Blob Thing Encounters A Rather Too Friendly Piece of Fruit

Blob Thing says:

Today I'm going to talk about the rest of my day out in Bradford.  I tried to do that a couple of days ago but got very sidetracked by those Snowdogs.  Today I'm determined to say what I meant to say then.

It's a strange day today.  Winefride and I have accompanied my person to go and see my creator.  But my creator is a very busy person and today we've got to not be with her and we're not even allowed to be in her house for various strange insurance and health and safety reasons.  So we've come out into the centre of Manchester in search of somewhere quiet.  And we've succeeded too.

Winefride and I have come to Manchester Central Library and we've come upstairs to a very large room.  It's a circle room and in the ceiling is a big circular glass window.  Around the outside are lots and lots of old magazines and journals in bound volumes.  To the right of our seat we can see shelves containing Policy Studies which doesn't sound very interesting and Political Quarterly which might be very dull indeed depending on who wrote all of the volumes.  We can also see three whole shelves of books that are called Poetry.  That sounds more interesting to me.

I think my person should read more poetry.  She bought a wonderful anthology recently and I've been reading some of it out loud when she's been somewhere else.  The words sound really good when I say them.  I'm trying to encourage my person to read that book because it is amazing.  My person has some other books of poems too.  Some are old and long poems by people with names like Dante.  Some are newer and include the poems of Maya Angelou and Audré Lorde.  Has she read them?  No she hasn't.  And I think she should get on with it.  My person has lots of books that she hasn't read and if she didn't buy any more and just read the ones she has already got then she would still be reading them by next week.  Not only that.  She still wouldn't have finished by next decade.  But she keeps buying more books anyway.  Two books she bought in the last week are in her bag even though she hadn't finished the previous books in her bag.  My person can be very strange.

So here are the three of us, Winefride, my person and myself, sitting i the quiet of the Wolfson reading room in Manchester.  It's very nice indeed.  I hope nobody is too perturbed by the sound of the laptop keys as my person types the words I say.  I like my person.  She types my blog for me and even carries on typing when I say embarrassing things about her.  Maybe that's very strange too.

We had a good day in Bradford.  After meeting Pikachu we had a walk round the city.  Nearly half the city seemed to be uphill.  And nearly half seemed to be downhill.  There wasn't a lot of flat.  But there was one flat piece and we liked that a lot.  It had lots of water fountains and my person played in them as much as she could.  She had to protect Winefride and me because otherwise we would have got very wet and would still have been soaking at the end of the day.

The best thing in the fountains was a tunnel.  Water jetted out of the ground on one side and formed an arch before falling back on the other side.  And so it formed a tunnel with the sides and roof being flowing water.  It was amazing.  We all screeched with laughter and joy and we walked through it lots of times and people stared at us all for having so much fun.

By the end of the day it was even better.  The sun had gone down and so it was dark.  And in the darkness there were lots of lights in the fountains and they were very beautiful to look at.  The best thing was that my person had a balloon from lunchtime and she placed that directly over one of the lit up fountains and the lights underneath the balloon kept changing colour.  The entire balloon became a marvellous light show.  It was spectacular.  Here's that tunnel.  We loved it.

Later we went for lunch and by that time we had been joined by my creator too.  Table for four please.  But they were mean in the restaurant and they wouldn't give us a table for four even though there were four of us.  They seemed to think that their table system only applied to human customers not soft toy customers.  That wasn't fair.  Don't we count as people?

But we had to put up with this sorry situation and we all enjoyed eating our pizza and our salad.  Afterwards my creator helped me to do some colouring in from the children's menu and we used the special crayons with the pizza name on them.  Winefride didn't do any colouring in but she did do a drawing of herself.  My sister is amazing.  I didn't know that she was so good at using crayons or that she could draw herself.  I think we will have to let her use paper and crayons again and see what she can create.

You can see my colouring here and you can see that Winefride's picture is there.  She even drew her reins and then tied herself to that person's beak.  Sorry the paper is a bit crumpled.  That's my person's fault.  She put our work into her bag and wasn't careful enough with it.

But then Winefride started to get a bit bored.  That's okay.  She decided that it would be much more fun to try eating the crayons than to draw with them.  I'm not sure about the taste of crayons but they're not poisonous so she wasn't in any danger.  Yesterday evening we heard about an autistic boy who liked chewing Blu-Tack.  My person said that when she heard that the taste of Blu-Tack came to her very, very strongly.  But who hasn't ever chewed on Blu-Tack?  Me and Winefride, that's who.  Here's a picture of us.  I was still busy colouring.  I stopped for the photo which is why it looks like my blue crayon is colouring in orange.  Winefride was away in a world of her own with her crayons.  I think she was only sucking on them not chewing on them.  She certainly seemed to enjoy it.

