The last 9 weeks have been really busy! I have had a national or international trip once a week since mid May! The busyness is making me SUPER tired, so It’s time for a two week holiday away from work before i start to burn out.
I think the highlight of the last few months (possibly my hightlight of 2017!) was the trip to norway to speak at the Nordic Confrence on inclusive design. I talked to the audience there about how i use technology to support my autonomy and it went really well.
It was the first time i had traveling internationally for work outside of a whole team trip. It was amazing, our hosts where awesome and i had lots of fun exploring the city of Oslo.
Most of my travel is for events where i am presenting. For example talking about autism in Swansea, Cleathorpes, Winchester, Manchester, Salford and London.
I think this year is my 8th year doing public speaking and i feel as through i am really getting into my stride. I enjoy talking about my approach to being autistic and everytime i share and explain it i learn more about myself.
I have a few more talks arranged over the next few months so i look forward to those.
Being verbal, on demand, for an audience is a big achievement. It’s nice to feel useful!
Alongside all of the trips i have also been working on my normal BBC work. Since May we have come together as a team to run a big multi-location event and we have also got together for team meetings.
It’s great to be in a position where i can start taking a more direct and visible role in the team.
I think my work highlight of the last few months was when i took part in some user testing with autistic participants of a new BBC service. It was great to get feedback from the audience early and for it to inform our decisions going forward.
When not working or traveling i have also been working on the kit car project with my freind mike. We have updates about that on our car website, but the short version is that its going well and we’re making good progress.
I can’t be this busy forever and while day to day i have been coping i am getting quite worn down. Given the summer is the quiet time for our team i have booked two weeks off work from today. I am looking forward to a few weeks to relax, work on side projects and maybe get some of my lego models built!
