Isn't She Talking Yet? - Times Online - WBLG

Sorry...

about my shameful neglect of this blog. It's not that I don't want to post anything, it's that there is SO much going on and not enough hours in the day. I will make an effort and try and get a grip - but please remember that if you don't send me your thoughts, pictures and stories, I'm left wittering on about myself. Since I have an embarrassment of other outlets to do this in, I'd rather not do it on here as well.

Anyway: the actor Colin Farrell has spoken for the first time about the fact that his four-year-old son James has Angelman syndrome. "There is no heartbreak about it," he said. "It's not a sad story. I'm incredibly blessed to have him in my life."

After I posted the thing (two items down) about Quinn Bradlee, I wondered for a couple of days why I should have felt so cheered/pleased  that someone vaguely in the public eye should have a disability I am familiar with. It's a bit weird. But the fact of the matter is that I did feel cheered. I suppose this has to do with the assumption we all have - or had, before encountering special needs first hand - that parents of such children are a bit broken and tragic, and shuffle along invisibly in some kind of parallel universe. I was talking about this with a woman I met at the Henley Literary Festival last month. Her son has Down's, and she was very nicely dressed and chic. We were joking about how some people expect you to wear sackcloth and wander about looking victimised, and how it was important to wear an extra layer of lipstick. Well, semi-joking. There's quite a lot of truth in it, actually.

Anyway: you can read about Farrell and his son in this article from the Daily Mail. Good on him for not pulling some 1950s-style Hollywood trick and keeping quiet about it.

Thanks to Natasha below for informing me that AS is not "a form of cerebral palsy", as I initially posted and as reported in pretty much every newspaper. Though I think maybe 'shame on you' is a bit OTT. I am not a walking encyclopaedia of special needs - I use Google like everyone else.

 

Robert Plant's guitar - update

And there was me thinking I'd just post something on here casually.... There has been an amazing, inbox-eploding amount of interest in the charity auction for Mr Plant's guitar (to benefit Harrison's Heart Foundation, see below). I can't deal with the number of emails this has generated, so, as of 10 minutes ago, the guitar is on eBay. Here is the link. The auction expires on October 5th. Happy bidding!