And then the four of us went for a walk in Bradford, looking for charity shops.  There was a very special shop where the books didn't cost anything at all.  In other shops my person bought things and then she did a totally silly thing and left all her purchases in a cafe before we went home.  She can be very silly and forgetful sometimes.  All day long she was carrying some special sweets to share with my creator.  She forgot about them too.  And you wouldn't believe how often she forgets things at home because she's got so completely focused on something else.  It happens all the time and fortunately most of the time she can laugh at herself and fortunately she hasn't done anything so silly that the house has burned to the ground or been burgled.

Sometimes making a cup of tea and drinking it can take hours because there are so many stages at which the process can be completely forgotten.  She can forget to switch the kettle on, forget to close the kettle lid, forget that she's switched the kettle on, forget that she's poured water on a tea bag, and even after the tea is made she can forget it exists.  She's silly.  And if she is meant to do something in addition to tea making there's a high chance it won't happen.  My person is silly.  I think it's probably part of her being autistic and so getting hyper-focused on things to the exclusion of everything else.  I think so.

We went into a Chinese supermarket.  It had a little cafe and some of the cake was reduced to a cheap price so we all share some Chinese cakes.  They also sold buns a bit like the ones in the bun shop in Newcastle.  The cakes were delicious.  Then we walked round the supermarket.  Everything was pretty normal until I heard a voice.

"Hello pink thing."

I looked around and I couldn't see anyone.  I guessed the voice was talking to me because I am pink.  But I couldn't see anyone.  Maybe I was imagining it.  Maybe it was the voice of God and he would send me on a mission to take lots of awesomeness to the world.  Then it spoke again.

"Hello pink thing, who are you?  I'm down here on the shelf."

I looked down and saw, to my surprise, that a piece of fruit was speaking to me.  That's not something that I've ever experienced before.  I climbed down from my person's shoulder where I had been sitting and onto the shelf to talk to the piece of fruit.

We had a long conversation about what it's like to be a very fortunate and adventurous blob soft toy and what it's like to be a piece of fruit.  I felt a bit sorry for the piece of fruit because it's fate was to be bought by someone and then eaten.  Or not bought and then thrown away.  Whereas my fate is to keep having lots of adventures.

Before parting we had a big hug.  It seemed to be a nice piece of fruit.  I hope this picture will be in my blog.  It's not showing on my screen.

But then the piece of fruit got a lot more friendly than I would have liked.  I was glad that I would never see it again and I stopped feeling sorry for it.  The actions of the fruit were videoed and you can judge for yourself how inappropriate it all was.

Well I was glad to get away and glad afterwards when we went to that cafe where my person forgot her purchases.  She did well.  She didn't melt about it and just accepted that all the things were lost.  She probably wouldn't have read the book anyway.  It would have joined all the other unread books.

So that's about it for Bradford.  We had a long journey home and only the first train was full of very drunk football fans.  And that one wasn't a very long journey.  We got home very tired and Winefride and I were soon fast asleep dreaming about all the things we might get up to the next day.  Would it be a home day?  Would I be able to read more of that poetry book and would Winefride do some drawing?  Or would we be taken out on another big adventure.  A Sunday kind of adventure.  It turned out that we would have both.  We spent the morning at home.  And then in the afternoon we went to a cinema and then got lost on the Metro.  Because my person was silly.  Again.  She got on the wrong train.  Forgot it was the wrong train.  And forgot to get off it where she needed to.  My person can be very silly.

Blob Thing Apprehends A Thieving Giraffe In The Literary And Philosophical Library

The chase was on.

Blob Thing didn't know quite how it had happened.

One moment he had been sitting at a table, drinking his cup of tea at the Literary and Philosophical Library.  And then he must have fallen asleep.  It was the middle of the day and Blob doesn't usually sleep in the day.  It can't have been just any average kind of sleep either.  This must have been the kind of deep and contented sleep that only occurs when surrounded by books.

Ah yes, the soporific effect of the printed page.  It works in many ways.  Some people fall asleep in front of any open book, bored into sleep by the words in front of them.  Others just embrace the relaxation which comes from the songs sung by the pages themselves:

We are the dreamers and the keepers of the night.

