Aeolienne

Can't believe that today I had to visit four shops just to buy a packet of super-plus tampons. Is my flow that weird?!

Katrina & the Waves, Walking on Sunshine

I didn't like The Curious Incident at all. The main character was annoying and the plot too implausible. I didn't even find it funny. The scene where Christopher goes onto the tube tracks and lashes out at a passenger who tries to pull him up made me feel sick. I'm currently reading Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion by Alain de Botton.

Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, La Spagna: Music of the Spanish court

Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, Pictured Air: contemporary recorder quartets

I would recommend the London Wetlands Centre in Barnes. Just getting off the train you can hardly imagine you're so close to central London.

I haven't done that for every book I've read - only the one quoted above plus a couple of Donna Williamses so far.

Roxy Music, Dance Away

Why pay to have your council tax band checked? Do it for free http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/why-pay-to-have-your-council-tax-band-checked-do-it-for-free-7668100.html HTH

My use of "no way" was meant to indicate scepticism rather than disgust. I went to an all-girls' school and never experienced that degree of protection. I've disliked all-female gatherings ever since.

Here are some notes I made when I read it 3 years ago... Tony Attwood, 'The patterns of abilities and development of girls with Asperger's syndrome' p.3: "girls with AS are often 'mothered' by other girls" ... no way! p.5: "Acting can subsequently become a successful career option" ... but surely you need far more than a prodigious memory to act? Are ASDs over-represented at drama schools? Should the latter be offering more in the way of mentoring, career guidance or whatever? p.6: AS girls are, we are told, entranced by the intrinsic rhythm of Shakespeare and poetry and "some develop their writing skills ... to become successful academics in English literature." Again, there would seem to me to be a need for more than an ear for rhythm to become an academic. And no, "unusual perception and reasoning" is not confined to Aspies, nor is it intrinsic to their condition. Sheila Wagner, 'Educating the female student with Asperger's' p.20: So struggling with maths is a symptom of AS, is it? p.22f: Still don't understand this peer programming malarkey. If it's about ordering pupils (in the main, NTs) to befriend the AS pupils, I can't see how that will work. Surely more profitable to accept that people will befriend whom they want to befriend (otherwise they wouldn't be friends), and the best you can do is eliminate all school activities which involved choosing partners. I.e. appoint partners for PE and project work, have a disco instead of a prom, and adopt zero tolerance to saving places. (None of the above are addressed by SW, oddly enough...) And another thing ... what consolation are stage-managed, teacher-led acquaintances to the more savvy AS teenager who is only too aware that they are no substitute for real friendships? SW states as a fact that "Cliques [among girls] form rapidly and spread often." If this is a given, how can peer programming change human nature? p.24: Pre-teaching of content - where do I begin ... I can only see negatives / objections: How do you find the time for this extra coaching - aren't school timetables full enough as they are? Wouldn't it make classroom lessons too easy, encourage the AS girl to think "Heard this all before, don't need to pay attention" and switch off? At best she might miss out on important announcements about homework assignments or field trips; at worst she might develop a habit of poor concentration which might take years to quit. Far from being "viewed in a better light [by her peers]", surely she'd be regarded as a swot or a teacher's pet? And if this extra coaching gets her a higher grade than she would otherwise have received - say A instead of B - and she ends up in a higher ability stream or a certain university course or career training programme, how will she then be able to cope without the spoon-feeding? Or are we to assume that anyone with Asperger's can play the disability card throughout their lives and always claim extra coaching and supervision? Why should it be considered a great loss if an Aspie can't get into university? Surely it's more important that she's provided with careers advice and support appropriate to her ability - she could still go to university as a mature student, with some years of work experience behind her. Obviously I'm biased, because what I missed out on most of all at school and university was work experience - extra academic coaching is no substitute for that. The only version of pre-teaching I could support would be if the teacher put the contents of her lessons on a website which pupils could access if they hadn't been able to follow during the classroom environment. But this should be accessible to all pupils, not just "special needs" cases. Other than that, encourage the Aspie pupil to develop her own coping mechanisms - point her in the direction of the library, brief her as to what questions are appropriate. Is that so hard to do? p.25: I can certainly se the attraction of reduced homework assignments, just as I can also see the attraction of jumping the lunch queue and bunking off PE. But isn't there a danger of being inadequately prepared for the next stage in life? p.29: "Typical students alone are usually self-conscious, embarrassed or highly amused at the [sex education] provided and if they ask questions, they often do so to gain a reaction from their peers." Is this a misprint? If a student is alone, then there aren't any peers around, by definition - or am I missing something? Lisa Iland, 'Girl to girl: advice on friendship, bullying and fitting in' p.40: Is this stuff about "levels of popularity" w.r.t. dating really true? I've read opposing advice on at least one problem page. Anglo-American cultural differences? pp50-1: Can't see the point of boning up on MTV and celebrity gossip. Accumulating information about a topic parrot-fashion is no substitute for a genuine interest at a level that an NT would deem appropriate. Maybe things are very different today, but among my peers the only gossip they were into was about their own social circles e.g. what X said to Y when A saw P snog Q at B's party. You can only contribute to said conversations if you've attended said parties, but you only get invited to said parties (or at the very least tipped off) if you're in the "in" crowd. Catch-22. Jennifer McIlwee Myers, 'Aspie dos and don'ts: dating, relationships and marriage' JMM protests against the assumption that "... marriage is the best goal for everybody, especially everybody between the ages of twenty and forty". And yet she got married at 28! p.92: "No one goes to singles activities for the actual activity." And yet I for one am frustrated at the tiny window of opportunity for actual socializing. Is this just another example of Anglo-American cultural differences? p.95: JMM's use of the present tense is somewhat confusing coming from a woman married for 12 years. This is in the context of advice for dealing with rejection: "One, always be aware that rejection is not a real setback ... Two, I use a somewhat cognitive-behavioural approach to deal with the depression and general crankiness that can follow rejection." p.95: "the best tools that a girl with AS has are logic and facts." How often have I been accused of over-intellectualizing my situation? And how can you apply logic when you don't know the facts (as in the reason why I've never had a relationship)? p.98: In a roundabout way, JMM says that she had difficulty attracting men in her teens and 20s - but she became aware of the reason why when she was happily married and so this problem had somehow gone away of its own accord. So what advice is there for 30somethings who still don't attract? Why don't I attract even the users? p.105: "Girls with AS need lots of factual information, rationally put, about everything from how to turn down a date..." Oh yes! p.106: This is assuming a lot, that the people you meet at a special interest group will become your friends, and that they will go so far as introducing you to their extended family members. What if your level of acquaintance is still stuck on "How's the job?" and "What was your name again?" snatched in the all-too-brief coffee break? p.107: Not all volunteer supervisors are willing or obliged to give "clear but kind feedback". And what if JMM's special interests had not been "Fred Astaire movies and old-time radio shows" but something more contemporary? Ruth Snyder, 'Maternal instincts in Asperger's syndrome' Where were RS's common special interests with the men who entered her life? p.124: "I had no problem finding dates or men wanting to date me." Lucky cow! p.127: How did RS manage to marry someone given her track record of "immediately all or nothing" (p.124)? p.130: "I had no one helping me with career choices; there were no services that could help me to understand or decide what I needed to do in life ..." "Working on a career was much easier compared to working on relationships. There were steps, routes, degrees, and road maps to where I wanted to go." Make up your mind!! p.132: "Even though I had given up on relationships, they did not give up on me." What's her secret? p.134: What sort of Aspie mum laughs at her son's sporting inability?

