I met some students and staff of Action For Kids (AFK) in Moorgate for Mayor show in cafe place. We all had hot drink.

It was great day because great weather,  great people.

We started at barbican. AFK went to mayor show AFK mini bus came.

Feeling fruity

Started about 11.30 bus was decorated with fruit because the theme was fit for life for day. AFK wants healthy diet. I wore hat with banana i represend bananas.

The Action For Kids team!

We walked on procession half way break. I held AFK banner with Hisba. Hisba is student.

We wore fruits we all dressed up. We were holding flags and waving it.

Sally Bishop is founder of AFK. Sally’s daughter Jo came with baby daughter. Weather was good. My mum kept telling me to buy umbrella. People involved in Mayor Show walked and walked and walked.

Walking the procession

Had cold lunch sandwich water crips. Lot of people watched. Crowds watched Lord Mayor show.

AFK minibus came on procession while we walked. We were filmed at Bank by BBC1.

I did not wait for fireworks which was good because I did not wait until 17.00.

I am looking forward to next year’s Mayor Show good exercise, good day out.

This was a fundraising event where a load of different organisations including Action For Kids as well as our corporate sponsors all form teams to play beach volleyball until they have a winning team at the end of the day.

I was not particularly happy about having to get up over an hour earlier than I usually do to go to Action For Kids on the day. I usually get a lie in after working for the supermarket at midnight the night before and I also wasn’t sure that I could raise quite the same bucket loads as last year and live up to expectations but apart from all that i was looking forward to the event.

I got up and went my usual way to near the AFK headquarters but instead I went into Hornsey station to make my train journey to the Broadgate arena.  After a stop or 2 I happened to see Jo Read (Work related learning director) on the train on her way to the marks and Spencer’s nearby. she wasn’t due to be at Broadgate as soon as I was so i was  running a little late but I did get there.

My first job when I got there was to help lay out the pitch and carry some flags for the sitting volleyball.

This was proving a difficult task for us all. With my work colleague Ben and my line manager Edward we were not finding it easy, however me and Ben were left to it as Edward’s help was needed at the main volleyball game. I had to bring back my childhood-developed skills in completing jigsaw puzzles and when it was done we ended up with the London Underground sign. As Ben as a fellow aspie (person with asperger syndrome) had an obsession with trains and liked to bombard people at  work with e-mails about trains, so he was pleased when the underground sign was completed I took his photo of him in front of the giant underground sign on his phone and my phone so we could show people. As I myself thought it was a big achievement for him as he multi-tasked by doing man well (due to his Hungarian accent he pronounces manual as “man well”) and bombarding at the same time and he managed to make it both about trains and work related.

Ben surveys their handiwork

It was past 10 o’clock when we completed the task so me and Ben reported to Carolyn who was running the event to ask what we had to do next. I was hoping I could do some collecting and get some money as the weather was alright and a few people were beginning to gather round and watch the games, only it turned out the collection licences were on the minibus with Sam Holloway (work related learning manager) and the work related learning students, and were not due to arrive till about half past eleven. This meant I had a break for a bit however some valuable collection opportunities were lost.

However later on the minibus arrived and the collection licences were found.

But once I managed to start collecting it started to rain, luckily this meant that people all went under the sheltered part of the arena where the shops were. So it was ideal for me to go round everybody so I was able to capitalise on this being the nearest place that was sheltered from the rain for the passing public. The bucket started to fill up with change. By the time I made the first bucket too heavy to carry the rain had stopped and the sun had came out and as it was lunch hour more people started to come out and watch the game

Many city folks in suits kept on adding to the loot.  Handfuls of pound coins kept pouring in as I continued with my bucket constantly collecting.

There was a group of rich women who as I kept complimenting they pulled out £5 notes and kept putting them in. After more collecting someone one even put a £10 note in.

Ready to hit the crowds!

I later had a break for lunch, I then had a rest to watch the game myself, which i enjoyed as afk’s team seemed to be winning but i was told that we were yet to play the team that won last year which i think was a hedge fund company. That would make sense as they could afford better players.

