Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 February 2008 21:22:03
Good and odd.
Hmmm... Switching off for the night, just coming to that want to do more but just can't so aiming to sleep soon. Not been the most productive day - project wise - but been a lovely family day so that's not to be sniffed at. We all went into town to see a Chinese Association new year showcase which was lovely but whittled us down from four to two pretty rapidly. DId the normal lunch thing - family situations don't allow for much in the way of experimentation but it was alright. Not my thing but again good to be together and not have a distraction just to have us.
In town we mooched around the shops together - again something we don't normally do - I'll get to this in a minute, it's vague for a reason - and managed to get a couple of bargains which is the sort of thing that makes me happy. Bought the Richard Hammond biography and Earth book for a bargainous £2 each and a monitor for the new computer for a clearance price. Got home and wifey went off to escape some of the hazards of the past few days so I took the kids to the park. Got home and in the slow tired time that follows running around like mad things I started to read the Hammond biog.
And it's the most affecting thing, but not for the more obvious reason. TBH, time wise I started at the day when everything changed for him and his family. I know that's skipping 50 pages which are probably excellent set up, but the book was for wifey and my curiosity - while pretty morbid but saved for the fact that I know the ending was happy - led to a certain amount of impatience. I'm also not much of a tabloud (sic) reader so hadn't caught much more of it that had come across on Radios 4 and 5. 170 pages later I'm stil reading, haven't got as much work done as I wanted (thanks Hamster) and thoughtful on grounds away from the books content.
Y'see today was a good day, which is ace, but we still had to cope with a few episodes as a family which we now take, pretty much, for granted. We accept the funny noises, the strange head shakes, the running off and not listening to reason above the phrases we would shout to a pet. We accept the funny looks we get from people who walk past us and misdiagnose the issues we cope with. We accept autism in our family.
Reading about the Hammond families bravery and courage in the face of the most awful of critical conditions was very touching and haunting, inspiring at times and dispiriting at others. The parallels with coping with autism kept creeping up on me. Occasionally someone asks how we deal with all of the strangenesses we live with and we've become so used to it all it strikes us as an odd question yet reading about the issues of dealing with short term amnesia and all of the by products of head trauma it's like seeing into our world through a strange shaped window. Catching a glimse of how people see us from an odd angle (which is an ironic turn of phrase taking into account an autists difficulty in looking at something head on).
Odd. Was expecting to be moved by the book of course yet have actually been spun around by it. A very well put together book and so far it drives me (ho ho) to carry on reading - eyes are just tired so I'm forcing myself to stop and carry on soonish. But it is catching me on a level I wasn't expecting. I've tried reading the Curious Incident book a couple of times but find myself unable to continue - not because of quality but because it touches some very raw nerves. Hammond's biography catches me in the same place but because it's not about autism ostensibly it doesn't hurt too bad. Occasionally I do wonder where we'll be in ten years, twenty, more... Sometimes it's the trickiest thing to reconcile myself to, autism is a funny thing - just not funny haha at all.
So anyhow, odd day. Good I think because it's got me evaluating a number of things yet not in too harsh a way (although I know that it's not going to go that far but thanks Richard and Mindy. Your book has helped on an unexpected tangent).
Also, why do I NEVER meet anyone in the neighbouring town that I know from there? Met 9 people from non-youth group related things yet met no-one from the area itself yet that's where I do the majority of my youthwork? Bonkers.
Righto, time to rest eyes and get some kip. God bless all (well, hi mum at least :) )and next week we'll have something to show from project April.
Currently listening to: One Life Left podcast. Currently playing: Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. DS. Currently working on: A 72 page comic/graphic novel for release pretty soon... More news as it happens... :)