New Year's Day

Hello, Susie76.

Speaking of party invitations, I find parties intimidating. If it's a birthday party, there would probably be balloons, party food, music, dancing, games, chat, laughter, that kind of thing. In a small living room or dining room, this would be a nightmare, but in a much bigger venue, such as a catering facility of a large hall or hotel, it's even worse. 

It's pretty much the same thing with Christmas parties. In recent years, my work colleagues have invited me to attend Christmas get-togethers, but I find all those Christmas songs a bit inevitable, and over-played, especially if I have already heard it on local or national radio. The songs themselves are OK, but as with today's pop songs, I find them boring and repetitive after a while.

I used to do voluntary work for the Ipswich Transport Museum, in the Suffolk town of Ipswich. On a few occasions, I was invited to a late morning Christmas get-together at a small Ipswich-based pub. A group of volunteers, including myself, went there aboard one of the museum's vintage buses (usually late 1940s to mid 1960s spec) which was very nice. I don't drink alcohol, and would never do so for fear of causing trouble, so I had some diet cola instead.

The pub itself, however, was uncomfortable. Being 6 feet 5 inches tall, I struggled to fit my tall legs underneath one of the tables. I couldn't stay there for long, because all that noisy talk and uncomfortable seating would overwhelm me after a while. All I would want is a relatively quiet get-together, then after around 30 to 60 minutes, I would be cleared by my colleagues to go home as normal.

longman said:

Happy New Year folks.....agreed its a mad mad world, but where else can we go? I dont' know where that other planet is that I seem to be from anyway.......

...It's Earth, but not as we know it...

In fact, it's Earth in a mirror universe, where everything is a nicer, easier version of this one.

I think at this time of year there's a lot of pressure on children/adults with ASD at Christmas or any holidays to socialize and go to parties , and it's almost like you have to justify why you don't want to do something.

And I agree there are a lot of so called professionals that really don't have a clue, my daughter had a teacher that just thought my daughter was badly behaved(before she was diagnosed with autism), anyone with half a brain could clearly see she was very distressed and there was a lot more to it than that.

makes my blood boil, there needs to be a lot more education out there.

Susie76 said:

Anyway despite explaining that no sorry we won't be coming as it's not fair on my daughter , i got reaction of oh she'll be fine or she can just play with the other kids!! I have explained numerous times about my daughter finding great difficulty in these situations but I'm amazed at the amount of people that claim to understand but don't, anyway to cut a long story short we had a very nice family christmas where my daughter could   relax and be herself.

It's when they're paid to understand and still don't that it really gets me.  Although with some of the health/social care professionals that I've experienced it is hard to separate the effects of ignorance/incompetence and laziness/just not doing the job properly.

I'm glad you had a good Christmas and that your daughter could relax.  I just stayed on my own.  Travelling for hours on trains to stay in somebody else's house where nothing seems to work how it should is not my idea of a relaxing holiday.

happy newyear to you too, my daughter (8)really struggles with newyear and Christmas infact any kind of big holiday and yesterday I was really annoyed with the lack of understanding for children and adults on the spectrum.

We have had quite a few party invitations over Xmas and newyear the last one was for a party with probably 25 people my daughters idea of hell, sensory overload, noise and meltdowns would be the start of it!

Anyway despite explaining that no sorry we won't be coming as it's not fair on my daughter , i got reaction of oh she'll be fine or she can just play with the other kids!! I have explained numerous times about my daughter finding great difficulty in these situations but I'm amazed at the amount of people that claim to understand but don't, anyway to cut a long story short we had a very nice family christmas where my daughter could   relax and be herself.

l

Happy New Year folks.....agreed its a mad mad world, but where else can we go? I dont' know where that other planet is that I seem to be from anyway.......

Happy 4.54 billion years and however many days everyone.

Paull said:

It's very sad, but such is the power of nature, a power that mankind has abused for centuries and STILL continues to abuse without a care.

I mean how many millions of fireworks went off around the world in the last 24 hours alone ? how many million tonnes of toxic gas was pumped into the atmosphere ? and all for the sake of a few sparkles and bangs. I got no pleasure from it, I just felt so sad that mankind is so stupid and just continues relentlessly in stupidity.

"Mere animals couldn't possibly manage to act like this.  You need to be a human being to be really stupid" Terry Pratchet

Happy 2014!  Let's go forwards and, regardless of how wierd people think we are as a result, do things sensibly and logically ;).

It's very sad, but such is the power of nature, a power that mankind has abused for centuries and STILL continues to abuse without a care.

I mean how many millions of fireworks went off around the world in the last 24 hours alone ? how many million tonnes of toxic gas was pumped into the atmosphere ? and all for the sake of a few sparkles and bangs. I got no pleasure from it, I just felt so sad that mankind is so stupid and just continues relentlessly in stupidity.

Hope 2014 is a good year for you.