The autism thread

just got my AuDHD after 60 years. Autism at age 40, and now ADHD(inattentive) at nearly 60 .

Fantastic news. Good thing is now he's settled and in and done the training even if he has a little wobble the business will be more likely to be supportive because he's trained and already proven himself. But sounds like it's all going great anyway.

For those of you into police procedurals and detective novels, take a look at the DS George Cross novels by Tim Sullivan.
His protagonist has ASD and it’s an interesting insight into what is going on in his head.. I am nowhere near that bad, but some of the stuff is quite close to the bone.

I go to the same hotel (and stay in the same room) for my birthday every year; they're dog-friendly (dogs are excellent shields), they let us have a little table on its own for breakfast and dinner, and the food is lovely.. We don't always go to the same places, but there are certain recurring day-trips.

For my wife's birthday she picks a general area (sometimes the Lake District, sometimes Suffolk, sometimes Cotswolds), and we find a nice dog-friendly hotel there. She's a bit more ADD and I'm a bit more ASC, but we're both both.

For us it's important to find somewhere dog friendly, not just dog tolerant.

I'm surprisingly OK with holidays. We do three nights, which is enough to get settled, but not so long you're unsafe (for want of a better term). Only in the UK, because neither of us likes airports.

For some reason I'm OK with my routine being different. I think it's holiday rules. You can quite safely have a completely different breakfast from normal, and you only have to choose from about five options. And they don't mind if you have the same thing every time, or different.

I do the research thing. Before booking, made sure all points accessible, places with shops restaurants car hire, train stations, bus stops.etc close by, Remember to pack the Sunflower Lanyard.
I street view the airport the train station/bus station/car pickup point, know which train/bus, know the route to the hotel, Street view the hotel and parking (if a car), Research the days out/trips in advance, not necessarily all will be done, but a selection of what I would like to do, given the time.

Take Ipad to research if there is a change to plan. Relatively happy to go with the flow within that structure, just dont decide on a trip 'tomorrow' then change it on the day, it won't end well. me and the wife have it pretty sorted now, she just lets me plan and she does all the hotel hunting cos all I want is location and a king size or bigger bed not bothered by the rest of the hotel stuff.

Our biggest problem is deciding country then narrowing down location. Cos then she can't find the right hotel at the right price with the right bed and we end up in another country and it all starts again.