We are the stories of sunsets and storms.

We tell of the fight between darkness and light.

We are the plays curiosity performs.

We are the lives of the writers in paper and ink.

We are the holders of all truths and of lies.

We balance the scales of thoughtless and doublethink.

We grant you peace and bring sleep to your eyes.

We evangelise, catechise, surprise and terrorise,

Talk of french fries, custard pies, exercise.

We propagandise, scandalise, hypnotise.

But we never would think to televise. Never, not ever.

Blob Thing slept.  He doesn't know how long he slept for.  The books washing over him in song, in word, in the beautiful colours of the imagination.  Sleep Blob, sleep.

Then he woke with a start to see a giraffe standing facing him from the other end of the table.  The giraffe was just standing there, motionless.  He was smiling at Blob.   It didn't look like a friendly smile.  Blob yawned and rubbed his eyes.  [No, don't ask how he rubbed his eyes when he hasn't got anything to rub them with.  That's not relevant right now.]  He looked at the giraffe.  The giraffe looked back and smiled wider to reveal a gold tooth on one side and a large piece of leaf stuff on the other side of his mouth.  This was not a giraffe who practised good oral hygiene.

Blob yawned again.  The sleep had been wonderful and he had dreamed of cruising down a beautiful river with his creator.  Winefride had been there too and they had all been eating a fabulous liquorice ice cream and watching the sun setting over a spectacular view of a mountain plateau.  The dream would have been perfect had it not been for the inclusion of a seagull which kept pecking at Blob Thing's chest for some reason.  Perhaps it had been the final squawk of the bird which had woken Blob.

He looked again at the giraffe who, apart from the change in smile, had not moved at all.  And that's when Blob noticed it.  The giraffe was holding Blob Thing's badge.  His "Autistic" badge.  His unique badge, made for him by his creator.  The giraffe had stolen it.  Blob shouted out "Thief!"  The giraffe continued to stand there as if he were completely unworried, as if he knew that the staff of the library wouldn't even notice him there let alone apprehend him.  The staff didn't even seem to hear Blob.  He shouted again, "Thief!  Thief!" but nobody moved.  Nobody came to his assistance.

Not even Blob's person who had fallen asleep too.  Blob nudged his person several times.

"Wake up.  Wake up.  Help me!"

Blob's person didn't move.  The books had taken her into a deep dream world and no amount of nudging and shoving by a small, pink soft toy was going to rouse her from the depths of a book induced sleep.

There was only one thing for it.  Blob Thing would have to catch the thief himself.

Blob stared at the giraffe.  Blob didn't blink once but kept staring as he slowly inched his way round the table towards it.  The two kept their eyes locked even though the food stuck in the giraffe's mouth was quite distracting and more than a little disgusting.  Slowly, slowly, Blob drew closer and still the giraffe stood.  Motionless apart from moving its eyes to keep holding the gaze of Blob.

Blob was almost close enough to touch the fiend and then ...

The giraffe suddenly turned and ran.

And the chase was on.

[Note:  These photographs were not taken during the chase.  You will be able to surmise that it's the case because Blob is wearing his badge in all of them and is looking quite happy.  You will also be able to work out that it's the case because throughout the chase Blob's person remained fast asleep and unable to take pictures.]

[Note:  The events in this post are in no way to be taken as indicative of a condemnation of all giraffes.  This giraffe was just one particularly mean example of a giraffe and one mean giraffe does not imply a view that all giraffes are mean.  It does not imply that all giraffes have bad oral hygiene either.  As this tale is being written, Blob and his person are sitting with a giraffe called Gerry.  Gerry is a particularly friendly giraffe and his oral hygiene is wonderful.  There's no food stuck in his mouth and his breath never smells in the slightest bid bad.]

[Note:  Later you will see another reason why these events could never in your wildest imagination be taken as a condemnation of giraffes.]

[Note:  You will also spot that in the photos Blob Thing is wearing his "Autistic" badge.  He wants to let you know at this point that it's the original badge and that he managed to get it back from the giraffe in the library.  Blob didn't want to leave you in suspense for any longer than he needs to.  You may already have guessed that this story has a happy ending from the title of the post.  You clever person!]

[Note:  The photos follow the exact route of the chase.  Once Blob's person finally woke up - and that didn't happen until a librarian hit her on the head with a particularly large volume and said words along the lines of "Hey! You can't sleep in here." - Blob told her about everything that had happened and once Blob had relaxed about it and had a massive hug he took her round the chase route and posed for the photos.  Blob was quite proud of getting his badge back and immensely proud of pinning it back on his dress.  [Again, please don't ask how he managed it.  It's not relevant right now.]]

