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 And Winefride Complete The North East Snowdog Trail

Blob was meant to be talking about the second half of his Bradford adventure tonight but he's had such an exciting day today that he just wouldn't stop talking about it.

Blob Thing says:

I'm exhausted.  I truly am.  It's been such a busy time.  I've never known myself to be so busy or to travel so much.  Nearly every day we seem to be going places and my person always seems to have another photographic challenge to complete.

And then there are the Snowdogs.  Today I did something amazing.  I completed the Great North-East Snowdog Trail.  Almost.  In order to raise money for our local hospice lots of dogs came to visit Tyne and Wear and this month I've been trying to see them all.  It's been hard work but I've enjoyed it.  Winefride has come too and she's had great fun meeting all the dogs.  And my person has come along to help us and she has taken hundreds of pictures of us with the dogs.  I've been allowed to start a second blog too so I can share all of our adventures and all of our pictures.  You can find it at http://blobandthesnowdogs.blogspot.co.uk/  I am looking forward to remembering all our adventures and it's going to take me quite a long time because there were lots of dogs.

We saw all of them.  Almost.  There's one we haven't seen because it was much too far away for people who don't have a car.  But we will see that one.  The Snowdogs are going to have a big going away party in a few weeks and we've been invited to attend.  My person will take Winefride and me and we'll see the other dog.  Hooray.

In total we have seen sixty-one Snowdogs out of sixty-two.  The official trail had sixty-one dogs not sixty-two but we bumped into a very special stray dog who wasn't on the list.  The other sixty-one dogs had gone to live in places all over the county.  There were also ninety-seven smaller Snowdogs and we have seen every one of those.  They were living in eighteen different places and we had to visit all of them.  They included an out of the way business park, two shopping centres we had never wanted to visit before, and an arts centre that we could only get to by taking lots of buses.

But we managed it.  And we finished today and Winefride was so upset or sad or something or other for a moment because she learned that we were standing on our very last big Snowdog.  She jumped off the dog and my person couldn't stop her because my person wasn't holding Winefride's reins.  She can't hold the reins and take a picture of us sitting between the ears of a Snowdog.  So Winefride was falling off and I reached out to try to grab her and save her.  And then I lost my balance and I fell off.  We both landed with a crash on the floor.

Fortunately we were both okay.  I've got to admit that the final dog wasn't the only one we fell from.  Those dogs are very slippery.  We haven't been hurt thankfully and haven't fallen from any of the ones sitting in the middle of muddy places.  We always got back on again after falling.  Here we are on that dog, which is called The Snowdog.

So we have seen one hundred and fifty-eight dogs.  And today we went to pick up our certificates for completing the Snowdog trail.  One certificate for me.  One certificate for Winefride.  And there's even a certificate for my person because she saw all the dogs too.  People have accused my person of being quite obsessive about the whole thing.  But you can't blame her too much.  She wouldn't have gone on the mad quest had it not been for me telling her I wanted to see the dogs.

There was one day on which it all went wrong.  My person went out finding dogs for me and Winefride that day.  In the rain.  She caught a bus to a place close to the first dog, intending to walk and see six dogs and some little dogs.  When she got off the bus it was hailing.  Hailing.  She decided to go home again.  And then changed her mind because the hail stopped.  She got very wet that day.  And what made it worse was that when she got to the first dog of the day she realised that she had completely forgotten to take me and my sister with her.  She.  Had.  Forgotten.  Us.  Can you imagine that?

Here's that first dog.  Photographed.  Without Winefride.  And without me.

Well she walked on and saw all the dogs - apart from a couple of little dogs she didn't know about and which were hiding.  And when she got home there I was waiting for her.  Can you imagine how cross I was with my person?  It was a horrible day for me.  I think Winefride didn't mind so much that we had been left in the dry and in a warm house.  She got on with playing for most of the day and laughed a lot at her games.

I made my person promise that if it was possible in any way she would take us out on another day and we would be able to see those six dogs too.  And that's what happened today.  Our last Snowdog - but not my person's last of course - was found outside the Seven Stories museum, a place devoted to children's books.  I wonder if there will ever be books about me.  I could write them and we have lots of pictures already on my blog.

And that's the dog we fell from.  The Snowdog.

The day wasn't over though.  After leaving the museum we visited a farm where we saw lots of animals.  We especially enjoyed watching a cockerel crowing.  That was fun.

We saw a beautiful snake too.  And some giraffes.  The scariest thing was when a tortoise tried to eat me.  I'm glad that I didn't get eaten by a tortoise today.

