John Pendal

To get full information or express interest, contact: G00254698@atu.ie

Full participant information and consent details are provided before participation.

Who can take part:
• Autistic adults aged 40+ (diagnosed or self-identified)
• People who regularly and intentionally spend time in nature

What’s involved:
• A confidential semi-structured interview (about 20 minutes)
• Voluntary and anonymised
• Not clinical or therapeutic

Posting on behalf of an autistic student researcher completing a Level 8 dissertation at ATU. They are looking for autistic adults aged 40+ to take part in a study exploring how nature and outdoor environments support identity, wellbeing, and self-regulation.

Aged 18-24years?
Newly Identified Autistic, or maybe you have clients you'd like to refer to our Discovery Programme?

6 weeks starting 18th Feb 2026
Neuro-affirming
Find out more about your Autistic identity
Build community support
Funded spaces available

thrivingautistic.org/discovery-pr...

A small, rubber, yellow dinosaur stands next to a broken orange dinosaur egg. They are both submerged in a bowl of clear water.

I was given a dinosaur egg to hatch as a Christmas present. I haven't had one before. You put it in a bowl of water for 14 days until it hatches. I don't think anything has given me this much joy (except for my wedding day, my husband pointed out.)

#autisticjoy #dinosauregg

Two beared men: barber Mitchell and John, smile at the camera with arms around each other in the middle of a barbershop.

Arrived safely in Chicago. First stop was a beard trim from Mitchell at Father & Son barbershop (fatherandsonbarbershop.com). Next stop hitting up a gluten free bakery or two before the temperature drops to minus 20 C/ minus 4 F!!!

#beardtrim #beardlife #cantbelieveitsthiscold

Things to say when are kids are anxious or scared: I'm here and I've got your back ... what questions do you have? What are you wondering about? ... we'll take it one step at a time and focus on what we have control over ... even though we don't have all the answers, when we know more I'll let you know too ... let's see how we can take good, kind care of your feelings.

There's a new post now available on my blog. This has a list of support for neurodivergent families, at www.johnpendal.com/blog.html

A card is in a black and gold art deco frame. The card has white writing on a dark green plain background. The writing says: "Dear Santa, Please define 'good'. Thanks."

Found a frame for my favourite Christmas card. The card says:

"Dear Santa, Please define 'good'. Thanks."

Yep. That's about right.

I gave it 5/10 - and all my points were exclusively for Kate Hudson who is amazing.

Panda gave it 6/10 - but he likes Neil Diamond more than I do.

#songsungblue

A better name for the film would have been "One terrible thing happens after another."

We were both quite bummed out by the end, and had to watch something else to cheer ourselves up.

We haven't seen a trailer this misleading since "Mickey 17" had a trailer cut to a rat pack song, making it seem like a snappy comedy instead of a dystopian political satire.

This trailer gave the impression of a love story set to Neil Diamond music.

A still from the movie: "Song Sung Blue". Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman singing together at a piano.

Panda and I saw "Song Sung Blue" at the cinema last night. It's a jukebox musical using the songs of Neil Diamond, loosely based on the plot of a real life married couple Neil Diamond tribute act.

John wrapped up warm on a cold beach on New Year's Day. He's wearing a furry hat and red jacket

Happy New Year's Day! Wishing you all a peaceful and calmer 2026 x x

John outside in the dark, sitting on a box. Behind him is a pair of large rainbow colour angel wings lit up casting a glow on his face.

Happy solstice, Christmas, New Year .... whatever you celebrate (or don't) - wishing you all the best for this year and next.

Hugs, John

Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs by Matthew Reinhart, Robert Sabuda | Waterstones Buy Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs by Matthew Reinhart, Robert Sabuda from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

Favourite book: "Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs" (www.waterstones.com/book/encyclo...) ... yes it's a pop-up book.

If you have a favourite moment you'd like to share feel free to comment below. And if you've not had any this year, trust me, I understand. You're in company.

Hugs, John

Favourite theatre show: "Dinosaur World Live!" (dinosaurworldlive.com)

Favourite comedy show: "Adam Riches and John Kearns are 'Ball & Boe’ - For Fourteen Nights Only"

Favourite concert: Kylie’s Tension tour

YouTube video by StudiocanalUK I SWEAR - Official Trailer | STUDIOCANAL

Favourite film: "I, Swear" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeWq...)

Photo of John looking delighted whilst holding a dinosaur pop up book open in his arms.

For a lot of us 2025 has been a challenging year. It's becoming harder to focus on the positives when it can feel like the world is on fire. I think it's important to remember that we can be happy and there is good stuff out there.

So, here are some of my highlights this year:

#pillion #pillionmovie #pillionfilm #gaybikerfilm #gaybikers

(That’s partly why I’m so passionate about kink education now.)

So it’s not the kink love story we wanted, but perhaps it’s the film we deserve.

8/10 …. Sir.

It also rang true because for most of us we did learn our mistakes in real life. There wasn’t kink education in school or at home. Most of us “choose better second time around,” because we had to. We learned by having awful experiences first.

The relationship isn’t gold-standard, best practice BDSM by some margin. I know this has annoyed some people. I’m okay with that, partly because it’s a story about imperfect people. It’s hard to write engaging fiction where everyone behaves ethically.

Now for the more challenging parts:

One character does have a terminal illness, but this is handled with restraint. If you have recently been bereaved, or lost someone at Christmas, you might want to give this a miss.

After seeing this we don’t think that Jonathan Bailey should have won Sexiest Man Alive in 2025. That’s definitely Alexander Skarsgård. He is so sexy in this film.

It was wonderful to see real-life gay bikers playing extras. That gave it an extra layer of authenticity.

It was a lot funnier than we thought it would be. I didn’t see it billed as a comedy but I laughed at a lot of the first half of the film. It’s nice to be able to see a film about kinky gay men and laugh with them at recognition, rather than them being the punchline in someone else’s story.

Last night Panda and I saw Pillion at the cinema, a gay biker “Dom-com” starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling.

Short answer: we liked it and would both see it again, but it did lead to some discussions afterwards.

(I'll post my thoughts in a thread below)

#kink #bdsm #BDSMworkshop #KinkEducation #LearnKink
#KinkCommunity #BDSMTraining

Dungeon Disasters. Online workshop hosted by Praxium. A class about all the mistakes I've made in my kink life so that you don't copy them. Sunday 14 Dec 2025. Recording available for 30 days.

Two more days to my last workshop of the year: "Dungeon Disasters" ... this will be live online Sunday 14th December from 11am-1pm PST/ 2pm-4pm EST/ 7pm-9pm UK time, and a recording available for 30 days. More info and tickets available from forbiddentickets.com/events/praxi...

#kink #bdsm #BDSMworkshop #KinkEducation #LearnKink
#KinkCommunity #BDSMTraining

The picture is John's face over a swirling purple background. The text says "Dungeon Disasters" worldwide, online Dec 14 @ 11am PDT. Praxium. The Heart of Learning.

Sunday 14 Dec I'll be teaching an online class with Praxium called "Dungeon Disasters" from 11am-1pm PST/ 2pm-3pm EST/ 7pm-9pm Ireland & UK. It's about all the mistakes I've made in my kink life so that you don't copy them! Tickets available from forbiddentickets.com/events/praxi...