Art

I’ve always been a bit of an amateur artist but started painting properly about six years ago as I found it relaxing after stressful workdays. People seemed to like my stuff and even bought and commissioned items. So now I’m taking it more seriously and, with the encouragement of my friends, have agreed to take part in a professional art show.

So, anyway, like any professional artist, I have now set up a dedicated website and blog here http://suerichmondart.blogspot.co.uk/p/home.html with all relevant details of the show and some examples of my work. Constructive feedback on the site is welcome, as are any comments on the artwork itself. These days I’m mainly painting portraits in oils and here’s a recent one of me.

This is a big step for any TGirl as not only will lots more people now know about my being trans but it makes it almost official. I’ve realised that the Great British Public are not generally upset by trans people out and about – curious maybe, but rarely hostile – and the art world itself is very tolerant (Grayson Perry, winner of the Turner Prize, is well known) so I guess I’m more worried about having my work compared to that of other very competent artists. But, hey, I’m all for pushing my comfort zone in all directions at the moment.

I was pleased to look over the venue recently with the show’s curator and another female friend and meet the gallery owner and other artists. Having done so, I really feel comfortable about this, and not a little excited. I am, though, trying to keep it a bit low-key as I’d like to see how this goes before getting ambitious, both with my painting and with being openly out to all. So I've invited only close friends to the private view, although anyone can visit the exhibition.

More on the show when it’s on. I’ll be displaying portraits specifically of TGirls there, and thanks to those friends who’ve offered to have their portraits painted. The aim of these and all my other portraits is to bring out the sitter’s humanity. Who cares that these people are trans, they’re still human and beautiful.

Sue x

Cobblers

Well, my liking for heels is costing me dear. I've just collected two pairs of boots from the cobblers which were reheeled at £6.50 a pair. It's the third set of heel tips they've each had, and they're not that old. In fact, I had also considered taking him a cheap pair of shoes but decided it was better to buy a new pair than keep on with the old ones at that price.

It seems a lot for a cubic centimetre of rubber but, of course, shoe care is much more than that and my cobbler also repaired and smartened up all the scuffs and scrapes on the heels as well, bless him (I keep slipping down drain covers, etc).

But at this rate of attrition I'm going to have to go with flats. Even at the risk of losing my TGirl credentials. Tough choices!

Sue x

Makeovers at home

I've often had TGirls to stay and have enjoyed taking them out to London or further afield in South East England. In fact, the spare room is now painted a suitable rose pink! A couple of girls have come to my place to change before I've accompanied them on their first forays onto the streets of the capital. Now I've been trying my hand at doing makeovers at home for TGirls who are still finding their style.

Over the years I've filled several cupboards to bursting with clothes and now have lots of wigs, makeup and other essentials so girls who are still developing their look have a chance to experiment in a safe and private environment. Maybe I should start charging! But at the moment it's nice just to have someone round for a chat and a spot of lunch and watch their mood improve from stressed male to beaming female.

I've been asked not to post pictures here, which is fair enough, though the rather cute Carole Jayne Evans can be found on Flickr and would, I'm sure, appreciate comments: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80740689@N08/ [Update 27/3/25: Redundant link] I can't compete with Sophie's dressing service of Bath, though.

Sue x

Regular pub quiz

Just thought I'd mention, as a sort of addendum to last month's post on pubs, that I usually get to Joanne Frost's pub quiz on the last Wednesday of every month at the Dog House pub in Kennington, South London (not far from the Vauxhall Griffin mentioned in the last but one post).

Joanne's quiz is quirky and hilarious and everyone gets some sort of mad prize every round. Last Wednesday my teammate and I walked away with a china tortoise, a golfing video (vol 2 of a set), a pair of Bacardi Breezer sunglasses and a ten pence piece as prizes, despite not winning a round! All life-changing items, you'll agree, and I completely forget the spurious reasons for being awarded them.

The pub itself is pleasant enough with a central bar and two areas downstairs and a large room upstairs. Their beers are good though I don't rate their selection of wine very highly. The food is generally OK. http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/64/6498/Dog_House/Kennington .

I like being accepted, though, as just another team player and customer.

Sue x

Nottingham: my third Invasion

 

As I’ve said before on these pages, the TGirls in Nottingham have really sorted themselves out and have a lot of activities to keep them amused and sane. The monthly Nottingham Invasion is one of the better monthly meets around the country mainly as there is no ‘gay ghetto’ to confine the wanderings of the trans posse. The Invasion bossladies, Sam and Maddy, are to be commended for making this such a success.