And after all that excitement my person took Winefride and me to the seaside.  We had some more little dogs to see.  We could have seen them already but when we visited the dog outside the Blue Reef Aquarium we didn't know that there was a pack of four dogs inside.  So we had to go back.

And then we walked all the way to Tynemouth and we sat eating our chips in a very quiet place.  There was nobody in sight and we spent our time in the quiet watching the mouth of the Tyne.  The tide was slowing coming in and we watched as different rocks got covered.  And we saw gulls.  And we saw lots of oystercatchers and turnstones too.  There was a heron.  And we even saw a curlew.  That's what my person said it was called.  It's a funny name.  I haven't ever seen a curlew before but Winefride and I have both seen herons.

It was lovely.  We then had to go back into Newcastle.  Because my person had realised that when taking photographs of the pack of dogs at the Central Library we had forgotten to take pictures of one of them.  That had been a hard time for us all.  One of the security guards told my person off lots and lots because I had wanted to have my picture taken with Winefride on top of all of the dogs.  Just like we've done everywhere except at Washington Galleries where it wasn't possible.  The security guard didn't like it at all and kept telling my person off.  She wasn't having a good day and she melted down a bit and ended up sitting on the floor between a dog and the window and just repeating a few words.  "Oh dear.  Oh dear.  We got it wrong.  Oh dear."   On and on.  Sometimes, for all three of us, being autistic can be very difficult indeed.

Nobody came to see what was the matter.  Eventually she calmed down a bit and looked up and saw on a screen a sign saying that Newcastle Central Library is an autism friendly environment.  That helped her a lot and she was able to get up.  She went and asked a woman whether she could take pictures of us.  The woman didn't know and she went to ask another security guard.  His name is Tony and he's very nice and he helped us a lot and we took our pictures.  My person says that she has talked with Tony before and that he's always very friendly.

But in all the fuss and the worry we forgot to take a picture of one of the dogs so today we had to go back into Newcastle just to see that one dog.

And that was the last little Snowdog.  All ninety-seven seen and photographed.  I think ninety-three of them have been photographed with either me or Winefride or both of us sitting on them.

We haven't hurt any of the dogs and we were very careful.  We also don't weigh very much so we weren't going to risk crushing them or denting their paint.  Some of the paint was beautiful.  One of the big dogs we saw today was very, very beautiful and it had lots of animals on it.

Have you ever seen such a beautiful dog leg?  That dog was called Wild North East and was living in the Pets Corner in Jesmond Dene.  There were lots of animals there too.  We especially liked seeing a really big white rabbit.

So there you are.  Winefride and me finished the Snowdog trail.  Just in time.  We're all going away tomorrow morning and by the time we get back the Snowdogs will be moving to a special place where they're going to have a good bath and see the Snowdog vets who will make them perfect and shiny ready for their big party.  We're going to the party right at the beginning and we are hoping it will be quieter then.  We don't like to be surrounded by lots of noise because we're quite sensitive to sensory things.  We were happy because near the giraffes there was a little sensory garden.  We tried eating a leaf from a plant called lemon balm because a sign said to taste.  It was a very strong taste but I think we all liked it.

We have finished the trail and I don't know what we'll be doing with our days when we come back home after our time away.  I'll have my Snowdog blog to complete of course and that's going to take me a while.  And my person will probably have photographic challenges to complete.  She also wants to write a lot more.  We haven't given her much time for writing because we've been making her come out and find all the dogs.

My person is considering trying to find all the blue plaques in Tyne and Wear and that will give her a big challenge and lots to write about because every blue plaque has a story to tell.  Did you know that there is a blue plaque for a man called Jimi Hendrix in Newcastle?  Well there is.  My person thinks finding all the plaques and taking pictures of them and their buildings would be a very difficult challenge.  But I think she might try it anyway.  I wouldn't mind.  It would mean that she would take Winefride and me to even more places and we'll become world famous experts in the geography and history of Tyne and Wear.

I will stop talking now because I was meant to be talking about something very different tonight - the second half of my adventures in Bradford when my person took us there recently.  And then I talked about Snowdogs instead.

Well, it has been a very exciting time finding them all and it ended with a brilliant day today.



[2017 words.  And I've given Blob permission to share what he's said in his Snowdog blog too]

Blob Thing And Winefride Meet Pikachu And See A Sad Car Park

I was wanting to help Blob Thing catch up in writing about one of his adventures from a while ago.  There are lots to choose from stretching back many months.  He's been a very busy Blob this year and his friendship has forced me to be a very busy woman too.  There have been lots of days on which I've felt like staying home and binge watching television and then feeling a bit rubbish afterwards due to the binge sapping the life out of me.  And Blob has come to me.  He's smiled up at me.  And he's asked, ever so nicely, if we could go out and have another adventure.  Just recently I've had extra adventuring motivations and Blob hasn't even had to ask.  I've had photo challenges to complete.  And I've had Snowdogs to hunt for.

