Back out in London after all these years

 I've spent the last couple of weeks away, often in places with little in the way of modern communications, so I'm slow in updating my blog.

But as with my previous post giving a brief description of my first time out fully femme since 2018, there's a similar event I'm excited to report about last Monday when I went out dressed in London to do some shopping, to see how the city has changed, and to meet with a friend. Just like old times.

And I barely felt nerves. As one friend had said to me the day before, going out in female mode is like riding a bicycle even after several years: you never really forget how.

Although it was not a very warm day, I was determined to wear a summery dress. But winter tights couldn't be left behind either.

It was a day of crowds, as it was a bank holiday (foreign readers, in Britain, public holidays are called bank holidays because the banks are permitted to shut). I took the train to Waterloo, walked past the Festival Hall and across the Millennium Footbridge to Charing Cross. There's an elevated walkway above Villiers Street where I took this photo.

I wandered through favourite places like Covent Garden

I was looking for some ankle boots but it's the wrong season as the shoe shops only sell sandals at this time of year. Despite the cold and rain! So no luck. 

I'd been warned by my friend Grace, whom I'd seen the day before, that London has changed a lot and, in truth, most of the shops, businesses, cafés and restaurants I knew have been replaced. The junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street is unrecognisable after the works to install the new Crossrail, or Elizabeth Line as they finally called it.

I tried taking photos in Piccadilly Circus but ended up with this ridiculous one of me wearing an Eros hat!

I had agreed to meet lovely Stephanie Monroe, who I haven't seen for six years, and she suggested we break away from the crowds of the West End and go to see the Little Ships of Dunkirk that were gathered in St Katharine's Dock by Tower Bridge. Here's us by the Tower of London.

At St Katharine's we found a place to eat, Ping Pong, where we both enjoyed the katsu curry and happen to have been served by a trans waitress, which made us feel the world wasn't all out to get us. UK transphobia has been through the roof these last few years.

 We went next door to the Slug and Lettuce (yes, dear readers, this really is the name of a chain of bars in Britain) and had some silly cocktails because why not?

I was tired by the time I got back to my hotel but very, very happy to have relived my trans life in London for a day. 

Many thanks to Steph for her company and for being generally lovely, and for recent moral support in getting out again from Roz and Grace.

A dip in the archives

My last evening out with Steph, in July 2018.

An evening in Chinatown.

 

Sue x