Making that all important change

 

So Summer is very much out as we move toward the fall with all it's brilliant colours but my thoughts are elsewhere with all the changes I've been through and my past experiences and having been raised as a boy originally, one thing comes to mind:

Dresses and skirts are more comfortable than trousers

There, I said it. I honestly don’t believe that trousers are designed well for girls. In fact, they weren’t designed for us in the first place! Yes, you can of course purchase styles that claim to flatter, and they fit my more beanpole frame but are they comfortable and especially at certain times of the month was akin to wearing a corset some days. I thought we had left those behind in Victorian times, but alas - the restriction only slipped a few inches!

Short trousers are better from an airiness point of view if they are loose in the leg and I didn't mind them so much for things like play where you might not be quite modest but it doesn't alter this:

In dresses and skirts I have more freedom of movement, and the fabric doesn’t sit tightly against my skin, or cling where it shouldn’t. I’m finding my day to day tasks haven’t been affected wearing a dress or skirt, and I’m actually more comfortable around the house than I was before. No longer having to pull at waistbands, and bending is a breeze - not to mention (ahem) going to the bathroom.

I find myself paying more attention to other touches like wearing a pair of pretty panties that match them.

I am better off wearing skirts and dresses and I want you to encourage it in me.

Late vacation

For this week I've been away on vacation so here's a few images of Llandudno where I stayed.

Playing at making sandcastles using your bucket is so me.
While I was away, Mommy took me on the train to the top of the Great Orme.

This is Victoria Station where we joined the line waiting to get our tickets and get on board.

Here the train goes travelling for a part of the way  along track that has been embedded into the road surface. The tramcars are old with wooden panels and seats.

I visited a record store and bought myself some new lps and a few used cds for my collection.

I also got the classic Anime, Akira! cheaply on DVD having fond memories of seeing that on TV in the early 90's.It's a tour-de-force of action never letting up.

Gender stereotyping

 

It's September, a fresh month on this rapidly improving blog even though sometimes it seems a race against the internet connection going down given how unreliable it is.

Anyway toys and play were always a bit of an issue for some of us because people when I was younger and some still do today run  with gender based stereotypes so I didn't get some even though I had played with female cousins with them cos they felt I couldn't have them or somehow this puts their status as good parents in question for just going with what I prefer.

Equally others could never get more science or boisterous as they felt at one stroke their girls would cease to be ... girls which is stupid really.

Why shouldn't girls and boys have toys that they love playing rather than just what someone somewhere things is appropriate for their gender?  

Summer is almost over

It's that time of the year although normally I'd of been away on my holidays first but this year Mommy decided we'd go later cos officially I'm not in school although I like to do schoolwork cos as this always a schoolgirl me I am it's what I'm more cut out for.

I associate this period with all the preparation for returning to school and it heightens the strong emotions around the mismatch of being the age I am on the inside and how people treat you by birth age.

Toss in the gender based stuff from the past and it's a heady rollercoaster of a feeling.

I enjoy now being able to dress more in school girl attire although it can be a little awkward at the door if say the Electricity  meter man or parcel person calls and you're fully dressed as you but I guess I have to learn to handle such situations if I'm to just be me.

Schoolwear as in blouses, skirts or gorgeous pinafore dresses are failry simple but smart looking things that do flatter my looks quite well and at least I look more like I really wanted to back then sat behind the desk in class, trying to keep some sort of girl's play going.

Charlie Brown

I was tidying my small pile of books today when I spotted this old favourite of mine.

I've had this from the mid 1970's, actually it's a new 1974 edition, well thumbed through and with that tan coloration you get on older books especially on less expensive paper probably because reading this as a child made me so happy.
I have a few more books of Charles M Schultz's Peanuts cartoon strip series as I loved the tv animated series and it's characters.

Photography and this blog: The connection

 

There would never be a blog if it were not for my my interest in photography as much as the original blog host had very limited image support which was why it was I explored other hosts and moved to blogger.

After using childhood 127 film cameras, a 120 Twin Lens Reflex and brief period with a Zenith E, I settled on using a Olympus film gear that included a OM 4 advanced single lens reflex camera with marque lens, dedicated auto through the lens/manual  exposure flash and Winder 2 for remote or highly rapid picture taking that bolts on the underside improving grip and taking over from the manual film advance.

Its greatest feature was a combination of multi spot metering to set exposure better in difficult circumstances and the ability to store and adjust aperture and shutter speed settings to balance that exposure to match the way you wish to present the subject.

Currently I'm reliant on having slide or negative films processed and scanned to disc when developed which I then import to my ageing desktop computer to upload here while I look at how the digital camera market develops and what may work best for blogging which is where a digital camera would help cutting out the delays between going somewhere, finishing off the film roll and getting the processed film back.

That in its own way is why press photography moved rapidly to digital as speed makes big difference between getting copy out when it's of interest or not.

You're Always A Girl

Being a Little Girl later on in your life  is not the easiest of concepts to explain to people principally because people associate the frame of mind of the person to their age as recorded by their chronological date of birth  deeming some interests to be either child like or heaven forbid childish.
This scares the living daylights out of a significant number of people who hold on to notions of age appropriate behaviour not least because some forms may impact on your ability to function in the world of employment.

To me this could only be true if you were functioning at an infant level - think oversized baby - needing total attention and supervision but this isn't what I'm talking about.
I think most are familiar with the idea of the 'inner child' who many psychologists say lives on in everyone. 

The difference I would say is many of our likes remain at that level, we aren't necessarily comfortable with some aspects of 'adult' living and there's little collation between that and our IQ or general functioning.

To put things into context I've held political office representing an authority, contributed to and accepted responsibility for setting budgets  and programs whilst being a 'little girl'  because I can choose when to present the little girl physically and when I can use that to the advantage of society having an immediate empathy with children to help them grow up to be well rounded individuals though my work with various bodies.