Aeolienne

Heaven 17, Temptation

Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, A Concorde of Sweete Sounde: Recorder music from Renaissance England

William Alwyn (1905-85), String Quartet No. 2 "Spring Waters"

What's B's secret? When I was a teenager I would have counted myself lucky to have been part of a limo-share group of friends, let alone attracted someone of the opposite sex. Plus ça change.

I can't see that Donna Williams's books would help my case. Where in Somebody Somewhere or Like Colour to the Blind does she manage to hold down a proper job?

I've just started an internship in Cambridge. Having spent last week commuting daily from my parents' house in London, I'm moving into digs tomorrow evening. Apparently it will be a 15-min walk to work or 5-min cycle ride across Jesus Green. Hallelujah!

LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver

Ravel, Daphnis and Chloé

I don't know how my life would have panned out if I'd not been diagnosed. At the time I felt a sense of relief that there was an official label for my condition, and I (naïvely as it turned out) hoped that at last people would take my problems with not fitting in seriously and not just fob me off with the same old same old "just join clubs and societies". Less able. I feel that I have achieved so little - both professionally and personally. Yes, but it's been a bit as and when. I've never had social skills training, and even the workplace support I had wasn't enough to stop me losing my then job, and then when I moved to another part of the country tapping into local support services seemed like panning for gold. Certain members of my extended familiy were inclined to say "Why does Aeolienne need a label? She seems perfectly normal." A shrink wrote my letter of referral to CLASS and encouraged me to attend an Asperger's support group. No As far as I can recall, the diagnosis was a pretty straightforward experience. What counts as an issue? The only time I was seen by an occupational health advisor she said that she could see I had every reason to be depressed (what with my job being on the line and being lonely and all that) but nevertheless she couldn't diagnose me with depression because I didn't present a "barn door"(??) case. Prior to that my NT boss had been signed off sick for work-related stress.

Are you going to stick a pen-knife in it? [ducks]

All? Presumably only one from now on...

Queen Greatest Hits II

Queen Greatest Hits II

Jesus Jones, Perverse

No, I'm over 30 and finished full-time study in the 1990s. Unless the Open University module I'm doing at the moment counts. It was somewhere to escape during mid-morning break and lunchtime, when I felt excluded by the typical teenage girls' conversations about what X said to Y when P saw Q snog A at B's party. I studied maths at university (and am doing a module in oceanography now), and all my full-time jobs have been science-related: building services consultancy, Met Office, environmental consulting. I suspect the conference aspect is the underlying resentment that I never got to have the kind of Met Office career which involved going to conferences, feeling part of a bigger picture and being able to network with other people who could understand the work I did (as opposed to fatuous remarks from people down the pub about whether I've been on telly). Issues - where do I begin ... I was fired from the Met Office in May 2009 and have had only one other job since then (which also ended in dismissal). How could I not feel inferior to my ex-boss? I remember her parting shot to me was "Do keep in touch - I'd love to hear what you do next".

The other night I dreamt I was in a building - identical in appearance to my high school - looking for the library. There was some kind of science conference going on in Room 112 or 113, because everywhere I went I saw signs about it. Just as I came up the main staircase I saw ahead of me some of the conference participants milling around having coffee in the lobby outside the staff room. One of them was my last boss but one (she who'd got me fired from the Met Office), so I quickly turned tail and tried to find another way into the library from the other end of the building.

Alan Rawsthorne (1905-71), String Quartet no. 2

What happened to Zeroes Two to Six? I'm currently listening to Respighi's Le fontane di Roma.

Anatol Lyadov (1855-1914), The Enchanted Lake

Office Space is an underrated cult classic!! Mmkay, did you get that memo about the TPS reports?

I once attended a fascinating lecture on 'The science of soap bubbles' at the University of Kent at Canterbury, given by their then physics lecturer Dr Cyril Isenberg. A name worth looking out for on the popular science lecture circuit!

Salads based on grains (burghul, couscous, quinoa or barley) or pulses are good because you can make them the day before and they don't taste the worse for a night in the fridge. If you have access to a microwave at work, you can cook a jacket potato in under 10 minutes. Great way of using up a small amount of leftover curry, casserole etc.

André Campra, Petits motets, performed by Le Concert Baroque (dir. Dominique Serve) feat. Noémi Rime (soprano) and François Bazola (baritone)