its been a bit of a busy day, so I’ll just link to this frankly very disturbing article from tom Shakespeare about violence against cripples. I’m off to organise paying my p.a before she gets violent! [kidding]

I went to brandies again last night, for the dickshow. It was superhero night, so there was spandex galore – I especially like the catwoman outfits a few of the girls were wearing. I had on a red cape, blue unitard and the letters ‘S C’ pinned to my chest, for Supercripple. Well, it amused me at least.

Yet halfway or so through the evening, it occurred to me that I wasn’t supposed to be there. I’m now a postgrad, supposed to be respectable. My life as a tearaway undergrad is over – maybe I should stop going. I put this to jen, who swiftly told me to stop being stupid. I had every right to be there, she said, more than most. I smiled: I was, after all, enjoying myself. Then I thought of the past, about school. About the lads who never got to go to uni, let alone graduate, or go to discos. I had, therefore, a duty to enjoy myself, in whatever way I see fit.

With that I sipped my beer.

While I am usually cautious about singling out any one person to stand for an entire group – people aren’t metonyms – I think this is quite a good short film about how one little girl has been included in the American school system. As far as I can see, that’s one thing Americans do better than us. I think this film is exemplary; I’d like to draw attention especially to the section where the teacher outlines how, without prompting, all the other kids help the girl. I hope all the anti-inclusion, nay saying idiots watch this.

It’s rather ironic that a day after my lightwriter breaks vocas feature on radio 4. I’m listening to it as I type, and have already heard nadia speak in the intro. As for me, I’ll continue to use my shoebox-mounted letter chart till I get my lw back. My friends have already named it barry, colins little bro. Anyway, go listen to mondays you and yours here

Evenings on campus can be quite beautiful, especially in the autumn when the leaves start to turn golden in the sunset. The view, as I drove defiant home this evening, was stunning. Just a fraction of a second, when the light of the setting sun hit the puddles, I was in awe. All weekend I had this nagging feeling at the back of my mind: do I still belong here? All my friends have gone from my year – should I have returned? Am I up to the task at hand? And then the light hit the water, and I could hear my friends talking as they turned or their homes, and the answer came: yes. I can do this! already I’m more comfortable with my subject. I can grasp it. In that moment, all fear left me, and I felt once more at home.

Colin broke again yesterday. It won’t respond to anything I do. Dad and mum had to come get him earlier in order to send him to be repaired, and from the way it looked I doubt I’ll get him back soon. This, as you can imagine, is a pain in the ass. It makes communication with anyone – especially those who don’t know me – ten times more difficult. I suppose it could be worse – this year I only have weekly meetings with Alan, rather than lessons per say, so academically it won’t hold me back too much. It’s just when I’m with friends, or in the library. But to every problem there is a solution: jen has already made me a ‘letter chart’, and when going to the library I can print off the book reference I need before setting off. Ho hum.

And I cant be too glum when Palin’s on tonight!

Last night I was in ashleys room. She’s American, but we don’t hold that against her (much). We were waiting for jen and co to return from the beauticians, and were planning to just drink and talk, which is pretty cool. Anyway, probably inspired by watching olly throw a ball about her room, Ashley showed us this. I thunk it’s one of the most astute orations ever. It may be just about monkeys, but it is what we are. A hairless ape. Go listen.

I was at the centre for social inclusion today – finally got round to picking the photos from my exhibition thingy – and joss west-Burnham was there. I guess that isn’t surprising given that she is in charge of it. She greeted me: ‘I’m glad you came, Matt, we’ve had an idea. We think it would be good if you stood for disability officer at the union.’ Now, this was coming from a highly respected member of the academic staff. She told me to think about it, offering to help me with my election bid.

Now, I’ve got to ask certain questions of certain people, but, as it stands, I think I’ll say yes.

Need a hobby anyway.

I now feel much better! Daunted, but better. My meeting with Alan went well, and we sorted out precisely what I’m going to look at. We had a long talk, he gave me various instructions and tips, and set me to work. I have quite a bit of reading to do, but that’s cool. Not much else to do during the day. Tonight, however, is disco night; I’ve missed it tremendously. Of course, it will not be quite the same without my mates – I’ll miss going round to charlottes before the disco especially – but now I have jen, olly and the gang to leech off, err, I mean hang out with. Jen’s coming her at 7 to help me get ready. Should be cool. Then, after breakfast tomorrow, reading proper commences.

Life is good!

This is natural – or should be – and kind of hardly worth noting, but there are two more cripples on campus this year. Both wheelchair users. I was going about campus today, turning the corner of the Wes, and I saw a girl in an electric wheelchair, being followed by a person who I presume to be her PA. they both went over to look at the map by the bushes, looking rather lost. I decided to go over, being a responsible master’s student, and offer my help.

They asked for the contemporary arts block was. I pointed to it, and asked hem to follow me. They did, and I lead them to the door (my chair is faster than hers!) The new girl thanked me, and we parted. Not a good story, I know, and hardly worth noting, but it was cool to me. Finally more wheelies! Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, although, it should be said that if CaMoron gets elected and instigates his anti-inclusion policy, I fear this trend has a real chance of being reversed.

