Posts by Hilary Stace
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When the Education Act was passed in 1989 with Section 8 giving the right for ALL kids to attend their local school, there was also a provision (if I recall correctly) for a parents' monitoring/advocacy group. Didn't happen.
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We lived in a two storeyed house with the telephone (black bakelight with woven cord) in a room upstairs which we called the study. So if the phone rang you had to run from wherever you were in the house or garden or miss the call. Callers expected that and waited a long time. I remember the excitement when we got a phone extension (two tone green with twirly plastic cord) downstairs. That was the start of sitting on stairs in various houses/flats having long free phone calls. I remember thinking how wonderful it would be if you could see the person you were talking to.
All his life my father only ever made toll calls (or allow others to make them) in times of emergency or very special occasions, as they were so expensive. He would stand by the phone and the caller with a loudly ticking timer and three minutes was the absolute maximum allowed. Otherwise communication with people not in the same town was via a blue lettercard or light paper aerogramme form.
In the 1960s my oldest sister and her husband travelled down the Amazon for several months and later came back from London overland via Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Every few months they collected mail from home via poste restante and sent a letter off. That isolation seems almost bizarre today.
As teenagers we learnt the phone box tapping trick, but I was too law abiding to utilise it often. And isn't it strange how readily you recall your own phone number and those of your friends from those early days?
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Access: Here's to them, in reply to Rob Hosking,
Yes
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This latest blog post from the local Autism and Oughtisms blog for WAAD mentioning the recent diagnosis of second autistic child seems appropriate
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Thanks Russell, Paul (welcome) and Giovanni. Have been out most of this World Autism Awareness Day having autism conversations. Just met with a mother and her lovely daughter. They are going through that school thing of lack of understanding, enforced homework, unaddressed reading issues etc etc. These days I mainly encourage people to join in some of those well moderated Facebook groups - being wary that it is a public noticeboard - such as Autism in NZ. There is a wealth of information and support to be found in the collective wisdom and experience of other parents (mainly mothers seem to use Facebook in this way).
It has been so helpful for me hearing about the experiences of Russell and others over the years, as parenting can be lonely. Young Matt Frost and Paul Gibson were significant for me in their days with CCS in showing what was possible.
What great networks we have now, and growing. And continually increasing expectations for our young adults too.
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Hard News: How about that cricket, eh?, in reply to Stuart Coats,
The Club we were involved with only seems to do Junior Cricket. But thanks for that information. Will follow up. My son already does swimming, golf and indoor football with Special Olympics which now also does Unified sport (meaning for anyone), but cricket is his favourite and SO, being a US programme, doesn't do that.
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Hard News: How about that cricket, eh?, in reply to Chris Werry,
Which region are you in Chris?
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Hard News: How about that cricket, eh?, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
Grant Elliott seemed like a really nice person on Campbell Live tonight. He said he was taught to be humble in victory as that scene played of him walking over to shake the hand of the poor man on the ground. He also said he was up at 6 this morning settling the baby, and Metiria said in Parliament that he had Green sympathies- so doesn't seem the macho sledging type.
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Hard News: How about that cricket, eh?, in reply to izogi,
Wouldn't it be nice if there were some of those inclusive teams for adults so they could recapture that pleasure of playing? My son would love one, but they don't seem to exist.
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Russell may liken Vettori's batting and running to a goony bird, but Martin Guptill reminded me of a sparrow during his stellar batting effort in Wellington. It's like the way sparrows - when pecking at crumbs - constantly glance all around and then shake and fluff up their feathers. Totally alert and prepared and aware of all their surroundings and potential threats.