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.