Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

In the latest series of Leeds Autism Practice events, we looked at the cost of burnout and how to recover from it. This was my fast time collaborating on an event and I’m very grateful to Marta for all of the hard work she put in. It was well received by the audience who said it resonated strongly, as well as containing lots of useful information.

Happy Leeds Pride!

Last week we held our fifth live event with Leeds Autism Practice. This one looked at why neurodivergent individuals often have mental health difficulties, the barriers to accessing support, and practical solutions for what we can do about it.

Last week, we can two more events for Leeds Autism Practice. The Science of AuDHD: Understanding Autism, ADHD, and How They Combine explored theories behind neurodivergence, including monotropism, double empathy, interest-based nervous systems, and many other theories. We then went onto explore what these looked like in a combined presentation of AuDHD.

Last weekend I attended the Neurodiversity Ireland Summit as part of my role working with a student counselling service. I was able to go to the neuroaffirmative practice talk and the autism in girls and non-sterotypical presentations. They were both fascinating and included a talk and a panel discussion. I was also impressed that a room full of people, many of whom were ADHD, sit still for three hours ?. I’ve come away with pages of notes and interesting stuff to look up.

July means the annual Finnish summer picnic in Leeds. Last year was Venla’s first and this year she was armed with new skills, including walking and talking.

Both Elina and I failed to do particularly well in the molkky tournament, but better in the welly throwing, with us both coming second in our respective gender competitions.

I’m pretty sure we won the wife carrying by default when I was the only person physically able to lift their partner.

And, of course, we filled out boots with Karelian pasties.

“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” Galileo Galilei.

Finland turned 100 this year. It’s fun walking around Helsinki because many of the buildings and companies have their incorporation date above the door, and many of them are before Finland was officially a country.

We celebrated the anniversary with Illallinen taivaan alla (dinner under the sky) back in August. However, Finland’s Independence Day is 6th December. Too cold for a dinner outside, but an event that we wanted to mark none the less.

So, we invited some friends around and cooked some Finnish food.

If you saw my post on Nordic food, you might recall that Finnish food only comes in one colour. And that colour is brown. It’s a cuisine of permanent autumnal themes.

For the starter, crayfish filo tartlets, Karelian pasties and homemade gravlax. They were so popular, I only managed to snap the last tartlet.

For the main, Karelian stew. With a British stew, you would typically pick a single meat and stew it with a selection of vegetables. With Karelian stew, you pick a single vegetable and stew it with beef, pork and lamb. Ideally for a couple of days.

Finally, for dessert, pinwheels and a ginger cake.

In 2010, we set out on a mission to extend the direct action on-the-street work we were doing by organising a food drive for local homeless shelters. Seven years later and we’re celebrating our 8th annual food drive with another bumper event.

The event couldn’t happen without all of the generous donations you make, so thank you to everyone who provided food, clothing, toiletries and money.

Sarann, charity coordinator at West Yorkshire Humanists, headed the event. It’s thanks to her tireless work that it happens. I would also like to say a big thank you to the other groups who contribute to making the event so great. In particular, Darren from the Interfaith Vegan Alliance and Jo from Mill Hill Chapel who lends us his church. The event represents different groups coming together for the best of reasons.

Click the thumbnails to see the full-size image.

Finland turns 100 this year. In celebration, events are taking place around the world. They’re called Illallinen taivaan alla or “Dinner under the sky”. Tiina organised a Leeds event which was a big success.

There was loads of Finnish food, including a selection of cake so big that I don’t think I managed to get around everything. Despite trying really hard.