So, as previously, I stayed in the very pleasant New Gables hotel run by Debbie and Maria, and met some of my oldest and closest friends there. I booked a table at the recommended Noor Jahan restaurant where we ate a substantial, tasty and good value meal with attentive service. Recommended. I was particularly pleased with being addressed as Madam on the phone. My female voice is improving.

Good food and good company. At Noor Jahan with some of my closest friends. 

Left to right: Jo, me, Ange, Maddy and Tiff.

New Foresters pub is the gateway to the proceedings and where most of the girls meet first for a drink and a chat. We moved on to the Newmarket Inn, an Australian gay pub which I hadn’t visited before and which had a party on to celebrate its first birthday. I quite liked its traditional interior (see picture). The TGirls at the bar are really beautiful. On the down side, I found the karaoke too loud.

At the Newmarket Inn

Another venue I’d not visited before was the Queen of Clubs which was not bad apart from the deafening music throughout which makes conversation impossible except in the quite pleasant ladies’ loos. I jerked about a bit which is what passes for dancing with me.

And finally to the NG1 club which is my favourite Nottingham venue as it has an attractive bar area where you can have a conversation without having to shout over the music, which is confined to a completely separate dancefloor area.

So that's a brief summary of the venues we visited. For me it's not the locations that count but an opportunity to meet up with some really nice people and catch up with all our news.

Nottingham has really got a lot to offer the out-and-about TGirl and I now recommend it to all girls who want a good night out and are prepared to travel. Many thanks to Tiff, Maddy, Ange, Jo, Gayna, Lynn, Rachael S., Rachel K.S., Holly and all the girls for another great evening.

Sue x

Necessary research into pubs

So I have been doing some research into London pubs with the help of other TGirls. This is, naturally, principally for the benefit of TGirls who might like to know of a few decent places to visit if they ever find themselves thirsty in the big city. Big city thirst is a terrible affliction so I feel that our endeavours for the benefit of transkind will be appreciated in the true spirit of charity in which they were undertaken.

Last week my smiley friend Gillian came to mine to get ready and we drove to meet my lovely pal Grace at the Vauxhall Griffin in South London, a nice quiet comfortable pub with an array of varied seating and a teeny beer garden. The staff were friendly and the ladies’ loos are fantastic. A great place for a catch-up with both girls.

In the Vauxhall Griffin's tiny beer garden. (This is actually Gillian's photo which is even smilier than the ones on my camera)

Tuesday was a beautiful day and I really didn’t want to be indoors so I met Joanne (who features here regularly) on the roof terrace of the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, West London. (Hammersmith is where the Charing Cross Hospital is, home of one of the gender clinics.) I stupidly didn’t take a photo but it is nice up there with its wooden benches and tables and climbing plants away from the crowds and traffic. The chilled white wine slipped down very well in the sunshine.

We decided that a pub garden would be the ideal place for a bite to eat so we went to the Hampshire Hog further along King Street near Ravenscourt Park, which has a delightful beer garden. The white and rosé wines were very nice. I felt my bowl of pappardelle pasta with mixed veg created a very good mix of flavours and textures but all the food was pricey. So enjoy a drink there but eating, though decent, is not worth the money.

After just missing our friend Saffy who had just been discharged from the hospital (sorry, Saff, but lunch always takes priority), and after attending to other matters there, we set off by tube for the West End. The Wellington pub at the bottom of Wellington Street has tables outside where you can look along Waterloo Bridge or down the Strand. It’s always quite busy but serves a decent range of better quality drinks. I’m a sucker for fruit ciders and Nicholson’s pubs are well stocked with these.

You know, before I started going out as a TGirl the fear was put into me that pubs were full of transphobic yobs ready to knife any girl who ventured in. This is not true. At all. Earlier this year I thought of starting a new blog devoted to all places which were “trans-friendly” but I’ve realised that essentially anywhere is as welcoming to trans people as it is to any other customer. And the other punters just mind their own business, unless you chat to them and make friends, of course. So instead, when I get round to it, I shall simply put up a new blog about good places to eat, drink, visit, shop at and so on for the benefit of anyone who visits London.

Sue x

That small step, that giant leap

Neil Armstrong died yesterday.

I mention this in a TGirl blog because for me this man was an icon. I grew up during the Space Race, one aspect of the Cold War which was the dominant international situation during my youth. Yet, in that antagonism and tension, with a fear of human annihilation, mankind also achieved some truly extraordinary feats. I am hard pressed to think back through history as to what might represent a greater achievement than sending men to the moon and bringing them home again. And to think that it happened in my lifetime!

