Who is David Bowie?

I’m being silly – of course I know who David Bowie is. But I didn’t at the time. Which means I have felt a bit left out this week following his death as most of my trans friends have been saying what a profound influence he was on them. Blame it partly on my poor ear for music but mainly on the fact that characters such as him didn’t really feature in the house I grew up in.

Glam rock, now that did feature and it was hugely influential. I did ask my mother, on hearing ‘The Sweet” on some kid’s TV show, “Why are those men dressed as women?” And in her characteristic way she replied, “Because they’re silly.” Arguably true, but uninformative. So I missed the Bowie phenomenon, although other contemporary forces were at working on my little mind. I’m sorry for the loss that my friends are feeling.

 Alan Rickman, the actor, also died this week. I especially enjoyed his turn as the oily Reverend Obadiah Slope in the Barchester Chronicles. A loss also.

Health

Since writing last week, I can say that I no longer see signs of the eczema on my face and neck that has afflicted me for the last two years, nor even feel it now. This doesn’t mean it’s cured, but I remain hopeful. A few weeks to go.

Since New Year I have lost 6 and a half pounds (3kg) in weight, just shy of half a stone. Pleased with my progress there as well.

Sue x

2016 and all that

Happy New Year

I hope 2016 will be a good year for readers. I’m hoping it will be a better year for me since last year was, in some respects, non-existent for me as a TGirl.

I also hope you had a good Christmas and that Santa brought you everything you wanted: some nice jewellery, perhaps, or perfume, or a new dress. I like presents like that. I mainly got chocolates but, hey, they always go down well!

Back to the routine

Truthfully, I’m glad that things are getting back to the routine. I like Christmas and New Year but they disrupt everything for about three weeks each year. 

I'm back to working on some shopping and fashion items this week, although I confess that the fashion in question is not at all my style - wide trousers and flat tops. I guess some women buy it.

Health

In respect of my health, this new regime of creams and soap substitutes for my skin seems to be having some effect. In a month’s time I will be having some tests to see if they can identify what has brought this problem on but if all goes well I hope to be back out in the spring. It will have been two years by then.

Weight

Now last year I got very excited about losing weight and in January I lost nine pounds (4kg). That was it. Nothing further happened for the rest of the year and I started this New Year more or less back where I had been a year ago. But since New Year’s Day I have lost 5 pounds (2 kg), so that’s going in the right direction again.

Gender neutral and gender change policies

I am thinking about various ideas being kicked around in government such as passports with no M/F indicator or simply filling in a form to declare preference. Some would like this, many people would not. Melanie MacDonagh’s article this week in Tuesday’s Evening Standard on this subject, though strongly against the idea (and fairly ignorant of transgender problems), does make we wonder about what the best approach to these things might be. At present, most of these matters are dealt with by enraged rhetoric on all sides. I would like to see some careful, considered discussion and, ideally, as I have mentioned before, some worthwhile evidence on what creates this whole variance in gender in the first place. At the moment we are all thrashing about in the dark.

Sue x