Blob and Winefride have both been enjoying the Snowdog hunting.  We'll be going out again today.  And we'll be going out tomorrow too.  After that there aren't any remaining free days to look for the dogs before they are all taken away.  It's been a bit of a rush.  The Snowdogs have been there since the middle of September but by the end of October we had only taken a picture of two of them.  It was only when I received a challenge to photograph a white Scottie dog that I began the hunt.  Snowdogs aren't Scottie dogs of course but one of them is white so that became the dog of choice.  And then things got crazy.  We have fifteen days.  Just fifteen days.  To see every Snowdog.

The first of November was that dog challenge day.  The beginning.  On the fifteenth of November we will complete our quest.  Hopefully.  Every Snowdog - except for one hiding in Kielder which is impossible for me to get to in November.  And every little Snowdog too.  We will have seen 158 Snowdogs in total.

But we haven't been able to go dog hunting every day.  That's made things much more difficult.


On the second we saw one dog.  Accidentally.  On the third we didn't see any dogs at all.  And on the fifth we didn't even leave the house.  On the sixth - and this is going to be remedied tomorrow - I saw seven dogs but forgot to take Blob and Winefride out with me.  They were very cross indeed and quite sad about that.  On the eleventh we couldn't go far.  On the thirteenth Blob and Winefride saw one of the seven dogs from the sixth.

And then there is the twelfth.

Blob Thing wants to tell you about the twelfth.

He loves the Snowdogs and he's going to start his own special project Blog about the dogs and about how he and Winefride have enjoyed them.  But he wants me to shut up about them now.  He says I'm typing too much and entering into my own obsession - or is it an autistic special interest?  He wants to talk about the twelfth of November because he had adventures that day.  Special ones.

Blob Thing writes:

Yes I did.  It was a very good day for me and for my sister.  It was a very long day too and we got very tired.  We got a bit confused too.  There was a man on Bradford station in the evening and he was shouting lots.  My person says he was drunk and that there were quite a lot of drunk people around.  I don't understand why people get drunk?  Are they really that miserable without adding drugs to themselves?  I was confused by this man because he was shouting about football.  That's confusing enough.  I don't understand why people care so much about a bunch of people they don't know kicking a ball around a field.  He was shouting about a football team called Sheffield Wednesday and how they were going to win the league.  I just assumed that Bradford had been playing that team that day because there were lots of football fans around and some of them were drunk.  But Bradford weren't playing that team.  That team isn't even in Bradford's league.  And that team is nowhere near the top of their league.  So I am confused by the man.

My adventure had started early in the day.  Very early.  We had to leave the house at a time before we would usually have to wake up.  We were very glad that it wasn't raining.  The journey was okay.  Winefride found it very exciting because she was travelling on a train again and she looked out of the window for almost the entire journey.

When we got to Bradford my person wanted to go and see somewhere she used to live.  I decided to let her and thought it might be interesting to see her old home.  It was a long time ago.  It was the first place she lived that wasn't with her parents.  And it was where she became a Christian too and that decision has affected her life ever since.  I think sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad ways.  Some Christians don't like my person anymore because she is transgender.  They say very mean things to her.  But most Christians she knows don't see anything wrong with her being transgender.  So we walked up the hill to the university.  There are lots of hills in Bradford.  It didn't seem like anywhere was flat.

I wasn't that interested by the university and my person kept on pointing out things that weren't the same.  I did get to meet these two people though and they were quite friendly.  I decided that I shouldn't stay with them for too long because I felt like I was intruding on their moment. 

We walked through the campus until we came to my person's old house.  Here it is:

Nooooooooo.  Not the building in the background.  The empty space in front of it.

My person's old house had vanished.  Gone.  Totally.  She had wanted to take pictures of it, get asked what she was doing, and get invited in to her old house.  Shearbridge Green.  Block P.  But block P wasn't there and neither was the rest of Shearbridge Green.  My person felt quite sad about it and was surprised to find herself knocked about inside.  She wonders where all the other people from block P are now so many years later.  She will never know.

My person's old house had gone.  Yes.  It had become a car park.

We walked back down the hill into the city and that's when Winefride and I had a very big adventure that we hadn't expected to be having.

We all needed to use a toilet.  And on the way we bumped into this creature.

