50 moments in autism
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A hundred moments in autism - The Whale Café lunch queue
I am standing in the lunch queue at the Whale Café (just the name of the café, I am not a whale). I realise I am standing slightly oddly, with my...
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- 190 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Alone
Yes! I am all alone. I enter the office to find nobody else has arrived. I almost skip with joy. PTSD victims often describe the terror when they...
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- 320 reads
A hundred moments in autism - A walk along the river
It is after five, so there are few people about, just me and my wife, 30 minutes each way, just us and the ducks, and the ducks aren’t doing much. On...
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- 71 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Jules Verne’s ducks
I don’t have a special interest, unlike many autists. Well, unless you count Jules Verne. I have read all his books available in English, indeed, the...
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- 253 reads
A hundred moments in autism - The ideas mine
I am always looking for story ideas, constantly on the lookout for an overheard phrase, a character, a situation, anything that triggers an idea. For...
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- 99 reads
A hundred moments in autism - The day I lied to a politician
Labour Party conference 2007. Our charity is part of a joint fringe event called the Health Hotel, involving representatives from over twenty health...
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- 97 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Alan Ritson comes to visit
Alan Ritson came to visit my house twice in all the years I knew him (hi Alan, if you’re reading this) The first time I was in the front room...
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- 55 reads
A hundred moments in autism - The Royal Mile
As an introverted autist, shouting for people to look at me is not something deep-rooted in my DNA, very much the opposite. I am flyering my wife’s...
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- 199 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Mini Me
Our autistic friend C lives in Belfast, so we rarely see her and had never met her family. She has one autistic son, indeed like many autists of that...
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- 178 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Fashion
Fashion is one of these super neurotypical (NT) skills that are seemingly picked up by magic. Other kids at school always knew what to wear, what was...
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- 153 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Terrence Oblong gets mistaken for the Messiah
In my first week at university I am standing in a bar at a student night when two young men I’ve never met before walk up to me, prostrate themselves...
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- 205 reads
A hundred moments in autism - The Topless photo of Germaine Greer
Every few days I look at a topless photo of Germaine Greer. It is a common trait among autists to return to a favourite piece of music over and over...
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- 161 reads
A hundred moments in autism - My own personal dress down Tuesday
An autist’s relationship with societal rules is complex. We don’t innately understand them the way a neurotypical does. Many autists learn to follow...
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- 161 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Sometimes there is just too much
I am currently distracted by: My wife, emptying her purse the way she does, all ADHD, spraying her valuables as an abstract artist sprays paint. I...
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- 165 reads
A hundred moments in autism - I said these words to my wife
I said these words to my wife last night: “You’re easy to be with,” I said. “I might as well be alone.” By which I don’t mean that my wife is poor...
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- 94 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Terrence Oblong, Communism and Tudor England
Autists frequently get into trouble for saying things they’re not supposed to, breaking unwritten rules and mores we have no way of knowing the...
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- 117 reads
A hundred moments in autism - First attempts at diagnosis
“What is the meaning of ‘it's no skin off my nose’?” In my late teens I suffered from depression, and was treated at a local outreach centre. I had...
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- 82 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Autistic Comedy Night
As a comedy fan, I spent the first 54 years of my life assuming that observational comedy was deliberately unfunny. I have watched hundreds of...
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- 156 reads
A hundred moments in autism - A trip to the cinema
I lived for a year or so in London and while I was living in Tulse Hill I went to the cinema at the Elephant and Castle. The Oblong bladder being...
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- 258 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Parallel Play
Monday evening. Mrs Oblong and myself have just finished watching the last episode of Sherwood. It’s an hour to bedtime, but neither of us feels like...
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- 147 reads
A hundred moments in autism - The zinc and chrome plating problem
My summer job at the end of my first year at university was as a zinc and chrome plater in an electronics factory. It was good money for a summer job...
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- 132 reads
A hundred moments in autism - The zinc and chrome plating problem (2)
The previous ‘moment’ explained the speed of my thinking, but it didn’t explain the next moment in the chain, the reason why I didn’t try harder to...
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- 110 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Reading Nuerotribes
The chaos of 190 newbie medical students descending to collect their theatre clogs cannot be described . It’s freshers week meets large-scale...
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- 286 reads
A hundred moments in autism - I am Blair-proof
Labour Party Conference Bournemouth 2003. The Labour government under Tony Blair is facing crisis over his support for George Bush’s war in Iraq. I...
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- 71 reads
A hundred moments in autism - A good place to dump a Terrence
Place. Place is important to autists. There are places we feel immediately uncomfortable - noise, lights, structure, people, something nothing...
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- 141 reads
A hundred moments in autism - The job interview
Job interviews are not a great place for an autist to find themselves. Read any guide on how to do a good job interview and they will stress the...
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- 78 reads
A hundred moments in autism - I am Hangry
I am hangry. Autists can be prone to anger, a symptom of exhaustion from constant masking and frustration on not understanding NT communication and...
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- 73 reads
A hundred moments in autism - The Whale Cafe revisited
The Whale Cafe revisited I’m back in the lunch queue at the Whale Cafe. Now you may be thinking, that as I regularly get my lunch at the Whale Cafe,...
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- 84 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Terrence Oblong's peculiar quirk
It’s morning. I crawl unenthusiastically out of bed, go downstairs to make toast and coffee, catch sight of the sun, which makes me sneeze. I sneeze...
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- 112 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Terrence Oblong goes to the cinema
I am alone. This is not uncommon. I am off to the cinema. I had really gotten into going to the cinema with a small group of friends during my...
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- 125 reads
A hundred moments in autism - Bathtime for the cuddly toys
It’s bathtime for the cuddly toys. Ingredients: bucket of soapy water, a toothbrush, a sponge, an anteater (Anthony), a stoat (Stoaty), a leopard (...
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- 135 reads