Christmas (newly) past

Well, that went so swimmingly well, I will blog all about it later on.

Many thanks to everyone who sent us kind wishes over the festive period - especially from a good percentage of the 200-odd members of the new ABF - it's all good, and it was all very touchingly appreciated!

Our Christmas

On a normal weekday, Caroline’s phone goes off at 0700 hours. I don’t usually hear it, but she is up by this time, or shortly afterwards, and I usually wake about an hour later (for some reason). Today, I was first up at 0730! So, after tea (for C) coffee (for me) and Florentines (those little chocs with fruit and nuts) for an early breakfast, before we started opening our presents!

Caroline's gifts from me included a graphics tablet (this was what I obtained from Morgan a little while ago!), a health grill (from Tesco), and the DVD of the movie Ratatouille, which we both enjoyed when we saw it at the cinema (but it’s not yet on DVD in the UK, so I imported the American edition via CDwow). Caroline also admitted she'd never heard of Ellen DeGeneres (I think it was something about how she looked like the woman who plays Carter in SG1) some time ago, so a copy of Ellen – In The Beginning (the live one) was also given!

I also got Caroline one bar of Green & Blacks Organic 70% Dark Choc (when we were in Tesco the other night, C couldn’t get any of this, as it was ‘out of stock’ – yes, I’d stashed it all!), as well as a Dove ‘Beauty Secrets’ gift set, the ‘Snow Showers’ box set from Lush, and some more underwear that she'd asked me to get for her from M&S - which is why I was walking around their Cambridge store last Wednesday with a pair of her knickers in my bag... well, I don't normally do that!

So, what did I get? Well, the gifts from the family in Dundee were a welcome surprise. Two model buses (one of which this is this one), and a bear from 'The Teddy Bear Collection' called Bruno the Blacksmith. There was also a cookie tin, shaped like a bus.

Caroline and I picked out some clothing on Sunday at the retail park, and this included a new pair of boots (well, there were two as we both liked the same ones), two long skirts, and a new bag, which is red tartan, but mostly black (that’s why C thought it would stick out!) I also got the previously-mentioned long jacket, and also, a gift from a certain store in Hoxton… and yes, it’s good ;-) Certainly good for starting out with, comfortable, not too big, and… yes, it was the right thing.

After we’d finished opening the gifts, C got up to start cleaning and preparing dinner. Jayne & Jim arrived shortly after 1pm, and C had dinner worked out. The phone rang a few times, from many friends, and both families.

There is so much more detail that I could go into, but to put it so simply, it was just such a wonderful day. We finished it by reminding each other how grateful we were! We got through it!

Today, Caroline has found a suitable Mac OS driver for the graphics tablet, and has been giving it a spin with the Powerbook.

Then and Now

This picture was taken in May 2005 – 31 months and a few days before the second one. Compare and contrast. The first picture is after transition, but when I’d been on the Premarin for just a few weeks. Now, on completely different meds, and post-op (GRS) too.





I had forgotten about the former, until C reminded me the other day. When I went back to the first one, I was surprised at how much weight I’ve lost since then! It’s a skirt, not jeans, but even that is bad by my current standards – but indeed, dear reader, that’s why we call it transition! Oh, the original pic was taken on 710 (now 16930), for the anoraks!