Winterval, and Elle

 Back in the 1990s the city of Birmingham, England, called its range of winter festivities "Winterval", a conflation of winter and festival. Naturally enough, the British tabloid press, quite possibly the worst media outlets in the world, engaged in their unique form of rabid, frothing rage saying how traditional Christmas was being "banned" (a favourite misrepresentation of theirs) in the name of "political correctness" (which had doubtless "gone mad", ditto). I thought it was quite a good name for winter festivities that include but are not exclusive to Christmas. A more astute city administration could have said the term was coined by local boy William Shakespeare and since your average tabloid journalist probably wouldn't know how to check if that was true, Birmingham could have avoided a lot of aggravation.

Since becoming self-employed back in 2008 and working at home, I too tend to have a Winterval of my own, which stands for winter and interval because nothing, be it workwise or socially related, works in any normal way between early December and mid January. Or, as an old Nigerian colleague of mine put it when I had just started full-time permanent work and he was thwarted in completing something by the usual pre-Christmas chaos, "Oh man, it's Christmas; everything goes beserk!" And what with the severe effect that the short days and cold weather three weeks either side of the winter solstice have on my mood and ability to function, I need a cheerful, bright home at this season. It's not so dark and cold where I now live as it was in London, but yesterday I put up lights and decorations, candles and perfumed things, and set up and decorated the tree. The advent calendar is stuffed with chocolates, because you need these nibbles to keep your strength up every day, right? And so in this way I survive the crazy season, when it's dark and nothing works properly, with a bright, cosy home. Keeping the winter blues away one chocolate at a time... 

That said, it was lovely at lunchtime today and I was able to eat outdoors and get those essential sunrays. Last night, though, I celebrated the first day of Sue's Winterval with a glass of prosecco (which went straight to my head!) wearing another favourite old dress in blue wool (I've had this old faithful at least 25 years but I love it!) and winter boots.

 

 

Elle magazine

Once again - and it's not the first time - I have to pay tribute to Elle Italia for being a non-trans publication that is uniquely and openly supportive of the trans community. 

 

I try to write regular posts about what's happening in the world of the arts that's supportive of trans people or involves related interests but this year it's not been so easy to dedicate time to researching for these posts because of family matters. 

This week I am delighted to hear via Elle of a new exhibition by Andrea Francolini, an Italian photographer based in Sydney, Australia, whose latest exhibition is entitled Eyedentify and specifically celebrates the trans community, focusing on their eyes, the windows to the soul. Elle prints five of the portraits, each one full page. They're beautiful and you can see them online here, though the site seems to provide text only in Italian:

https://www.elle.com/it/magazine/arte/a69542629/eyedentify-andrea-francolini-identita-trans-progetto/ 

 

I'd like to thank Hearst Publishing and Elle Italia specifically for being such constant supporters of the trans community, always presenting us positively and genuinely. We can do with support right now. 

 

New items

I've had an email that my new boots and shoes should be arriving at my local outlet tomorrow. I'm looking forward to trying them on.

I also have a new nightie, a long black satin one with spaghetti straps. Although light, I think it should be warm as well as pretty. 

I'm wondering if I need a party dress for Christmas ... 

 

That's a nice, positive start to December. Yay!

Sue x