Danni's Blog

Yesterday I got back from a very enjoyable weekend in London. I travelled there to meet up with some people I know from Second Life and Plurk (Splurkers), and it was a lot of fun.

It is always nice to be accepted for who you are, and those I met all did so. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, as although I knew a lot about most of them from Plurk (including all the details of Johan’s bus journeys, what time and what they ate for lunch, that WillowC is finding it hard to get up in the mornings and get on with writing her book) it isn’t quite the same as meeting them in person. Luckily, I needn’t have worried, as they were all just as friendly and funny in real life as in Second Life and on Plurk.

As always, I had a Tux in my bag, and as we got to the meal I took him out so I’d have something to focus on while calming down (unfortunately I panicked in Leicester Square tube station, as there were too many police officers. I guess I still haven’t managed to conquer that fear yet). He was a hit, and there are now several photos of him on Flickr doing various things, including eating or sniffing bacon salt, having a drink, and apparently flirting

After the meal (hamburgers, and Johan’s chair got replaced by a highchair at one point as he kept complaining he was small) we went to a pub. Funnily enough, it wasn’t the younger members of the group (Johan and me) who got IDed, but a couple of the older ones. It wasn’t too crowded or noisy in there, but it was noisy enough so that for the first half hour or so I couldn’t filter what people were saying over the background noise. Vint asked me at one point to stop wriggling (we hadn’t actually spoken on Plurk so she was unaware I was autistic) but with help from my autism alert card I think she understood that would be difficult for me (I was part rocking, part wriggling to try and stay on the bar stool, as I kept slipping off).

After going with Vint on the search for a working cash machine (the first lot we tried didn’t work) I went to the bar and ordered an alcoholic drink for myself. This is an achievement, as I find it difficult to order and am scared to order anything alcoholic due to lack of ID, but since I was already in there I knew they knew/thought I was over 18. By this point people were leaving the area we were sitting in, so I was able to hear and understand the conversation, and was able to join in. The alcohol also relaxed me, which helped (except for the staying on the bar stool problem). There were also these really cool colour-change lights that I was able to watch

Eventually we determined that we would have to leave if we wanted to get back to the various places we were staying, and Oli had managed to miss his train home. Vint, Tenebrous and DakotaB all went back to where they were staying, and the rest of us got the tube. As Oli had missed his train, he was to stay at Loaf’s along with Johan and me, and we managed to convince WillowC to come along as well (Loaf’s promise that his had vodka helped). After getting back (bus replacement service meant it took a lot longer than it should, plus Loaf lives about as far out as is connected by the Tube station) we continued chatting, and it turned out that Loaf had absinthe, which even Johan was convinced to have a bit of.

I think I got the most sleep, as I went up to bed at 4.30am (though fell asleep around 5am). I was aware of several people going to the bathroom at various times, and was awake at 10.30am, though didn’t get out of bed until 11am. That was when everyone else started getting up, and Loaf made a delicious fried breakfast, with bacon salt. We stayed to chat and things until around 3pm, when Loaf drove us to a tube station (his local still had the bus replacement service) and we all went our seperate ways.

I went back to Leicester Square, hoping to go see The Dark Knight at the Odeon there, but they’d sold out of tickets by the time I got there. I bought a ticket to see Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging instead at the Vue, and went into McDonalds for an ice cream. The machine was broken, so I had a milkshake instead. What I didn’t realise was that it was the hottest day of the year so far, and the temperature in London was 30?C. After the film (which was really funny, and quite faithful to the books) I went to Victoria coach station, and enjoyed the bouncy seats on the Victoria line (I didn’t enjoy the heat so much). The coach station was noisy, hot and pretty crowded, and in the end I paid 20p to go into the toilets to try and calm down, as I was very anxious. I managed to get back to a reasonable state, only to find even more people waiting for the coach.

It turned out that there were so many people on that service that they were using two coaches, and I was on the second one (the first was only to Edinburgh). Unfortunately there are only two seats with decent leg room, and someone else with long legs sat next to me. This made me anxious as I was very aware of him, and when he slept he ended up leaning on me, which was very uncomfortable and made me want to poke him (I didn’t, instead I took some of the diazepam I had taken with me in case I needed it). I eventually got home at about 6.40am, and caught up with my Plurks and went to bed.

I have learnt many things from this trip. I actually enjoy socialising when I know the people well (they were very like what I was expecting, thanks to Plurk) and know what’s going to happen. My balance problems are still pretty bad, and I need to avoid bar stools. Most people don’t notice me stimming, and those who do are okay with it once they know I’m autistic. Coach journeys are a no-no, and I’ll get the train next time. People can accept me for me. Tux is great, as I can use him as a prop to get to know people while I get used to the situation. I still managed to knock a lot of things over even before I started drinking, but that’s okay. I want to do it again

To end this post, links to the flickr pages of those who took pictures:
Loaf’s Pictures
Tenebrous’ Pictures
Vint’s Pictures

And blog posts:
DakotaB’s Blog Post