The Happy Christmas Entry

For everyone who has made it through blogmas, a very happy Christmas.

Swindon 175

2016 is the 175th anniversary of Swindon New Town and the railway works down the hill from the old market town which the new settlement took its name. The works closed in the 80s after several decades of post war decline, today the site is dominated by a retail area, a railway museum and the National Trust headquarters, the latter a magnificent futurist eco building surrounded by echoes of the towns heritage.

The Trans Lobby

The thought of there being a powerful transgender lobby is quite ridiculous when you consider the hurdles and waiting lists many have to endure and the fact many would argue that day is night just to be argumentative.

In these times when anti-intellectualism seems widespread I guess there are many who would ignore evidence that enforcing gender conformity on to is more damaging than treating trans, intersex and non binary children and that activists are out to damage normal children.

Advent

Just four more parts to blogmas, i should light the first candle on my advent crown after wrapping tinsel round some wire coat hangers posing absolutely no fire risk. Being a child of the 80s, the merest hint of a
spark would have turned my toys into an inferno very quickly. Though I'm sure someone is complaining about health and safety because they use battery candles today.


Christmas trees dancing to Pet Shop Boys? Why not.

Cleaning

"Now mums can power through the cleaning faster than ever..."

I hate to begin a entry with "Is it me..." but is it me or has advertising gone a little backwards on gender roles. In these times there's a tendency at the moment to emphasis tradition and heritage of brands and while many have updated to drop the casual racism they seem to have decided that during these times women do all the housework. Which when I was growing up was not the case.

Christmas No Jumper

Jumpers are a useful and practical wardrobe staple,  Christmas jumpers on the other hand.

Wearing a Christmas jumper out, the whole thing smacks of forced jollity with your work colleagues.  At some party the last thing you need to wear is a bulky top in a warm environment or worse round the workplace you're wearing some large version of a novelty tie. Not to mention most are a collection of fire hazards.

Mince Pie

Today Lucy attempts to make a tray of mince pies.

Pastry made, she er, picked up pre made in the Coop, its time for the mincemeat .

Certainly not as good as Marc Almonds. Wasn't there a urban myth about him and a hundred different types of mince pie?

Scares

If there is one thing I've learnt this year it's to not obsessively google every tiny ailment. Because I invariably find the worst possibility imaginable and end up still feeling ill but with extra worry, extrapolating a sore throat into a full on cancer scare.

Christmas Standards

Looking at the charts and seeing the reappearance of the usual Christmas standards, including Fairytale of New York, which was around about 20 years being played a few times each year by DJ's like Mark and Lard before suddenly being everywhere. Not working in retail or listening to commercial radio, I can appreciate these songs, enjoy them sparingly and not in the awful slowed, melancholic, John Lewis commercial style.

Father Santa

"Father Santa"! My youngest niece exclaims looking at a window display, she obviously got a little mixed up. Still its better than Christmas Claws which conjurers up something else in my mind, so good I'm going to start using it myself. 

Spent the rest of Sunday recovering from playing with my nieces, an afternoon carrying, chasing, being chased among others to took more out of me than any gym session.

Salad Cream

Oops left it late again, went out for a meal this evening and really didn't think about what to write about.

When I was in my student days my diet consisted of large amounts of ready meals and colas supplemented with chips, chocolate and alcohol. My metabolism would be overwhelmed today but thankfully for that and the rest of my body my tastes have changed and I've figured out how to cook, if not, how to avoid occasionally burning myself. Then again the salads that are available are much better, the mix of boiled potatoes, bland vegetables, limp meats and salad cream was enough to turn anyone away from eating healthily. I'm not sure if salad cream exported beyond these islands, but imagine a mix mainly comprising of vegetable oil and white colouring.

Pixellation

Been going through my old memory cards and drives, essentially checking old camera cards, how much space I've got to record Christmas TV and backup important things. Today I've got a small computer like devise that can also make calls which can take good quality images in the right hands which I carry with me almost the whole day. To take decent pictures many years ago I had to carry a camera which most of the time I didn't carry with me, so for the spontaneous picture I had to rely on an early picture phone which was barely a few pixels. There's a pixelated look to the images, meaning the pictures and selfies are blurry, which given my early approaches to make-up is no bad thing.


Today I can take all the non blurry pictures of pigeons I want.

Starting Out

Thinking back to giving advice I have no idea where to start. There's so many sub topics, most can be summed up by saying have lots of perseverance and practice.

Now all I've got to flesh that out to fill a book or a presentation.

Started going through my memory card from my old camera, I'm trying to remember why I took a picture of some pigeons, presuming I was bored. 

And here's a melting snowman that looks slightly terrifying.

A Journey

This blog has been going for 9 years following an irregular, increasingly infrequent schedule.
Over that time I've changed, probably for neither better or worse but to use that horrible X-Factor'y type word its been a "journey" and one that's most likely recognisable to many although I veer away from some of the worst clichés. I probably do have advice to give though I'm wary of going all Yoda.

Tattoos - Blogmas 2016

Thinking about the last decade after seeing the 2006 v 2016 hash-tag. I realised the arse antler tattoo fashion died off pretty quickly. I'm wondering if in the future noughties nights 20 to 30 years from now will have people turning up ironically displaying temporary tattoos on their lower back while dancing to tATu in their Ugg boots.

