Found my special box and photos

 It's almost impossible to write a blog using the lousy wi-fi in hotels and on trains so it's been a week since I last posted but I am excited to report that I have at last unearthed my special box of goodies.

I deposited my worldly goods in storage in London five years ago but it was only this spring that I started to collect my many Sue items. This week I got back to London and really got going on all my stuff which was in a mess. 

The mess was not of my making. My storage was planned meticulously but what with the buyer of a sofa and chairs pulling out at the very last minute before I moved, leaving me with these large items having to be squeezed into the little space available; then my being hit by a cyclist on removals day and crawling around in agony unable to direct the removal men properly as they arranged my stuff into storage; and then a flood in the deposit in 2020 when I was in lockdown abroad that meant that the owners of the facility had to rebox much of my stuff, but they didn't use boxes of similar size to the previous ones so previously logical arrangements of contents have either been amalgamated with others or split up. So the whole thing is a mess. The full story is here when I described finding my feminine critical kit this spring: We Can Rebuild Her.

My "special box of goodies" unearthed this week is not the same as the "feminine critical kit" I found before. Both boxes were supposed to be together at the front for easy access, but I found them in totally different places nearer the back of my storage unit. Anyway, among other things, the special box contained my pink camera with a lot of photos on the memory card that I have now downloaded and which have been bringing back fond memories. A few are below.

I also had time this week to catch up with a sister in London. She's not quite as bigoted as the other who hates LGBT people but it's still painful to hear her and my nephew's prejudices. He's just got his first job after leaving his faith-based school and I hope this change in his life might open his horizons. I will be working on him, too!

I also took two old male neighbours of mine out to an Indian restaurant last night and it was very good to have a catch-up after these years away. They filled me in on news of my old neighbourhood, news which was almost all about roadworks!

Both events, unfortunately, required more masculine appearance, but even with my sister I refused to cut my long nails. She didn't seem to notice, but we are all quite short-sighted in our family! And the neighbours didn't seem to notice my soft bootcut trousers and feminine sweater. I don't like having this sort of unisex appearance but life's too awkward to be 'out' as trans just at the moment.

I'll be in Britain for a couple more weeks so more trans-related news as it happens.

A dip in the archives

 A few of the newly found photos from 2016-18, not posted before:

Trying on clothes in a shop with my pink camera, November 2016.

Showing my two favourite rings. The larger one I bought myself and the smaller one was given to me by a beloved friend. I think I got my lipstick just right. Christmas 2016.

Out in Greenwich, London, April 2017.

Ready to go out in the evening at Sparkle, July 2017.

Very wet day in the park, January 2018

By contrast, a boiling hot day in Berlin, June 2018.

Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend.

Sue x