Hi all, thanks for the welcome.

[David C]

I could never dance a step, and girlfriends pressuring me to get up on a dance floor always resulted in me having a bit of a meltdown. I also have no musical abilities whatsoever. In grade 2 music lessons they got me to sit up the back and play the triangle and I couldn't play that in tune either.

From very early childhood I always preferred my own company and I still do.

 

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If you don't have a credit account you can't hire a car or book a hotel room, regardless of the fact that I have no need of credit. If it wasn't for that I'd have no need of a credit account.

 

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Did I send you a post about dancing? If so it was meant for someone else, sorry.

No, you quoted my post but didn't write anything to go with it.

 

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It's all good. It took me a while to get used to having simultaneous conversations too. I did mention dance but only the fact that I don't.

 

[Neri]

I could never dance a step, and girlfriends pressuring me to get up on a dance floor always resulted in me having a bit of a meltdown. I also have no musical abilities whatsoever. In grade 2 music lessons they got me to sit up the back and play the triangle and I couldn't play that in tune either.

From very early childhood I always preferred my own company and I still do.

My guyfriend is not a dancer. and even seems to get embarrassed by me dancing, he can sarcastic dance though, but will only do it at home, and only for me.

I find it one of the gifts of my autism, because I so badly wanted to connect with people, but didn't know how to verbally. I seem to either wow and/or amuse people, with my moves, or I totally weird them out. I'm pretty sure my autism shows loud and clear, when I dance, but the beauty is that people who watch me, often, seem to lose their own inhibitions and I've had the honour of getting the dance party moving on many an occasion. It's something I want to get back into, so excuse my going on about it, nostalgia is getting the better of me.

 

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@David C Not so different to the rest of us here then, eh?

 

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I find it one of the gifts of my autism, because I so badly wanted to connect with people, but didn't know how to verbally.

I seem to be the opposite, born with the gift of the gab. My brother and sister too. Mum reckoned we could talk under water with a mouth full of marbles.

 

[Neri]

I had someone telling me they love dancing more than anything then you telling me you hate it both at the same time, ha. I freeze up, then the girl says loosen up and I go into total meltdown

That was me with an art teacher at school. She was all "loosen up. Use more of the page" So I stopped drawing for 30 years. Anyway, there are other ways to appreciate music. Dancing is certainly not a prerequisite for enjoying music.

I seem to be the opposite, born with the gift of the gab. My brother and sister too. Mum reckoned we could talk under water with a mouth full of marbles.

I can talk fine now, but struggled so hard as a young woman. Me and my kid's dad never really learnt how to communicate with each other. The kid's have helped me open up, a lot.

 

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You can with a debit card. I hired a car last year just with my debit card where it's not credit but your own savings. I was surprised that all the hire car mobs accept it. I have a debit mastercard but with just my own money. I can't get a credit card because I went bankrupt. Just ask your bank for a debit card and they'll sort it for you.

That surprises me. Just two weeks ago Jucy rentals rejected my debit card, lucky I had a credit card as well, then when I got down to Mt Gambier the hotel rejected the debit card too. Nothing wrong with the debit card, it works fine everywhere else, but these two places would only accept a credit account, not debit.

 

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Hi David, I would have been happy to chat if I'd noticed your message sooner.

I was wondering what you mean by, "the other end of the spectrum" or is it just a play on words?

A lot of people identify being autistic with being disabled, and for some people that is the truth, but I never saw myself as disabled, I always saw myself as gifted with far more advantages than most.

 

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It is a social disability in some ways but it didn't hold me back much when I was younger. I was very socially active up until my early 40s, then I burnt out big time.

 

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I lived in Dundee for 10 years and got used to a much slower pace of life, and I got used to a very peaceful life only seeing other people once every couple of weeks on average. I lost all of my tolerance then, it took me a long time to adapt to being in a city again. I wasn't used to living in a house either and didn't like the feeling of being shut in a box. For the first year here I always left my front and back doors wide open when I was awake because I didn't like that closed in feeling.

 

[David C]

You seem like a very intelligent person. I see it as a social disability but that has turned out to be a

It is a social disability in some ways but it didn't hold me back much when I was younger. I was very socially active up until my early 40s, then I burnt out big time.

Yeah you mentioned getting along well with people. I had lots of friends in the past but the ones who I loved and got along with have all died. I love my own company, have you ever looked up quotes on being alone? It makes me feel lucky I'm a loner. I've become a bit selfish with my time as I've got older. It's so precious

 

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I can't say I've ever looked up anything about being a loner, but I was always like that even as a small child. I remember my Mum explaining to one of my teachers one time that "Yes, Andrew is a loner but he's not lonely, watch and you'll see for yourself.". That turned out great, after that when the rest of the class had sports lessons I was allowed to stay in class and read books instead.

That's a classic, it's great that you had no fear to do that

I certainly had fear, but it wasn't as big a fear as trying to carry on with the life I was living. Hold the bus, I want to get off. I had a great time and it turned out to be exactly what I needed, a decade of respite.

 

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I spent 10 years in Dundee being a guard dog on people's properties for them, and I was a good dog. I faced down all sorts of people coming in to properties that they shouldn't and I had no fear of guns or dogs. Admittedly my sense of self preservation wasn't at it's strongest back then either but everyone always backed down from me.

I had no fear of someone coming in to my home, if I was in a bad mood I sometimes wished for it. I'm a good dog.

 

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Truth is I would be happy living in my car. I love driving moving around, I've got a swag in my suv and made black out covers for the windows which are already tinted as dark as legally possible, I've not yet used my swag but I will soon

My only problem I have with that idea is that I do like to cook and I like to eat reasonably well. I have no problems hunting my own food but it's nice to have a proper kitchen to cook it in.

 

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Christmas day with my 2 dogs and we lived in the car for a week spending the day at the cemetery because it was a heat wave and there was a toilet, water hose to keep the dogs cool and a phone charger and was as happy as larry

That's what a lot of people struggled to understand about me when I was living on the streets. Everyone thinks if you're living on the street then you must be doing it tough, but I'd just spent 10 years living in remote rainforests. In Adelaide the lawns are mowed, there's running fresh water, public toilets, no scary predators, shops everywhere...

 

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I've always done best on a high protein diet, I eat a lot of meat. Quite often I only eat meat. Living in the city has me eating too many sugary things again but I'm not doing too badly.

 

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I didn't associate with many of the other homeless people and mostly kept to myself. I slept in the parklands off of South Tce, behind the football oval. Most people seemed to like sleeping in the city which is mental, concrete's pretty hard and unforgiving and it's cold as well. I slept under a bunch of pine trees on a soft bed of pine needles.

I had a large heavy duty tarp to put my doona on, and if the weather was wet and cold I could just pull the other half of the tarp over me. The tarp and all of my gear was black so people had to just about trip over me before they'd see me in the dark.

 

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The system here's different to the other states and quite well worked out. They have special hostels where they watch you and judge your "ability to live independently". So if someone's scabbing smokes and money off of people all the time then they never get to move in to their own home. Some people live in one of those hostels for years, I was there for 3 weeks. It was the hostel that organised getting this unit for me.