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Gordie

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Posts posted by Gordie

  2. Posted · Report reply

    the train timetable king cross in london i been told my dad that it's easier to go straight from huntingdon train station to stevenage station???

    The timetable starts at King's Cross, yeah, but it does include both Huntingdon and Stevenage, if you look at all the stations on there. The first half of each timetable is for trains from Stevenage to Huntingdon, and the second half is for trains from Huntingdon to Stevenage.

     

    Hope that helps. But if you're not used to reading formal train timetables, then you're probably better off using the web site NobbyNobbs linked to originally. You asked for a timetable though, so that's what I gave you. :P

     

    James

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Basically, you did the right thing, and the ambulance was in the wrong for getting frustrated with you and flashing his lights. (Although I can understand why they may have been frustrated - it doesn't make it right - it could have ended in them dealing with an entirely different incident...)

    Well said.

     

    You did better than I probably would've done, Tally. :)

     

    James

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Don't forget Sky have an hour-long weekly highlights show from the plinth, so if your hour is considered by them to be good enough, you might even get on telly! :D

     

    http://www.skyarts.co.uk/site/plinth/

     

    The first showing of "your week" will be on Sky Arts 1 (and Sky Arts 1 HD) at 7pm on Friday, September 18th, but there will be plenty more showings throughout the week ahead on the various Sky channels. Might be worth a look, if you can endure Clive Anderson. ;)

     

    Good luck. :)

     

    James

  7. Posted · Report reply

    :bounce: Yay! Well done! :D

     

    Looking forward to it, although I guess it's probably gonna be about a year from now before it's actually shown.

     

    (I still don't think this is "Off Topic" though - cue Kathryn to come along and move it again. :lol:)

     

    Hope you and Alex are getting on great. :)

     

    James

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Autistic musicians definitely exist! :thumbs:

     

    No, not me ... but the Autism Research Centre (ARC) (based in Cambridge) occasionally holds "Autism, Art & Music" concerts, specifically for musicians with autism. The last one was held in London's West End, at the Savoy Theatre, no less, in October last year, with Jools Holland (an ARC patron) hosting! B) I don't know if they're planning another one this year or not. :unsure: But their web site might be worth keeping an eye on if you're interested. :)

     

    James

  10. Posted · Report reply

    I forgot to ask you exactly where the South African shop was - maybe next time.

    I've been to that shop ... except for New Zealand purposes with my family, including my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, who's a Kiwi. The address (if it's any help) is on their web site: http://www.angloaustraliantrading.com/aatc...ompanyInfo.aspx Don't be confused by the fact it quadruples as an "Australia/New Zealand/South Africa/Canada Shop"! Maybe that's why you didn't know where it was, coz it says "Australia Shop" on the front, not "South Africa Shop", but it actually stocks stuff from all 4 countries. :)

     

    James

  12. Posted · Report reply

    But the big one was Alex, why was his Mum everywhere? She was even at the date! If my mum came on a date with me, I'd probably shoot her. I know we're all different and Alex may have wanted it. But isn't part of a parent's gig to try and make sure their child gets to grips with the world; including at times facing things that are unfamiliar or daunting or make us apprehensive? She seemed to be holding on a bit too much, and the guy did seem really quite intelligent enough.

    Alex is 24 ...

     

    ... at the other end of the spectrum to him and his mum, I flew to the US in 2001, aged 20, entirely on my own, to stay with my then-girlfriend in Iowa at her parents' house for 6 weeks (was supposed to be more like 10 weeks, but I got too homesick)!! :o However did I manage?! If I had Alex's mum for a mum, she'd have had a heart attack at the prospect, I would imagine! :hypno::lol:

     

    James

  16. Posted · Report reply

    I have a tendency to do this on occasions when it's something I really like ... but I do wish I wouldn't get that urge, as it usually ends up with me going off the song forever! :rolleyes: I end up overplaying it till it's just "okay", rather than something I absolutely love. I blame the fact that I'm rarely able to feel excited about anything any more for that urge taking over whenever I do feel it. :(

     

    James

  17. Posted · Report reply

    I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to come across that way at all, I knew it was clumsy wording at the time but I couldn't find a better way of expressing it. I suppose I meant that in comparison to the other two featured he appeared least autistic in terms of the stereotype view much of the public hold of what autism 'looks like'. I don't think he was bratty; I do think he was incredibly frustrated.

