I am very happy today. Happy to be me. Happy to be alive in this wonderful world. Happy to live with all my friends. Happy to be with my sister. Happy because it's my birthday next month and I might get a card. I think I'm happy too because of all the places we've been to in the last week. Yesterday Winefride and I rode on the top of eleven snow dogs and on some baby snow dogs too. Winefride was especially happy with a message on the side of one of the baby snow dogs in the City Library.
Same But Different.
I was quite surprised. When I read that sign to her she got very excited. She is clever. She might not be able to talk and might get very engrossed in things that thrill her but don't let that fool you. I think she's clever. She understood this. I think it's because she knows she's different from most people but she's still the same and no less a small soft toy due to being severely autistic. My sister is amazing. I loved the message too but she was beaming so much and if she was a flame everything around her would have ignited. That wouldn't have been good though because we were in the library and while you might want to burn a bonfire I don't think it would be good to burn the books.
Same But Different. Or as I read once, different but not less.
That particular dog had been decorated with stars by children from the Education Centre for Children with Down's Syndrome. Those children are like Winefride. They're like me too and my person as well. Same but different.
Today I want to finish telling you about my trip along waterways in Manchester. It had been a good day. It would have been better if Winefride had been there but she hadn't been born yet. Next I want to tell you about an adventure I had with her. I've still got lots of adventures to talk about from before she was born but I think I want to talk about her more. So next time I might tell you about the time we nearly got arrested at a railway station. The policemen were quite friendly though and my person and my creator sorted out the situation together so that Winefride and I didn't have to go to prison.
On my walk I had finally reached the hallowed ground of Salford. Journey's end. I was glad of that because I was aching and thirsty. I was a bit hungry too because my silly person had dropped the food onto the wet canal towpath so we had been surviving on emergency rations for some hours. I was ready to sit down and rest. Except, to my surprise, the adventures just kept coming that day. I've told you about my surprise visit to the Blue Peter garden and how that excited my person but didn't excite me. She grew up with Blue Peter and so remembers the time Simon Groom said "What a beautiful pair of knockers." And everybody laughed. It was a more innocent time! My person told me about that when we went to Durham, where a replica pair of those knockers can be seen on the cathedral doors. I have never seen the programme but I understand she used to enjoy it.
We walked along paths my person had never seen before and got a bit lost. If only there was someone to show the way to me, lost, a child in need of help. Who could we ask when most of the people seemed to be in a hurry? I was getting a bit worried about it because I wanted a cup of tea and I couldn't see a cup of tea shop anywhere. My person kept telling me that it was okay and that we would find some tea soon but I was anxious by this time and my brain kept going round and round in the circle of lostness and worry and her words couldn't get through even though I see in retrospect that they were sensible words. I started to fret more and the pretty buildings around me felt threatening and it was horrible. Sometimes it's very hard having a brain like mine. Sometimes it's very nice too.
Then we saw someone in the street who wasn't in a hurry. Someone who might just possibly agree to help a child in need. We went and asked for help.
He turned out to be a very friendly bear. He knew just what to do. He held me tightly and rocked with me for a few minutes and somehow I felt able to trust him. He said his most favourite thing in the whole world was being able to help children and that he had managed to raise a whole billion pounds in money to help them. That's very impressive for a bear. And he even let me pose on his head.
He helped with my anxiety a lot but he didn't know where we might find a cup of tea. After some thought he decided that one of his friends would probably know because she was quite a bouncy soul who had skipped around the entirety of Media City and Salford Quays. She would know. He told us where we could find her and said goodbye. I liked that bear. My person says that he will be on television one Friday very soon and the whole evening of programmes will be devoted to him and his work. I wonder whether I will ever get a television programme devoted to me.
My person and I soon found the bear's friend. Here she is.
She was a very funny girl. She made me laugh. Her name was Upsy Daisy. That's a funny name too but I suppose it's no stranger than my name. Or Adduno's name. My person named an owl for my creator and his name can't even by typed with letters on a keyboard. And Portal was named after the Archbishop of Canterbury.
I had ever such a lot of fun playing with Upsy Daisy and together we skipped up and down the street and laughed so much and sang some very silly songs. Upsy Daisy is my friend.
We had so much fun that for a while I forgot about wanting a cup of tea. My person hadn't forgotten though. She wanted tea too and started hurrying me up. She said, "If we don't go soon, we won't have enough time for tea before we have to be at Ziferblat's." I thought that was a silly thing to say. What was the problem there? Ziferblat's has tea. Not having time for tea before going for tea didn't seem to me to be any reason to stop playing. But my meanybum person [Now Blob, I've told you before that I don't like you calling me that] was insistent.
So, poor little blob that I am, I had to leave Upsy Daisy behind and say goodbye. Fortunately she knew where we might get a cup of tea. She even recommended a place because she said we would find lots of places to drink tea and some of them weren't as nice and some of them were very expensive.
I walked on with my person. We came to an open square surrounded by television and radio studios. Nobody invited me in for a tour and nobody asked whether I wanted to read the news that evening or try my hand at being a camera operator. I wasn't even invited to dress up as an extra in a costume drama. Never mind. I am only young. If I want a media career I have plenty of time to develop it.
Upsy Daisy was right. We did pass lots of tea choices. Lots of them. Almost the last one was the one she recommended. Somewhere that we could get a really big cup of nice tea and it wouldn't cost much. She recommended that we walk with it a little way and sit outside.
It was gorgeous. We sat in the sunshine. Behind us was a stage and a man played his guitar and sang peaceful songs. And we looked out across the water. It was a very happy time and we enjoyed our tea. We enjoyed it for so long that we later ended up being late to meet up to go to the cafe. Never mind.
Before we left we saw plaques on the ground with quotes from people related to life in the past in Salford. I had my photo taken with some of them. Some of them have meaning in terms only of their history. Some of them are relevant today and the wisdom in them is there for us all to learn from if only we would stop to read little plaques and play with Upsy Daisy.
So that's my day. Because my person has been so bad at helping me with my blog even though she's been writing her own lots recently it's taken me nearly a month to tell you about that day. She needs to do a lot better. I know she's taken Winefride and I out every single day for the last week and we've had a good time every day but my blog is important to me and I know there are some people out there who enjoy what I say.
My person needs to do better. And I think she needs to do better at writing for herself too. Not just her blog but stories and articles and whatever else lifts her up. She needs to focus for now on the things that bring her joy. And see where they lead. She needs to be sensible and not try to do things that she isn't really meant to do or things where she doesn't have the right gifts and skills. She can write. She can take photos. She can enjoy the world around her. She can do other things. So she should allow all those things to develop and see what happens. I think something good will come of it all. Even if I don't get my own TV show.
[1720 words]
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