This is a creature called Pikachu and I understand that he's very famous indeed.  He is a Pokemon and it was quite surprising to be meeting him because he's fictional.  Winefride and I are very real of course and meeting us would have come as no surprise at all to Pikachu.  But he's not real.  So it was a very surprise meeting indeed.  He couldn't be there because he's not real.  Nevertheless there he was right in front of us, dancing around to some rubbish music that kept repeating over and over again.  My person asked if we wanted to have our pictures taken in front of Pikachu and that seemed like a very good idea.  Document our meeting with a creature who doesn't exist.

So here I am with Pikachu.

Here is Winefride with Pikachu.

And here are the two of us with Pikachu.

We felt a bit sorry for the poor creature because it was trapped behind some barriers and it kept going backwards and forwards and turning round inside the barriers as if it was looking for some way out, like a caged lion slowly going insane in an inappropriate environment.  My person told us that Pikachu would be taken from the enclosure later.  But that's when it gets even more worrying.  She told us that sometimes Pikachu has to live in a tiny ball, just a few inches across.  She told us that Pokemon are wild creatures in the country where they live and they run around having fun.  Pokemon live in freedom.

And then they are hunted.  Hunted by people who want to catch all of them.  It's not like the way we've been hunting Snowdogs.  Not at all.  We hunt our Snowdogs down, make friends with them, take some photos.  And then our Snowdogs are still free. But when people hunt Pokemon, wild and free on the plains of their country, they actually catch the poor creatures.  And they force them to live in these tiny balls.  I don't know how such a large creature can fit in such a small space but it must be an awfully uncomfortable squeeze for them.

And that's not all.  Most of the time the poor Pokemon have to stay in the little balls.  And they're only released for short periods of exercise.  But not just any exercise.  Oh no.  Nothing so innocent.  They are only released in order to fight other Pokemon.  They have to fight each other and they are rewarded for doing well in the fights.  If they don't do well then they nearly die and have to recover later.

Yes.  You read that right.  People catch wild animals and make them fight nearly to the death.  Over and over again.  And these same people think that's a good thing and they get rewarded for having lots of trapped Pokemon and for having the Pokemon fight lots.

It all seems quite barbaric to me.  It's like cock fighting or dog fighting.  Except it's Pokemon fighting.  Which involves creatures with bigger weapons.

Fortunately none of that is real.  My person says it isn't real.  She says Pokemon are fictional, including Pikachu even though we met Pikachu.  She says that cock fighting and dog fighting and lots of similar things are all very nasty things indeed and that most horrible things like that are not legal in this country.  I'm glad they're not legal.  At least there's that.

So we left Pikachu behind, still in its enclosed space.  Still with that awful tune that kept repeating.  Maybe the music pacifies the Pokemon in some way so that it doesn't attack everyone.  There were lots of children there.  Maybe without the music the Pikachu would have attacked the children.  I don't know.

We were hoping for some more adventures in Bradford.  And later that day we were going to meet my creator too for a few hours and I was looking forward to that lots and lots and lots of lots because I hadn't seen her for weeks and weeks.  We would have fun with my creator.  Lots of fun.  Next time I'm going to share a video with you.  It's quite a strange video.  Nooooooo.  It's a very strange video.  I'll do that next time.



[1840 words]

Blob Thing Remembers An Angel's Words And Freedom In Southport

I don't want to say much this morning.  Yesterday Winefride and I found six more snowdogs and we also went to see the Angel of the North.  That angel is my friend.  That angel told me some very special things the first time we met.  After meeting the angel I had been so thrilled by the experience that I got my person to write about it and together we wrote a post.  It was one of the first posts on my blog and we wrote it five months ago today.  Here it is, under this link.

I'm still not going to tell you everything the angel said to me in his special message.  But the angel was right and my life has been a lot more extraordinary and exciting than I could have dreamed all that time ago.  I think that there will be even more exciting times ahead for me and for my person.  And for Winefride too.  Five months ago I hadn't ever imagined that I could have a sister and would love her as much as I do.  I won't share that special secret message.  But I want to share again some of what the angel said to me that day:

"You're a Blob, unique.   Be proud of yourself.  Be proud of who and what you are and live your life in the wonder of your own being.  Be you, love others, and don't let anyone make you feel bad for living a life of freedom and love in whatever way is right for you.  Let go of the things you can't do.  Those things are for others.  Embrace what you can do.  Embrace your desires, your dreams, your passions and let your creative spirit flow.   If people look down on you for being a Blob Thing rise above them and know that you are beautiful, you are strong and you are as valuable as any soft toy could be."