    Hang on, Mumble - it wasn't you that first used those terms - it was me. You were just quoting me, for want of a better phrase, so you have nothing to apologise for.

     

    And I was only using those terms to describe Tom as I saw him during that half-hour (his story probably took up about half-an-hour of the hour-long programme), and it wasn't meant to be implied to refer to anyone else.

     

    It raised a lot of awareness and got some good information in ... but I would have liked the programme to have been on for longer, it made me want to ask a lot of questions at the end of it.

    Being on BBC Three, I would imagine they thought the target audience (16 to 34) would only have a limited attention span for this sort of programme, hence an hour was about as far as they could realistically go. A controversial opinion, yes, but that might've been their line of thinking when commissioning this show.

     

    James

  19. Posted · Report reply

    That sort of thing's happened to me before too, for obvious reasons! I've not been best pleased!! :angry: I think the last time was while standing in a bus queue in Exeter with my then-girlfriend, and the two of us were referred to (by a beggar, if I remember correctly!) as "ladies". :wallbash: People should look at a whole person, not just their hair length! :rolleyes: Especially if they're begging for something! :lol:

     

    ... 'is it in fashion for boys to have long hair now?' ...

    Well I sure hope so. :lol:

     

    James

  21. Posted · Report reply

    Oooh - one final thing Kirsty might like to know ...

     

    According to Digital Spy, you were watched by approximately 679,000 people on Tuesday night!! :dance: (That's 3.4% of the people watching TV between 9pm and 10pm, and over 1% of the population of Great Britain!)

    - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a170916/lat...-2-million.html (at the bottom of the page)

    And look - you beat E4's first showing of the latest episode of Ugly Betty! :D

     

    Although he was apparently 'least autistic' (difficult phrasing but I understand what you mean) there was one incident that I wonder if others spotted that I could observe as an outsider but I may have answered the same myself and was, to me, quite indicative of an 'autistic' response (if there is such thing). I think it was quite soon before he was due to move to the residential school, the narrator/interviewer was talking about this generally and then asked Tom directly "How are you feeling?" Rather than link the question to feelings of going away from his family and the challenges of the school which is I think what the narrator was getting at, Tom said something along the lines of "I'm really hot at the moment, there's still steam coming off me" (he had just got out of the shower). 'Feelings' were translated as physical feelings rather than emotions.

    Yeah, good point - I hadn't really noticed that.

     

    James

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Well, apart from Kirsty and Alex stealing the show(!) (in my eyes anyway) (see above for what I said about them) ...

     

    Overall, I was very impressed with the show. :):thumbs: It was well-made: positive while still being informative and "real". The filmmaker had obviously thought very carefully about how to fairly and effectively portray those with autistic spectrum disorders. :clap:

     

    Can't say I thought much of Tom's mum though - bit of a bad attitude. Tom seemed the "least autistic" of the 3 featured guys - little more than just a bratty teenager with anger management issues, as far as I could see (although I appreciate we probably only saw about half-an-hour of his life). But, if he does have an element of autism about him, then he can't have been helped by the upbringing of his parents, constantly treating him like a kid. His mum should've been happy for him that some girl somewhere thought positively of him - this girl obviously made him happy ... until she was unable to visit him, of course. His mum just wanted to keep him all to herself, openly admitting that she still sees him as her 4-year-old. :shame:

     

    Oli's attitude, on the other hand, to the world of work was fantastic - something I really admired, given my rather lackadaisical attitude to it. :notworthy: How he was / has been unemployed for so long, with enthusiasm like his, I have no idea. :blink:

     

    Okay - gonna respond to some comments in this thread now ...

     

    Firstly was in Oli's interview with the council worker where he mentioned wanting to do a job relating to the Arts -- and then his Mum piping in with 'repetitive data entry'; if someone said that to me, something that was completely aside from the idea that I had mentioned, I have to say I would be incredibly insulted. Practically, I agree with the mother - but for somebody who is supposedly neurologically typical that shows a remarkable lack of tact and empathy.

