Local schools accept gender preferences

I am pleased to say that schools in my area are increasingly accepting students' right to be called the name and be treated as the gender they desire. This is for the purposes of registration and day-to-day use. Sadly, their final certificate will still have their legal name, but this is a good start. After all, since we don't have school uniforms here and kids can wear what they like and are normally called by their first names by peers and teachers alike, it makes no difference to everyday studies and interactions what name and gender is used. Make the student comfortable and respected and their studies will thrive.

In some ways it's a pity that the issue had to be forced in some places by some legally male students turning up to school in skirts, but the issue doesn't seem especially contentious for the reasons given. Since 2015 Genoa university, for instance, has officially acknowledged people requesting the name and gender they have chosen rather than what's on their birth certificate or other state documentation.

I think the world is moving on and increasingly acknowledging people for who they are despite the attempts at continued repression by certain abusive groups. I wish the youth of today a happy future.

Now, if I had been allowed to be a transgender student for real...

Sue x

 

Cerise is back!

 This blog is written in cerise coloured font. It's a colour I like very much but it's also the colour that was in fashion in 2010 when I first started going out. In the end, as well as cerise tops and a skirt, most of my accessories were cerise too: watch, gloves, pen and notebook, and my beloved purse as seen in a photo in my last post. So it's a colour I associate with my emergence as a TGirl into the world. (Lady Gaga was playing a lot in that year and so has a similar association.)

A heatwave has suddenly hit us and the whole town is now wearing cerise. Indeed, there was one entire family - father, mother and daughter - each with at least one cerise item. All of a sudden, the shops are full of cerise coloured clothes, from blouses and skirts to bikinis and shorts. At least, they are cerise in this part of the world.

It makes me happy that 'my' colour is back. I have a feeling that there are going to be a few more additions to my wardrobe in this year's colour any day soon!

Even the gloves!

Sue x

Some more old photos

 Life has really taken off now that Covid restrictions have reduced and all of a sudden all those things that have been waiting for two years or more are all demanding attention. I was away again last week - more on that in another post - and yesterday the builders came to look at what's left to finish in a job that started in autumn 2019! This time, I'm prepared to say it's not their fault it's been slow. But don't make a habit of it, boys!

In all this I've been reminded that Flickr is changing its terms. I haven't looked in detail at the new terms yet as I've never really liked it or bothered with Flickr that much. I got the account mainly as I wanted to keep track of the photos of me other people were posting. In my early days, I was very conscious of being outed or targeted and I worried about the encroachment of social media on privacy and liberty. I still do, but in different ways now. Anyway, my account is still there if you haven't seen it:

Sue's Flickr

But recently, as has happened before, I found some more old photos. We TGirls really do take an awful lot of pictures! But when you've taken a long time to get ready to go out, you've got to capture that hard work, right? Also, we tend to have a lot of fun together, and that's worth recording, too.

Here are some, including this all-time favourite from experimenting with outfits at the Boudoir Dressing Service in London in 2008. My 'biker chick' look:

 

Here's me relaxing on a café barge in 'Little Venice' on the Regent's Canal in London:

And laughing my head off at dinner in a Chinese restaurant:

 

These are not my usual style of photo but they illustrate the freedom we TGirls can gain for ourselves. I'm glad to keep coming across this old stuff.

Sue x

 

French holiday

 I've just come back from my first holiday in over three years. Not en femme but at least wearing my clothes off the women's racks. It wasn't my first androgynous holiday, by any means, but this method of dressing in women's clothes but presenting male keeps me connected with my femininity without causing social problems or making me fret about my skin that is still a little reactive to makeup after the years of severe eczema I suffered.

It went very well; I relaxed but saw a lot of interesting things, too. 

I went to Toulon on the south coast of France. Since it's a working port I expected it would have only a certain amount of interest and I would use it as a base to explore Provence, a region I've never been to before. But it proved to be a fascinating and charming place that kept me well amused for three days.

I stayed at a pretty little hotel overlooking the sea:

 

The main harbourfront is bustling with life and endless bars, cafés and restaurants. Although badly damaged in the war, the old city centre is full of charming quiet little squares with olive trees and fountains:

 

The most impressive thing, though, was the cable car that takes you up the mountain that rises above the city. The view from the top is stunning:

 

Also at the top is a memorial and museum of the battle for the city in 1944.

