Gordie

Sounds good to me - thank you for taking on board my suggestions. James

Well I foolishly voted for the wrong option on Christmas Eve, and Lufty tells me he can't change that vote nor undo it! So ... in your heads, just pretend the "Yes - All the time" option (the one I wanted to vote for!) is one more than what it says above, and the "Yes - But only when moderated" option (the one I accidentally voted for!) is one less than what it says above. Sorry! It really wasn't my fault though ... I mean I clicked on the option I wanted to vote for, just scrolled down to briefly skim-read over a few other people's comments before placing my vote, only to scroll back up, click to register my vote and find my selection had somehow changed!! Anyway(!!) ... ... the reasons for my (intended!) vote are simply that I don't think a chat room for this forum would actually need moderating, as we all seem to be reasonable individuals here. Very little negativity is ever experienced between anyone here, so as long as the chat room was restricted to existing members only, I can't see that there would be a problem really. James

Oh, good - I didn't realise that was done by default on the old version, but it explains why I forgot to tick that checkbox when PMing Lufty on Christmas Eve ... as a result, I sent him the same PM twice, just so I could save it second time around. Thanks, Kris. James

That's a good idea too. It should avoid disrupting people's "routines" around here too much that way. Good thinking, Batman. James

Great idea!! That's a nice description of the site you've got there. James

Ah! "Techie Corner"! This should be my second home! Have to say I'm not sure the "Introductions" thread is particularly "off-topic", as most of them contain "on-topic" descriptions of the lives of our members and their families, but I guess that's open to debate. I think it belongs pinned in the "General Discussion" forum, where it used to live ... especially as newbies (who need to introduce themselves to us!) are most likely to go there first, rather than to the "Off Topic" forum. Same goes for the pinned "Forum Rules" thread on this forum too actually. I think that should go back to the "General Discussion" forum as well, also for the benefit of forum newbies. It's not really a technical post. James (By the way, Lufty, you joined the site on my birthday! )

Nah - I was just hoping for a bit of Christmas goodwill from my examiner actually, but no such luck! I also knew that I had to get it in before Christmas, otherwise I'd probably have had a long break just before my test without any lessons (coz of the Christmas and New Year period, if the test was in, say, mid-January). And I knew that Christmas and New Year would be a good time for a breather between lessons if I ended up failing the test (which of course I have!). Yeah - that's what I thought too, when I was getting annoyed at how difficult the manoeuvre was! Another friend of mine came up with a few reasons why she found it useful, but I wasn't really convinced - I very much doubt I'll need to make much use of it in "the real world"! Ummm ... excuse my bluntness, but I'm not sure you can claim to be one of the best drivers out there, having tried to parallel park with the hand-brake on! James

Ah - I always wondered why Kerre always appeared in black in certain parts of the forum, while the rest of us appeared in blue (or red for the admins). It's coz he's under 18 - that's interesting. So he's the only one here that is under 18 then, is he? James EDIT: Oh no - I see dodobird's in black too.

Nope - not really. *pointing down to the following quote ...* And I've heard plenty of those cheesy clich�s (e.g. "the best drivers always fail first time!") in the last 24 hours or so too! Oooh - thanks. Not sure why you're crying though! Yeah - good luck to you too. James

Yes - don't start hugging me, bad boy. The match? What match? Doncaster v Arsenal? If so, I caught the second-half of extra time, and the penalty shoot-out, but that was all (I was still on my way home before then). Ah, cool - I don't think that used to be the case though. Can you approve my edit now then (even though I didn't actually change anything! )? James

