*The European WP Meet in Central Southern France!*

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Me too. And melons, but I think it will be a little too early for them.

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Unfortuantely Im not going to come now as Im getting too stressed about it. I think its too much for me with all the social services rubbish thats happening for me at the moment. If things start improving I will come but not how they are at the moment

((((((((( Lotusblossom )))))))))

Have you been/will you be able to get a full refund on your plane fare?

Going away for a long weekend, ( especially in the sunny south of France ) might be just what you need to recover/switch off from it all though, and it isn't for another 3 months. I really hope you haven't already cancelled everything, and that the Social Services get off your back before then.

What is stressing you the most about the idea of the meet-up?

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everything is stressing me at the moment and Im quite close to topping myself.

I will book flights later if everything eases off at home, Im sure somewhere will have last minute flights to france as so many people travel there every day.

I've pm'd you.


I hope so.

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Yeah, I hope you come too!

Sorry things are so difficult now. I´ll keep my fingers crossed that it all resolves.

I hope you can come along, LotusBlossom I was wondering if it was social anxiety, but it sounds like you have a whole host of other problems to deal with at the moment. May is still 3 months away, so hopefully they will be sorted by them

Talking of anxiety, I realised yesterday that I am a having some social anxiety about this. I suppose it's understandable, natural even, as meeting groups of strangers is difficult at the best of times.

What's interesting about this is that it will be the first time I have met a group of other people with AS. I'm sure that in the past some of my best friends probably had it, but we didn't know it at the time. The fear is that even in a group of people with AS, I will be the least socially skilled.

There's a lot of consolation if finding that I am not alone, that there are others who experience the world in a similar way. So much is hidden when communicating by text, the worry is that the consolation will prove to be false, that I have something different and *worse* than AS. I hope I'm not frightening anyone! Anyway, the only way to find out is to try.

It's the same for me. I am pretty sure most of my closest friends over the years were/are somewhere near/on the spectrum. But I have never met a group of people based on that identification/categorisation.

What will be funny is if you all turn out to be like my past friends, as if I have managed to recover some of the ( oddities and weirdos and wreckheads ) social life that I had for a while in my late-teens to early-mid twenties.


Yes, it would be really grim/miserable if on the other hand it turned out that I felt with you/the group as I have done for years with most people I meet.


Yes, it's brilliant, a huge relief.


Totally! I am now prepared to meet a cross between Hannibal Lecter, an "infected" from "28 Days Later", and The Thing!! !

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I certainly fitted all 3 of those descriptions when younger! I'm no longer a wreckhead in any way, though. As for oddness and weirdness? Well, that's for someone else to judge as these are totally subjective terms that only exist in the eye of the beholder.





I meant more in terms of putting anxiety into the minds of others, rather than frightening them with the sheer horror of my presence.

Last edited by ManErg on 24 Feb 2009, 8:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ok. I see what you mean. But I think probably most people on WP have these anxieties already so it is actually helpful to express them, because it is almost comforting to hear that others have them, rather than stewing silently thinking that may be the only one with those kind of worries.

I posted a page back, somewhere, that I was afraid I would "loathe" you all, which comes from feeling frightened, a semi-defensive readying to find you all obnoxious if I can't socialise with you.

Edit; Which rereading I realise sounds awful. "Scapegoating" ready for action. At least I have noticed it!

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Hi,

i am living in Barcelona so i hope the place you finally choose is close enough, so i can get there by bus. Please send my messages just in case i don´t log in in a long time. I hope to finally see people like me together, sharing experiences, milk and cookies .Regards,

Geom

We're meeting in Avignon. The weekend of the 30-31 May. Staying in the Etap Hotel close by the old city walls, and not far from the station. A couple of people will be arriving on the Thursday and Wednesday.

I remember I got a bus from Barcelona to Perpignan a long time ago, and the train from there to Avignon, so you could do it if it's not too expensive. Would be great if you could!

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I know myself well, and I know I will have social anxiety, but closer to the time...(it´s now 3 months away, so the anxiety hasn´t kicked in yet. I´m still in the excited phase. But, as I know from past experience, it will come). At least we all know we´re coming from the same place, so to speak! None of us will be judgmental, we all know what it´s like. So that´s something, at least.

I have never met a group of people with AS, though I also suspect some people from my past- as well as some family members- probably had it. I have also never met anyone in person that I´ve met online before...that thought alone I find a little scary, though I know many people with AS meet people they´ve known online.

Maybe, sometime closer to the vacation, we should start a thread where we all write a little about ourselves, what our interests are, etc.? So we know already a little bit about each other, and what we have in common?

That's a great idea.

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I just noticed that the weekend of the 30-31 May is a long bank holiday weekend in France because of Pentecote.

So am thinking that there may be a fair demand for hotel rooms, and therefore it might be a good idea for anyone who has not yet booked/reserved a room at the Etap Hotel, ( which is by credit card, but takes no payment before you actually arrive ), to reserve a room ( for the two/three/four nights that they think they'll be staying ) as soon as possible.

You can always cancel later, right up until the last moment, if necessary.

I also noticed that there is a fleamarket on the Sunday morning, for anyone interested in that sort of thing!

NB. Etap Hotel details, and link to their site, on page 7 of thread.

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On Place des Carmes?