23rd June 2019
I’m back!! It’s been about five weeks since my last blog saying that I was going to be taking a break for a while due to my mum’s illness. It has been a stressful time but everything has been moving in the right direction in terms of her cancer. We still have some way to go though with another operation coming in the next two weeks but the time feels right for me to return to creating online content – starting with this blog. The only other thing I want to say about mum is how amazing all the doctors, nurses, porters, catering, cleaning staff and everyone at the NHS has been with regards to her care. Just awesome – and although it is unlikely anyone of them will read this blog I just want to say a big “Thank You” to them all.
Whether or not I will blog weekly like before I am not sure, as I am still juggling a lot of things, but I feel that I will be in a better place if I just blog as often as I can. I apologise if you were a fan of the weekly service, which I hope will return one day, but for now it will be on an ad hoc basis. If you read my last blog then you will know that I was planning a new sort of video too. That will still be happening at some point, and I am still very excited by it, but I just have not had as much time as I would have liked to get the project underway. Just be assured I have a large proportion of my current notebook filled with ideas!
The main thing that has happened to me since I last blogged (other than mum) was my fourth attendance yesterday at “The Autism Show” in Birmingham. Like always, I had a brilliant time – it’s just great to be amongst so many Autistic people, hearing their stories, ideas, aspirations and not be in the minority for once.
I saw some amazing speakers starting with Jennifer Coy who was making her public talk debut and doing a splendid job. Alex Manners, who I had seen on TV a few times did a great talk about his life.
In the afternoon I watched Georgia Harper and Sam Ahern who most people will know from the TV documentary “Are you Autistic?” that aired on Channel Four a while ago. They did a wonderful talk on what life has been like for them as Autistic women, with a great slide deck beautifully illustrated with Sam’s outstanding cartoons. I particularly love the “delayed train” cartoon with Georgia just loving being around trains, supporting Sam who’s getting anxious because of the delay. I was so happy to hear many other women thank Georgia and Sam for being such positive female role models. They do a fantastic job and I hope to see them talk again at future events.
The last talk I saw was by the incredible Dan Jones aka “The Aspie World” with his new slogan “Autism is f**cking cool” well, it was “fricking cool” here, as he was talking to a PG audience. I have watched Dan’s videos online and his content is always of a very high quality, but this was the first time that I have seen him do a live talk. Nothing could have prepared me. The guy is a whirlwind of positive Autistic energy. The crowd he drew at the Hub had about as many people standing to listen to him as well as sitting. 2019 was certainly the year that the organisers ran out of headphones…
Dan is a great inspirational Autistic advocate and I think he and others like him are needed by both the Autistic community and neurotypicals alike. In part of his talk he mentioned how things like the media can project negativity around Autism and how he wishes to focus on the positives. Personally, I agree that this is badly needed at times.
The main thing I love about the Autism show though is the fact I get to meet in person a lot of fantastic Autistic folk whom normally I only communicate with online. I am not good at socialising in “real” life but the show gives me a chance to do this in a safe environment with people I already know from online places such as Twitter. For example, I got to chat with the awesome Connor Ward and Sez Francis (and her mum!) – two Youtubers who regularly post about Autism as well as other great content. I also had the opportunity to talk for a longer period with Georgia and Sam, which was great, and not forgetting the NAS’s Lorraine MacAlister who does superb work in the Autistic community.
My only slight criticism of the show this year is that there seemed to be fewer stalls. I am not sure if this is true, but it certainly felt like it for some reason. Still there was a plus side to this as the spaces around what was there seemed less crowded to me.
Well I had better go now – I think you have probably had enough of me gushing on about how brilliant the Autism Show is. I would just like to thank all the organisers, no matter how small or large a part they play. Without you it simply would not happen. Thank you and I will see you next year…