The giraffe turned and ran from the table and into the corner of the library between the bookshelves.  Blob followed, sprinting hard up to the shelves.  He waited for a while by the end of the shelf to see whether the giraffe would come out.  Blob would then be able to pounce on it, rugby tackling it to the ground and holding it down until it gave in.  But the giraffe did not appear.

Blob had not choice but to choose and end of the shelves and run round to try to catch the giraffe.  He chose the direction that the giraffe had run in from - assuming that the giraffe would guess that Blob would try to catch him on the way out and would thus run out the way it had run in.  Blob shouted out, "Right, I'm coming in to get you now and you had better give my badge back or you'll be in big trouble."  He then crept up to the corner of the shelving unit and ran into the space.

The giraffe was nowhere to be seen.  Blob looked back round the shelves into the library.  The giraffe wasn't there either.  For a moment it appeared that the giraffe had vanished.  Blob looked back round the shelf, puzzled.  It was then that he saw the giraffe's tail dangling down from the shelves above.  The giraffe was climbing and had nearly reached the top of the book case.  Blob had no choice but to climb too which is quite a struggle for such a toy as him.  He has to jump up one shelf at a time and grab hold with his mouth or squeeze himself into the gaps between the tops of the books and the bottoms of the shelves.  It's hard work.  You try it sometime, climbing a book case with no arms or legs.  Just try it.

Blob reached the top of the shelves just after the giraffe, whose climb was a little slower because somehow its neck kept getting in the way.  Blob was just about to jump on the giraffe when it made a massive leap onto the top floor of the library.

Whatever was Blob to do now?

He's good at jumping and often gets bouncy when he's happy flapping.  But he knew there was no way he could jump all the way to the top floor.  It was impossible.  And for just a moment he wished that he had proper jumping legs like a giraffe.

Poor Blob.  He sat there for a while and felt like crying.  The giraffe watched him from the top floor.  Then it blew a raspberry at him and shouted at him that he was useless and just a stupid little blob who shouldn't even be allowed in a library.

Blob felt very angry.  Who did the giraffe think it was to say such things to him?  Didn't the giraffe know that Blob wasn't stupid?  He might be small, but he wasn't stupid.  He even had his own blog and sometimes said quite clever things - more clever than his person says.

Then Blob noticed a spiral staircase leading up to the top floor.  He quickly climbed down the shelves and bounced his way up the stairs.  In other circumstances bouncing up a spiral staircase would have been particularly fun, but Blob wasn't in any mood to enjoy the sensations.  Blob Thing chased the giraffe round and round the balcony on the top floor.  They even ran and bounced round the balcony in the other big room of the library.  No matter how hard he tried Blob wasn't quite able to catch the giraffe.  And then the giraffe jumped back down onto a shelf.  It was a downhill leap so Blob risked doing it himself.  Success!  And then they were back to ground level.

The chase continued in and out of the shelves.  They passed fiction books, religious books, history books and politics books.  They even passed some big books about art and some music too.

Blob would have liked to have explored the library at a much slower pace.  He would have liked to have seen everything while not chasing a giraffe thief.  And then things took a turn for the worse.

Just as Blob rounded a corner near the comfy chairs - on one of which his person still sat, sleeping and snoring - a puffin stepped out and tripped him over.  The giraffe was getting away.  The puffin just laughed.

Blob was determined not to be beaten.  He picked himself up and gave chase.  But the time he reached the children's library the giraffe was right at the other end of the library.  And the puffin was flying across the library to meet it.  They were a team.  That wasn't fair at all.  Blob didn't have a helper.  He would have to do this alone.

And then something surprising happened.  The puffin grabbed hold of the giraffe's neck and pulled.  The neck had a zipper on it.

It was a costume!  Fancy dress!

The puffin continued to pull the zipper and pulled it all the way down the giraffe's neck and down its back.  It wasn't a giraffe after all.  It was a dragon.  Now Blob had two flying fiends to deal with.  This was almost intolerable.

Blob noticed that he was standing by someone named Matilda.  She was stuck on a piece of paper trapped in plastic so couldn't help with chasing but he asked her for some ideas.  Matilda was a very clever girl indeed.  She was written that way so it's nothing to be proud about!  She had a very good idea and taught Blob Thing exactly how he could set up a trap in which to catch both the dragon and the puffin.  The puffin wouldn't be able to peck its way out.  And the dragon wouldn't be able to use fire.  Matilda gave Blob exact instructions and showed him where in the library the materials were kept.