All to play for

Afterwards just as I was about to start collecting again it then started to rain. Carolyn who was in charge of the event gave me a clear plastic hoodie which made me look like I was some kind of forensic scientist so I had to go round collecting looking like I was from CSI Broadgate.

All-weather collection Rich

But it did protect me from the rain and as I continued to collect it was beginning to quieten down but it did get better when the sun came out again. More pound coins and someone even put a £20 note in my bucket.

There was a couple of funny incidents which would have been good as comic sketches on the credit crunch, one of which was the banker picking up a penny in the street, another was when I went collecting and there was a banker about to get on one of those bikes for hire to the general public with the Barclay’s bank logo on them that Boris the mayor of London provides. When he said he didn’t have any money I said “So it’s that bad is it? The banks are giving out company bikes rather than company cars, I didn’t know your job had got that bad”. He laughed and a couple of £2 coins came out of his pocket and into my bucket.

As i continued things got funnier and better, there was a team playing who wore red and white stripey tops just like in the old childrens  book “Where’s Wally” so i made the joke that it was becoming more like wallyball. After about 7 something pm I was told that work was over, so Paul the finance director was taking us to a Moorgate pub nearby for drinks so all in all a good day!

A long beer after a long day

The most fortunate Thing was that despite this event falling on a Thursday, Which is a day I normally spend my evenings working in a supermarket, I happened to have a day of annual leave left spare at that job. So I was able to go to this party after all despite the worry of not being able to the only bad thing was I hadn’t planned or committed myself to anything such as a stand up routine because of this.

I went to the party I found I was one of the first people there as I only had to walk down the road. I found Edward (my line manager) and Tracy (another manager in fundraising) both with father Christmas hat on door duty I was hoping for a pay  rise in my stocking no such luck.

There were still tables that needed moving to make it easier for the wheel chair user guests who were on their way. So Jo Read and a few other members of staff including myself helped to move the tables aside where they would cause less of an obstruction to the above guest’s enjoyment.

It wasn’t long before the party started to get underway Ben (my aspie work colleague) was there and I made a joke with him about having both father Christmas and mother Christmas for bosses so he said “Vell how lucky can we get”

The students started to arrive Lucy (a WRL staff member) used to do something in beauty therapy and had done a good job on the female students.

Everyone gets into the Christmas spirit

The music was playing and Leon (an ex student in a wheel chair) was dancing so much I thought he was going to jump out of his chair.

Elif (a present student with a physical disability) managed to dance without a walking frame or a chair that night, I was hoping no one from the DSS fraud department was at that party that night.

Leon shows off his moves!

Then later on into the party the actor who played the local Asian shop keeper Dev in corrie decided to join the party. It was fun getting him to say a quote from his girlfriends dad when he found out about him and his daughter so he had said something along the lines of “disassociate from the business association”. I think the Highgate cricket club is a far better place than what ever business association he was excluded from in corrie as I’m sure the Highgate cricket club is much more of an elite organisation and AFK is a much better charity to be associated with.

When Richard Met Jimmi

Later on all the staff stated to partake in some line dancing. The last time I’d seen any of that was when there was a mad member of care staff on my house unit at boarding school 14 years ago who liked line dancing, cowboy music and shouting the place down. but they had all come prepared with the cowboy boots and the red cowboy hats. They had obviously rehearsed this before.  I had to keep a low profile and hope nobody would remember I was a staff member just in case I got given a red cowboy hat and a matching pair of boots and be made to join in as on camera that would be embarrassing considering id started drinking by then.

Action For Kids staff put on a show for the students!

Then father Christmas, started to hand out presents to all the students Ben tried to get a present from her and she said “ go away you’re staff”  I wonder if father Christmas paid Ben a visit this year.

Later towards the end of the party as it was so cold I felt I was lucky as I only had to walk a few 100 yards home this was fortunate as I had been drinking however some people were not so lucky including a member of WRL staff who found she could not open the door of her car which was quite a nice newish jaguar. I told her it was a nice car but it turn out it was her husband’s, if she hadn’t I’d of probably looked into moving departments. And thought they paid their staff much better in the WRL department considering they give them far better computers then fundraising.