Not only have I had a lifelong fascination with the stars ever since reading about spaceflight as a child, and especially after an inspiring school trip to the London Planetarium when I was 8, but I suppose Armstrong’s small step showed me that, with effort and dedication, extraordinary things can be done if you really want them to happen. With hindsight, the Apollo programme was a typically crazy product of the Cold War – insanely expensive with no proper plan to build on the achievement and mainly an attempt to get one up on the Soviets – but one of its legacies is that it illustrated that mankind’s dreams can become reality.

Don’t worry, I’m not mawkishly and childishly going to suggest that I too am living my dream blah blah, nor that Armstrong achieved stuff in some splendid godlike isolation (no hero does – they all have massive teams at work behind them, notably in this case the US taxpayer), but just to say that for me Neil Armstrong represents the achievable, however incredible, and the aspiration to achieve it.

I never met him – he seems to have elected to live quite isolated. But I met Buzz Aldrin, again through school. It was spellbinding to listen to him and imagine being up there, too.

I still plan to get to the moon myself before I die. My boots will be much nicer than Neil’s, though.

Sue x

A stiletto print would have been so much more iconic. I intend to remedy this.

Brick Lane

Yesterday I was invited by Rachel Cole to join a group of girls associated with the Adam & Eve dressing service so, after half an afternoon's shopping and strolling in my favourite parts of Covent Garden, I took the hot Central Line tube out to Brick Lane, best known nowadays as the title of Monica Ali's novel and the place to eat Indian food in London.

I met Rachel and her pals Helen, Denise, Stephanie, Gillian and Mandy at the relaxed Verge bar. Mandy I already knew from the TGirl bar at Erotica but the other girls were new to me and very nice to talk to. Adam & Eve seems to have an enthusiastic following. I used to be a Boudoir girl when I used a dressing service, so we compared notes about style and experiences.

Stephanie, Gillian and I went down Brick Lane for a curry. The food wasn't bad at City Spice and the total bill was perfectly reasonable. The red wine, though, was served at considerably higher than room temperature! Maybe those southern Italian volcanoes were still at work in it! But as it was free we could hardly complain!

A pleasant way to spend an evening in the middle of the week. Stupidly, I forgot my camera! (TGirl + no camera = fail!) so I will be relying on the other girls' charity for a record of the event.

Sue x

Add: There's a lovely photo of us on Stephanie's Flickr pages - three pretty TGirls amid the bright lights and bustle of Brick Lane http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephaniemonroe/7857488000/in/photostream

So what's normal anyway?

I went out to Camden in North London with a female friend earlier this month and we enjoyed a barge trip on the Regent's Canal before strolling round the fabulous markets.

It felt so normal and unremarkable to me that it shows how far I have come in less than three years since first stepping out dressed as a woman.

So what's weird in the picture below? The giant bronze horsehead? the Indian chieftain's headdress? the steel and glass canopy added to a Victorian warehouse? It's hardly the woman in jeans that's odd, is it?

It's so nice to be able to get on with normal stuff without having to feel self-conscious any more.

Sue x

A year of blogging

So I wrote my first post here exactly a year ago. And, like I said then, I think I took up blogging because it's the thing to do these days. Previously, I had written a lot of my thoughts and adventures on UK Angels but have now shifted more to Facebook and here for that sort of thing.

I suppose I was motivated partly to keep a record of interesting things I was doing, but to make it public in the hope that other trans people might be inspired to go out into the world and try to do something positive and feel comfortable being themselves in public. I know that such tales of outside adventures had a considerable influence on my motivating myself to come outdoors and present myself as female to the world. And it has almost always been a positive and enjoyable way to live since doing so.

This blogging site's mechanics provide all sorts of statistics, many of which are incomprehensible, and some you wonder why on earth anyone would want to know, such as the type of device the site was accessed from (iPad, Android, etc)

But, anyway, as of this moment the stats tell me that there have been 5,828 page views, 60 posts (that's my bit) and I have 21 followers (hello there, lovelies). Most of the viewers are in the UK but a great many in the US and a surprising number from Poland. I wish I knew what "Hi there!" was in Polish. People particularly read about the Nottingham Invasion in March and about my Hell Bunny dress (probably people Googling for Hell Bunny dresses generally and ended up being directed here! - sorry girls, best get back to the shopping sites!). Most people come here from Samanthatgirl, which is Sam's excellent blog. http://samanthatgirl.com/ [Update 27/3/25: link now redundant; I don't know if Sam still blogs.]

I've no idea if this is all good, bad or indifferent but competitive statistics is something that men are terrifically interested in and I find tedious and mystifying. So if you've read something here that you liked, browsed some pretty pictures, or have been inspired or interested in any way at all, then I guess this blog has served some purpose apart from amusing me in the evenings.

Thanks for reading.

Sue x