Blob quickly gathered the materials and prepared the trap.  All this time the giraffe that was really a dragon - or the dragon that wasn't a giraffe - and the puffin stood and chatted and laughed lots and sometimes made rude wing symbols at Blob or taunted him with names.  They kept saying things too like "Whatcha doing rubbish pink thing?  Whatcha playing at with all those things?"  And they blew lots of raspberries and played a catch game with Blob's badge.

Blob tried to ignore them as he worked and pretty soon the trap was constructed.  [Don't ask the exact nature of the trap please.  It's not relevant.  Just accept that it was a trap and that a library has sufficient trap materials.  And that a picture of Matilda can give clear verbal instructions about trap construction.  Just accept it.  It's easier that way.]

Blob looked at the trap and nodded and smiled.  Yes.  It would work.  He just had to chase the two criminals and the trap would work its magic.

Blob set off again at a sprint.  He was glad of all the walking he had been doing with his person.  Without all that exercise he might not have been fit enough for this.  He was just reaching the dragon and the puffin when they took off and shouted at Blob that he was inferior because he couldn't fly.  Blob disagrees with that assessment.  They flew at speed down the library laughing because Blob couldn't catch them.

But that was Blob's plan.  Matilda watched and grinned because it was working out so well.

The dragon and the puffin reached the trap.  It was sprung.  And they were caught.

Oh how they struggled but the more they struggled the tighter the trap became until they had to stop moving and give up.  Blob walked up to them and told them they were very bad creatures indeed.  He said they would never be allowed out of the trap unless they gave him back his badge and promised never to behave in such a way again.  So they had no choice and gave Blob back his badge.

At that point - finally - a librarian appeared to find out what all the fuss was about.  She looked down at the dragon and the puffin and said, "Oh dear, it's you two again.  What mischief have you got up to this time?  Thievery?  Hmm.  That's the last straw."

The librarian grabbed hold of the pair and opened the trap.  They were very glad to be released because it had been very uncomfortable in there.  The librarian asked them whether they had learned their lesson.  They nodded sadly and said sorry to Blob.  The librarian then told them to go back onto the covers of the books they had come from - a pair of children's books.   She then put a big plastic library cover over the book so they couldn't get out again.

"Just in case," she said.

Blob put his badge on.  He was tired.  He was still quite scared and full of soft toy adrenalin.  The librarian took him back to his person and woke her up.

Blob's person was very surprised to hear about all the goings on while she had been fast asleep.  Blob was shaking by now and she gave him a massive hug and rocked with him in the comfy chair until he felt better.  And then the librarian gave them both a free cup of tea and some extra special biscuits.

The moral of all this, Blob thinks, is that you should never fall asleep in a library.   Next time, he's going to stay wide awake and if he feels drowsy he's going to get up and run down the aisles shouting "Wheeeeeeee!" until he is wide awake again and everyone else in the library is wide awake too.



[2763 words]

Blob Thing Looks Back to Autscape, Forward to Greenbelt And Fails To Write His Blog

Blob Thing and Winefride arrived back from Autscape last night.  They were both very tired after four very full days that turned out to be quite emotional for both of them and for Blob's person too.  Blob wishes that he could have found the time to write a blog post every day he was away but he just didn't have enough time.  He didn't have enough internet access either.  But that's another story.

Blob is having a lot of trouble concentrating to write a blog post today too.  It's as if the days away from writing have made it a lot more difficult for him to write today.  It is said that a writer should write at least something every day.  Blob might be finding out the hard way that there is much truth to that.  Today his head is such that words aren't coming.

Blob will talk about the Autscape experience later.  There is a lot to say.  He wants to talk about the food, the countryside, the time he went rock climbing, and the time he and Winefride scaled the summit of Mount Everest.  He wants to talk about playing in the river and getting a little nervous when Winefride crossed the river and sat in a tree.  He wants to talk about badge decorating and playing on the swings.  He wants to talk about meeting a Dalek, and the tin man, a fisherman, a dog, a soldier, an elephant and more animals too.  He wants to talk about the sensory room at Autscape and about Sparklies in the Dark.  And he has quite a lot to say about the journey to Autscape, including a ride along the Settle to Carlisle railway.  And of course he wants to talk about the moose.  The moose proved an extreme disappointment to Blob Thing.