I tried pulling the door and suggested going inside to get some hot water from a kettle to melt it but another member of staff was worried it might rust. So a few of us attempted to pull the door open I made a joke about how id use something from my house to get it open if I could get some rap CD’s from my house and take it for a joyride. But unfortunately I was too drunk to drive, when it came to my turn I pulled as hard as I could and got it open. The owner was pleased that she could have a nice warm and comfy drive home.

I got home myself very soon after an enjoyable evening after having revisited somewhere so close to home that I hadn’t been to for over 20 years.

Jolene (the WRL minibus chaperone) told me she was putting together a video for beryl, to give her on her last day to remember us all by, as she knew her since her school days when she worked with her in her school as member of support staff, she gave me 2 weeks notice so I was able to think of something decent to say on it.

When it got to my time, the noise levels in the whole building where way too much so Jolene took me onto a mini bus to say my part.

I decide to make a joke about getting one of experiences that I missed out on as a student but later experienced as a staff member because I came to AFK as an independent traveller, was getting chaperoned onto a mini bus by Jolene. I also talked about my memory of Jolene showing me around the place and first introducing me to beryl.  As well as listening to at work what I would call “Beryl’s lunch time blues” which consisted of her talking to the parents/guardians of naughty students about there behaviour and about the things she did not feel was in her job description such as washing up and cleaning up after them and how I hoped her husband didn’t think she was going to be there to do that for him at home now she was going to be there more.

I can’t remember but I might of mentioned as well that because she said she was thinking of trying to get a job as a school bus Escort I wouldn’t have minded her as one back in the day when I was a small boy being picked up by a mini bus provided by my local authority to take me to special school half an hours drive away, also how she would be sadly missed.

A few days before the planned surprise party: Aaron (an autistic student) let the cat out of the bag when he asked Beryl if she was coming to her own surprise party.

But that did not ruin it too much.

On the day I was able to stop work at about 4 because the barbecue was about to start I had left room in my tummy for this.

Non-vegetarian option also available

There was a few interesting salads and some capital gold music playing outside the Afk building. I wondered if the burger van lady was happy about us giving them away for free that day.

There was one type of sausage I was very happy to try and that was a sausage that was curled up like a snake. Siobhain made a comment about it looking like dog pooh. I later found her and Troy on the bus drinking im not sure if  Jo Read ( the WRL director) caught them or not after id told her I enjoyed a few drinks myself once I  found what fridge the beer was in.

I also saw a few blast’s from the past this included Catharine (the WRL Manager) at the time of my first joining AFK as a student and she was thin again as it was good to see after she had left on maternity leave as well as finding her son could walk.

Another blast from the past was Sean French (the communication manager when I was there as a student) I first as a joke bragged to him about the fact I was now paid to be there and now sat at the same desk as he did back then and how could I manage to take a communications managers desk when I was diagnosed as having a communication impairment twice in my life. I then admitted my job title was different but only the desk was the same, he laughed.

I went and talked to some more people with more food and drink I had the misfortune of finding a live wasp in my drink luckily I saw it before I downed my drink as it could have been legal but if I had downed that drink id of really been buzzing.

After the chief executive made a few speeches as well as various other people including Siobhain got hers from the Borat movie when she said the comment  “now that you are retarded”  this made everyone gasp and those who had watched that movie including me laugh.* All in all Beryl’s party was definitely something to remember her by.

A sweet sendoff for Beryl

* For those who haven’t seen the Borat movie this was a comedy film where Sacha Baron Cohen (comedian best know for a Alie G show) played a journalist from Kazakhstan (Borat) was on a trip to The USA doing research for a documentary on American life. This gag was made from a seen where Borat was at a dinner party and when Borat asked a gentleman his occupation and he replied he was retired and Borat  thought he was saying retarded because the word sounded similar .
Blogged by Richard

A bit of background for you.  See The Difference is a brand new way to make a difference, where you can browse lots of videos and choose a charity project that means something to you (such as ours!). You’ll get to know exactly where your money is going, and then see the difference you make from the feedback each charity will give about that project. Cool, huh?! Naturally, we hope the first one you’ll check out and share with all your mates is ours! Here it is …

