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JUST Jordan
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IN THIS ISSUE
Introduction Hello everyone and welcome to my July edition of “Just Jordan”. My cover photo is to show my support for our Armed Forces past & present. Again am elated with the response about my “JUST Jordan” group and newsletter, so thank you all from the bottom of my heart! It’s been wonderful having so many of you asking to submit articles and responding with such wonderful feedback too, thank you. I’ve continued with a similar layout so here’s hoping you are in for yet another treat! As always
please do keep your feedback and messages coming, it’s a pleasure hearing from each and everyone of you! Once again I’ve worked very hard on this Newsletter and I hope that you will enjoy and tell all your friends & family about “JUST Jordan”. You will find information on my “JUST Jordan” Facebook/Twitter page and how to contact me details are also enclosed. As always I look forward to your feedback, submissions and questions for The August edition. See ya,
Jordan Fernando xx
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The Little Mermaid Sleepover
Art Corner
“ “JUST Jordan” Poet – Kerry McGinn
Review
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machines needed for the marine life so am glad we took along some ear plugs and head phones as well as my sleep mask to block out any lights (as I much prefer to sleep in complete darkness), although, We arrived at the all of the aquarium lights get centre with our switched off as the fish "go to sleeping bags, pillow bed" so to speak but it and onesies. I wore my was just my own personal Tiger Onesie the whole preference. of the night as did a lot of others who turned There was a professional up in various costumes photographer there for an hour and onesies too. We or so who took a took our own soft few photographs and my bestie drinks and snacks but Kerry had hers taken with Ariel. Sarah did provide that There were raffle tickets on sale too which was very at the event, with some really kind of her. great prizes to be won. We had a private tour, Ariel sang a It was a very well organised beautiful song and we all event, upon arrival we were watched the movie before My Dad took my best friend organised into two separate retiring to our sleeping bags Kerry and I to a charity event groups in order to make things absolutely exhausted from the called 'The Little Mermaid move a little more smoothly. night time activities. Underwater Sleepover' at Loch We were told which group when Lomond SEA LIFE Centre we checked in and handed our recently. ticket over at the desk. Some slept in the tunnel (but was a bit too crowded for us so we found a lovely quieter surrounding area with the sharks, stingrays and even a turtle swimming around us! There was plenty of The event was organised by a marine life to see throughout all fellow fundraiser named Sarahof the sleeping areas. It could Victoria Bayley (who just get very noisy with all of the THE LITTLE MERMAID SLEEPOVER
happens to be the current reigning Crown & Glory Scotland Winner 2017/18) and was raising funds for Dean's Journey, Solving Kids Cancer.
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Believe it or not folks........"I slept with the fishes.......and survived" wink wink!!!
If you would like to raise funds and help give Dean the gift of life then all you have to do is Text HOPE90 £5 to 70070 Lastly I'd like to say a huge congratulations to the lovely Sarah on organising another great charity event despite all her own ongoing medical issues. You remind me so much of my Mum, I’ve no doubt in my mind whatsoever you two would have got on like a house on fire heehee! We had a Sharktastic time Sarah thank you. Xxxxxx
You can find out more about Sarah and her adventures here: https://www.facebook.com/princesssv
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Kids Zone by Jordan Fernando
More in the Kids Zone next month!
Please do feel free to comment on my JUST Jordan Facebook page or twitter account. https://www.facebook.com/groups/213071952427706/ @JustJordan2016
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YoYP Ambassador
Am delighted to announce that I've been selected to be a YoYP Scottish Ambassador 2018 and I couldn’t be happier. As part of the Scottish Governments programme of themed years, 2018 has been identified as the year of young people, aiming to inspire Scotland through celebrating its young peoples achievements. As a YoYP Ambassador I'll have many opportunities to learn new skills and gain lots of new experiences. I will have the chance to attend national events and training with other Ambassadors from all over Scotland as well as make new friends too. I'll be taking part in a Dynamic Youth Award or Youth Achievement Award amongst other things. As a YoYP 2018 Ambassador I'm going to be involved in making sure that young people and organisations in my community know about YoYP 2018 activities, and together with other Ambassadors, I will lead on projects and activity within my area to create new opportunities for young people to shine locally, nationally and globally! It's a once in a lifetime experience as no other country has ever dedicated an entire year to young people! Now it doesn't get anymore exciting than that now does it? Watch this space!
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Armed Forces Day
As always I like….. no let me rephrase that….. I want to honour and support not just my Mum on Armed Forces Day but it gives us all the opportunity to show our support and (Salute our Forces) #SaluteOurForces for all they do both past and present. As many of you know my Mum Suzanne served in The Royal Military Police and is an honoured Veteran now. We are all very proud of her and the charity work she has continued to do since leaving the military and battling cervical cancer. Infact she is off to the Royal Garden Party at the Palace soon as a guest of Lord-Lieutenant of Ayrshire and Arran Mr John Duncan and we couldn’t be more proud! Way to go Mum! No doubt pics to follow!
