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MARMEEEEEEEE!

That is the sound of my house at the moment. We are at the end of week 2 of 4 weeks of school holidays and I am a little edgy. Downstairs it is "Marmeee! where are you?" And "Clean it, CLEAN IT, clean the DVD!" (covered in smudgey gunky finger prints they freeze and won't play)

And upstairs it is ear splitting screams and squeals as Bratty goes from enjoying a video of Teletubbies obsessively, to complaining when the screen goes snowy as the tape begins to wear out.
Then she starts the little tarantella dance on the wooden floorboards that keep my anxiety levels nice and high. I am thinking of developing a twitch, just to use up the adrenaline.

Yes, the thought has occured that we need to get rid of all the electronic entertainment but what would they do then? I can only entertain one child at a time. And cutbacks mean that we do not have our daily help that we used to get in the holidays. Just our afternoon angel who gives me a chance to take one child out at a …
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How to Taste Wine: The unedited version

When I wrote this post originally, I did my usual little bit of soul searching and raked over my past experiences. Then I edited it all out. If you want to stick with the slimline version click here

But if you want to learn more about me, and how I came to have this particular understanding of how our senses affect our reality, read on.

In my life before children I was variously a Dental nurse, Barmaid, Waitress,(really bad, spilt stuff but I was nice so I still got good tips) Shopgirl, Homewares and Fashion Wholesale Rep' and then
A wine rep'.

It wasn't a huge leap. I was flying back from Ireland to Aus in the mid-nineties. Dreading having to go back to work and convince people that the new black was aubergine, working two seasons ahead so that by the time fashion actually reached the season that I was wearing; I was over it.

And as the Internet was starting to really catch on, the fashion cheats I worked for were getting caught out and left behind. Going on junkets to the USA…
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How to Taste Wine: Your Senses and Your Reality

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Last week I tried to explain a bit about how Autism can affect the senses.

This week I want to teach You, using your own senses, how to appreciate someone else's perceptions.

To do this I am going to use wine. Mr Hammie and I used to work in the wine industry. I was a very good rep', I could talk the talk, I was a kick arse salesman and I knew how to communicate with the best in the industry. But Mr Hammie had the real gift of the palate. He could actually taste all the things that wine writers write about in their tasting notes. I used to read the notes and try to put it into my own words; Mr Hammie used to taste and describe them himself.


The picture above is a breakdown of how wine can taste. This is based on MY perception of what each flavour "looks like" and my ability to mix colors, but you get the picture.
On the right is how Mr Hammie tastes Chardonnay. To make it easy I am suggesting you go out and buy a nice bottle of Aussie Chardonnay. Off you go............…
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Ewan and Boo's new haircut

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The long way to the living room....

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Tree of Happiness

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I've finally been tagged! Yay.
After feeling like the unpopular kid in the playground, Te' of the beautiful blog "Shut up and Dance" has invited me to come up with 6 things that make me happy.

So here goes.

1. Hearing my son say No!
I am not a masochist. I just get such a buzz whenever he says the word NO! and means it. Because up until recently he would rely on behaviour to refuse a request. Or push the item away or take it and then use it inappropriately or chuck it.
And if it was a concept we were talking about, he would just flip out a bit and start hurting himself if he didn't like the idea. So being able to say and understand the power of NO! is excellent.
And the way he says it is so endearing. Because it is exactly the kind of "NO, what are you talking about? How could you even suggest that, Are mad? or just ignorant woman?"
That everyone on Mr Hammie's side of the family uses.
(like when you offer them a cup of tea or something, eek!)

2. Finding som…
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I can see clearly now....

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I am writing this with my sharper bionic vision; thanks to a new pair of specs. Had to go and get retested as the old pair were in the Stolen Suitcase. (which has not been returned) Turns out Downsdad's blog is not meant to be in soft focus. And the letters on this page don't slide off to the right. Pity, it was a cool effect.

But I'm proud to say I barely wore the other pair.
A, because Bratty wouldn't let me, she doesn't like any thing different on my face (so no botox or collagen, drat!) And
B, The optometrist told me 2 years ago to try and do without my glasses as often as I could or I would Learn to Depend on them.
I only had them in London to read the Tube Map, which needs to be A Whole Lot Bigger by the way!
Anyways, I got tested again on Tuesday, and it turns out I really do need them now. Most of the time.

And I couldn't help but wonder about what the Optometrist had said about
Learned Dependence.

This is a prickly issue. Because as you know my kids now both a…
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That's whats real to me. And You

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Thankyou brothers and sisters for standing up and embracing your inner autie. Thankyou particularly to the Floggies for commenting. Maybe your precision and understanding of pretty things that matter can teach us all to recognise the power of our abilities.
For myself, writing and reading the posts helped me to understand how REAL these foibles are.
I brought up the early thing with Mr Hammie and he said that it was nothing to do with autism; you just HAD to be EARLY.
(Mr Hammie is early for TELEVISION, I keep explaining that the little people in the box don't know what time he tuned in) To him it is very real, it simply has to be done, and most of the time he is quite right. It is annoying sitting around waiting for people who think that whatever time you have arranged to meet, actually means half past that. I have learned to bring a book.

So I was able to use that to explain to him my thing about the kitchen counters. I made a direct comparison to the early thing, and how anxious he…
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