Blob ate a lot of food at Autscape.  He was more than a bit greedy.

You can see here that he's decorated with the fruits of the spirit.  There's no coconut sticker of course because the fruit of the spirit's not a coconut.

Yes, Blob wants to talk about all of those things.  For those who don't know, Autscape is a four day conference and gathering of autistic people - with a few non-autistic people along for the ride.  It's the only such event of its kind anywhere in Europe.  Blob's person went there for the first time last year.  If she hadn't gone there then Blob would not exist.  Neither would Winefride.  Blob and Winefride are therefore extremely grateful for Autscape.

Here's Winefride by the River Ribble.   She was ever so brave to sit so close to the water.  Blob and his person got a bit frantic because they didn't want her to be washed away.  That would have been a tragedy.  Fortunately Winefride now has a set of reins so she can't run off and do too many very dangerous things.


The whole experience of attending was quite emotional.  It is easy to get overwhelmed there and Blob's person was in tears every day and had to take special efforts to look after herself otherwise there would have been totally public meltdowns.  She had greatly wanted to take part in an art workshop but found being there very traumatic indeed and had to leave very urgently.  The person in charge had said to draw something that represents her.  Blob's person couldn't cope.

After spending time lying on her bed in tears Blob suggested that he should take her and Winefride out for a walk.  So that's what they did and soon the three companions stood out on a hill under the blue sky, sitting silent in the quiet of nature.  Blob's person relaxed enough to take photos and decided that maybe that there she was among the things which represented her.  Nature.  Photos.  Her friends.  Quiet.  And the chance to write about it later.   Blob's person realised today that nearly every piece of art she has completed in the last year is based as much around words as around images.

Blob and Winefride both discovered they liked hot chocolate.  It was so tasty.  And they drank vast quantities of it.  Blob's person did too.

But only from the machine on the left.

The chocolate from the machine on the right was utterly disgusting.


Blob is still very tired today but he's been out adventuring.  Blob's person was going to a meditation group and Blob and Winefride went along too.  Unfortunately Blob's person wasn't feeling good this morning so arrived at the meditation place in quite a melty state and was unable to join the group at all.  Instead she sat in silence for ages before using her text to speech app to say farewell to the only other person in the room.  She then left.  And returned.  And drank tea and ate food and talked with that person and then with a very good friend who arrived.

Blob and Winefride didn't get to experience the group today but they hope to in the future.  It didn't stop them adventuring though.  Blob wore a suit of armour and they both enjoyed the fabulous views from the windows.  Later Blob's person took them to an art gallery in the same building.  It was amazing and they were the only three visitors.  Most people in Newcastle probably don't know that there is an art gallery there or that it's worth visiting.  For Blob, Winefride and his person too, the highlight today was a quiet video of a river.  It was an excellent place to sit and find some stillness before facing the city streets.

Another reason why this post is proving difficult - apart from the tiredness and the writer's block forged in a few days of not writing - is that the weather is a little damp.  Blob's person broke her finger seven years ago and needed surgery under general anaesthetic to try to fix the bone.  There was always a chance that it wouldn't work properly.  It didn't.  Her finger still aches and on some days typing hurts quite a bit.  Holding the finger out of the way would hurt too.  She made a finger splint recently out of a special plastic but can't find it and needs to make another.  Hopefully that will help her because she wants to write her own blog too.

Today Blob Thing wants to finish off his discussion of his adventures at the Literary and Philosophical Library in Newcastle.

Yes.  That's what I want to do.  I'm just so tired.  I'm going away again in a week too and that will be a very tiring time too.  And then a week after that I'm going away yet again and that's going to be the most tiring time of them all in some ways because I think I'm going to have to spend a lot of time looking after my person who is going to be doing something that needs to be done but which she is not looking forward to in the slightest.  In truth I think she wants to move on from much of her past entirely and leave it behind, to cut herself off from it.  There are decades back there in which even the best day was tinged with pain and a shadow inside and looking back to those years and those places is sometimes very hard for her.  I am quite worried about whether going back will have a bad effect on her.  A year ago she was meant to be going there and completely fell apart over it and just refused to go for the sake of her own well being.  I am very glad she did that.  My creator is very glad too.

