The Year in Brief

    For the first time ever, I have decided to put together a newsletter to summaries my year, in brief, as many other people do. Instead of putting it into Christmas cards, this is a slightly more environmentally friendly electronic version. It also circumvents several processes; for instance, remembering to print out and post them, which can be a lot more complicated than it sounds.

    The beginning of the year saw Oliver and Felicity’s graduation ceremonies, which were very conveniently on the same day and from the same university, Derby. It was a unique experience as I had never been to one before. Even death threats would not have enticed me to my own back in 2010. Both children now have jobs. Oliver is a business analyst for a cloud company, which means practically nothing to me but it is a very fast growing company and involves him spending quite a lot of time scrutinising spreadsheets for errors. I think. He has lived in Milford with his partner, Suzie, near Belper, Derbyshire for about eighteen months. Felicity moved from her position with IMS Lettings in Derby to a new job in Barnsley. This meant she was able to move into a house with her partner, Dan.

    Martin, aka Ron, finished the plastering course he was on at New College, Nottingham (ncn) and was unemployed for a short time. All credit to himself, he secured a job as a team leader with M&S at their massive distribution centre in Castle Donington. He heads a team of twelve and has shown an impressive amount of maturity for one still so young. He is an inspiration to his team, which is quickly gaining a reputation for its great spirit, work ethic and high productivity. He recently passed his driving theory test and is due to take the practical on February 14^th.

    Work wise, I am still mentoring for the National Autistic Society at DeMontfort University in Leicester. This is turning into a busy year at the university as we have more autistic spectrum students than ever to support. As always, my personal approach is as hands off as possible and I enjoy wonderful, although unconventional, working relationships with my students. For the third year, we are running the Socialeyes social group for DeMontfort NAS supported students and we regularly have six or seven attendees. This is my second year of leading the group, which now meets in a lounge in the students’ union building. Early next month, I will be starting up another group at Leicester University, which will hopefully open up more opportunities for personal growth. It is still my aim to secure a regular income in place of, or additional to, my mentoring job but have decided to no longer disclose my Asperger’s syndrome on application forms. On another positive note, I have been delivering more training and talks and hope to increase my freelance workload as it is a longer term aim to be a full time speaker and trainer, or at least to do very much more of it.

    In January, I will be working with the BBC on a documentary about autism for the Horizon programme. My part in this will be pretty small but useful to go on a CV. I still work with autism researchers around the country, mainly at City University in London.

    On April 20^th, my dad died suddenly. Of course, it was very difficult at the time but, as a small mercy, work at DMU was almost over for the academic year and I took as much time away from my other, salaried, job as I needed. I helped dad’s wife out a little but, to my dismay and deep hurt, found that children of dead relatives have little or no say in any arrangements. I wrote and delivered the eulogy at Dad’s funeral, which was held in a Catholic church. For some reason, dad had been drawn to the Catholic way of worship. The incredible support from my children and Martin/Ron, especially, friends from within my Jewish community and my very patient partner, Jonathan, was heartening and very needed. I do, however, feel very let down by dad because he did not leave a will. Everything was passed on to his wife, which now means many personal items which have been in the family for very many years are probably lost forever. You can read the eulogy by clicking here. http://calling-earth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/dads-funeralthank-you-so-much-for-being.html#links

The demographic of pets in the family has altered quite a lot. At the beginning of the year, we had four cats and two dogs. We now have three cats and the same number of dogs. We had been looking after Simba, Felicity’s cat, until such time as she could take her off us when she moved in to her house in Barnsley. We then adopted a beautiful little tortoiseshell kitten I called Natalie, which took us up to four cats. In February, a young black and white cat moved in to the garden. Advertising him in as many places as we could think of, we eventually adopted him and he developed an attachment to Ron, who called the little guy Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In May, shortly before dad’s funeral, we took in a two and a half year old cocker spaniel we re-named Lexikate. She is a bouncy, energetic and fun little dog but nervous of men. Although she has settled down really well, Lexi can still be jumpy with strangers. Simba went to live in Barnsley and Isambard, very sadly, was hit by a car and had to be put down. Even now, we miss him. He was a fluffy, dozy dollop, with enormous paws who liked to ride around on Ron’s shoulder.

    There is little left to say apart from to wish everyone the kind of Christmas they hope for, spent with people who care for and love them. May every one of you have a great New Year.