Below is one of my favourite photos of Mum, recently reunited with our Granda Bob xx
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Star For A Day! As I mentioned last month we all celebrated my parents Wedding Anniversary and Mum's birthday. As always my Sister Aaron and I spoilt our parents rotten, pampered them and engulfed them in love! On the morning of Mum's birthday we sneakily started off with taking her a surprise breakfast in bed, followed by Mum coming downstairs and walking through a sea of balloons all through the house.......her face was a picture!
What do you do for your parents? Would love to hear from you all. It was also the same day my Sister Aaron and her boyfriend Aidan returned from London during the somewhat troubled times down their but we won't go into that as it would only be feeding the terrorists appetite for publicity, which I for one refuse to give them! It was truly wonderful to get our AĂĽron back safe and well and whom received the biggest hugs EVER!!!! We all had a wee catch up before heading round to the other birthday girls house (my bestie & fellow Autist Kerry) for a wee party! We exchanged gifts, surprised Kerry with a Frozen b'day cake, had the usual paparazzi moment (courtesy of Mum and her new camera) and then decided to participate in some karaoke! At that moment her brother Ciaran bolted upstairs hee hee. When Mum was finished twerking and embarrassing us all we were summoned home by Dad for our dinner and more pressies!
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Kerry got mum a beautiful angel ornament and we got Kerry a "Star For A Day" package in Glasgow where she recorded her own music CD & video along with me and our other bestie Heather!
We had a ‘lorra’ fun and would definately consider doing it again especially as we were all made to feel extremely welcome! Despite it being something different and a strange place, our host Jordan (male) made sure we were all relaxed and looked after us all very well. He gave us headphones to wear during the recording sessions, allowed us a few extra run throughs until we were all happy with the finished edit. I was initially worried about the whole day out but infact felt pretty calm and really enjoyed the experience.
For more information about the recording studio just log onto the link below. www.starforaday.com
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Our regular JUST Jordan poem submitted by Autist Kerry McGinn 20, Stevenston, North Ayrshire.
“You must be thinking why I’ve written about Disney….Well I thought ‘we all love Disney, so why not?’ What I love is that they have special messages, moments and songs we all remember so here’s some I can think of and hopefully I’ll give it my best shot” My Love of Disney From Cinderella’s sparkling dress To Peter Pan teaching the darlings to fly From Belle and the beast’s romantic ballroom dance To Aladdin and Jasmine’s Carpet ride through the sky We sang and danced to classic songs Like the bare necessities And watched our favourite heroes and heroines explore new worlds Like captain Jack Sparrow Sailing the High Seas Jiminy cricket sang about How to keep wishing upon a star While Elsa from Frozen taught us To never be afraid to show who you truly are I hope like me as the years roll by You’re love for Disney will continue to grow And if some people don’t appreciate that Remember to just... LET IT GO
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Ardrossan Castle Carnival
Ardrossan Castle Carnival 2017 was back in full swing for the second year running! With Mother Nature threatening thunderstorms all week, she truly smiled on us at the right time providing beautiful sunshine again....all be it with a full blown gale thrown in for good measure at the top of the hill!! It was funny though as poor Mum came home looking like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards at least 10 times lol! All worth it though to see the kids laughing and smiling and having lots of fun with the medieval games we provided. The celebration on Castlehill was to mark the 471st anniversary of the meeting of the Privy Council at Ardrossan Castle on 18 June 1546. The parade started the event off with a bang, with a spectacular
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community produced display by artistic designer Ariel Killick of Independent State of Happiness and featuring hakas, poi dancers, stilt walkers and a giant William Wallace. Hidden under the giant
William Wallace head was The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety’s Executive Manager, Alan Bell, and his Warriors were made up of instructors and supporters of the charity as well as police officers, members of the Tai Chi club which use the Barony St. John Centre where the charity is based and three registered blind people who have been attending the charity’s personal safety classes. There was bands playing, archery, displays, castle tours, Jousting Scotland again who re-enacted the Les Amis battle combat on horseback and on foot to rapturous applause and cheers from the audience. It was truly top class entertainment and thousands of people there to enjoy every second of it! A couple of the photos enclosed were taken by the wonderfully talented James Waddell-Muirhead owner of Silverfox Photography 70.
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Mum and our friend James showing their support for the #Digit2017 competition. Photo taken by Scott Ledingham-Park.