Those are good words for me still.  And they're excellent words too for my person.  She needs to do these things better but she's learning.  She let go of something last week that she wanted to do but couldn't.  And the letting go was hard for her.  I was very proud of her for putting down something while knowing that it was a very good something she was putting down.

Today of course we're going snowdog hunting again.  My person says we're going back to Sunderland.  We were there twelve days ago hunting for butterflies and we saw some of the dogs then but now we want to find them all.  We want to see eleven dogs today and some little dogs too.  Little dogs but not Little Dog.  Little Dog lives here with us.  He's small and white and he's quite old.  I'm not yet one year old and Little Dog might be twenty-five years old.  Maybe he could come on an adventure with me one day because he's only little.

I said I didn't want to say much but then I said lots.  And I want to share some more pictures from that happy day in Southport.  It had been a very good day and I had lots of adventures.  I like adventures.  Most soft toys don't get to have as many adventures as me.  Not even the soft toys I live with.  It would be quite difficult for them all to come out on our adventures.  My person wouldn't be able to carry all of them because there are quite a lot of friends.  And some of them, like Adunno, are heavy.  He's a very heavy unicorn because he had surgery.

I was with my person and my creator in a field after we drank tea and it was so nice there.  I think it might be less nice to lie down on that grass today.  I think it would be a lot colder and the ground would be very wet.  But on that day it was perfect and we were all happy.  I played and bounced up and down the field.

Before we left I lay back on the ground and looked up at the sky.  It was very beautiful.

Of course, I didn't look directly at the sun.  That wouldn't have been good for me.  But my person could point the camera at the sun and that was it didn't hurt her eyes.  Can you see?  Can you see?  Ooh, ooh, can you see?  There are bubbles in that photo.  Because we blew bubbles too.  What can make a perfect moment even more perfect?  Bubbles.  That's what.

Eventually it was time to move on and we decided to walk to the sea.  But first we had to cross this big lake that's in Southport.  That was quite pretty too.  My person took a really nice picture of my creator as we walked by the lake.

And we saw lots of birds too.  They were good to see.

It was a long way to the beach.  I don't know why they put the sea so far away from the carousel and the crazy golf.  It's a long way.  And even when you get to the beach the sea is still a long way away.  I've been to Southport beach several times now and I haven't yet seen the sea.  My person tells me that the sea does come a lot closer sometimes and says that one day we will go there and be surprised because the sea will be nearer and we will see waves.  I saw lots of waves in the last couple of weeks because I've seen the sea several times.  Last time I went to Southport we walked all the way to the beach to sit and watch the sun setting.  It had been a very sunny day.  But just as it got time for the sun to set there was lots of cloud in the sun setting direction and we could hardly see the sun.  We sat and watched anyway.  Winefride was there too that time because she likes to come out with us.

I took this picture of my person.  In the background is my creator and behind her is a fairground.  My person says that she has never seen this fairground open.  Maybe she just goes at the wrong time.  She might like to go on that big wheel but might not like the fast rides.

And then it was time to go.  We couldn't stay in Southport forever.  So we walked back to the train station and I got to sit on a plant with very big leaves.  That was fun too.  I don't think anyone else got to sit on the plant that day.

On the train I sat and remembered the day and I drank my tea.  You will notice that we bought our tea from a shop called Subway.  That's not at the station.  You can't buy cups of tea at Southport station.  There's a shop outside that sells drinks.  But it doesn't sell cups of tea.  It sells cups of coffee.  But it doesn't sell tea.  You have to walk a very long way indeed to buy a cup of tea in Southport, especially when it's so late that most of the shops are shut.  But we found tea because we needed tea.  We hadn't drunk tea since going to the cafe by the field.  And now we needed tea.  My person likes tea.  She's especially obsessed by what she calls black tea.  She has it with milk so it's not black.  And it comes in a white packet.  But the packet used to be black so she called it black tea when the packet was black and now she still calls it black tea even though the packet is white and she has it with milk.  She seems to think that's a totally reasonable way of naming tea.  She's also got some green tea here.  But that's not green tea.  It's a spiced tea and the tea is black.  But the packet is green.  She wants to get some red tea too but only knows of one shop that sells it and that's in Manchester which is a long way to go for a teabag.  My person does also have lots of green tea that is proper green tea.  Black tea and green tea are both black teas but her green teas are green.  My person has too much tea.  But she likes tea and I have to say that sharing in tea drinking with her is very nice.  I like tea too.  My person has more than one mug.  That's good because how else would I be able to have tea to drink?

