Strike Factory

I have been up to a fair bit the last 2 weeks or so, with me finishing my last volunteering shift as room steward at Nyman's for this year before business resumes next year with more rooms open in the house so looking forward to end of winter break in March. Plus have been invited to at least 3 Christmas Dinners so far, with the varying volunteer roles I have, plus started the Work Choice programme to seek long term employment and more one to one help hopefully.. I have been trying to be more diverse in my job searching as a big problem was at school and college I was mostly trained and believed strongly that an office admin role was my line of work (after dreams of being an artist and professional tennis player were ruled out). Only that once I left college I found this kind of work much harder to achieve than I thought, especially with mild autism so have been trying to train in other areas hence the Oxfam shop work and Nyman's Room Steward roles have been a big help getting me to do other things rather than just office work, and meeting great people. It helps keep me on my feet and not shutting down being reclusive at home.

I have been to see 2 theatre shows in last 2 weeks seeing firstly Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Woking with Carley Stenson plus Noel Sullivan starring in the show, and then on Saturday following a drink and celebrating Brightons win against MK Dons with friends I attended the Emporium Theatre to see Dial M For Murder the crime/ thriller play based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie. The theatre itself was an interesting venue a former church converted into a little theatre and bar with character. It was overall a great show and a treat afterwards to have a drink and chat with the cast of the show by Terri Dwyer (actress/ presenter known for Hollyoak's and 60 Minute Makeover) discussing things from theatre tour life to fondness for shortbread and where to find bargains for the stuff. It will be going on a National Tour with Talking Scarlet productions next year, so was a great opportunity to catch this show in a intimate venue like the Emporium, overall a great weekend.

Things have been good news and bad news the last week, best to start with the good first.I enjoyed the Abbotsford School reunion, meeting various past faces seeing that a fair few are doing well in life chatting about school life and 90s fashions, suggesting Mr Fahey do a sitcom to rival Danny Baker's Cradle To Grave, hearing about Stephen Fosters latest comedy plans, and my former teenage love for Anna Kournikova coming back to haunt me. 

I have been referred to the voluntary Work Choice programme by Job Centre in hope it can help me into part time work, though knowing the luck I have had with past work programmes not sure it will work but better to give it a go I suppose. I do my beast to keep positive and feel things are going alright in this direction.

The bad news is however that firstly I have had stomach pain issues the last week, that resulted me missing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels musical in Wimbledon (plus not getting advance ticket money back due to not activating £4 payment thingy beforehand), though consolation was watching the Back To The Future Trilogy at home another fine 80s movie classic. I however went to doctors found out it was a sort of stomach ulcer and been on medication for few days and feeling better.

Plus feel I have got a bit sluggish with things at home so going to see Sussex Oakleaf and see if they can offer a bit of support for assurance that I am doing things right like they did when I moved into my current flat aka Strike Towers a few years ago, so I feel comfortable, happy and content things are dealt with. It helps Sussex Oakleaf are based in same building as Crawley CVS where I volunteer. Have a good week people.  

 In the last few weeks I have seen Brighton remain top of the league and England crash out of the Rugby World Cup, however last Friday I made my international football spectating debut. Mark Raven an Albion supporter who regularly attends England games home and away had a spare ticket, and its been known in the last year I have wanted to make Wembley debut watching the 3 Lions. With England guaranteed the group winners and finals place at Euro 2016 assured whilst Estonia were just playing for pride. I decided to take up this ticket offer. Travelling by train to Wembley Central, then meeting Mark Raven in the dark backyard of the Sports Bar to collect tickets.

Wembley is a beautiful amazing gigantic stadium, with a leisure park next to it that seems to be endlessly expanding with various commercial advertisements that sadly cover up posters of England players outside the Stadium. The walk up Wembley Way was magical and got me wishing I went to this place years earlier before it was redeveloped with the infamous Wembley Towers in full view. I discussed with Mark as we walked to the Stadium about buildings that used to surround the Old Wembley  that were used for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 that were planned to be demolished like the Old Wembley Stadium after exhibition ended but were retained and used for other purposes however by 2000 the few surviving former exhibition buildings had been out of use for several years and like Old Wembley were demolished. We were in the top tier and after finding the crowded escalators a bit much due to Asperger's decided to use the less busy manual staircase instead and helped exercise my legs. We arrived at the stadium around the time Rooney received a pre match presentation, and watched the game and Theo Walcott ended up being the first international goal I saw. Whilst it was just a routine dead rubber for the England fans around me it was a fun debut experience and will try and pop along to another England game soon.

I am pretty busy next week with a Abbotsford School reunion next Friday that I am looking forward too that will be fun and a bit emotional with the passing of legendary teacher Grahame Jenkins earlier this year, and will be nice to meet old schoolmates. Also looking forward to attending a musical with a friend called Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Wimbledon starring old Oaks fave Carley Stenson. Plus will be hopefully doing a bit of clubbing somewhere in Brighton this weekend or next weekend.