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Patricia Gibson MP and her husband Kenneth Gibson MSP both showed their support on the day and looked like they enjoyed the carnival festivities just as much as everyone. Even better news is the Ardrossan Castle Heritage Society have secured funding for the next 3 years, so we are all definitely looking forward to taking part in next years event. I would happily encourage all autists to attend this event if they don’t mind large crowds or noise. On occasion I did have to nip away for some quiet time as the noise did get a wee bit too much for me at times but apart from that a really superb event. Massive congratulations to the organisers and volunteers who done an excellent job!
Ardrossan Castle has been selected to represent North Ayrshire in the Scotland in Six Hidden Gems competition, which is part of the celebration of Scotland’s 2017 Year of Heritage, History and Archaeology. Voting takes place through July so please show your support here: https://www.facebook.com/DigIt2017/
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Review Time Look out for special reviews next month right here in “JUST Jordan”.
Super Mario Galaxy By “JUST Jordan”
Today, I will review the game Super Mario Galaxy which was released in 2007, 10 years ago. Despite this, I think that the game has aged well in terms of the gameplay and the concept. The soundtrack still holds a special place in my heart as well as the many locations you travel to in the game. New power-ups are introduced in this game that are far different from the typical Super Mario power-ups. Lastly, new characters are introduced in this game, that are still included in future Mario games, that also hold a special place in my heart. This game shall receive a high score from me mostly due to the innovative gameplay. Rating: 4/5****
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I followed the rules.. Review By Suzanne Fernando To be perfectly honest am usually not one to sit and read a book unless am on holiday, and even then it's usually a Josephine Cox book at that! However, am a great believer in things always happen for a reason... anyway my lovely wee friend just happened to tell me her daughter Joanna had published a book. Well on browsing my local library (with my daughter Aaron) for a book to read while on holiday, what do you think jumped out at me? Yep none other than the very book Yvonne and I had been talking about called "I Followed the Rules"...by her very talented daughter Joanna Bolouri. Now what are the chances of that I thought, so their I found myself having a wee read of the back page and got curiouser and curiouser! So I decided to take it home with me and as it was a gloriously sunny day I sat out the back on my recliner and 2 hours later (with tears streaming down my face with laughter) found I just couldn't put it down. Without giving too much away Joanna's book is a brilliantly funny romantic comedy about a young single female journalist, asked to write about a book that promises to teach you to find the man of your dreams in ten easy steps. Well let's just say the antics she get's up to as she makes her way through this book will truly have you in stitches. Joanna is a superb writer (just like her wee Mum) with a brilliant imagination, so if your ever looking for a book to cheer you up, this is definately the one to look out for. Rating 5/5*****
Please do keep your requests coming in and I’ll do my best to feature them in next months edition of JUST Jordan. To submit your entries please send to : Jfernando_1997@hotmail.co.uk suzfernando@yahoo.co.uk
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Dear Jordan…… Ask me anything and I’ll be as frank with my views as Coleen is on Loose Women!! I can be your straightest-talking agony aunt, giving advice on relationships, bullying, early diagnosis and any life problems you may have…..xx
Huge thanks to everyone who submitted questions for “Dear Jordan”
“Dear Jordan: **What can I do in my community to make a change for autistic people?** There are lots of things you can do in your local community that both directly and indirectly impact on people with autism in your community. You could fundraise, which raises the profile of autism within local communities. The more people are aware of autism, the more people will be tolerant and understanding. The National Autistic Society are currently running a campaign called Too Much Information TMI. You could help to promote this within your community and workplace and again raise awareness of the condition and how this may impact on people. The National Autistic Society have listed ways that you can impact on people in lots of different settings and you can view the list here - http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/tmi/actions.aspx There are lots of other things you could do - volunteering within a social group, campaign for change, raise money, celebrate world autism awareness week or simply by being more aware of how autism impacts on people and the changes you can make to make to the environment to make things more tolerable for people. Hope this helps ! Love Jordan xxx
