As promised I said I would update on the situation with Manor Walks.  North East Autism Society (NEAS) were in the centre this week and delivered autism training to representatives from New Look, O’Briens, Management, parking and security.

I also met its Sarah from Manor Walks and listened to plans for an awareness day throughout Manor Walks to provide shoppers with valuable information about autism and how they can help.   Lesley Cole from Autism Northumberland will help them facilitate this and I think it’s a great first step for some shoppers to gain some much needed understanding.

We also discussed the autism friendly shopping times and a quiet area when things are just too much.

I put forward the idea about the shopping trollies for larger children.  I decided to test the one in Asda out tonight with Reilly.  Why I do this to myself when I’ve been up since 3.30am I’ll never know 😁


As you can see he’s thrilled to be in there 🙈. It was really difficult to push and a spot of WD40 wouldn’t go a miss.  The basket at the front is really quite small so no weekly shops with this one.  If however Reilly had an iPad or similar I think he would have sat quite nicely, the seat is huge.   He had bigger fish to fry today though with the lure of the kinder egg stand and wanted OUT ASAP.  There were a few Judge Judys who had a good stare at Reilly in the new trolley but as always I completely ignored it, 3 stares though and I’ll clip your ankles with it.


We received £100 of vouchers from the security firm by way of apology for the situation with the security guard and tonight he bagged himself a dolly with a bath, a crane, a rapunzel play dough set and a paw patrol action dog .  No gender discrimation with Reilly’s toys.  So no complaints from him tonight fingers, legs and toes crossed for an early night.

Onwards & upwards for an easier life ❤

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