When I was in Year Five, I remember on Wednesdays and Thursdays, after morning tea (I felt by that stage we had moved past little lunch) we used to have, what our teacher called endurance, for fifteen minutes before we went back into class. I remember this teacher didn’t get us to walk back from the oval in two lines, but let us stroll up, and what I’m about to describe was as irresponsible as it was inhumane, he nominated four people and said that they had his permission to give stragglers a soft kick to hurry them up. I…
This month, I will be turning 46, which also means that it will be the 28th Anniversary of me turning 18. And turning 18 is a time that I look back on with mixed feelings. My parents said that I changed overnight, but it was an occasion where I suddenly felt empowered and wanted to reject some of things expected of me, such as being forced to play cricket with my brother.
One thing that plagued me at that time was my mother telling me that I was “immature”. I remember becoming frustrated with the antics of some of the…
Yesterday, I had to drive my parents home from their Christmas Lunch at a nearby hotel. I didn’t go for three reasons. One, I don’t really like those events. Two, Christmas marked 20 years since I last went out for Christmas lunch, and that was because my ex-girlfriend wanted to (I didn’t). And three, the dog frets if nobody’s home, so I offered to.
As I did so, I was reminded of a story that I heard from a man who came to my old high school, when I was in Year Twelve. It was a fictional story about three…
This year, my family welcomed a baby girl. My father was the only one of five siblings to not have a daughter (his first sister had two, his brother one, his second sister three and his third sister two) and my maternal grandmother had hoped for a son and a granddaughter, instead she had a daughter and two grandsons (my mother was an only child).
My nephew, even at age two, knew more about expecting a child than I did at age three, when my brother was born. My memories were of following my mother down the hallway asking her…
We all have heard the expression that one person’s meat can be another person’s poison, as an autistic, I say, “One person’s utopia can be another person’s dystopian nightmare.” As regular readers of my stories will know, I have very little time for right-wing politicians, and one in particular, I remember being rightly grilled by former news presenter Steve Liebmann, who, when he said that her immigration policy was about stopping Australia being Asianised and she came back with the preposterous response of, “What is so wrong with that? I’m proud of the country, I’m proud of the culture we…
Mr Smith was a curmudgeonly, taciturn widower, who spent his days avoiding people. The only times he left his house were to do his weekly shopping of a Thursday, doctors appointments (not that he needed many) and to walk down to the mailbox. If his neighbours saw him, he’d mumble a hello if he felt like it and almost every question he’d answer with “Perhaps.”
“Will it rain, today?”
“Perhaps.”
“Are you going to see your sister for Christmas?”
“Perhaps.”
His neighbours, however, were caring by nature and a perhaps was a sign that at least he was alive.
There…
Everyday I thank heavens that the former Victorian Leader of the Opposition was both comprehensively beaten in the 2018 State Election and is no longer leader of the party. We are talking about a leader who basically wanted to give rights to right-wingers and have an appalling view of Australian history taught in Victorian schools, as well as dismantle the Safe Schools Programme.
On the same night that Sia came under fire for selecting a neurotypical actor to play the role of an autistic teenage girl. we see that the Shadow Minister for Autism, Bernie Finn, released a meme depicting…
This year, like I did in 2018, I am planning a very autistic Christmas. My 2018 very autistic Christmas involved staying at home by myself, with Nutsy, my cat, and Sandy, my father’s dog. Last year, I was so down on Christmas Day, as Nutsy had died, that I only woke up to open my presents, and slept the rest of the time, waking up to have dinner at 10:30pm.
This year, while I may not have another cat, yet, my family will be going out to a restaurant for Christmas dinner, and I will be spending it at home…
Readers of my stories and followers of me will have read about the man my father worked with who donated to the social club but didn’t attend workplace social events, and his explanation was that he kept friends and colleagues separate. Imagine the person you thought was your best friend was also your work colleague, and you socialised together, and you had an argument. You then had to turn up to work on Monday morning and co-operate. So, what can you do? You could ask for transfer, but that may not be practical. You could go to another department, but…
Last night, I was talking to my father and we both know that Australia is a country that does very little manufacturing, and it was at this point that I decided I wanted to write something about this. I remember, 26 years ago, an elderly couple were shopping in Big W and the woman of the couple was giving a cursory inspection of some shirts before dismissing them because they were made in China, and she wanted Australian made. …
Peter Wynn
Diagnosed with autism at 35. Explained a lifetime of difference.
