At one of the sites I work at, I have a little lunch time routine.
I quite like pasta and I am blessed to work at a place where the food is generally good. The pasta on offer has some proper decent sauces that extend beyond the usual tomato and basil. They appear to be made on site by a bloke who at least seems to be a proper chef rather than a 'microwave operator'. And the pasta itself isn't mush.
So anyway, part of my routine is to get my food and walk up three flights of stairs back to my desk with it.
Unlike usual, the server gets a china bowl out and spoons pasta bowties into it. I freeze. No cupboard pots?!!? What am I to do with a china bowl? Where do I return it? I have no tray. I don't know the procedures for getting rid of metal cutlery and crockery if I don't eat in the cafeteria. I panic but trying to hide it. I can't compute this change in my little routine.
So there I try and figure out an alternative food. Maybe a jacket potato as I spy throw away boxes. Then if I have that, my pasta routine is interrupted.
All this goes on in my head over no more than 10 seconds but I am acutely aware that I am holding up a queue.
I go with the pasta and add my cheese then making my way to the cashier.
As I climb the stairs back to my desk, my anxiety melts away. I remember we have a little kitchen across from the administration open plan office and there lives a dishwasher. I now have a strategy for any future changes in food containers. I am at peace again.
And all this because our catering people ran out of cardboard cups.
Actually, the reusable food container, although here the response to a "crisis", may beneficially be taken up full time. I have a feeling it used to be the norm.
ReplyDeleteI have had the odd food-queue meltdown in my younger days. In my first shipping job in the 70s, I would take my 15p luncheon voucher to the canteen on the top floor of Trelawny House to enjoy my regular salad and chips with a pud and custard. Monumentally shy and easily thrown I was in those days and, when the pleasant cashier lady asked how I was today, I lost it entirely and, gibbering, poured custard over my salad. Cue guffaws all round and blushes from me. "It's OK," I said. "I like custard." She told me not to be silly and held up the queue while she got me another one at no more cost. I found a table and felt like an idiot. On a positive note, I fell in love with the cashier lady.
This memory and those of other, similar embarrassments have set me a-wondering of late whether I may have a dash of autism in me. That, or I may just be clumsy, awkward and socially inept. And that is NOT to say that autism is necessarily characterised by my kind of failings.
The problem, for me, at least, was not the change in the situation but the surprise and suddenness of its onset and having no time to prepare myself for the required change in focus in which to deal with it. I wonder if that can apply to some autistic persons.
I have been thinking for some time that opting for a cupboard pot to contain my food isn't the best choice. However, I never really knew what to do with the bowl. My mind was cast back to when I worked in a school and had school dinners. I'd collect my food and eat in the staff room. If lunch had finished and I still had my dirty plate, going to the kitchens with it got the backs up of the catering staff since the dishwashing process was started. I was left with a dirty plate and I wasn't sure what to do. The staff room dishwasher was full of clean stuff. I couldn't find any washing up liquid. I can't remember what I did but it left me wary of getting stuck with a dirty plate again!!
ReplyDeleteThere's lots of research to suggest that parents and relatives can have some autistic traits but not necessarily enough for a formal diagnosis. If one can inherit eye colour, height, build and other physical things, I couldn't rule out a cognitive style either.
Whilst I haven't put custard on a salad, the multitasking of a certain event can cause me to make mistakes that I wouldn't do if I were by myself away from noise, social situations and other things that cause distraction.
There's great things about being autistic - we're less likely to commit crimes, start wars and break rules.
We have a strong sense of right and wrong and not so likely to be interested in cheating or financial fraud.
We can be extremely empathic and have some novel and interesting solutions to problems.
The world couldn't function without the autistic mindset since we fill in the gaps of those neuro typical people.
That's my take anyway!