So there I am, with my tea.  I was quite tired but it had been a wonderful day and I was happy.  I am happy now because I'll be seeing snowdogs today.  And I'm happy because I saw the angel yesterday and was reminded of all that the angel said to me.  I'm happy because I've got my sister.  I love Winefride.  I have lots to be happy about.  My person says that there are lots of sad things going on in the world.  My person says that life can be quite difficult for her.  And it can be much more difficult for lots of other people.  But I am still happy.  Because I am me.  Because I am loved and love.  Because I listened to the angel.  Because life is a wonder and because I am awestruck by the amazingness of it all.  And because there is always tea in this house.  And tea is a happy thing.



[1612 words]

Blob Thing Remembers Happy Times Of Friends, Sunshine and Tea In Southport

Blob Thing says:

My person doesn't seem to be very happy this morning.  I think it's got something to do with that nasty Mr. Trump.  She says that Mr. Trump has said lots of stupid things.  She says that Mr. Trump has said lots of mean things too.  About disabled people.  About black people.  About women.  About people of other religions.  About almost anyone who isn't like him.  My person doesn't like Mr. Trump much and I have to say that I haven't seen much to make me like him.  But my person says that a lot of people seem to like Mr. Trump even though he has said so many horrible things about so many people.  My person says that horrid Mr. Trump has just won some kind of popularity contest and now he's going to be given lots of power and will even be given a button that he can press if he wants to blow up the world.  I think that's what my person means.

My person seems upset by it all.  I've told her not to worry and that we can go out and have a nice day anyway and hunt for some more snowdogs.  Yesterday she took Winefride and me out and we saw lots of dogs.  We saw nine that we haven't seen before.  We would have seen ten but one was missing and we were so sad that Winefride and I cried lots about it and it was only when my person told us that we would go on a boat and then go and see some more dogs that we cheered up.  It's sad that there's a missing dog.  Tomorrow we might see where there used to be another dog and that one's missing too.  My person says that there were 61 big dogs altogether but that we will only be able to see 58 of them.  There are lots of little dogs too.  And yesterday I was really very pleased because I was able to introduce Winefride to one of my old friends, the Herma Merma Dragora.  She was a bit scared to begin with because the Herma Merma Dragora looks quite fierce but she soon relaxed.  He's obviously still working very hard at his job because the sea ogre from Cleveleys hasn't paid a visit and destroyed South Shields.

Today I want to tell you about a happier time.  The only thing that could have made it happier for me was if I had been able to share it with Winefride.  But she hadn't been created then.  It was a very long time ago.

It was a day of friendship.  A day of sunshine.  A day to relax and to smile.  I smile all the time.  I can't help it because I'm a pretty happy person except when my person forgets to take me out or when a snowdog is missing.  I also can't help it because my smile is sewn onto my face.  But sometimes I smile more.  And it's obvious from the pictures.

We were in Southport and were having a good time.  It was the day I sat in the shoe of a giant too.  Exciting.  We went into a shop and it was there that I found lots and lots of friends to play with and it was such fun to see them smile and to watch how they could all move all by themselves even though they are toys.  Some of them were so funny and I laughed a lot and my creator laughed and my person smiled.

I think my creator wanted to take all of the new friends home with us and I wouldn't have minded that at all.  They were all quite lovely and it was a pleasure to meet them all.  Unfortunately a person said that we would have to pay lots of money for each friend we wanted to take home.  So we could only afford to choose one friend.  Who to save?  Who to save?  Eventually the decision was made and my creator said we would take an elephant with us.  I hope all those other friends are okay and that they looked after each other well.  I will probably never see them again but meeting them was a joy.

We walked on from the shops and we found a place to drink tea.  We all needed some tea.  It was very nice because we sat outside and the weather was lovely and there was a field and I was very happy with the whole experience.  Here I am posing with the tea and my new elephant friend.  In the background you can just make out my creator.  My person took quite a lot of pictures of my creator that day and in some of them you can see pure joy on her face and it's wonderful.  Especially in the pictures taken on the beach.  I'll be telling you about that in my next post.

After our drinks of tea we all left the cafe and we went to the field and we sat on the grass.  And then we lay down and looked at the sky and it was very beautiful.  My person says that there is beauty in the world no matter who wins an election.  I hope we find some of that beauty today.  She needs to smile more and laugh more and be silly more.  Silly in a good way.

We took lots of sky pictures that day.  My person likes the sky.  Sometimes she sees all the colours of the rainbow even on a cloudy day and sees rays of coloured light coming from the sky and hitting the ground.  I think she might just be imagining it or that she's just being strange but she seems to enjoy it when it happens and sometimes she gets a bit happily lost staring at the dark clouds.  I prefer it when it's sunny.  But clouds can be very pretty too and on that day the sky was beautiful.

