Welcome to the a new blog. My name is... well, that's not important. Call me Jonah. I am a graduate professional with a background in education. I live on Bigglesworth Drive, and my teenage son is profoundly autistic. By a way of a pseudonymous introduction, I would like to introduce you to the various people, institutions and organisations who feature on this blog.
Marifa is my son. He's 17, and profoundly autistic. He attends Trebor Nutgone Further Education Unit as a day pupil. The Head is called Alice Blossom, and his teacher Patrick O'Tiddle. It's a brilliant school.
The same can't be said of Apple Court, the residential respite centre run by Trotters Local Authority, where Marifa sleeps over once a week. Autism is a complex disorder, but none of the staff who work there have a professional qualification, despite being paid at the same rate as private sector Nurses. Granted, most of the staff at Apple Court are kind and caring, but they are hampered by Antonio Spineless, the centre's socially inept manager, who is in turn dominated by his arrogant and equally ineffectual deputy, Marcus Prickface.
By contrast, Marifa loves going to Chances, a privately owned fun-centre he visits at the weekend. This is not without its problems, but they and it are very ably managed by the impeccably professional Katrina Smart. I should point out that we are a one income household and Trotters pay for Marifa to attend Chances under the direct payments scheme.
As well as being an employment bureau for the local far-left, Trotters are also responsible for the motley crew of social workers who are supposed to oversee Marifa's social care and help him transition to appropriate adult provision. The most loathsome among them is undoubtedly Nathalie Feckless, a chavvy liar who hides her hypocritical lack of professional commitment behind a tissue-thin veneer of concern. Not suprisingly, she is an ally of fellow status seeker Marcus Prickface. Her line-manager is the drippy middle class Eva Polite, although lurking in the background - and far more influential on Apple Court staff - is another social care manager, Jackie Leninars, a well known local uber-lefty and former classroom assistant who knows far less about autism than she thinks. Finally, there is the Transition Manager, one Barry Handactor, an exemplar of the socially dysfunctional but deviously clever social worker. He wants to treat Marifa like any other child with severe learning difficulties because his priority is the budget. He has yet to meet my barrister.
Marifa is also cared for by two Paeditricians, Myles Windowledge and Professor Kalel. They know an awful lot about autism, and have often acted as informed friends in our various battles with other agencies. Assorted other professionals are involved with Marifa, but I will introduce them as they bob up on the radar.
JC, JM and LC are my spouse and daughters. JC is a Nurse. Both daughters are older than Marifa. LC, the eldest, lives with her boyfriend. She works with learning disabled adults. JM lives at home and works as a waitress. She's hoping to return to full-time education, at some point...
The Candles are a notorious family who live on this street, which is managed by a crap Housing Association called Jimmy Naff. Other families will be similarly referred to in the plural, prefixed by the definite article. I will refer to my own family as The Itchybums. Although I have written rather a lot about Marifa in this intro, and relatively little about Bigglesworth Drive, a considerable amount of blogspace will be devoted to the latter. I am particularly keen to track The Candles, whose swaggering unpleasantness is the cause of much local anguish. At least two families have moved off the street because of them. A near contemporaneous record of their noisy goings-on will hopefully be presented as evidence against them to Jimmy Naff at some point. Sadly, such is Jimmy Naff's crapness that we will probably have to wait until things get completely out of hand - e.g a Candle gets his or her lights punched out. Such is life.
Happy reading!
20 September 2009
Ps. Previous posts have been imported from an old blog, and amended to ensure continuing confidentiality.
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