May meeting 2010

Ok well firstly i want to say sorry for taking so long to write this I have been having trouble with the chronicles but they seem ok now. We discussed my disappointment about my 30th party and I wont be mentioning it again except to say that I hope people realise how disappointed I was both by the party and by the comments made by a group member that people "just treated it as another meeting" I had waited 12 years for my 30th since the day I turned 18 and most people including me see their 30th as a big deal and I did and still do. Every person I have spoken to outside the group agrees with me and understands my deep disappointment.I hope people realise this and will do things differently next time. We also discussed getting a drivers licence and I still stand by my feeling and that of the medical profession that an occupational therapist is the best and safest way for an aspie to get a licence if they do get one at all. It was agreed that the meeting will be held on the last Tuesday of each month. 



posted by on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:19:03 +0200
30th birthday February 16th 2010
Ok well firstly I want to say sorry I have taken so long to write this I was feeling very disappointed and upset. Chloe and I went to a lot of trouble to set up, have games and make a cake for me. However the night felt passionless and dull hardly anyone turned up, people only reluctantly played pass the parcel, people only reluctantly sung happy birthday, people only reluctantly signed the bear and did it in offensive places "jokingly", no one said happy birthday to me as we left and no one except Kieran gave me a present. I obviously felt very disappointed by this it was meant to be a special night to celebrate a special occasion you only turn 30 once with my fellow aspies. I hope people reading this wil understand why both Chloe and I felt disappointed and why I felt hurt. In contrast my 29th was fun, exciting, people gave me present s wished me happy birthday etc and a lot turned up.

posted by Catriona. on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:11:09 +0200
December meeting Point Cook with guest speaker
First off sorry for the delay writing this my computer got a very serious trojan and is even now not 100% fixed I have to take it back tomorrow to get the final things fixed up. The December meeting was the very first at Point Cook Community Learning Centre. I arranged for a guest speaker to come along and talk about getting a driver licence if you have a disability such as Asperger Syndrome. The speaker was Kate from Sunshine Hospital Occupational Therapist driver assessment and training. She spoke about the OT system, about the possible restrictions that can be put onto the licence if a person is deemed to be good enough for a licence but not good enough yet to drive alone in all situations these restrictions can include things like only driving a certain distance, only having a certain number of passengers or no passengers, no radio etc, she also talked about about how to go about getting the licence through the OT and driver trainers who understand about AS and about how it is generally easier and safer for people with AS to wait until they are older and also to go for an automatic car licence rather than a manual for a number of reasons.

After this she answered many questions from the audience. My hope is that the talk will help inspire people like me to get a driver licence and to enjoy the freedom and independence that comes with it. To those with AS who say "oh I find it easy, I went through Vicroads and had no problem" etc I say that is great for you and I am genuinely happy but for others sake you need to keep this to yourselves. The majority of us Aspies who do manage to drive (the majority do not) find it very difficult to drive and to get a licence and it is a HUGE achievement if it is managed. This system is strongly recomended even by Vicroads for people with AS to go through.

We went to dinner at Club Laverton afterwards and enjoy a quiet meal to celebrate Christmas before going home. There won't be a January meeting due to people going away and things. The group will resume in late February with a big bash for my 30th birthday, that I am very excited and I look forward to many of you coming along to help me celebrate. Happy new year I hope 2010 goes well for each and every one of you.


posted by Catriona on Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:49:35 +0200
Canberra Trip October 2009
Many people go on their first long car journey in their late teens or early 20s I however due to being a young woman with Asperger Syndrome am a late bloomer. Friday 2nd October 2009 age 29 after two previous aborted attempts I set out for my first long car trip. It was a business and sightseeing trip to Canberra stopping at Dru's farm in Violet Town on the way. The first night I reached Yass 60km outside Canberra and made the rest of the trip the following morning arriving at my destination about 10am. Whilst In and around Canberra I saw many sightseeing destinations including Floriade, National War Memorial, Black Mountain Tower, Cockington Green,  Old Parliament House, Hall Villiage, Corin Forest Tobboggan and Lake Burley Griffin. I found all of these as well as Canberra itself a very interesting and lovely place to be.