Action For Kids film clip on See The Difference

So, at the start of this post, we tempted you with the idea of being a pioneer like us.  We were one of the first charities in the UK to sign up to See The Difference, and you can be one of the very first people to use the site!  We’re pioneering new ground together; it’s all about team work! What we would really love for you to do, is to go mad with the Share button!  There’s a Facebook Like button so you can easily post it to the wall, or a big tweetable T for Twitter, or you can even email it to your friends if you’re feeling a bit old school.  Of course, we won’t turn you away if you want to donate as well! Check out our awesome video, let us know what you think!

Many matches were decided on the very last point, including the thrilling final, where ICAP beat last years’ champions Mitsubishi 29-28 in the dying seconds of the game. Third placed were the team from The Intercontinental Hotels Group, with prizes also being awarded for best spike, best rally and of course best team costume, which went to The Parthenon Group in their wonderful bumble-bee outfits.

Alongside the beach volleyball, spectators were treated to an action-packed day with steel drum band music, a spectacular display of aerial skills from JustPogo UK plus demonstrations and workshops of the sport of sitting volleyball by – no less than the Great Britain team.

Click here to view a short film clip of the day (note this opens in YouTube).

We are so grateful for the support of the following teams who took part on the day: Accenture, Addleshaw Goddard, City of London Police, Herbert Smith, HSBC, ICAP, InterContinental Hotels Group, La Fosse Associates, Linklaters, Marshall Wace, Mishcon de Reya, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International and the Parthenon Group.

Also a very special thank you to our wonderful Master of Ceremonies on the day, Clayton Lucas of SGTV productions, who volunteered his time and skill, keeping the crowd advised and entertained all day.

Our thanks too to Volleyball England and The London Beach Volleyball Club for their invaluable input, JustPogo UK and Ebony Steel Band for coming along to entertain on the day and of course all our sponsors and volunteers for their funding and time which allowed us to make this event happen.

Action For Kids will be back at the Broadgate Arena next year to do it all over again. If you would like to take part in any way please call 020 8347 8111 or email beachvolleyball@actionforkids.org

This was the first time since attending last years that I was to get involved in this event.  Some of my fellow fundraisers at the charity who had been organising this product, first Carolyn then Sarah and finally Carol had all fallen pregnant coincidently or not I wonder. But I was glad not to get involved in the event till the day itself because as much as I liked beach volleyball, I certainly didn’t like the idea of spending a few months looking like I had swallowed one even if I did mean a nice few months paid leave.

On the day I arrived at about 9:00 am it was raining slightly and I ended up helping Ben (my fellow Aspie work colleague) helping him shovel and brush and sand off the signs so that people could see Action For Kids’ contact details. Sarah told me that fortunately there where people coming to shovel the sand into bags at the end of the day so we didn’t all have to shovel up a beach like last year.

I went to see Maureen to find that though I had an event staff badge somewhere along the way my actual name badge had been replaced. I was a little surprised at this but in some ways I was happy as this might of saved me from getting stalked.

After the sand job with Ben I went to find an Action For Kids t-shirt but the only one I could find was the small size so it was very fortunate that I had been going to the gym more often recently because if it had been a couple of months earlier I would have looked pregnant from getting involved in beach volleyball.

Sarah then handed me a handful of programs explaining to people what the event was about. And told me to hand them out to people so they will watch the event and also to take a charity collection tin with me. This was where my collection duty’s began.

The first man I approached was a working class seeming man in his 50’s who seemed to be a railway worker of some kind and I remember him for the fact he was the first man to put money in the box. When I explained to him what I was collecting money for he gave me some money. He seemed to think it would be little kids playing volleyball but I put him right and explained that the event was put on to raise money for a children’s charity and that the big boys and girls would be battling it out in a non professional capacity e.g. lawyers vs police.

I continued to collect and hand out leaflets outside a small shop full of people buying breakfast snacks and new papers. This was good as people had just received there change and were more then willing to put some into the money box, even the manager of the shop put some in the box.

