Coolangatta was beautiful and much warmer than Wellington! I lead a Jane Austen retreat last week, discussing Persuasion. Feedback from attendees has been great. If you want to escape the winter too, I’m doing another Austen retreat in 2028…and think...

Is neurodiversity contagious? (Part 3) Short answer: No. Longer answer: if your friends are neurodiverse…. I’m AuDHD (Autistic + ADHD) and it turns out most of my friends are neurodiverse too. I guess we’re just drawn to each other, maybe because we...

Is neurodiversity contagious? Short answer: No. Longer answer: Look around you. When I was diagnosed with Autism (shout out to Autism NZ), they suggested I might have ADHD too. An ADHD friend agreed with them. One of my siblings had been diagnosed wi...

..there is not one in a hundred of either sex who is not taken in when they marry.” – MP Mary Crawford observed many people marry “in the full expectation and confidence of … advantage …, or accomplishment, or good quality in the person.” Instead of...

Is neurodiversity contagious? Short answer: No. Longer answer: It feels like it is. A friend of mine was diagnosed with Autism. When she talked to me about it, I recognised myself in her symptoms. “How can I be Autistic? I’m not a boy. I don’t like t...

They are young in the ways of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the plain” – P&P Elizabeth Bennet doesn’t begrudge Mr Wickham his attempts to marry Mary King...

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance” – P&P Who has happy marriages? Elizabeth believes that the “charm” of Charlotte’s “home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns” will fade. She beli...

(Read that title and try to stop your brain singing in Julie Andrew’s voice) My dear friend Cassie Hart posted this morning about favourite things and asked people to share theirs. It’s been my experience that neurodivergent people love hard; we don’...

When that blind woman Julie Woods said this on the My Business Stars Podcast last week (https://www.ccsdisabilityaction.org.nz/my-business-stars/episode-30) I related so hard. Since being diagnosed with Autism and ADHD my life has changed completely....

While watching the 1980’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, a friend commented that it sounds like the Bennet’s are into S&M. Lizzy tells Charlotte her father repays “pain with pleasure”, as they watch him out the window head off to visit Mr Bin...