Hello and welcome to my latest blog aiming to increase Dyspraxia awareness. I hope you had a great Christmas and have settled into the swing of a new year. In this edition I write about my experiences in my first proper job, working as a kitchen porter in a local beach café and my eventful introduction to working in that environment. While on YouTube I found an interesting clip from the channel four programme Embarrassing Bodies which shows simple tests that can help identify whether a person has Dyspraxia along with describing the problems which face people suffering from the disability you can watch this by clicking on the link below. As always I hope you enjoy the blog.
Embarrassing Bodies Dyspraxia clip.
Off to work
At the age of eighteen the summer before I left for my university adventure to begin, I began working at a local beach café as a Kitchen Porter. My mum had been friends with the owner of the business for some time and I had been friends with her family for a similar period so they knew some of what to expect with regards to employing me no one could quite predict however the two debacles that were to happen within my first couple of weeks.
Before my first official shift I was given the opportunity to go on a barrister training day which I agreed to keen to make a good impression. After being shown how to make various coffees we were each assigned our own station and allowed to try to make them ourselves. While everyone else enjoyed success and made the coffees, the only creation I successfully made was a heinous mess, consisting of water, milk and coffee on and around my station. It wasn't through lack of effort however, but the in theory fairly simple but fiddly steps of frothing the milk, and correctly preparing the coffee were to me far harder than they would be to others. Making coffees would not be one of my duties.
My first day in the café started well despite my nervousness as again I was hoping to make a good impression and I was just beginning to settle in when disaster struck. While cleaning a knife it slipped in my hand and nicked my finger not to badly I thought, however the extent of the damage was soon to be revealed. Blood began to pump out of my finger at an alarming rate and my work mates expressions told me it was worse than first feared and it was suggested a trip to hospital was in order I managed to convince them that this was not necessary mainly because I was highly embarrassed about the situation I had caused. After being reassured that I shouldn't be embarrassed, I completed the remainder of my shift for obvious reasons in outdoor requirements.
I am lucky to have a very patient and understanding employer and workmates who are all now also friends who appreciate that some aspects to working in a kitchen are more difficult for me than the average person. There is a stronger chance of a crash or a bang with me in the vicinity and it has been known for there to be excess water around the sink area. As a result of the patience shown however working at the café is great fun.
And finally
I found this interesting article from 2008 from the Telegraph, as with so many articles many of the symptoms spoke of sound very familiar.
Clumsy but clever
That is all for now, as always I hope you enjoyed the article,
all the best George.
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