After a while Sarah called me and Ben to help with setting up the sitting volleyball by laying out the mats and erecting the net. By then it was 11: am and after Sarah saw how full my little money box was she upgraded me to a charity collection bucket.

I went round all the posh yuppies in their nice suits with my charity collection bucket. If they asked me what the charity was I said “I’m collecting for the Action For Kids charitable trust who provide mobility equipment for disabled children who need it and your change and make a change to their life’s for the better.” This normally got people forking out the money in fact a few people put a £20 note inside my bucket.

At about 1:00pm I ate a sandwich and some crisps and drunk some water that was provided for volleyball players and Action For Kids staff for my lunch. After my lunch and having a little sleep in the sun it was about 2:00-2:30pm. I started to go round collecting again. This proved successful so much so that Sarah told me to take breaks and that I was working too hard. Maybe she had had enough of emptying my bucket for the 3rd time.

There are a few good people I remember collecting from, one of which was 2 rich women who gave me £25 and told me if I went to the bar and got them Pimms they would give the change as a donation I did this for them and it turned out to be over £15 I thanked them for this and told them to let me know when they wanted another drink.

I also went to a place where a couple of yuppies were sitting. They gave me some money as if they where paying me to go away.  A man in a really smart suit who looked old enough to be their dad came and joined them and as soon as he saw me with my bucket he said “I haven’t got any money”.

The first 2  yuppies thinking that it would scare me away said “He is our boss”  so  I said “I have got to get your e-mail so I can send you my CV as I got to come and work for you one day”. Him kind of surprised said “Why’s that” so I said “It’s because I’ve never met a boss who pays his staff so well that they can afford to give more then he can.” This soon got him to put his hand in his pocket.

There was also another occasion where I used similar humour to get someone money into the bucket and that was then there was this group which consisted of a man and 2 women where the first women put some money in and the man did when I brought the bucket round to the second women she pointed to the man and said “he’s my husband” so I said “ you are very lucky in fact probably one of the luckiest women alive”. He said “Why’s that?” so I said “Because I don’t think I have ever met a women with a husband more generous then she is.” The other women and the man burst out laughing  while the women got her hand bag open and some more change fell into the bucket.

After I filled up my last bucket I went round various people I knew in Action For Kids to let them feel how heavy it was this included Carol (my line manager) who said she couldn’t lift heavy things  in her condition as she was pregnant. And Paul (the finance director) felt the weight of the bucket and agreed that that justified my getting paid for that day.

Then when I got it back to Sarah I watched her fill a bag with the money from the bucket like she had previously done with the others and then placed all the bags into the bucket of all the money that I had collected that day this was quite heavy I could only just about lift it.

I then asked Sarah what she wanted me to do next she said “Go and have a beer with Ben.” I looked everywhere for Ben to tell him the good news about what the boss for the day had said. But unfortunately he was nowhere to be found. Maybe he had escaped at the wrong time for once. I helped Nick from I.T pack away a tent or 2 and take it up to the mini bus then Sarah told me I should get a special reward for my efforts then showed me the pub where the staff at Action For Kids were waiting for me and ready to buy me a drink and thank me for a job well done.

On the Tuesday (the next time I came into work) Sarah showed me the bucket which I helped her carry to Jack’s office where even super Nick (the personnel manager) found the bucket  heavy to lift so that made sure I was on the payroll for that day.

On the Wednesday when I wasn’t scheduled to come into work I received a voice mail from Sarah on my phone saying that I had raised over £750 that day at beach volleyball. This was a good feeling as I had thought it was about half that.

On the Thursday when I next came into work Sarah saw me on the way in and said “I know this is an office but can I give you a hug?” I said yes you can and she did so. And made a joke about the appropriateness of hugging in an office; sounding like something Carol would say to me and Ben because she always reminds us that some of our jokes in the office are not appropriate.

There was also an office Circle Time and in that circle I was presented with a certificate for the amount I had raised which Sarah had made for me. I also found an email from Mick the chief exec and Sally the founder of the charity saying well done for the amount I raised.

I had obviously raised a lot of positive attention for myself as well as money for Action For Kids.