So, here I am, back at uni. I’m back to do my masters. This should hopefully be a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to getting down to it. For the time being, though, I’m just sorting stuff out with Esther, doing paperwork, etc. research proper should begin on Wednesday after my first meeting with Alan. Then it’s onto the scopic drive and post-Metzian filmic grammatics (or whatever it now is).

For the most part, I’m happy. the one thing which is currently tugging on my heart is that nearly all of my friends from my year are not here. I’m already missing them, and have been all summer, but it’s just the nature of things. They’re all off doing their own thing, naturally, as I am. And it’s not as if I won’t see them again. It’s just that…well, you know.

On the upside, it’s kind of like I’ve just said ‘bank’ on the Weakest link. Scary as it may be – and it is rather scary – this year I’m adding to what is my finest ever achievement. It makes me smile to know I have that safety net, as well as giving me a huge boost of confidence. I’m probably waffling now.

Anyway, normal service will now resume. I’ll now be able to write daily blog entries again. If you like piffle, stay tuned. Should be quite an interesting year..

We got back from our summer holiday in Crete at three last night. For some reason, the only flight from hiraklion to Manchester is always at the dead of night, which is foolish because then you have to waste much of the next day recovering. This morning, I must say I feel worse than I did when we got back from Sydney, but part of this feeling is worry about going back to uni on Monday. It’s scary.

Anyway, Crete: I must say it didn’t strike me as very beautiful. There’s no running water on the island in terms of rivers and streams – not in these summer months so the mountains are rather dry. We had many drives up into the hills; ordinarily, this would have fascinated me, but wherever we went, there seemed to be a lack of colour and beauty.

Don’t get me wrong: there are certainly beautiful places on the island. I saw a few of the most stunning sunsets I or anyone would ever hope to witness while there. My brother Luke, it seems, is a good amateur photographer, and he took some jaw-dropping shots from the pier of our hotel. I was reminded of Basil Pao’s work when I saw them. With a bit of luck he’ll let me post some on facebook.

My archaeological side got sated too. I got to romp around some magnificent ruins this holiday. Mind you I must say that the famous palace at Knossos has been rather ruined (forgive the pun) – it is now too much of a tourist attraction, where one can be lead by a tour guide who clearly knows nothing of history, around re-built structures based on conjecture. It was tourism, not history. Far more impressive were the ruins in the south of the island [matt forgets name] where one can see an actual ancient law court with an inscription of all the ancient Greek laws on the rear wall. It was almost like looking at the birth of democracy, or perhaps it’s grandparents.

As with our trip to Australia, there isn’t time to tell you everything that happened in one blog entry. I should say though that Crete isn’t the best place for wheelchair users; in fact, its pretty bad. Oh yeah, and people there all drive like lunatics. Other than that, we all had a pretty good time I think. High point: getting dad listening to cat empire (although he says the lead singer sounds like a ‘south London wideboy’). Low point: not seeing any minotaurs. All that remains now is to catch up on my correspondence and hope this crick in the neck wears off soon.

Did anyone see ‘coming down the mountain’ last night on bbc1? To me, it was the most interesting thing on telly for a while, and it would be awfully poor form for me, as both a student of film and a disabled person, not to say anything about it here. It concerned the relationship between two brothers, one of whom had Downs Syndrome. To begin with, their relationship is tense, and the ‘normal’ brother strongly resents the needs of his SEN sibling. They have to move so that the bro with downs could go to a special school (something which wouldn’t happen if all schools were inclusive). Things get worse and worse, until the ‘normal’ one takes them both up a mountain and, in a rage, pushes his bro off a cliff. He instantly regrets this, but his bro isn’t dead. He gets the rescue team, yada yada yada, the boy recovers. During this time, the two get to know each other – it seems that they had never actually talked. They find that they have a lot in common.

Thus this is a fairly simple story about somebody realising what needed to be realised. On one level, it’s a fairly innocuous little tale, if somewhat melodramatic, about two brothers finding each other. The outcome was obvious, even predictable from the title. Yet, on another level, both characters are metonyms for widespread society: all disabled people were once resented as burdens, and in quite a few places, mainstream culture tried to get rid of us. Now things have changed and ‘we’ are being accepted. I think there is cause to share the optimism shown at the end of the piece – indeed, the very fact that the brother with ds was shown to have a girlfriend, albeit one who herself has ds, is a symptom of the change in the portrayal of disability. While there is still quite a way to go, and I long for a day when disability is purely incidental in TV drama, I see this as a good step in the right direction.

I met my paternal grandfather for the first tome this weekend. For various reasons, which we need not go into here, I’d never met or spoken to dad’s father before. Yesterday, we were an my cousin Dan’s wedding. This was, needless to say, a most excellent event in itself – it was at a vineyard in Sussex, and the sun was out. Dad, mum and I were down there, and we had a great time. The music at the reception ruled, and my family kept buying me drinks! Lord knows how much I drank, but I knew about it in the morning. The music also ruled – Dan and Ruth are evidently rockers, and the band they chose kicked ass. You should have seen the guitarist! Guns and roses, Hendrix, woooohooo. Seems it is possible to have a good night out with one’s parents, as last night certainly was a good night out!