainstream' policy from a few years back as it appears that Glasgow's home to school ASL transport is now gonna run on a 'presumption of independent travel' ticket or failing that 'pay' parents to take their kids instead (or something) but let's be honest ASL provision isn't that important is it?  Saying that tho' it'd be interesting to see the consultation process. If only to see how many times you can disguise not caring/understanding ASL with "Let's cut these budgets as we really don't care". Anyway here's the letter in full:  OK peeps, you know what to do.

T'other week during a particularly frustrating attempt to get the whole transport issue sorted I tagged the Glasgow City Council Twitter account in a thread (alongside all manner of MSPs, the head of social work etc) and surprisingly they were the only ones to reply. They DM-ed me for details and said they'd get someone on the case. And guess what? They actually did. Think about that for a minute, out of every disability/inclusion loving MSP, social worker and even head of social work (I'm looking at you Susanne Millar) I emailed and messaged about it, the only person to bother replying properly and helping was the person running Glasgow City Council's Twitter account. They deserve a raise. More in the New Year.  

Well we gave Social Work till the 22nd December to sort out the whole transport debacle before we go the legal route instead and surprise, surprise...absolutely f*ck all has happened - not even the much promised phone call. To say I'm a wee bit annoyed at the whole situation would be an understatement, the total lack of professionalism, care and empathy is really unbelievable. But all black clouds have a silver lining (except mushroom clouds obviously, that's not silver it's Strontium 90) so I reckon this is as good an excuse as any to repost the whole sorry tale (but with added sarcasm) as it appears that anyone remotely involved with social care/Scottish politics can't follow Twitter threads. Or understand that putting the words 'inclusion' in your job description/Twitter bio isn't enough in itself, you actually have to 'include' all groups...not just the ones that make you feel/look good/or because it's 'the fashion'. Just saying.   Pr...

....Transport/Social Work/college update for anyone interested:  Well following on from the last post I can officially reveal that  "We'll ring you the beginning of next week"  actually means (in Social Work parlance)     "We'll not actually ring you at all."  Well we've been waiting a month for a call back now so reckon it must be the case.  

  In social work parlance does    "We'll ring you the beginning of next week"     actually mean     " We may - or may not - ring you at all depending on if we can be arsed"?     Into the 3rd week of waiting for a call back now so just checking.       And for those who missed it and are wondering why, here it is again:     Prologue (March 2020) School: "We're really surprised you don't have a social worker, it'd be useful with the girls preparing to leave school and go to college....we'll contact them to set up a meeting, don't hold you're breath tho' cos they'll most likely ignore us and get in touch after they turn 16 so they can fob you off to adult services! No but really they'll probably ring..." April (2 days after the girls turn 16) "Hiya! Social work here....sorry we've not rung, dead busy here....oh just noticed the girls have just turned 16....sorry about that, not our problem, bye!" Ju...

Well, 6 months(!) on and the whole SW/college/ transport debacle has totally worn me out....partly due to the utter incompetence of so called 'professional' bodies but mainly because you realise that 'prioritizing' cases is shorthand for we can't be arsed/you don't matter.... It's absurd to me that in 6 months not only has nothing moved on but the whole (explained) idea of Autistic routine and communication seems so unimportant... After explaining that keeping appointments/phoning when arranged is really key to this we have 2/3 weeks of radio silence then a half-hearted 'sorry been busy'....Aye, no worries I've just sat waiting to hear from you.... On a personal note my communication skills can some times come across as intense or loud (I like to call it passionate!) - It's one of the first things I mention in meetings etc to put folk at ease.... So it's kind of annoying to be told I'm being 'shouty' and to shush and listen....

Remember when I made this sarcastic comment re: Social Work calls t'other day?     Well guess what?   It's late Friday afternoon and I've just had a call from from them!    Only 2 weeks late but who's counting?*   It appears that everyone is 'busy' (allegedly) and the ones that aren't don't know about Autism/colleges/transport/the care act. Or it would seem anything about our situation seeing as I ended up having the same conversation as I've been having since May.   Now at least it's with the same people.   Not sure if that's good, bad or bloody annoying tho'.   To be honest it's now getting on my nerves slightly.   As a fun (or frightening) aside I've just had to explain the social care act to them on the phone....   How fucking bad is it when I'm your go to source for human rights advocacy?   Come on I draw the wee pictures for a living.   So basically any advice on how I go about getting a Judicial Review would be more...

Regular readers might notice I've been posting mainly Halloweeny/film/work stuff of late - mostly in order to show that yes - we do normal stuff too - but fear not as for those of you who've been following the girls transition fund/college transport/social work story here's an update. Basically I'll make this a 'story so far' post save you having to trawl thru months of sarcasm....   Enjoy.   Prologue (March 2020) School: "We're really surprised you don't have a social worker, it'd be useful with the girls preparing to leave school and go to college....we'll contact them to set up a meeting, don't hold you're breath tho' cos they'll most likely ignore us and get in touch after they turn 16 so they can fob you off to adult services! No but really they'll probably ring..." April (2 days after the girls turn 16) "Hiya! Social work here....sorry we've not rung, dead busy here....oh just noticed the girls have j...

So Ro and myself did something that education, college AND social work have found impossible to organise in 4 months.... we got all the kids to college and school using a variety of modes of transport....   Maybe they should pay us to do it?*   It would offset the almost £50 per week it's costing us so far....                 *This would never happen as - according to transport a fortnight ago even tho' I've escorted Cass in on the numerous times there have been no escorts/taxis I'm not really a 'proper' escort so can't expect even a cab home when I do it.

So, Social Work cancelled. New appointment is next Thursday which means 3 days of getting Cass and the girls to 2 different places at exactly the same time. Oh for a working teleport or a competent social care system...tho to be honest the teleport seems more realistic. Joy.         

Just a quick update on what appears to be turning into my version of War and Peace.... Well day 2 of the girls college adventure and still no transport....social work never called back, disability student support deal with everything except transport and no-one appears to know how to answer a phone/use email....   so currently it's costing almost £50 per week to take the girls to and from college....   From next week they start an hour earlier so we'll need to get Cass into his school cab at exactly the same time as getting the girls into town...oh joy.   Girls are loving college tho' (which is fab) but I'm not loving the added stress, (my) routine changes and utter lack of (supposedly) essential support from organisations that are allegedly there to help make things smoother....   As a bizarre aside I've just found out that you're not supposed  to ring Social work and ask for someone directly unless you've made an appointment to speak to that person before...