FYI the geographical centre of the UK is in the Forest of Bowland, not London!

Joana Amendoeira, A Flor da Pele

I know of one in Harrow but I guess judging by your username that's not very convenient for you.

Rimsky-Korsakov, Snow Maiden Suite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19X1_z-_ZIk

What trap??

Pro Cantione Antiqua, A Medieval Christmas

Very different from me as a 17-year-old. Twenty years on, I'm still wondering what my special talents are.

I emailed Ethney attaching my CV and she replied: "We can have a chat on Tuesday at ALAG but looking at your CV and the points in your email, I wonder if you might be better suited to the Prospects graduate scheme." Plus ça change. Re your earlier message: I've tried to find voluntary work in London, but with little success. For instance I applied to Heath Hands (http://www.heath-hands.org.uk) but it took them the best part of a year to equip me with regulation work boots. English Heritage are not looking for volunteers at the moment, although the London Wildlife Trust are as of this month. Is ESA tied to DLA or income-related benefits? In either case I don't think I'm eligible.

What do you mean by "gleeful subversion"? Did I say something wrong?

A diplomat who has this idea of introducing salmon to a river in the Yemen. I don't know how St Jude's fits into the plot, except possibly as a concert scene (the church in real life is frequently used for recordings). Incidentally, reviews suggest that the main character, played by Ewan McGregor, has Asperger's although it's not directly specified. A bit like Saga Noren in The Bridge.

What about the other boy, Theo? In the "book club" notes at the end of my library copy his fondness for sneaking into strangers' houses is called a "Goldilocks complex". Is that a recognised psychological condition? Don't suppose the shrinks in my neighbourhood often have occasion to diagnose it, but then who in their right minds in London would leave their back door unlocked?!

One aspect of learning to drive that bugged me was the jargon. People would ask me if I'd done the three-point turn yet and I'd say no, without realising that in fact I had but under a different name. My instructor called it "turning in the road using forward and reverse gears". Does that seem really weird? Maybe a lot of you now are shouting at the computer screen "But how could you not know they are one and the same thing?" It's a problem that has bugged me in other areas of life, especially at job interviews.

Jacob reminded me a lot of Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In particular, I was struck by how both characters boasted about how logical they were compared to the NT people in their lives. And yet they both indulged (or rather, were allowed to indulge) in faddy eating habits and superstitions about colours which were anything but. I couldn't help but think that if they were to meet each other (unlikely, given the distance between Vermont and Swindon and Jacob's fear of flying) they wouldn't get on at all.

Palladian Ensemble, Held By the Ears: the music of Nicola Matteis