Bronchia

Last week was jam-packed with meetings and important phone calls, for somebody who doesn’t have a proper job or get any financial benefit for such things at any rate.

The week began with a lovely chat with Jane at the OU about their disabled student services conference this November. I will be attending to talk to staff about my experiences and supporting students with autistic spectrum conditions. During the week, I met with various other groups and asked the Leeds Autism Partnership Board for support for my involvement in the Undiscovered Workforce campaign. It ended with Jayne from Rachel Reeves‘ office and Debbie from the NAS.

Rachel has been a keen supporter of my work on the campaign and is going to help me to improve the situation regarding employment for people with autism in Leeds. I have been working hard lately with a variety of different people towards organising a big event next year involving all the stakeholders around employment and autism in Leeds. The support of my MP and her team is vital in this and making things better generally, and it was great to talk to Jayne and Debbie about the situation as it is and the next steps we can take. Rachel has helped members of the local community with many things recently, from re-opening post offices to improving bus services and saving the historic Bramley Baths.

If employers and Jobcentre Plus fully understood the issues people with autism face in getting and sustaining employment, the positive aspects of the condition and the simplicity and ease of some of the reasonable adjustments that can make productive work possible, the level of unemployment for people with autistic spectrum conditions could drop dramatically. Employers in Leeds should be trying to diversify and support their workforce. People like me have skills and traits like loyalty, focus, creativity, an alternative approach to ideas and the passion and commitment that organisations should be harnessing to give themselves the competitive edge that helps companies to survive and thrive in a difficult economic situation. All it takes is flexibility and true understanding. Awareness doesn’t amount to much if attitudes don’t change.

When I was down in London for the National Autistic Society Undiscovered Workforce campaign launch, I was asked if I minded being interviewed for the Guardian about autism and employment by journalist and jazz singer, Lynne Wallis.

I agreed, and the results made the front page of the Work section in Saturday’s Guardian, with a whacking great picture of me by the lovely Christopher Thomond. All daffadowndillies.

Read the interview here.

Please write to your MP about the important issue of adults with autism and employment. This is an easy way to email them.

So, here we are at the end of August. It hasn’t been much of a summer for me, all told, due to the amount of work I’ve had to do for OU and for my other projects. Here’s a chance to catch up on a few things.

The Open University are having to put their fees up, along with everyone else. Their page on it is here. The current student finance programme is also disappearing for new students, and being replaced with the same loan system used by brick universities. If this had been the case back in 2008 when I started my BSc, I wouldn’t have signed up. Couldn’t have. Having dropped out of two well-respected brick universities in my teens due to mental health and other issues, including my undiagnosed-at-the-time autism, I don’t think they’d have let me sign up for another loan. Getting full financial support meant I felt able to take the risk of starting a third attempt at a degree – even if they had let me borrow the fees, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable doing it based on my past. I’m now three years in, getting excellent marks and hoping to do a Masters if I can get the funding. I have one year left – starting in February, as my modules mostly run Feb-Oct. Wish me luck in my October exams…

Damien Hirst at Leeds Art Gallery… I was lucky enough to go to a preview of this exhibition while it was still being installed. I therefore avoided the crowds and the alarms. I loved it, though those of us present who did seemed to be a minority. Many had problems with Hirst the man, and the fame and money. Whereas I think those things are part of the work. I intend going back to the exhibition soon, when the school holidays end, and writing the more reflective piece I had in mind. It’s funny, when I was younger I was utterly fascinated by his Pharmacy restaurant in London, but could never afford to go even when I lived down there. Now a recreation of it is practically in my back yard. But you can’t eat or sit down or hang out there. It’s like a strange living museum. Reminded me in a way of the Pre-Fab at Eden Camp. More about this later, when I have time.

I am skint, so I rarely go to restaurants without a Clubcard token in hand, but I’ve eaten a couple of interesting meals lately…

Divino in Adel was a strange experience. Along with various other Leeds Guide competition winners, I was invited to try their new Italian tapas-style (or rather size) dishes. The welcome was non-existent, service poor, drinks overpriced (my pop also tasted terrible, off tap) and they hadn’t thought to ask whether or not anyone had any dietary requirements. So I (no red meat) and some others we spotted missed out on one course and were given a dodgy substitute for another.  The food itself was a mixed bag. My companion enjoyed his parma ham and what he thought might be duck – at no point were we given a menu or descriptions or even names of the dishes – to start. I had nowt. Then came whitebait with deep fried strips of courgette/zucchini. Ingredients fine, oil not really hot enough, so somewhat greasy and under-seasoned. Homemade filled pasta with pumpkin, sage and chilli was OK if a bit thickly-rolled and uninspired, and topped with too-large and soggy crumbs of amaretti biscuit. I’ve seen Rick Stein do this before, but it was a lot less heavy-handed. My companion enjoyed his freshly-made lasagne. The veggie option was an elderly portion of the restaurant’s usual spinach and ricotta cannelloni, bizarrely topped with Cheddar cheese and bearing the hallmarks of being reheated in the microwave – floppy, far too hot, bechamel sauce coagulating strangely. The final dish was an okay but rather cheap-tasting portion of tiramisu. Nobody asked if we’d enjoyed our meal or said goodbye when we paid for drinks and left, so I don’t feel that bad about criticising a free meal.