I enjoyed a boat tour of the harbour. Apart from old forts, mussel and fish farms, and huge ferries to the Mediterranean islands, most of the harbour is a major naval base for warships and submarines, including the Charles de Gaulle, which is Europe's only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Charles de Gaulle on the left, helicopter carrier on the right

I did wonder if it was a good idea to stay in a naval base when the mad Russian government is threatening nuclear war! But I survived.

The city art gallery has some good paintings including this astonishing Cairo dancer by Eugène Giraud that stunned me by the way the painter has captured the sheen and translucence of her gauze blouse:

 

Best of all, though, is the naval museum with its beautiful models of ships. The most impressive have got to be these teaching models from the 18th century that were used for training officers. The one on the right is 1/10 scale and I estimate it's nearly 15 feet from the floor to the top of the mainmast. You could stand on the deck!

Even I who am not into macho stuff can appreciate the detail here, and the painstaking labour that went into making these.

I was glad to get away at last and go abroad if only for a few days. It gives a sense of normality in a world that has been anything but recently. And since it went well I hope to do a few more little trips this summer, in my soft feminine clothes of course.

Sue x

Amazing clothes haul

 I went a bit mad in a shop yesterday and walked out with 13 items of all sorts: cute T-shirts, jeans, a skirt, shorts, tunic top, and more in a variety of colours and materials. Nothing fancy, just everyday wear. The store just seemed to have a lot I liked the look of or felt I could make regular use of. 

I didn't try any items on in the shop fitting rooms so when I got home I had time and space to try them all, which is always fun.

And do you know, all but one item fitted perfectly, and I mean perfectly. As I've said before, women's clothes are so much nicer than men's and the pair of grey skinny jeans with deep pockets are a dream come true as they work in both male and female modes. 

The only item that didn't fit properly was a black bodysuit which was too small despite being marked as my size and despite containing stretchy lycra. Never mind, I'll slim into it 😏

But 12 out of 13 items fitting perfectly is a first. So I'm very pleased with my haul.

Nothing fancy but all good

What shall I wear today? A daily decision that just got harder. Oh, it's tough being a girl, eh readers?

Sue x

Encouraging growth

 Yesterday it felt like a proper spring day. I even put sunscreen on. I set up my garden furniture after winter and spent much of the day tidying the plant pots and planting more herbs and veggies. Last year I was delighted with a bumper crop of lettuces that had me munching salad most days, and basil grows in abundance in this region that's famous for its basil pesto sauce for pasta.

This year I still have last year's basil, sage, rosemary, parsley, two kinds of lettuce and rocket all still flourishing and I've planted chilli peppers, thyme, coriander, mint, 4 more types of lettuce, chard and chicory. I'll see if I have success with tomatoes, gherkins, radishes and aubergines/eggplant. Arnold the Olive continues to grow - obviously he's a long term project! 

Mamma, she feed-a you good!

 

I'm not a good gardener, I have to confess, and my two lemon trees didn't survive last year, sadly. But the climate here is helpful in assisting an amateur like me!

All this gardening has arisen after the local paper gave away packets of seeds last year, which proved so popular during lockdown that they've done the same this year. I've added to their freebies with other stuff. But it was a good idea and it made people happy to encourage stuff to grow when the human population was repressed by a pandemic. 

This long preamble introduces my main topic, that many of my TGirlfriends, having been in hibernation for over two years, are now asking if they have the stamina and desire to go out as girls again. As in my last post, I'm not feeling in the mood much either, not even for a photo. The pandemic and its social and psychological effects has deflated our enthusiasm and taken a considerable mental toll. 

It's hard to encourage others when one feels a bit down oneself. I know, though, that this general mood is temporary. We will get out of this residual period of pandemic, this recession, this war situation and all the other grim things happening right now. Maybe next year it will all seem that it was just a bad dream that we once had and it will be as if little had ever changed. 

But as I've said so often, trans is what you are. It's not a mood or something that switches off just because you feel you want it off. The intensity varies and circumstances may make us more cautious about presenting authentically, but we know deep down that we'll be back one day, that purging never works.

I've booked a short trip to France next week. Not very far from home, but it will get me back to the idea of international travel again after so long. I have been chatting to friends over the last few days about their plans to visit Italy and the possibility of meeting up when they do. This will reintroduce face-to-face contact again with all the body language and hugs you can't get on Zoom or social media. And so we relearn to be ourselves again. 

So I've been feeling the effects, too, but I will say that we'll get back to an authentic trans life again eventually. I look forward to that. 

Sue x