Wonder what tattoo fashion will become as naff in the 10's and how many will regret it years from now.

Body Hair - Blogmas 2016

When it comes to body hair, I don't have a huge preference either way, I've enjoyed the feel of both. Though with my own its not something I want being feminist I should enjoy my luxurious hairs I can grow on my legs twirling my fingers through its black growth. But being trans, even being someone non-binary it raises my disphoria even though when I'm out at this time of year there's not a lot of it on show.

Blogmas 2016

For those of you starved of a little Lucie greatness, fear no more because like last year, every weekday between now and Christmas I'll be posting something, usually at 5 minutes to midnight, sometimes not.

Let the feast begin.

Folding It Properly

Oh, it's you again.

Its the early evening and blimey its dark already. The general small talk seems to about the new fiver and "no I can't fold it properly, can you?" seems to be the most common reaction along with a generally bemused look.

While in London the other day, I had some free time and the weather ok I decided to walk about which included probably accidentally photo-bombing several people's poses in front of Westminster. I'm sure I couldn't have ruined more if I tried. Later on while walking though a park when I passed a group of tourists taking a great interest and a small amount of delight in watching a group of squirrels doing squirrelly things and being from the capital they also acted nonchalantly while avoiding all eye contact. If there is a point to this tale it's that things some folks see as ordinary and everyday, amaze others.

There's many climbing about and dangling precariously on the tree by our garden gate to grab the squirrelly goodies still about and wait until I'm underneath the tree to drop the unwanted parts on my, the postman's and other visitor's head. Thankfully that's all that's fallen on their/ my head, unlike a flock of birds (my ornithological knowledge doesn't go far) who flew past followed a second later by dozens of little splats and another second later by a few urghs as some unfortunate got hit I'm sure they didn't feel lucky and I haven't read about any lottery winners locally recently.

Personally October has been a whirl of year end rushing about and long days, meaning I haven't seen or read a lot recently and feeling like I need a lot more sleep. Couldn't find a song about squirrels so here's a great Shibuya-kei style song about cats.

Pickup and Pride

It's wrong to think that your knowledge plateaus. Even after many years there are things you're still picking up and learning especially in the trans-sphere. I've been trying out a different bra to improve my cleavage and a more realistic shape. Trying out more sleeveless tops after getting over paranoia over my shoulders being seen as too masculine. And practising a winged eye-liner style. So off I go to Swindon Pride having tried all three. A raincoat covering one and two, as for three, it's still a work in progress.

Witches Hat

Taking my niece to the park, I came across a new playground object that looked like a miniature version of the witches hat that I used to play on back in the days minus the violent movements and concrete floor. The more modern namesakes have gone the other way where even the strongest parent would struggle to gather any speed to excite even the most risk averse child.

Birthdays and Slacktivism

Taking a photo out of a misty bus window on a wet day, really doesn't do the scenery justice, sadly its the best I can do. I'm looking out the window and wondering what the heck to write about. Its already into June and past my birthday opening my inbox I was greeted with happy birthdays from forums I don't visit as much as I used to and brands I hadn't realised I gave out that much personal info to. As for me I spent time at a family gathering, which I spent more time with the children than the adults. There is one big event coming up but I was bored of that months ago. There's also the horrible and tragic Pulse nightclub shootings over which there's been many fine words said and stupid opinions uttered. It's also left many LGBT people saying they feel less safe which while understandable also saddens me. It's quite hard to know what to say other than to say I'll keep up the effort however little in my tiny slacktivist way.

Spring

Hello, it's spring, well in the northern hemisphere anyway. Apparently it's time to start pepping my summer wardrobe like that's a thing. For me with the exemption of the three/ four items listed further on, my clothes are all year round, its just the number of layers that change and the addition of warm hat, scarf and gloves or long shorts. Many fashion pieces I've seen, seem to suggest its time to dig out the pastoral colours after winter months wearing only dark blacks and browns as if the fashion police will arrest you for breaking a pastoral ban when it's not BST and the clocks fall back. As I've noted before tights are not just a winter item so injecting some colour is not a summer thing.

Rushing The Season

Hello again, there are signs that spring is coming seeing the people who try to rush the season by wearing t-shirts when the temperature is barely in the low teens (before wind chill) is the latest.
There's a few things happening, the outing of Lilly Wachowski for reasons of mere titillation, who refused to give in to being blackmailed into giving an "exclusive" and in the process owned the story. Ongoing bathroom panic bills, much more of that another time.
I'm looking after my nieces hamster over easter, his name is Rosie because that's the name she likes. It's been a long time since I've looked after a hamster, you can probably make a guess how long when I tell you it was called Baby Spice, again I didn't name it.

February Already

After a month of posting constantly came nothing at all. The start of the year normally a busy period for me was quite tiring with no time for thoughts. I'm writing on valentines day, being single I get the feeling that the world expects me to feel crap, the reality couldn't be further from the truth.

Adding to that I was dragged back to my occasional role of being my family's tech support which led to the painful task of contacting BT to sort out a broadband issue they really should be able to sort out first time.

Happy New Year

As I take time out from finishing the wine and chocolate selection box to wish you all, wherever you are, a fabulous new year.