Absent friends

Ages ago, back in early February in fact, my lovely friend Roz, whom I visited at her home in Orkney last summer, booked to come to London at the very end of October and stay with me for nearly a week. And then, mid-way through October, she was forced by circumstances to cancel. I'm very sad about this as we'd planned all sorts of stuff. I hope that all will work out well for Roz.

As a number of girls from the locality had been looking forward to seeing Roz for Sunday lunch, we decided to go ahead with that event anyway.

Long-term readers of my blog will be familiar with Salieri Italian restaurant in the Strand in the heart of London and it was there that Ange P, Sarah C, Emma W and wife Jackie and I met to enjoy a good meal and catch up.

After which, Emma and Jackie and I went to a lovely watering hole, the Chandos, just off Trafalger Square, and had a good long chat. Because of my illness, it's been years since we were both out in London as women.

Dear Roz was sorely missed, and we toasted her. For me, it was still delightful to be back in familiar company in familiar places again.

I mustn't forget to mention that I also saw Grace Johnstone and Mrs Grace last Thursday. Grace is the trans woman who wrote the short play Face2Face Time that I reviewed back in June. Originally we had intended to meet with Roz, of course. Sadly not to be, but it was lovely to meet Mrs Grace for the first time and rejoice that here was another natal woman who supported the trans community. Grace came out to her 18-year old son a few days before and was delighted with the positive response. I have a lot of faith in the younger generation of today.

A nice couple of meetups that made me very happy to be out as a woman again.

Sue x