Monday 24 November 2008

Milestones

Life as a tranny seems to be made up of a series of milestones; first time out dressed, first time in the 'real world', first chat-up line*, and so forth.

This week saw me deal with two more.

Firstly I managed, quietly, without any fuss, to nudge open the door towards going public. That is to say I posted a picture of me as Rachel on my male Flickr stream. I've done this once or twice by accident (and vice versa with Rachel's stream), but this was a deliberate act. Since moving to Australia we have a new life to build, and new contacts to make. These people will have no expectations about us, and may as well know about us properly from the word go. When we were living in the UK we had a constant worry about neighbours or people from work 'finding out'. We have decided that this no longer applies. For better or for worse I am a crossdresser, and people will have to deal with that.

That's not to say that we are forcing it on them, but neither are we taking any special measures to hide Rachel from the outside world. We have discussed it with the children and they are comfortable with it as well, and to be honest it was them that mostly drove a lot of the discretion in the UK anyway.

Anyway, those who know me in bloke mode will know that I have been doing a daily self-portrait project on Flickr. Over the last year I have found ways of introducing Rachel into this without bein too blatant about things (although I've done it enough that I know several people suspected I was a tranny). However the other day my self-portrait was of me as Rachel. Any suspicions anyone may have had were confirmed, and anyone who cares to look at my stream and who doesn't know I'm a tranny will do so now. I haven't, as yet, associated my male stream with that of Rachel, or, indeed Rachel's stream with my bloke one. That's a step to be taken at a later date.

So far responses have been positive. But the genie is now out of the bottle and we'll take what comes.

And the next milestone?

Since we arrived in Oz I have been in e-mail communication with a local girl, Letty. We decided that it would be good to meet up sometime, and last night we did so. However as meets go it was pretty momentous. Letty invited me to her place for a meal, but extended the invite to Mrs Rachel and the children as well. Now Mrs Rachel has been out with me enough for this to be a non-issue, but this would be quite a big step for the children. However we discussed it with them, and they were quite happy to join us - the first time that they have ever been out with me as Rachel. Also the first time that they had met another crossdresser in girl mode. Anyway, we all had a very pleasant evening, and, when our stuff finally arrived from the UK, we will return the favour. There are many times that your children make you proud - last night was one of them; they were brilliant.

Anyway, I'm off out again next weekend for the Transfusion Christmas party up in Sydney. Report and pictures when I get back.



*A year ago. It was roughly 'My mate really fancies you.'

Thursday 20 November 2008

Rachel Steps Out Again

Fresh from the success of my shopping trip to Shellharbour a couple of weeks ago, last night I went to my first tranny social event since arriving here in Oz eight weeks ago. This was a restaurant night in a suburb of Sydney, so required a couple of hours' driving there and back. But it was worth it; Mrs Rachel and I met three girls, two of whom had their partners with them, and we had a very pleasant Italian meal. And, just to rub it in to those of you in the UK, we sat outdoors :-)

I'm out of practice in getting ready for these things, and we were late leaving home because I was still putting my face on when we should have been in the car. Add to that the fact that we don't really know our way around Sydney (which, we think, covers a larger area than London, despite only having half of the poulation) and got lost, it was no surprise that we were late turning up. However no-one had ordered, so we didn't disrupt things. To balance things out we also got lost on the way back home as well and, just as we finally found the correct route out of the city, we got caught in the mother of all thunderstorms; lashing rain and bright sheet lightning all the way down to Wollongong and beyond.

Anyway, thanks to Jan, Caroline, Karen and their other halves for making us welcome. I'll see some of you in just over a week at the next big even - Transfusion.

I wore some particularly high heels for the evening and to get used to them spent a morning wearing them around the house. Which led to the bizarre sight of me, in full bloke mode, playing competitive Guitar Hero against my son whilst wearing 5" stilletos. It actually seemed to improve my ability to play.

And it was my son who, whilst we were getting changed at the local swimming pool this afternoon, notcied that I had forgotten to remove the raspberry pink nail varnish from my toes last night. Oh well.