I’ve also had the pleasure of visiting Fish&‘s new “beach hut” on Commercial Street in Leeds city centre. I have written about their food before, and last time I tried their fish & chips with a twist, I felt they showed promise but a few things needed tweaking. Now they get a solid 9-9.5 out of 10. Extremely fresh fish, batter not too thick, oil a good temperature and they’ve sorted out the chips. They would get a 10 if they let the chips get a little bit more colour, for aesthetic purposes. Taste-wise they’re great, just a little pale in real life. The hut’s in town from 11-6, Tuesday to Saturday. I had my portion following a tough tutorial session, and it sorted me right out.

Dying under the weight of work, but expect in the coming weeks:

1) A post about the new Damien Hirst exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery.

2) A post about the Open University.

I am writing this here so I have to do it when the latest crop of work goes in and I have a couple of hours free to make this happen.

Saturday 15th January, the Artspace, Leeds Art Gallery, 2-5pm. See my previous Jelly Tales post for details. It’s an informal drop-in session, not a three hour “taught” workshop, so do come along…

Also, my co-conspirator Sarah did an interview with BCB Radio this week, and you can hear it at the Jelly Tales website.

I’m involved in this…an all-ages drop-in writing session at Leeds Art Gallery on 15th and 22nd Jan (Saturday afternoons), based on the characters in Lubaina Himid‘s shortlisted Northern Art Prize entry, Jelly Mould Pavilions.

If you remember, when I went to the preview of the prize exhibition, I was really excited about the little people in the exhibit and my mind went off on narrative-based tangents. So that became a crazy idea to get everyone to write flash fiction and very short plays  – because surely other people would be thinking about what those people were saying/doing, too…? Then the Art Gallery said my friend Sarah and I could run a session. So do come. Bring your kids. Bring your nan. Bring your sulky cousins and your charming friends.

Come and tell us a Jelly Tale* at a creative drop-in session in the Leeds Art Gallery Artspace, just after you’ve seen Lubaina Himid’s Jelly Mould Pavilions (part of the Northern Art Prize exhibition). We’ll be there from 2pm-5pm on Saturdays 15th & 22nd January waiting for your dazzling wordplay: write some flash fiction (super short stories) in 100 words or less or try your hand at some dialogue for a mini play based on the characters in the Pavilions. The best five pieces will be recorded and showcased on our website. Suitable for all ages.

*Find us on Twitter with the hashtag #jellytales and online at jellytales.tumblr.com

Just got my OU results for this year. I am studying for a BSc in ICT with the Open University and took two modules this year, which led to two exams and a lot of nailbiting. With the OU, you have to achieve a grade in both the coursework and examinable components to get that grade.

One of my modules was a 30 credit compulsory module, T224, in computers and processors. The other was my 60 credits of free choice for my degree, and I chose T211 in design and designing and intend to go on and do a second course (T307) to achieve a diploma in design and sustainability after my degree.

T224 – Grade 2 pass (that’s a 2:1, got a Distinction in coursework and decent Grade 2 in exam despite my maths).

T211 - DISTINCTION!!! I only dropped 8 marks in the exam, I got a Distinction in the coursework too (you have to in both parts to achieve a grade with OU), but to get 92 in the exam… I am so pleased.

I can do this…

I wrote this review for The Culture Vulture. Emma asked me to review the venue as well as the gig.

I’ve got exams next week, hence the lack of meaningful blogging, but I will resume posting soon and hopefully will put up a couple of photos and a video from this gig after it’s all over.

Libraries are not a priority for this government and Cameron would be quite happy if volunteers shoved out the odd book and bit of advice for free from the corner of a pub or in their back garden. Big Society. Every time I hear “reshaping” from the likes of Ed Vaizey, it translates as “destroying”, just as “restructuring” in your company means you’re probably going to lose your job and in the NHS means the service will no longer be a national health service.

My friend Lauren Smith has been heavily involved in the campaign to a) save libraries and b) point out what libraries are actually for and why professional librarians are needed. They do more than stamp books in and out, you know. When my exams are finished and things are a bit less frantic, I intend joining the campaign fully. For now all I can usefully do is repost links and tell people I can reach what is happening, so that the campaigners’ side of the story is heard.

Here is a link to the latest post on the Save Doncaster Libraries blog.

I’ll be knee-deep in assignments and revision for a while, so blogging will become irregular and erratic if I do it at all. See you on the other side.