The unknown...

Mum and Dad were here for three days. They could have got luckier with the weather. To avoid the awkwardness of being around my flatmate all the time (even though there's room for them here), they stayed at a bed and breakfast on Brougham Street. The B&B was run by a very strange chap, easily strange enough to cloud your impression of Wellington, or even New Zealand, if you'd never been here before. They saw William and Kate on Oriental Parade - the royal couple were on their way to the airport. It was good to see Mum and Dad - again - and it'll probably be September or October the next time I see them.

There's a relatively new member of the autism group I haven't mentioned yet. I'll call her Rhiannon. Towards the end of last year I said I was teetering on the edge of madness. Rhiannon doesn't teeter. She's only 27 but she's careened off the crazy cliff several times already. She lives with her boyfriend, who has just had major eye surgery, in a flat in Aro Valley. They rarely leave the flat, and they have a flatmate who hardly ever leaves his room but somehow consumes gallons of Mountain Dew. It doesn't add up. Rhiannon is very interested in nature, even if she is rarely amongst it, but her main talents are cooking and sewing. On Sunday morning I picked up some bedside tables that she'd bought off TradeMe. For that she baked me a chocolate cake. Tom arrived soon after I did. I stayed at their place for eleven hours which, despite the interesting and sometimes hilarious conversation, was way too much for me. Rhiannon cooked a roast dinner for us all.

Thinking about the last autism group meeting, that was yet another example of what you might call Aspie arrogance. The new bloke really liked talking about how awesome he was. And as for the ear-removal episode, if it was true it probably would have been all over the news. He said that because the student signed a waiver, the ear removal was legal, but I didn't think a waiver gave you indemnity against a deliberate violent act.

I've said in the past that I don't really get weddings, but that Irish priest who gave an impromptu rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah at a wedding (and went viral on YouTube) was pretty amazing. What a voice he has.

I've had quite a lot of anxiety in the last few days. That's not just because I'll soon be starting what is almost a mystery job. It's the flatting situation, the realisation that I might just not be cut out for living with other people, the growing older (another birthday - it's on Easter Sunday this year) and so forth. Over the long weekend I'll move the bed from the small spare bedroom into storage and try and carve out a "safe" space for me there. I'd like to learn Mandarin, and maybe do a drumming course, although I wouldn't be able to start either of those until late July. And I still haven't given up on my puzzles and phone apps.

Two more days in insurance. Ever.