Blogged by Richard

Later on I got a phone call from a nice seeming lady, who explained that she was from Channel 4 and was filming a documentary about autism and Claire had told me I was interested and she wanted it filmed at a time I next socialised with Claire and a few other friends. I agreed to this and the nearest thing I could think of for that was my birthday party to which Claire had been invited and the lady from channel 4 was happy with this.

I talked to both my parents about this and they were going to be away from home on the day that my birthday party was planned for my sister’s Oxford graduation. They also expressed disapproval of the whole idea of there being a film crew in my house especially at my birthday parties due to the fact that that’s when unpleasant incidents had occurred in the past, such as an uninvited friend of a friend having to be chucked out for attempting to steal money from my wallet hoping I’d be too drunk to notice and various other dramas. Also that it wouldn’t be likely to be showing me on telly in a good light. Further more my father objected to his private space in his home being aired on telly for all to see.

Also the lady a few days before had tried to talk to me on the phone asking me for the names and contact details of every single person who would be attending including the parents of all of them for legal reasons. I told her that this was impossible as I had no idea out of the people I had invited who would turn up. Also at least 2 of the expected guests at my party had left home ages ago and one of which who’s in his 30’s has his parents living in Australia  who he hasn’t spoken to much since he left home at the age of 18 and that I had never even met the parents of half those people. So my Birthday party was a no goer for them.

Later an alternative social event was arranged in a pub in Hammersmith, where there would only be a few people attending. This would be just me Claire and a couple of other lads on the spectrum who me and Claire both knew from Turtle Key Arts an Asperger people’s arts group that meets once a month in Westbourne Park. This was a lot more viable plus they where willing to provide us with food and drink at the pub during the filming. One of the other people attending was a friend a friend of mine (Oliver) who has High Functioning Autism. He was the one to introduce me to the to turtle key arts where I met Claire.

The event seemed to go well. We enjoyed our food curtsey of channel 4 after we had all signed forms giving permission to show the footage. The filming began and the drink started to flow and some people seeing all the film crew around us wondered what was going on. We were asked all sorts of personal questions that I wasn’t expecting such as “Do you have a girlfriend?” or “What do you think of sex?” I just said experiences good and bad while not giving too much personal information away. Claire gave a primary school type answer of “No way and yuck” but I think that was her way of not wanting to talk about it on telly either and for that I don’t blame her.

My H.FA (high functioning autism) friend Oliver said some nonsense about how autistics should only be with other autistics, which would mean 60% of the population on the spectrum would be single as the autistic spectrum is 80% male. And to think he was the only one who hadn’t had any alcohol out of all of us that night-  he must have felt under pressure.

David another Aspie [person with Aspergers] lad who happened to be Claire’s ex boyfriend said “What did you say that for?” in response to Claire’s answer. Oliver then started making his feelings for Claire a little obvious by fussing over her and offering to cut her food up for her. I teased him by impersonating his voice saying “Claire would you like me to cut this up for you, coz I fancy you?” He then asked me to step outside. The camera man followed us. They must have thought a fight would happen.

When we got outside he said something like “Richard do you mind not saying that I fancy Claire as I don’t want her thinking that so soon”. I thought that he must have been unaware of just how obvious his behaviour was. I laughed and responded “Bruv you made it so obvious with all that stuff like cutting up the food. You got to take it easy”. A film crew member immediately asked both of us if we fancied her. Oliver told them that yes, he did. I thought to myself does he not realise that could get seen by her in a matter of weeks?

 Thank god for my A.F.K.  trip to a P.R company. The training there came in useful I.E the art of answering questions without answering questions so just like Tony Blaire and the MMR jab I answered it with “Claire is a pretty and young attractive girl, I can see why many boys would fancy her, however my desires could wonder elsewhere in the near future”. We went back to the table and the film crew followed. It all seemed to go well.