Awww! Thanks, everyone! I had no idea there was anything about my test on here, until I was notified in my e-mail about a PM from mossgrove, telling me to get my ar*e in here! Ah - I wasn't sure if that had appeared on the Calendar or not, coz it wasn't showing for me when I wrote the entry. I only wrote it on Tuesday too. I've just gone to have another look and there it was, but when I tried to edit it, it disappeared again! Maybe a little bug Lufty needs to look into ... or maybe the entries need a moderator's approval before they appear. It's not exactly clear. Gimme a chance! If you'd read the Calendar entry, you'd have seen me end it by saying I would let you know either "late on Thursday, or on Friday" ... and if I'm not mistaken, it is now "late on Thursday"!! 'Fraid not, on this occasion. I failed ... but due to just one silly mistake - going into the right-hand lane of a two-lane roundabout when going straight on, instead of staying in the left-hand lane throughout. You're only supposed to take the right-hand lane when turning right. The left-hand lane is for when turning left and when going straight on. (Although I don't think there were any lane dividing lines marked on the road anyway!) The weird thing is, though, that I thought I was doing the right thing at the time! That may not sound particularly weird, but when you consider that I had never made that mistake at all during my lessons, and was always doing it correctly (taking the left-hand lane when going straight on at a roundabout), then it's very weird!! Clearly thinking is a dangerous thing to do when you're taking a driving test! I was thinking too much - thinking I must surely have to move over to the right-hand lane when that wasn't the case at all. It's better to just relax and go with your initial instincts. Easier said than done though. I'd have passed if it wasn't for that error (classed as a "major", or "serious", error), as I only had 11 "minors" (5 short of what would have resulted in a fail). I thought I'd failed after the reverse (parallel) park actually, as I hit the kerb on my first attempt. But without asking, I just started again, knowing my first attempt was obviously not good enough. I got it right second time around and only got 2 minors for my dodgy first go. I'm cool about the fail though - it's not like it was a disaster or anything, with 10 majors and 100 minors or something. Just a silly little mistake that I'll certainly never make again, now that it's caused me to fail my test, and cost me another ?45.50! I'll just try and get another test now in the next month or so, as it's not like I really need any more lessons. No-one can account for an error like that, and it's not really the sort of thing that more lessons can sort out. I can just treat this test as a (expensive!) practice run. My instructor-######-best-friend though was far from cool about it. She's amazing, she really is. She cares so much about her students, and with me being such a close friend, that made this test even more personal to her. As a result, she was so upset that I'd failed that, once we'd settled down at her house again afterwards (probably an hour or so after the end of the test), she started crying. She was really sad for me. Ironically, I was the one having to console her, instead of the other way around!! On reflection, I was fortunate in that I had a nice examiner (called Tony! ). As I said earlier, he let me have two goes at the reverse park without commenting, and I was also able to be quite chatty with him at times, without it distracting me too much. I'll probably get a right ###### next time though. However I was unfortunate in that there were resurfacing roadworks going on close to the test centre, literally as I was on my test. They'd blocked off one side of the usual road used to get back into the test centre at the end of a test, as that was the part of the road they were resurfacing at that time. So that meant the test was about 5 minutes longer than it should've been, as we had to go the long way round. I was also unlucky to get my two least favourite manoeuvres - the reverse park, and reversing around a corner (I hate that with a passion! ). Ironically though, I got the reverse-around-a-corner perfect! That was despite having practised the manoeuvre on a very difficult uphill corner in my warm-up hour before the test, and really struggling with it. That really hit my self-confidence hard, and I was very frustrated after that. It felt like the worst thing that could've happened ... who knows - maybe it did affect me in the end. Oh well ... back to the drawing board then! James

Just to say this post is now out-of-date since the forum upgrade, as the options have changed. Although the "Is daylight savings time in effect?" line could be replaced by "Auto correct DST?" instead, ensuring people have this box ticked. James

Blimey - you lucky boogers! No such special treatment for me! Should I demand compensation?! Although queues have never really bothered me any more than they would bother NTs. James

Perfect translation!! James

Red ears mean he's outside and it's very cold. (Sorry - I'm terribly unhelpful, I know! ) James