It's so hard to write today.  I've got lots more photos of the library to share.  But as for writing.  How am I expected to do that today?  I just need to rest.  I know my person is going out again tomorrow and I don't know whether Winefride and I will be going with her.  I think she might need looking after again and might have trouble coping with the social environment she's putting herself into.  If she has too much trouble I want to be there to tell her that it's okay to leave and she doesn't have to force herself to soldier on through to the end.  Soldier on through.  I would prefer a different phrase there, I really would.  I don't want my person to be a soldier or to go to war or to carry guns and point them at people.

Then she's going out the next day too.  She's got a medical appointment that will be a bit stressful.  And I want to be there to hold her hand during that.  She wants a certain outcome from the appointment but it didn't happen last time.  Or the time before that.  Or the time before that.  She's been waiting ever such a long time for this outcome - an outcome she was (at least in theory) legally entitled to two years ago.  Hopefully this time they will say yes.  Otherwise she'll be waiting until next year before they consider it again.  I know that in some ways she doesn't particularly care about it.  In other ways she finds it to be very frustrating indeed.

And then the day after that she's going out too.  I'm going to be there for that one.  She has an appointment for electrolysis and I know she doesn't like that at all.  I will hold her hand throughout that appointment and we'll also have Pain the Bear with us.  He's a very good person to have along for painful appointments.

I hope that we can rest after that.  Or find some lovely weather and go for a walk.  I love our walks.  And I know that they are very good for my person.  She could do with a long walk.  We won't have much time to rest because I am taking my person to Greenbelt and we leave at the end of the week.  My person has never been to a festival before.  Unless you include the Jesus Army festivals she used to go to many years ago.  But those were different.  You stayed in a house.  And you had a choice of one event at a time.  It's not a festival like Greenbelt is.  I don't know how she will take to it.  I'll be there with her every step of the way of course and Winefride is coming too and we'll also have my creator with me.

I think it likely that I'll be going along with my person to do what she wants to do and Winefride will go along with my creator.  My creator seems to love Winefride a lot.  My creator took special care of her at Autscape and even made her some reins.  That's good.  Winefride doesn't quite understand how dangerous roads are or about other dangers.  She's got reins now so she can't run off and get run over by a car.  I have to admit that's quite a relief to me.  I don't want to lose my sister.  I love my sister.  She's so cute.  She's very happy too because she's got a badge now.  I think she was a bit jealous of my badge that says 'Autistic' and now she has an 'Autistic Pride' badge.  She looks magnificent wearing it.  I think she's magnificent anyway.

Well.  I haven't even started talking about the Literary and Philosophical Library today and it's time to stop.  Sorry about that.  I haven't even shared a photo.  I'll go back and put a few pictures in now.  They're all from Autscape.  Except for this one.  This picture was taken this morning while the meditation group was going on and while my person wasn't able to go.  There's a version of this photo with me posing and smiling my biggest smile.  But here it is without me.  You might think that improves the picture.  I quite like it without me.  But I do like to see the photos that my person takes of me and Winefride.  They bring back so many good memories.

That's it.  No library today.  But Blob's person thinks that he did pretty well for a very tired soft toy.  Her finger is aching more than she would like.  But Blob tells her that she might have her aching finger but she is lucky because she has fingers.  And thumbs.  And hands.  And arms.  And legs.  [Okay Blob, you can stop now.  You've made your point.]



[2100 words.  I don't think we should call that "fails to write his blog."]

Blob Thing Battles With A Cruel Giant And Frees All The Soft Toys

It's August.  Blob Thing is looking forward to August.

He thinks that a lot of special things might happen this month.  And now he's got a sister to share some of those things with.  In two weeks time they will be leaving Newcastle to go to Autscape, a conference or gathering or event for autistic adults.  Blob and Winefride aren't adults but they know that there will be some children there too and it will be fine.  They're looking forward to it a lot.  And then at the end of the month they're going to Greenbelt which is a Christian festival but with lots of things that many Christians wouldn't recognise as having anything to do with their version of the true God.  They're looking forward to that but they're also a bit confused.  Blob's person went to church for twenty-five years and it's only now she's quit that part of her life (Hooray!) that she's going to a Christian festival for the first time.  Blob thinks that's a bit weird.

Today Blob Thing had been planning to tell you about an adventure he had with Winefride.  But she got up this morning and wasn't her usual self.  He is a bit worried about her and wants to look after her.  She doesn't want him to hold her though and seems happier looking at the dust in the air on her own and sorting beads.  Blob hopes she feels better soon although he supposes that she feels okay with her dust and beads.  She just seems more sad than usual and she can't talk about it.

