A Thinking Man

A number of players in the Tranniesphere have been linking to Tom Coates plasticbag.org blog, and whilst I have to admit to being tempted to do likewise I've held off doing so, because before I link to a site I want a specific reason to do it.

Well, the reason for linking to plasticbag.org has now presented itself: What lies beneath 'gay' and 'straight'? . I read it for the first time tonight, and was impressed with his lack of automatic respect for such august publications as "The Guardian" - in fact he did a good job of questioning an article relating to sex and sexuality. Not only that, he had an awareness of gender issues, which had obviously slipped the attention of "The Guardian".

If you watched a TV prog about gender and sexuality issues in the last few months called Middle Sex Tom Coates views were very similiar - I wonder if he'd watched that very same programme.

The comments to his blog entry would also have been quite enlightening to your average Jo Public. One commentator, Sarah Lake, seemed particularly knowledgable and pointed readers to a number of sources of thinking on the latest developments in gender/sexuality identity.

So, rock on Tom.

Fly me, not!

Airlines, what do you think them? But before answering have a read of the way Miss K's family were treated recently.

Well, you got it, f*ckwits the lot of 'em.

Now a tale or two of my own - this is a rant BTW!

We had 4 tickets booked to Malta - my sister and bro-in-law couldn't go with about 2 weeks to depart. Shame we said. Never mind our 2 daughters can come with us - that'll be nice. Oh no. Tickets not transferable and no refund for my sis and partner.

Another incident - my sis & partner (they're not normally this unlucky) booked a flight to Dubai to meet their daughter. They have a change at Amsterdam - they think that as they have departed they only need return last minute before the gates close. Wrong! In an amazing first come, first served fiasco the seats were given to someone else! Even though they were back in time before the boarding gates were closed!!! Apparently, you don't buy a seat on an aeroplane, just the journey subject to availability. Them's the normal airlines rules.

So, my niece was stranded at Dubai airport not knowing what had happened to her parents.

B*stards the lot of 'em...

The Unlucky Ones

The Manor 1
Originally uploaded by rachelw80.

Well, someone had to do it - along with 15 others. Give up their weekend to spend it in a secluded country manor, drinking champagne and Rioja (not in the same glass). Play snooker, go for long forest walks. Eat, drink more. Play dress up - OK so it was a DJ for me, not an evening dress, but other than that a perfect weekend... :)

Who Died this Day?

[edit date="27/10/05"]

Isn't it embarrassing when you f*ck up. Only no-one pointed it out, which begs the question whether this blog gets read, or people have been having a little chuckle to themselves, or they've read this entry and not noticed.

To set the record straight, then, John Peel died on 25 October not 13/10. You see this was me getting the wrong end of the stick - having read about the John Peel day on Miss K's blog I just assumed that was the day he died, and as my Mum died that day I thought it appropriate to do a blog to acknowledge the fact - only I've just ended up feeling a bit of an idiot TBH.

Anyway, I've owned up now.

[/edit]

Well, for a start, John Peel did. Not that I was thinking of John Peel, but Miss K did write a fitting tribute to a man I have admired in a number of ways for a good few years.

My earliest memories of "The John Peel Show" were of my father complaining of that man who droaned on and played such awful music, although he would claim that the term "music" could only be used loosely if at all where JP was concerned - my father wasn't without prejudice, some of them quite amusing. But I digress.

I loved the voice BTW and could listen to him for hours. And the first tracks I recall him playing? "Crime of the Century" - 1973 I think.

One of his qualities that resonated was a complete lack of interest in the musical status quo (no pun intended) an attitude he carried with him into other areas of his life.

Later on I was regaled with stories about his contributions on radio 4, Home Truths I think - my wife would sit in the car having arrived home just so she didn't miss any of the program. Had he lived longer he would have made a truly wonderful grumpy old man, he definitely wouldn't have gone quietly.

A veritable institution.

But there's someone else more special (to me) who died on this day. My mother. But may be I'll talk about that another time.

Scary Moments

I've just been looking at my logs and took a gander at the keywords people have typed in to find my site.

Only it hasn't quite worked out that way. You see I mentioned in one of my posts another hobby I have and there were three phrases in there that have come up on the first results page in Google. One at position 5 and two at No.1.

That's all very well, but a couple of friends of mine that I haven't told about Rachel are more than likely to type those very search phrases into Google. Now one of the friends is homophobic and the other is of an age that may not have particularly enlightened views, although that may be doing him an injustice.

And just to make it even more interesting, I have connections with a company to which one of the search phrases applies.

This could be a knee-jerk reaction but I've removed the page from my blog. But what if these guys have already seen the page and put 2&2 together? Shit!

This has definitely been a wake-up call. Now if I was single I may have reacted differently, but quite frankly this has really put the wind up me.

There's also another issue here for me. I enjoy reading other T-Girl blogs that don't just harp on about trannie matters, but talk about different aspects of their lives, and I try to do the same. But now I realise I'm going have to be more guarded so that if a reference to my site does come up in Google the contents of the page aren't going to give me away to people who know me but don't know about Rachel.

I tell you, it was a sobering moment when I saw those links in the results page - scary! And I'm not joking.

Collaborative Spaces

OK let's get the bit about "priorities" out the way first. Yes, I didn't even manage 3 days "cold turkey". But f*ck it - if I enjoy it lets do it - bit like trannying really, so there you go. Oh, BTW, you'll have to read the previous post to get the point.

Now, this "Collaborative Space" business others have been talking about (Siobhan and Miss K). It's beginning to bug/bother me.

First, I love the individual blog "flavours" we have (specifically in the tranniesphere), and I believe it's something special. So I don't see how a "Collaborative Space" is going to improve/enhance anything. Of course it goes without saying that others may differ in their opinions, and I'll be listening, but it'll have to be good to convince me this is the right way to be heading.

Secondly, even if "improvements" were to be had with a "CS" I foresee territorial/proprietorial issues that could damage the freeflowing, liquid nature of this developing tranniesphere.

Thirdly, it smacks of geting too organised, and that so often leads to organisational heirarchy, and descending into total paranoia, big brother (OK, total imaginative overload here). But do you see what I'm getting at?

Finally, lets give the tranniesphere time to develop without trying too hard to "improve" it, coz it's early days and I wonder if we could possibly damage something that has wonderful potential. By potential I don't mean in a glorification or commercial sense, but in the sense of a truly fluid and expanding community, a community that has the potential to grow organically Have to say, "I'm luvin' it" (sorry).

I'm conscious of sounding like a right wet blanket... but I hope you can see where I'm coming from?