    You're dead right. I've had the odd job here and there that has involved repetitive data entry, but they've only been temporary jobs, and I've been quite content with that for a limited amount of time. It's not something I could handle doing over a prolonged period, however good at it I may be (and I would be). Oli's clearly looking for something permanent and stable, so repetitive data entry surely wouldn't be suitable for him - there'd be no mental stimulation at all beyond the first week. You could tell from his initial reaction that he didn't fancy it either. :rolleyes:

     

    I've never been on a date (or been out with a girl alone in a social situation, for that matter), and I'm guessing that the majority of people (maybe not the people on these forums) watching the documentary would think it strange that they both said they enjoyed the data even though very little actual communication was done. Particularly loved that as I know that I would feel exactly the same way. :D

    Me too. :) Thought it was vital to everyone watching that they showed the bit with Kirsty's face cards, otherwise most neurotypicals would've thought it was an awful date. :thumbs:

     

    I could see Tom reacting in a similar way that my eldest can react when our house is chaotic and noisy. If our house is too active or noisy my eldest has to escape to his room to block out the hustle and bustle. There are only 4 of us living in our house and he finds it difficult. I could see why Tom might be having issues in such a busy household.

    I think it was more that Tom was feeling thoroughly miserable about his female friend not being able to visit him. I used to go into very depressed states like that a few years back, just lying on my bed, facing the wall, blocking everything out, not wanting to be disturbed at all, hence Tom lashing out when his mum came in. All you wanna do is beat yourself up (metaphorically speaking), and you don't want anyone trying to cheer you up, coz you don't feel you deserve to be cheered up. :wallbash:

     

    Also did anyone else think it strange when Tom and his family arrived at the school he had to go and do an exam straight away!!!! I didn't think it was planned out very well-I know my son would have needed to settle in and had time to be calmer etc.

    Yeah! Me too! :blink: That was ridiculous! Not the timing of the exam (as that would've been fixed months previous), but the timing of his departure from home. Couldn't have been any worse! :wacko:

     

    James

  24. Posted · Report reply

    I've merged the two threads about the documentary, hope the resulting mix makes sense!

     

    Hi Gordie, Viper, and anyone else who's been drawn back to the forum through watching this. :) I haven't seen it myself yet hope to do so on iplayer soon.

     

    K x

    Whew! :unsure: You had me worried then! I'd been refreshing the "Off-Topic" forum to check for any new posts, and suddenly the whole thread had disappeared! :o I thought something I'd said had caused you to delete it or something! :lol:

     

    But now I know it's here, merged with the other thread, and not deleted(!), I can say it's nice to see you again, Kathryn. ;) Otherwise I might've had different thoughts! :whistle:

     

    Well I was gonna reply to what was previously "the other thread" a bit later too, once I'd digested all the comments made so far, so, to do that now, I'll have to add to what's already in this new thread from me so far ... :wacko:

     

    James

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Blimey - I was just about to pop in and see what everyone here made of the programme last night, as well as comment on how I quite fancied Kirsty(!), only to find she's a fellow member here! :lol: (Not that I'm a regular any more, mind - like Viper, I haven't been for years [see my member number and join date to the left of my post!], but this show brought me back!)

     

    You were so adorable, Kirsty! :wub: Ah well - Alex has got ya now (in a manner of speaking) ... plus you know nothing about me ... and I'd be too old for you anyway. And Alex seems like a top bloke as well - I like his sense of humour. :D Plus he says he's always on-time, whereas I'm always late for everything. :lol::rolleyes: He's far better for you than I would ever be. :notworthy: You'd make a great couple, so go for it, I say! ;):thumbs:

     

    I loved the bit at the end, where you explained your emotions, coz I expect most people would've had no idea how happy and excited you'd been until then. :)

     

    By the way, always be careful posting anything you're personally involved in on YouTube. In my experience, it's THE least civil place on the entire Internet, and, as you've already seen, you'll attract unwanted negative attention. I know it's everyone's first stop when it comes to posting videos on-line, but it's also the place people most speak their mind, however unfair and cruel they're being, knowing they won't have to suffer any reprisals. :(

     

    (Oh, and no wonder people didn't realise this thread was here - you put it in the "Off Topic" sub-forum! This is far from being off-topic though! :) )

     

    *waves at Viper, a fellow "old-skool" member* :groupwave:

     

    James

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