I wrote this post about adopting a child in Japan (specifically Aichi prefecture) a few years ago for Ben’s Retire Japan website. The details are still fairly relevant so it’s worth a read if you or anyone else is interested in the procedure.
My mum and dad's wedding day back in 1970 for this week's #ThrowbackThursday submission. On my dad's side there is his older brother Chris and his mum and dad. On my mum's side is her aunt and two of her cousins who, like my mum, had emigrated from Ireland to #Portsmouth a few years earlier. This was taken outside St John's Cathedral. I particularly like my grandparents' 50s styling contrasting with the late 60s look of the flower girls.
Parking charges based on vehicle weight
"In Paris, owners of big, heavy cars will have to pay extra to park. Size, weight and motor will be taken into account as councillors target ‘dangerous, cumbersome’ vehicles. The aim was “to focus on an absurdity: auto-besity … the inexorable growth in the weight and size of vehicles circulating in our cities..”.
"SUVs are dangerous, cumbersome and use too many resources to manufacture."
My autistic grandfather dutifully cared for his wife (the grandmother I never got to meet) at the end of her fight with breast cancer.
Grandma Mary really wanted marijuana joints to cope with her pain, but the doctors only permitted her to use morphine (this was in the late 1970's). She couldn't administer it to herself so my grandfather injected it into her veins for her.
He told me this story one summer day when I was over at his apartment with my father. I was 10 years old at that time .
What prompted the story was grandpa Bill giving us a tour of his tackle box. I saw a syringe next to the rubber worms, and I asked what it was for. He explained that the fake worms injected with air made them seem life like to the fish, they'd wriggle about in the water, and were more likely to get a bite.
Then, he paused and told the story of that needle, and what it was originally for. After grandma Mary died, he kept all those remnant from that time, and everything seemed to have a repurpose . I watched him grimace as he took the morphine syringe in his hand and he angrily snapped it in two, and threw it away.
That was the first time I ever seen the gentle man look angry, actually, full of rage.
Only now, as I lay here in the hospital bed, after having a dose of Dilaudid, as the burning hot pain relief sears through my veins and breaks open my weary heart. I feel my grandmother, and I didn't have to meet her, to begin to feel her pain.
I feel grandpa's pain too. Repurposing the hurtful memories, the tools we are are actually given , when what we needed was something totally different. The autistic tendency to survive and "make due" with rampant unfairness.
Meet Zosia (Sophie), a new member of our #family! It was a bit of a struggle to get her here, but it’s all good now. She’s 54cm, 3,2kg, a healthy girl! Mom feels fine, the boys can’t wait to meet their new sister! She’s 1hour old on the picture!🥰 #NewBorn#Baby
After a three month break, I have decided to return to #blogging – just with a different attitude. I'm still trying to find my voice, but I've taken a lot of pressure off myself to do so on any given timeline.
Tonight’s #Friday Night traditional #Family ice cream trip consisted of black raspberry twisted with chocolate. First dish of the year! Only went with a small this time 🍦
It is hard to accept your self being #actuallyautistic . Even harder is the feeling of your #family denying your #autism . It hurts and makes accepting your boundaries even harder
Budapest, 1951. Fortepan has grown in size by various members of the public donating their family photos to the collection. The "ordinariness" of these photos help make it such a valuable and fascinating collection. Here we see members of the Kern family posing for a family photo on the leafy, fashionable streets of Buda.
I had to take a few days off so my kids won’t tire my almost not pregnant wife down. We went to a museum to see Barbie exhibition. After that we just went with the flow and pillaged through the usual inventory and then we climbed a tower to see the panorama of #Poznan. Also, some pizza was in order for the weary travelers!🥰 #Family#FunWithFamily