Fraser does Vivid

Fraser had two failed attempts at visiting Vivid. The first time the weather thwarted him; it was that ridiculously rainy and cold Tuesday, 2 weeks ago. Fraser and his support workers rescheduled to go after work later that week, but when the day arrived Fraser was too tired to go. It was about that point we started regretting talking up using Vivid for therapy in a blog post. But then we reminded ourselves that the whole point of using these kinds of events for therapy is to encourage clients to do real-life things that genuinely interest them. With our priorities back in check, Fraser did go to Vivid in the end and he had a great time.

The day prior to Vivid, Fraser, his support worker and speech pathologist looked up the route to get from his home to Circular Quay using Google maps. He chose to go by bus and train both into and out of the city, which was the most straightforward route. Once the route had been chosen and checked, Fraser’s speech pathologist texted him the details so he had them ready on his phone, including the bus route number, train platform and times.

We asked Fraser to describe his Vivid experience.  This is how Fraser described his VIVID experience in his words.

How was VIVID?

It was Awesome.

There was Circular Quay train station had lights and people, men women and children playing rings.  It was kids going around your arms and your waist.

Light up hula hoops?

Yeah.

And there was one (light display) that went on the floor at Circular Quay ferries.

What was your favourite thing?

My favourite one was the Opera house and the Sydney Bridge, because that light was really good. And it was in many buildings in Sydney. And I talked to one of them, (volunteer at VIVID) and it is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

How did you get there & home in the end?

We took the car to Epping and took (the train) from Epping to Circular Quay. 

We saw all these buildings that are like poles, but taller, those kind of ones.

Then after that, we took about 8pm in the night and we took the phone and the train took back from central to Ashfield. But that wasn’t the right one. We couldn’t get the right one at Circular Quay. From Ashfield, for 1 minute, we got a train that was staying there to go to Strathfield.  We got through Meadowbank and Rhodes and Eastwood and back to Epping at about 9:00pm.

Did you take food with you?

Yes. I had. I a hamburger. It was really tasty. It was $16 because it had bacon and onion on it. Jeremy* (care worker) didn’t eat one.

But did you take a sandwich?

Yeah, but the hamburger was the one for me.

Would you recommend it?

Yes, I would.  The first day would have been a lot of people. It’s like the Sydney Easter show. We had a lot. We saw a lot. We saw many people coming in on that day. It was so many people around the ferries and Circular Quay. But there is also the park off Circular Quay. The bucket park.  That was less people. It’s one of those parks where (on) the new year, you could look at all the fireworks between the Opera House and the Sydney bridge. That park had many lights to play. There were lots of people with their mothers and fathers.  It was lots of Police. It was really safe.