Advent Blog: The End

Have a fabulous Christmas.

I've made it to the end of my little experiment, there's nothing like a deadline to make you fill in a blank white box. It's led to me posting as much in the past month than over the previous two years.

Thanks for reading.

Fraught

In some homes this time of year can be stressful and fraught with others having arguments or worse while others are cuddled up watching people having a miserable time on Eastenders. Don't keep it all in, there are many people out there who can help.

Man In a Dress

I am relatively new to the Kardashian/ Jenner media circus mainly because I don't watch/ listen/ read those kinds of outlets, however the transition of Caitlin Jenner led to coverage in the sorts of media I do stumble upon. The latest "man in a dress" comments to Time magazine and subsequent apology show that while she has raised awareness of being trans, she should not be treated as a speaker for all trans people.

Then I'm X

In my forthcoming benign dictatorship I am going to make trans critics who use any variation on the "if they're a man/ woman than I'm X" a crime punishable by a swift whack using a hardback copy of the Bumper book of tired, trite and tedious criticisms with the option of being made to be X forever.

Junk In Your Trunk

A certain festival in Australia has merited comment for its trans exclusion policies regarding pre op M to F trans, again it all seems to boil down to genitals. It's sad to have to keep mentioning that what "junks in your trunks" doesn't make your gender and above all its none of your business.

Elsewhere I got past my first and only Christmas 'do', a touch of enforced frivolity and average food but not the boredom fest I feared.

Have a good weekend.

The Not So Bad Photographer

I was trying to find a photo of myself in tights to illustrate (or possibly to de-illustrate) the last post and it was several years ago, badly lit and a hint of red eye possibly to coordinate with my tights. At the risk of reciting trans cliché #1142 I don't take as many photos of myself as I once did but the ones I do take are hopefully  better partly because the cameras better and partly practice. Perhaps the magical (and mythical) 10,000 hour rule.

Colourful Tights

Included in the things this blog likes its, jaffa cakes, that video of William Shatner singing Rocket Man, dresses with pockets, The Simpsons (seasons 1 - 9), black tights and colourful tights.

Why are colourful tights a good thing?

1. They add some colour to a black dress/ outfit.
2. The right colour can enhance a pastoral coloured outfit.
3. It brightens up a winter outfit. 

Pain Killers

The pain relief brand Nurofen has been in the news recently after being found guilty in Australia of misleading consumers by selling products for specific ailments(for back pain, period pain etc)at a higher price despite being identical. Alongside the deeply unethical marketing of ripping off consumers in pain it also makes the claim that it is better than standard painkillers, which is one of the complaints the ASA in the UK are investigating. Generic paracetamol and ibuprofen products are around 80% cheaper than branded products and are subject to the same regulatory testing.

It is also worth pointing out a recent study in the US revealed that nearly doctors and pharmacists surveyed take generic, unbranded products when they need pain relief.

Soft Play

For reasons I don't quite understand I ended up being the "adult" taking my nieces and nephew to a indoor soft play centre. Given the alternative was to trail round a damp retail park and queueing being surrounded by hundreds of noisy kids running about really didn't seem that bad. My main job was to look after a two year old who figured out how to walk early, started running soon after and has barely stopped since. 

At this point I had to take my shoes off and realised that I didn't pick the best pair I could find, instead doing what I usually do which is putting on the first matching pair I could find and feeling terribly self conscious about it that afternoon.

Black Tights and Dazzling Dresses

Hello, I still haven't bought my metallic dress mainly after realising that I'm running out of storage space, by the time I find a time to wear it, the style will have long since fallen out of fashion and if I did someone else would probably be wearing the same thing resulting in a tense but dazzling stand off. I haven't bought a Christmas jumper either, though that's because I've put it on my list of trends that need to die alongside cupcake chic, keep calm merchandise and that a retailers Christmas ad is an event to be previewed and given acres of comment.

Talking of fashion I saw pieces on black tights, including The Guardian website a few months ago, about a socially acceptable time to start wearing and suggesting not wearing them was to do with wealth and age. Total nonsense of course black tights can be worn all year round and there are good reasons for doing so, they can complement an outfit, hide blemishes or the fact they're a bit hairy and hides your knickers.

Care Of Trans Prisoners

After the death of two transgender prisoners a review into their care in England and Wales has been announced, my understanding of the current rules is that inmates are assigned according to the legal sex on their birth certificate, however it can be based on who you identify as.

My concern is that both were placed in all male prisons despite strong evidence to the contrary that even the most gender blind person couldn't ignore and how did the decision process or lack of leed to what seems to me a strange decision.

Still On About Toilets

Toilets are not sexy, there's a suggestion in popular culture that sex in a bathroom is a great thing. It's supposed to be passionate and impulsive and while they are good things any amore would surely be killed looking at even the best maintained loo. Especially a airplane loo where there's clear evidence someone can't exercise hose control and there's barely enough room for one person to move about let alone two.

Advent Blog: Day 8

I have eventually fixed the toilet seat.

Suffering from the lurgy and a deadline to prepare for hence the shortness.

The Wobbley Seat of Time

 Hello

There are things that need doing but if they're not done right away get tolerated for a long time. For example writing a new blog entry after a self imposed weekend hiatus. The clock on my phone, which had replaced a watch as my personal timepiece several handsets ago, was five to six minutes fast, all it took was to go into settings, scroll down to date and time then spool back five minutes and press OK. A task that takes you longer to read then for me to do and yet I left it so long I got used to it. Another is the slightly wobbly toilet seat which we lived with here for an incredible amount of time so long the chance a male Ashley Madison subscriber might have come across the profile of a genuine female user increases from impossible to very very unlikely.

Advent Blog: Day Four

I grew up in the death throws of the old or classic run of Doctor Who and Mel was the first companion I remember before leaving to be replaced by the fabulous Ace. I leave this super cut of Bonnie Langford screaming, hopefully to be heard in Albert Square soon.

Advent Blog: Day Three

To answer yesterday's question, I can hear the reply "try working in a shop over Christmas". Which is fair enough, I have worked in a shop but never in one which played the same small number of tracks constantly for as much as two months.

Advent Blog: Day Two

Too early to start the sleigh list?

Advent Blog: Day One

Welcome to December and the first of my advent blogs. In what seems like a good idea now I will post every weekday between now and Christmas. Yes I've kinda coped out a little by giving myself the weekend off but much like the calendar at work, I'll open three windows on Monday.

I've seen others attempt this and they tend to tail off half way though and I may be about to find out why. If you have any ideas about what I should post please leave a message below, or to put it another way, HELP!