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“Dear Jordan”: **How can The National Autistic Society Scotland help me as an Aspie?** Hi there, that is a difficult question as I do not know you. The National Autistic Society offer lots of different forms of support to people who have autism. They offer employment support, you can find out more information about this herehttp://www.autism.org.uk/about/adult-life/work.aspx If you felt that you would like to meet other people who have autism, then the National Autistic Society run a number of social groups where people meet and do things that are interesting to them. The National Autistic Society has a lot of information on its website that you could access if you need to. Information includes explaining what autism is and how this may impact on you as an adult. The link below gives you examples of the type of information available to people. http://www.autism.org.uk/about/adult-life.aspx I hope this helps, if you want more specific advice, if you send me a message about what area you live in, not your address just the town, then I can put you in touch with someone locally that you could talk to. Hope this helps ! Love Jordan xxx “Dear Jordan”: **Will there be any Autism Shows coming to Scotland in the near future, as I could only find them in London, Birmingham and Manchester?** Hi there, the National Autistic Society run a number of events and the best way to find out about any future events is directly through the National Autistic Society website. You can find the information using the link below http://www.autism.org.uk/professionals/conferences.aspx If you are interested in events in Scotland, you can access a website run by Autism Network Scotland which lists all local events run in Scotland that may be of interest to you. Again you can find the information belowhttp://www.autismnetworkscotland.org.uk/events/ In order to receive updates - you can register with Autism Network Scotland herehttp://www.autismnetworkscotland.org.uk/join-us/ Hope this helps ! Love Jordan xxx
POLL: What would you like to read about in “JUST Jordan”? Let us know by contacting us via email: jfernando_1997@hotmail.co.uk or suzfernando@yahoo.co.uk
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HOW TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE. If you would like to submit an article, picture, ask a question or offer support in next month’s newsletter please contact me via email: jfernando_1997@hotmail.co.uk or suzfernando@yahoo.co.uk
What’s On in Ayrshire
Lego and Games Club 3 - 5pm Fridays (weekly) Saltcoats Branch Library, Springvale Place, Glebe Street, Saltcoats KA21 5LS Age: 0 - 18yrs Cost: FREE Pop along to Saltcoats library for their fun sessions every week. Young children must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times. There are other Lego sessions at another few libraries in North Ayrshire, during the weekend. See our attached comments section for details. Please contact the library each week to confirm the club is active. Tel: 01294 469546 Email: saltcoatslibrary@northayrshire.gov.uk North Ayrshire Libraries (Fb): https://www.facebook.com/NorthAyrshire-Libraries-331241090815/
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Resourceful Career Centres in Ayrshire If you are due to leave school, or you have left already but you just don't know what to do next, then why don't you visit your local Skills Development Scotland (SDS) careers centre, where you can chat to one of their advisers who have a wealth of knowledge to help you. At your local SDS centre, a Career Advisor can give you up-to-date information and advice about what options that are out there for you, including Modern Apprenticeships, training and college courses, and employment opportunities. You can also get help with your Curriculum VitĂŚ (CV), application forms, cover letters, and much more. Depending on what service you need, you can make an appointment for an interview with a Careers Adviser OR you can simply just walk in and ask for help. For further information, or to arrange an interview, please use the contact details in our attached comments section. SDS: http://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/
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Lolas Beach Party Hosted by Muddy Paws Express Dog Wash and Grooming Service Sunday, July 2 at 2 PM - 3:30 PM Stevenston Beach KA20 Stevenston To celebrate joining Muddy Paws Express Dog Wash & Grooming Service Tracy & Lola would like you to join them at one of their famous beach parties for some fun & frolicks by the Seaside. This will be at their favourite beach at Ardeer in Stevenston. All dogs welcome regardless of size. Free carpark. Contact Tracy for all enquiries on 07841 411802 Why not take a visit to Muddy Paws Express Dog Wash afterwards to view our facilities or give your dog a quick bath after it's beach antics. Tea & Coffee available. @muddypawwash6
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https://www.facebook.com/events/1903727113176155/
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04Jul Ayr – Robert Burns Birthplace Museum – Accessible Opening Times • • •
03:00 PM Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Murdoch's Loan, Alloway, Ayr KA7 4PQ 01292 443 700 As an accredited Museums Association museum, Robert Burns Birthplace Museum is proud to be welcoming and inclusive to all audiences. Their aim to encourage and enable as many people as possible to enjoy their collection. Whilst the interactive and audio visual elements are a fantastic way for many to engage with the exhibition, some of their visitors find them overwhelming and for this reason they are creating accessible opening times for two hours in the afternoon of the first Tuesday of every month when audio visual aspects will be switched off. The next of these sessions will be on Tuesday 4 July 2017, (3.00 pm – 5.00 pm). Future dates are as follows:
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Tuesday 1st August (3.00 pm – 5.00 pm) Tuesday 5th September (3.00 pm – 5.00 pm) Tuesday 3rd October (3.00 pm – 5.00 pm) Tuesday 7th November (3.00 pm – 5.00 pm) Usual admission fees to the museum/cottage apply but essential carers go free, and children are entitled to the concession rate. For more information email the team or telephone 01292 443 700.
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All details for Circus Zyair at Stevenston! Book early at www.zyair.co.uk
Copyright of Miss Jordan Fernando Jfernando_1997@hotmail.co.uk suzfernando@yahoo.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/groups/213071952427706/ @JustJordan2016 https://issuu.com/justjordan19/ Disclaimer: All articles and information in this newsletter are of the writers own personal experiences and opinions.
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