However a few months later the program went on air very recently and I knew to get it recorded as I had a phone call from Channel 4 telling me that the scene with me in it was going to be showed that night. I watched it alone with the earlier episodes which showed to be about a cast of autistic people at the lyric theatre working together to create a play and were going to have an audience a few weeks later. Claire was a part of the cast. The scene in the pub was filmed for the sole purpose of showing Claire’s social life outside the theatre project. The scene was only about a couple of minutes long where the 3 of us me, Oliver and David where introduced as “Claire has friends she goes to the pub with some Friday nights to help her independence. They are all autistic.”

They then showed us being asked the 2 questions. They showed Claire’s, Oliver’s and David’s answers to the questions. However they completely cut out mine and edited in a scene of me laughing at their stupid answers. And it had someone else’s squeaky noise in the back ground. I didn’t like how that made me look like I had the maturity of a 10 year old and that I was too retarded to answer the questions, just because my answer didn’t quite fit the purpose of the programme. It seems to focus mainly on the negatives of the autistic spectrum, such as people having tantrums. My dad was right about not having them at my party.

However on a more positive note I did get a few text messages from some people I know saying that they had seen me on telly. And they did show some of Claire’s incredible musical talents but why couldn’t have they shown my intelligent answers to the questions and maybe some of Oliver’s great paintings in his café he helps to run? I was just worried that people who didn’t know me would see me and think that it was me that made that squeaky noise.

You would be amazed at the things some people would be willing to do for 5 minutes of fame. I mean look at the X Factor, a chance to a laugh at the most deluded of neurotypicals [people without Aspergers].  Hey I wonder if Simon Cowell buys them any drinks before or after they make fools of themselves on national T.V for our entertainment?

Blogged by Richard.

Please note the video opens in YouTube and Action For Kids is not responsible for content on YouTube.

So this year Sally decided to ask me if I would  pre organise my share of the entertainment at this years party this way she would have time to approve it and get rid of all things compromising the reputation of the trust. And what’s more it would actually give me time to prepare something decent and they would get to see how good I am at this before I had a drink. The entertainment this time wasn’t a Rap like before it was a stand up comedy.

I was trying to think of something that everybody dislikes one way or another and the first thing that came to mind was public transport jokes so I made up a few of them where even Boris Johnson got a mention.

Along with a couple of credit crunch jokes and a few insider jokes about various members of staff within the organisation including one about suspicions of the chief executive of AFK secretly being father Christmas.  There was a joke however that I had to edit out about sally’s Yorkshire terriers pulling the slay instead of reindeers due to one of Sally’s dogs having recently passed away. When I showed my material to Jo and e-mailed it to Sally I got a quick e-mail back saying it was good and I was pleased it could be used and all I had to do was practice it.

When it got to the day I was taken to the gatehouse from about 5 o clock onwards. Sally briefed me that a group of female students where doing a fashion show as well as a few other students dancing to Grease.  

Siobohn was to present them and I was to present another couple of students doing an Indian dance called Bhangra and then I was to do my stand up routine while the girls got changed and then present the fashion show.

It was mayhem in that gatehouse there where a load of girls getting all made up and ready and a couple of student’s mothers helps with the make up. Laurence got dressed up in a dress for the Grease dance so people called him Florence for a while so I turned to Ben my work colleague and said “ I think it might be a good idea to escape before we end up in one of them ” But I decided to stay as I would be presenting them and it might be a good idea to know in advance what I was going to be presenting and I could see a lot of effort was going into this one.

 After a short mini bus ride there I went on the mic and all went well until Sally had to stop the DJ getting ahead of himself by playing the boots advert track “ here come the girls”  straight after Panjabi MC was played for the Indian dance when the boots advert track 2 ‘here come the girls’ was not supposed to be played until I had done my stand up and presented the fashion show once the girls were ready.

But most importantly my stand up routine went well and got the whole party laughing there heads off especially the Boris joke.

After I had presented the fashion show, the food was ready so Jo asked me to get on the microphone and announce that. After that I was finally able to get to the bar and get myself a well earned drink, it was brilliant from then on as everyone was saying how good I was on stage.

The party continued on and I was probably one of the last people to leave after midnight

Then a bus came instantly after crossing the road to take me home -how good of London transport to do this for me after all those jokes about them!

Blogged by Richard