During my trip there was an eventful and somewhat amusing incident when I got shown around the private areas of parliament house by journalist Tim Colebatch. The tour included meeting some of the journalists from The Age Canberra Bureau. I met one of them introduced to me by Colebatch as Michelle she looked familiar, however I didnt make the connection that it was in fact the quite well known Political Editor and Canberra Bureau Chief Michelle Grattan. I asked her what she wrote on she seemed quite alarmed and surprised that I did not know and those around me in the office were rather amused. I felt embarassed and uncomfortable when it was pointed out who she in fact was. Fortunately I did manage to cover this up by telling her "oh I read your articles they are very good". As Colebatch says in his column The error of our ways, 13th October 2009 we should all do I in a round about way I admitted my mistake if you can call it that. I am sure in the years to come I will look back and laugh about it as I have already done to some extent, being Aspie and outgoing I am sure it will happen again. I was told she has probably not been asked what she did for a long time making it all the more funny. Yes her photo is in the paper but i don't look at it everyday meaning I did not make the connection. I have since found out that many people my age or slightly older either do not know who Grattan is or do not know what she writes about including a friend with a journalism degree. This made me feel better and light hearted about it, if my friend did not know and has a journalism degree why should I have instantly known? the answer is I shouldn't but under the circumstances it would have been good to given I was with Tim.


Had I not been a person with Asperger Syndrome  I may not have asked the questions I did and simply wondered privately who Grattan was or what she wrote on saving my moment of embarrasment. I have been thinking about this however and had I done that I wouldn't have been myself I am naturally interested and questioning.Sometimes these questions lead to awkwardness for a while and I am extremely tough on myself for making a mistake, others it gains me important information about people. I take things people say or do very literally and very personally for that reason communication can be difficult. People with Asperger Syndrome vary some are very quiet and introverted others like me are outgoing and inquisitive I am interested in people and what they do.


Coincidentally on a similar topic Colebatch in the column talks about well known people failing or making mistakes in one way or another. He discusses a couple of examples of  those who were or are in public life and who by virtue of their profession were or still are constantly scrutenised and every slip up reported and analysed sometimes leading to job losses and public humiliation. As Colebatch says we all have moments of forgetfulness, I had it that day I did in fact know who Michelle Grattan was but not right there and then when it mattered. I am fortunate however that I am not well known and my questions to Grattan were completely harmless if a little funny to those who were there. I have copped a bit of friendly ribbing about it but obviously privately, those ribbing me would have done similar things we all do. I have been reading Grattan's articles and are now well aware of who she is and what she writes on as often happens. Those mentioned in Colebatch article were not so lucky they have to live with their slip up in a very public way, a tough price to pay for being well known.

Wednesday 7th October included a meeting with Steve Doszpot MLA in the Legislative Assembly for the ACT. I was meeting with him to gain connections and networking within the ACT. The meeting was very sucessful and I have already been put in touch with The ACT Association for Advancing Disabled Sport & Recreation they are hopefully going to help me to get some public speaking on Asperger Syndrome within the ACT and possibly employment. I am very excited about this possible link and so glad things went well. I will follow up on this in the next few weeks.The Asperger community is getting more connected all the time, I plan to get the train moving even faster.

The Autism Asperger ACT meeting was disappointing with only two people turning up and no adult with Asperger's themselves.Conversely I was able to meet a couple of Asperger adults the next day, one man and I got along really well the other one made me feel uncomfortable. As a female with Asperger's I need to be careful about my safety so am glad the signals were there I would not see the second man again or if I did it would be limited and not on my own.

I am now back in Melbourne and will think about my future in the coming weeks. Finding the right career and job path is difficult for people like me but my trip to Canberra has inspired me and given me ideas to pursue a possible career in writing, research, library or similar. I have written this in a more formal manner to practice these skills.

posted by Catriona Tyrrell on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:55:05 +0200
September Meeting
This month the usual crowd turned up along with a new-ish guy Peter it is always good to see new faces. As a group we chatted and had a meal just a nice relaxing evening. This months chronicle is going to be short as I am about to go to sleep before my big trip to Canberra tomorrow morning whilst there I will be attending their AS support group meeting to see how they run things and to network. October is the one year anniversary of our support group and to co-incide I am planning to have a party at Point Cook I will post all the details well in advance to give people warning.

posted by Catriona on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:46:07 +0200