Adventures with Asperger's Syndrome

Of the many things I usually enjoy that I have missed during lockdown, one of them is rail travel, as no doubt may others have too. Living through such unusual circumstances though can give us an opportunity to explore the unfamiliar. Exploring the unfamiliar opens up possibilities to discover aspects of ourselves we may have perhaps been unaware of for so long, in particular our creative capacities. To make up for not being able to go on real railway journeys, lockdown has seen my focus my attention more towards miniature railway journeys, where I have been making some additions to my model railway. With many of having to spend more time at home to help reduce the spread of Coronavirus, railway modelling has seen a boom in both rediscovery of the pastime through train sets being brought back to use after being packed away in attics for years and new uptake of the hobby, which has seen model railway firms, including Hornby, experience a boom in sales even higher than during their usu

Being unable to travel long distances other than for essential reasons during lockdown has seen our physical worlds shrink, not only in adventure travel terms but also in daily living, including those used to travelling distances for working purposes or even just a short commute into work from home or travelling to see friends and family. As someone who enjoys adventure travel, my physical world, not just in relation to my recent adventures but also regarding the travel plans I had for 2020 including one adventure that has been postponed to 2021 and another, which at the time of writing is subject to review as to whether it can go ahead, has shrunk hugely. Spending more at home during lockdown though that has enabled me to revisit a place where a geological field trip played a part in inspiring me to travel, South Tyneside’s Whitburn Coastal Park. Sea Arch, Whitburn Often, the wanderlust in us constantly sets our adventure horizons to far flung places with other-worldly look

As I write this piece, lockdown measures to halt the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) have been in place for over five weeks, which has seen the landscapes of our lives completely altered with self-isolating. Staying at home, including working from home where we can, social distancing when going out for necessary reasons such as to obtain food and/or medicine have pulled many of us out of our comfort zones. Different households, and indeed different individuals, circumstances are a factor in how they affect our experience of lockdown conditions, including how we cope with it. For me, being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome who has experienced high level social isolation, of the many things that living through Covid-19 lockdown conditions can teach us is the value of common humanity. Between October and November of 2019, I undertook an eight-week course in Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC). Developed by psychologists Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer, the purposes of the practi

As I write this entry, like all of us, I am currently living under self-isolation conditions due to the very strange and obviously worrying threat of the Coronavirus. With being only able to leave home for essential reasons, it will likely be a fair while before I am able to post a travel-themed blog entry, so instead, I am going write the entry that I have been wanting to post for quite some time! Those who know me well will likely know that as well as Asperger-related obsessions with railways, astronomy and cricket, all of which began for me at young age, I also have quite an obsession with TV nostalgia. The story I am about to tell is what I consider to be possibly the greatest story for those, like myself, who grew up in the UK in the 1980s. A inter-woven series of developments that occurred during my upbringing would not only see a rat save a flagship TV station, but would also be an inspiration to travel, including learning as to why it is important to take plenty of toothp

Located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Tanzania, with its tropical climate, palms trees, white sand beaches, turquoise waters and coral reefs, the Zanzibar archipelago is visually a travel agent's dream location providing the perfect photo-opportunity for marketing purpose for holiday companies to use to tempt us to go ahead and book our next break. Beyond such idyllic images though, which can sometimes become stored within the visual mind to the extent that we may feel the 'wish we were there' mentality on a cold and rainy day, there is a whole other sensory aspect of a place which the limitations of images and videos only having sight and sound can't replicate. Freddie Mercury House, Stonetown As a person with Asperger's Syndrome who practices mindfulness exercises, something that I have noticed while travelling in recent years is how much deeper I feel my sensory experience is of where I visit, often to he extent that I feel that I am able to recall