Me too! It's harmless - just delete it - I did. James

Well I think we can safely say, now I've caught up on all the posts made since I last contributed to this thread, that everyone sees the kids portrayed in this drama differently, based on their own unique children. Everyone is different, so some will say Christopher's Asperger's (for example) was extreme (such as myself), and others will disagree thinking it was quite mild. I suppose that's inevitable, and it's that that makes producing a drama such as this so difficult - there is no cast-iron blueprint. Another conclusion I could make, based on watching Christopher, is that I'm a remarkably high-level Aspie - that's certainly what a close friend of mine, who also watched the programme, thought. I think it focused so much on Christopher because he was the one who would be most "accessible" to a mainstream viewing audience - I don't think the majority would've understood what was going on with the other boys if too much time had been devoted to them. And I'm sure the whole Dimitri thing was just another effort to make the programme more "accessible" too, and to make the portrayal at least a little bit positive. You, as parents, are all well aware that there are positive sides to your children's conditions, and I think Dimitri was just "drafted in" to help reflect those positives. And remember, Dimitri was part of the whole drama, from start to finish, and as it took place over the course of a year, he would have had that whole year to do his homework on ASDs. But the friend of mine whose brother is in e-mail contact with Jacqui (the same friend I just mentioned above) told me on Wednesday that it was indeed the ending and the romanticism involving Dimitri that she took exception to, and I suppose it's no wonder really. It just wasn't realistic enough for Jacqui - in general, I mean, not just the whole Dimitri thing. Oh, and she didn't like the amount of cleavage on show either. Mother in Need: Very good point - more of that would definitely have helped, but I suppose they couldn't have used the "year-in-the-life" theme if they'd gone down that road. D's Mum: Me too!! Oh, and look - the review I sent into the Beeb's "Magnificent 7" web site is one of 15 that were published. http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/magnificent7/yourreviews.shtml You may be interested to read the other reviews on that page as well ... they definitely seem to sum up the wide range of feelings and opinions on this forum! James

All I would say in opposition to that is that it might've looked too negative without those closing scenes - all doom and gloom when it isn't that bad. (Although maybe I'm underestimating the difficulty parents of autistic children face.) I agree with what you're saying, and perhaps it was that part of it that Jacqui didn't like, but I guess they just wanted to express the point that there are positives that can be taken from situations like theirs. James

I've just posted a review of the programme at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/magnificent7/yourreviews.shtml I invite you all to do the same!! Mine was basically just a slight edit of what I first posted in this thread here. Tylers-mum: Ummm ... nope. mossgrove: Excellent point. Brook: Actually that's another excellent point. Now you've pointed it out to me, I think you're right - that was disappointing. Perhaps Dimitri was just pointing out and clarifying what Maggie (Jacqui) couldn't see for herself, but that is certainly open to interpretation, as Viper's thoughts on it have proved. jessie: Me too!! James

This is true, Viper ... nothing average about us! James

Yep - my best friend (and driving instructor) who lives in Northwood has been affected by this too (and hasn't been best pleased with having to cancel lessons to stay home and look after the kids!). At least most schools are finally going back tomorrow though - only those immediately surrounding the fire remain closed. Kathryn: I had the same thoughts you did actually, about them not bothering to go back at all this week now, it being the end of term. But it would seem we were wrong!! Oh, and the air was fine when I was there yesterday (Monday) too. A very weak smoky smell when I arrived in Watford on the train, but that was all. James

Hmmm ... you posted that at 9:49pm ... so how come it took you an hour and 19 minutes to type and post it?! James

Hey! BBC Two's not bad! Don't push your luck! At least it wasn't BBC Four or the Community Channel or something else nobody watches! James

Yeah - that's great, loulou. One bright spot to come out of such a nasty event. James

Well ... I loved it! Honestly, I don't know what Jacqui was (supposedly) whinging about! Okay - I could nit-pick at a few parts of the content, and I felt that, certainly at the start, it was trying a bit too hard to be educational, which made it unrealistic (e.g. the amazing ignorance of the assessors at Social Services). But I have to remember that people like us on this forum know a hell of a lot more about autistic spectrum disorders than the majority of the public, so it's probably a good thing on reflection if it's trying hard to be educational, at some cost to the realism of it. I thought all the actors were brilliant - Helena Bonham Carter has obviously spent a lot of time listening to Jacqui, as she has her voice and accent to a T! And boy - was she sexy in that cowboy outfit?! I'm glad it wasn't as excessively negative in the end as it appeared to start out. It looks like it was based on a year in their lives about 5 years ago, if Christopher (Luke) was 12 then, although they obviously tried to make it look as if it was the year just passed. And if Christopher (Luke)'s Asperger's was accurate, then it seems amazingly "acute". I think it was either exaggerated for this drama, to make a point, or it makes me appear exceedingly "normal"! (Oh, and I've seen "My Family and Autism" before [twice, I think!], so I don't need to see that again. ) James