We sat in the field and we blew bubbles with our bubble guns and we lay back and there was peace inside us.  I recommend it.  Sitting or lying back in a field on a sunny day and just being at peace.  Just be there.  In that moment.  Forget about Mr. Trump.  Forget about all the hard things of life.  Let them go.  And just be.  With the grasses.  With the sky.  With the warmth.  With the sound of a child's laughter as they run around with a borrowed bubble gun.  Just be.  My person doesn't just be enough.  She lets thoughts run wild and gets caught up in things even when there's really nothing to get caught up in.  She's learning though.  And I am teaching her.

One last photo of me.  I was very happy indeed.  I'll tell you about the rest of the day next time.

There will be more days like this.  No matter what happens in the world - unless Mr. Trump ever decides to press that button - there will be plants and sunshine and clouds and light and shade and bubbles and friendship.  Someone wrote this morning that the world has just got darker.  Maybe so, but there is still light and warmth and the sea and snowdogs and there are still lots of people who seek to walk in that light.


[1232 words]

Blob Thing And Winefride Nearly Get Arrested On Wrecsam Station

Blob Thing says:

You know what?  I'm a bit cross with my person right now.  I've calmed down a bit from earlier but I'm still a bit cross.  She's trying to make up for things by letting me write a blog post but she made a big mistake today.  Do you know what she did?  Do you?  No, you probably don't.  She went out today and photographed lots of Snowdogs.  She did.  And she forgot to take me and Winefride with her.  There we were, deserted at home in the warm.  And there she was, walking from dog to dog in the pouring rain without us.  She's a bit crazy is our person.  She walked for miles today.  In the rain.  At least she wore her adventure coat.  She says that she realised her mistake when she found her first Snowdog - a really posh one in a suit, suitable perhaps for somewhere like Gosforth.  She found seven Snowdogs today and lots of little dogs too.  And Winefride didn't see any of them.  Neither did I.  And that's not really fair is it?  And some of them were in Jesmond Dene and she's been promising to take us there for ages.  She's saying now that she'll take us on a sunny day and we can go and look at all the other animals there because though the dogs might have gone the birds and the goats will still be there.

So yes.  I'm a bit cross with her tonight.  Next time she goes out she's got to take us with her and she's promised to take us Snowdog hunting this week.  We might even go twice for two long days of hunting.  We're going to shoot them all.  Shoot, shoot, shoot.  Not with a gun.  We haven't got a gun to shoot with.  Partly that's because we don't want a gun.  Partly it's because we don't need a gun.  My person says she used to know a minister who would carry a big gun with him as he travelled between his churches.  He didn't have a car so had to walk, sometimes for more than a day.  And sometimes he would have to use his gun to scare off lions and tigers.  I don't think we will have to scare many lions in Newcastle.  And partly we don't have a gun because of laws.  Some countries have very strange laws and lots of people have guns because ... well, I don't know quite why.  But in some countries there are shootings all the time and I know there aren't many here.  I think it's because somebody once wrote some words on a piece of paper and those words fit a situation in another bit of history.  And then people think those words should be taken to mean only one thing for all time and everyone should be able to have guns even if they haven't got lions to scare.  I think that's why.

My person is telling me to hurry up and get on with my blog and stop talking about guns.  I saw some men who looked a bit like the ones at the bottom of this post.  They were at Newcastle station when Winefride and I were meeting Snowdogs there the other day.  Except these men were carrying big and scary looking guns and the men in the picture later didn't have guns.  I don't like seeing guns.  It scares me.  I have read it's because there might be scary people around.  But the guns scare me and every time I see them I want to cry and hide.  I know guns have good uses, like starting running races, but I don't like them.  Why do people want to shoot and hurt and kill other people?  They are stupid.

My blog.  I want to tell you about Winefride.  I want to tell you about something that happened when she was only one day old.  I'd sat and watched as my person and my creator acted together and created my sister.  They did a very good job.  She's severely autistic and she's wonderful.  She's also got a tumour but it's benign so that's okay.  I think.  I don't really know what a tumour is.  The very next day after Winefride was made we all took her out on an adventure.  We went all the way to another country.  It's the only time I've ever been to another country.  My person says that she used to live there.  The country was called Wales and there were lots of signs in another language.  While we were in Wales we took Winefride to her very first play area.  She enjoyed it so much and squealed and made all kinds of happy noises.  We enjoyed rocking together on this toy.