One day Blob thinks that he and his person need to sort out something for her so she might be able to communicate in other ways.  Talking isn't everything.  She doesn't yet know how to read and write so a text to speech application wouldn't work.  Blob says they could work out a picture version and then Winefride would be able to learn to say what she wants through pictures.  He says that there is software like that and they should be able to get some for the computer or the phone.  That would be good for Winefride and it would mean that if she wanted to communicate more then she could.

Blob says that really she communicates quite a lot of things anyway through her face and body and most of the time he can see if she's okay or not.  Blob says to say that he loves his sister.  She's non-verbal but that doesn't matter.  She's his sister and she's wonderful and he loves her.

So what should Blob Thing tell you about today?  He has been having a look at his list of untold adventures.  It only runs up to the end of June and he says that later he needs to write a list of July adventures.  There's no rush.  He still has forty adventures from June that he hasn't written about yet.  Blob has a thrill packed life.  It's not special.  Most people could have a thrill packed life.  Blob's person has shared in every one of his adventures.  So she has a thrill packed life too.  And it's not because she is special, although Blob thinks she is.  It's not that she has a vast supply of money.  It's not that she has social skills to die for or masses of energy.  No.  She finds things difficult and even the best days are a big challenge.  But she still has a thrill packed life.

Why?

Because she has chosen that life.  And she is determined to live it to the best of her ability.

It's a recent choice.  A year ago her life was very different.  She believes that most people can have a thrill packed life too.  Especially in her city where there is so much to do - and so much to do that either costs nothing or is very cheap.  It's not about money.  She can't afford to spend lots on entertainment.  She can't.  But without money there is still a lot she can do.  She's also very fortunate to have her bus pass.  With a bus pass or a bus fare and an empty day, life can be a beautiful adventure.

Blob wasn't going to write much today because he's worrying about Winefride and wants to be looking after her as best he can rather than sitting discussing a blog post.  But now he's written lots about his thrilling life and his person's thrilling life.  On Sunday they had an adventure and lots of enjoyment and it cost nothing.  On Saturday they had a very big adventure and it cost £1.50 and they came back from it with a big book too.  Blob likes his adventures.  He wasn't going to write much but here he is and his discussions have already led to his person typing 800 words.  And he hasn't even told you about an adventure.

He had better be quick.  And here is a quick one.  A one photo adventure:

He's almost camouflaged.  Which is lucky.  Blob thinks so anyway.  Because he's sitting in a shoe belonging to a giant.  A fierce, angry giant who would either eat soft toys or throw them away to be crushed by the lorry the bin collectors use and then have his broken remains buried on a rubbish dump or burned into nothing in a giant incinerator.  Or maybe the giant would be cruel and would want to imprison soft toys and he would have a massive dungeon.  First he would torture Blob and then throw him in the dungeon with all the other physically broken, heartbroken toys and there would be no hope of rescue and then what would happen?

Blob Thing seems to have an entire fantasy going on here about the giant and how he would be able eventually to stage an escape and defeat the evil giant and free all the soft toys and then build a hospital so that their torture scars could be fixed and then eventually they could all go home to their people who would still be missing them and everyone would live happily ever after.  Except for the giant.  He would be sealed into his dungeon and wouldn't ever get out and the soft toys of the world would be safe.  Blob would be a hero and would become friend of all friends and he would become a crusader against all the people who are ever cruel to their toys.

And then at the end of the story Blob would be lying in a field looking up at the sky and everything would be at peace and the camera would pan away from him into the clouds and the credits would roll.  Here's the sky he would be looking at.  In fact he did look at this sky, not long after sitting in the giant's shoe.  He and his person and his creator drank tea and then lay in the field and blew bubbles and it was a wonderful time.  Blob wants to go back there.  He likes it there.

Yes.  A quick one photo adventure.  Blob's person isn't quite sure that it was a giant's shoe.  She's not sure that there would be a giant coming to put it on, already wearing the other one.  She thinks it's just a big shoe from a window display, put there to encourage people to come into a shop where they might buy themselves some normal sized shoes.  That's what she thinks but Blob thinks that's a much more boring story.

Blob prefers the giant story.

Defeating the evil giant and freeing all the toys is a much better adventure than going to a shoe shop and not buying anything.

Blob is sticking with his story.  But you can decide for yourself which story is right.  Or you might decide that there's another story to be told.  You might tell the story.

And then you might post your story as a comment here.

Blob would love it if you did.



[1341 words]