Packing the stocking

 No, my leg's not that fat. I mean it's been a week of planning for Christmas, and choosing and sending presents. I have to say that online shopping has been pretty chaotic, what with crashes, misinformation and trying to avoid special offers that tie you into dubious eternal payment schemes. Maybe it's just me, or is all this a general problem? But I seem to have done it and that gives me a relatively quiet week before the holidays. That's an improvement on previous years where things usually get a bit fraught at the last minute. So I'm pleased that I got better organised this year.

One thing I hope to do this year is to revive an old tradition of giving myself a treat of hosiery or lingerie for Christmas. After all, I've never had such gifts from anyone else!

One present I wanted to send abroad has, sadly, potential problems with import duties that I don't want to deal with now so it'll transform into a birthday present and I'll send it next year when the post office is a little less full of parcel fiends and taxpayers (it's tax paying season, too, here).

Here in Italy the 8th of December is a public holiday (it's a largely Catholic country so it's the Feast of the Immaculate Conception). It's also the day that civic Christmas lights are switched on and Christmas trees are put up. Feast of the Immaculate Conifer might be more apt! I have a full-size tree in my living room this year and it looks quite jolly. I don't have a chimney, though, so I'm not sure how Santa's going to get in to put presents under it. I dare say he's worked out a way into modern homes by now. Presumably through the aircon unit or something.

I did one bad thing and that was to buy a Christmas cake in good time and, well, I was feeling a bit peckish yesterday and I'm afraid I've eaten a bit of it already. My bad! So I'd best not buy any more Xmas food and drink till next weekend! It's probably time to put the bathroom scales away until the new year anyway!

This year I've planned plenty of time in pretty clothes and smart shoes during Christmas week. I bought a new eyeshadow palette last week and there'll be time to do my hair and makeup really well. I've also been trying out perfume tester samples and I'm homing in on Hypnotic Poison eau de toilette by Dior as an alluring new scent for the holidays.

The council has spent a staggering sum on the illuminations this year so they'd better be good. Tomorrow is market day and I have shopping planned so I'll report back. 

Last week I enjoyed the German-style Christmas market in Milan around the cathedral. 

 

Plenty of stalls selling food and drink, decorations, toys, jewellery, clothes, lavender and herbs, and so on. I wonder what there will be tomorrow in Sanremo.

Transition news

Just to wish my beautiful friend Stephanie the best of luck and a perfect outcome for her gender surgery next week. 

Another trans friend was telling me that it looks like she will have her surgery next year, as well as breast augmentation and facial feminisation surgery. If she has them all in one go, I just hope her surgical team don't get one end of her confused with the other!

Pink News sexual misconduct

I just thought I'd note the allegations against the bosses of this important LGBT news source and comment another day so this post remains mainly positive. Whilst reserving judgment on this situation as these are just allegations, I can't help commenting that I have known rather too many cases of people who fight for minority rights but who are toxic at work or home and the hypocrisy bothers me more than I can say. 

 

Friday the thirteenth

I hope you're not having a bad day. If you're in the English-speaking world, that is. There's nothing noteworthy about the day here in Italy, where Friday the seventeenth is considered a day of ill-omen. 

Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend.

Sue x