My creator and my person both had a ride on this toy and it was very funny watching them.  There is a video of my person using it and she rocked back so far that her head nearly collided with the ground!  It was so funny and I laughed until my sides hurt.  I'm glad my sides didn't split.  They're only held together with stitches and I wouldn't want my insides to fall out.

Later Winefride and I met some sheep.  I've already told you about the Welsh sheep.  I think I've even mentioned Uncle Adrian's emergency Welsh sheepdogs who are going to come and herd some as yet non-existent sheep into the sensory room.  I wanted to show you this picture again because I think it shows just how much I love my sister and how much my sister loves me.  I was so happy to have a sister.  And I still am.  My person needs to give my fur a clean sometime.  I can tell that when I look at old photos.

And then it was time to go back to the railway station.  It was called Wrecsam Cyffredinol.  I know that because it says so on the sign.  I posed in front of it and then Winefride came and joined me.  She couldn't read the words but she wanted to be in the picture too and was obviously getting upset that she wasn't in it.  So here we are together.  I am managing to look at the camera - which I don't always manage.  Winefride is looking in completely the wrong direction.  You can see that she didn't have reins then.  If she had then what followed might have been very different.

You see, Winefride was tired.  She was less than a whole day old so that's not surprising.  And she was a bit anxious because there had been so many new things.  And it was quite boring having to wait for yet another train.  This was the fourth one we had waited for that day.

Winefride started to misbehave.  She didn't know better and she was just being her wonderful self but most people would have thought her behaviour inappropriate.  She ran off.  She did.  It was actually quite worrying a couple of times because it took us ages to catch her and she had run too close to the platform edge.  She might have fallen and been run over by a train and that would have been the saddest thing possible for me.

Between the three of us we managed to get Winefride to calm down.  I was good at it because she's my sister.  My creator was very good at it because she knows a lot about autistic children and how to look after them.  She's gifted and skilled.  My person got a bit flustered by the whole thing and a bit worried in case she couldn't look after Winefride properly when we got back to Newcastle.  As it turns out she's done a very good job.  Except today when she forgot to take us out with her.

Winefride had her picture taken by this sign.  I wanted the picture to be taken.  I haven't got a clue what any of it says because it doesn't say anything in a language I speak.  Winefride didn't have a clue either but I think she liked the picture at the bottom and I think she might also have liked the shade of blue.  My person says that she used to pass through a place called Amwythig a lot.

And then.  We only took our eyes of her for a moment.  To look at a bird.  And then Winefride was off again.  Running up and down the platforms and I was chasing after her.  And she was making a lot of noise.  Lots of excited squeals and somehow or other she was flapping too even though she doesn't have anything to flap with.  She was obviously having a very good time.  But the people on the station platform weren't.  She was being very loud.  People were looking at us.  And then they were looking at my person and my creator with very disapproving faces.  I could tell.  Because they were tutting and shaking their heads like it was the end of the world.  And my person and my creator were trying to catch up with Winefride too.  I knew she was having fun but I was worried about her because she obviously didn't have any sense of danger.  How could she when she was a one day old severely autistic soft toy?

And then someone must have called the police because I heard a whistle behind me and I looked and there were two policemen there chasing after us too.  And that was scary.  I called to Winefride and she happened to look back.  And she stopped running.  I don't think it's because she thought she was doing anything wrong.  I think it was just the bright colours of the policemen's jackets that had caught her eye.

The policemen told us to stop moving.  One of them picked me up.  And the other picked up Winefride.

Winefride started to laugh but I was worried because these were policemen.  Actual policemen.  And I thought we were going to be arrested and thrown in a prison and I am scared of prisons.  It doesn't matter whether it's the prison at Hexagon where I was put in the stocks, or the prison I saw near Durham or any other prison.  I don't want to have to go and live in one.

My person and my creator finally caught up with us.  They were out of breath.  I am so thankful.  Especially to my creator.  She explained the situation carefully to the policemen and explained all about autism and about the difficulties it presents.  And she apologised for Winefride's behaviour.  I apologised too.  But Winefride didn't because she can't talk - or doesn't talk - and because she didn't know that she had been behaving in any way out of the ordinary.

The policemen relaxed and then they smiled.  And we were told that we shouldn't behave in such a way again and just this time we wouldn't be arrested.  The policemen were very nice about the whole thing and even let us have our picture taken with them.  Thank you policemen.

I love my sister.  But sometimes living with her can be challenging.  That's okay.  She's more than wonderful anyway.  Even on days when my person forgets to take us out.



[1888 words]

Blob Thing Meets Pudsey and Upsy Daisy Before A Well Earned Rest

Blob Thing speaks:

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]