Positive Vibes 2025

What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?

1. The first positive event I had this year was finding out my best and longest friend was pregnant back in February. This was such a wonderful thing for her. She’s a nurse and I know she’ll be a great mam. She’s so gentle, caring, loving and might I add, maternal.

2. The second positive event was back in March when I traveled over to London on my own to visit my cousin, Bob. I have been on planes before including Christmas 2024 when I went to Spain as a solo traveler with a group holiday. However I wasn’t getting places on my own and even got a taxi to my hotel in Costa Del Sol with a lovely woman named Polly from the group. Polly was the one who told me about travel assist, which I need with being on the autism spectrum and struggling with Sciatica.

However, the trip to London was different, although I still had the travel assistant to talk to while we made our way through the airport. I got on the plane on my own and put my 15kg luggage in the compartment above my head. Then when I arrived in London, I had to make my way through Heathrow airport also with travel assist to the Elizabeth Line which links Terminal 2 of the airport to the Underground so I could get to Euston Station which was a five minute walk from the hotel I was staying in for the weekend.

That night, Bob, who works as an actuary in London, brought me to a restaurant and we caught up. Then he brought me to Kings Cross to look at the Harry Potter trolley to pose with for a photo. We went for another stroll and a meal. Then he walked me back to my hotel.

On Saturday morning I struggled out of bed I was so tired after a very long day on Friday. We went to the London Eye and it was exhilarating and we posed for a photo then hopped on the London Eye. The sight was spectacular. Then we went for lunch in a nice place where I had a pork bento box and a homemade lemonade. My cousin had a surprise organised for me on Saturday night so I went back to my hotel to rest and get ready for a night out. Turns out the surprise was a musical called Operation Minced Meat in the West End. I was a bit taken back when I found out the West End has loads of venues and Theatre’s. I don’t know why but I always thought the West End was only one big huge theatre venue in part of the lovely London rather than a location and streets. Silly me haha 😂. I was thrilled to go see a musical. The venue was small but the modern take on a musical was fantastic. The actors were so talented and the lighting designer was phenomenal not only that but the set design and stage management was very efficient and the crew as well. If ever Operation Minced Meat goes to a theatre near you, I highly recommend your going to see it.

The next day we met for breakfast in a Vegan Cafe (Bob is vegan). However we were lucky to get a seat because I completely forgot that it was Mother’s Day. Thankfully we got the table for 1.5 hours which was grand. I had some sort of vegan curry with tofu and Quinoa instead of meat and rice.

3. The third good thing that happened was that I made a new friend through Bumble BFF named Caroline. We’ve done a few fun things together including going to see the singer Jade in the 3 Olympia in Dublin City Centre back in September. It was great. Jade was electric on stage and because it’s a relatively small venue, it was an intimate show where she interacted with the audience, which was fun.

Next on the list was going to Brussels, Belgium to my uncle Sean (an Irish name pronounced Shawn). Again I got travel assist but this time, I made my way to the airport on my own unlike when I went to London. My flight was at 7:10am so I had to be at Dublin Airport for 5am on a Thursday morning. I barely slept that night as I got a bout of Insomnia. My uncle met me at the arrivals. I was in a wheelchair which had to be called for when I got off the plane because my sciatica started to cause me serious pain although I didn’t have that diagnosis until back in October. I just thought my leg muscles had seized for sitting for so long.

Sean and I arrived at his house and he had to go work. I spent the morning with Linda my aunt-by-marriage or as I like to call her, auntie Linda. We had a good chat and I had some lunch with her. My cousin Philip was still in bed for ages because I happened to arrive at the tail end of a heatwave. Disaster struck then, I opened my suitcase to change into lighter clothes only to find that I had someone else’s suitcase. Turns out someone had an almost identical suitcase with a lilac ribbon on the top handle. Linda brought me back to the airport and I was brought through a new department where I had to fill in an online form stating my flight number and my details. They also let me look through a section of the lost luggage department for mine but it wasn’t there. I did all that could be done. With the help of the lovely Linda, my suitcase arrived the following morning thankfully.

On Saturday we went for lunch in a nice restaurant in a shopping centre where I got steak and I forget the veggies I got. Then later we went to Mini Europe which has mini models of parts of all the European countries in an outdoor area which was very nicely designed.  Myself and uncle and auntie were there for well over two hours. I had a great time. Philip couldn’t go unfortunately because he was studying for an interview for an Environmental Science job position he had the following Tuesday.

On the Sunday the four of us went for a walk in a lovely park and it was nice and warm but not roasting outside. We went for a coffee and all of a sudden a thunderstorm started. We sat under an awning and it was scary-exciting because of how close the lightening flashes were and the claps of thunder.

On the Monday we went to an Asian restaurant for lunch and I ate a sweet and spicy chicken rice dish which was yum 😋🤤

Later that day, I was back at Brussels Airport in Terminal 1 for aer lingus ready to fly home. I got chatting to a nice woman on the flight. When we landed I made sure I had the right suitcase which was easier this time because auntie Linda had bought me a really nice little decorated tag that I could put my details on (thank you Linda).

Now I’m looking forward to Christmas and New Years with my mam, my stepdad and my uncle Leo when he fly’s over from Paris, France where he lives.

Just to add, I saw Rocky Horror the Musical with my friend Nikolas and his sister Leah back in July.

What can I say, it was a great year 😁