The male-to-female transsexual is the one dressed as a man.

The world is full of paradoxes.  Western democracies have to treat with foreign states with questionable ethics for reasons of security, trade or natural resources.  Another such paradox descended on the Almeida Restaurant in Islington on Tuesday evening.

I had been invited out by a delightful T-Girl, who, llike me, has an associations with both the west country and with London.  The party was made up with two other T-girls, one who is a transvestite rather than in active transition and another who identifies as a transsexual but who enjoys the ambiguity of both male and female roles.  I am the only one actively pursuing transition at at the moment. with my intention to live full-time in the female role from August.

And yet I was the only one who went dressed as a man.  How could that be?  The other three were fashionably and tastefully (rather than flammboyantly) dressed for an evening out in Guardian-reader land.  I doubt the other diners had any idea of their true gender.

The paradox is that the steps I am taking to get ready for August make it harder to cross-dress on an occasional basis.  After my hair transplants on 23 December I have had to be very protective of them and cannot wear a wig or hair piece.  My natural hair may be considerably longer than it was in September but it won't do as female yet.  A further problem was that I have been unable to get together with my electrolysis technician during the recent Arctic weather and so I have had to grow my facial fuzz ready for a long session with her today, 30 December.  Make up and 'chin undergrowth' was a look that only Kenny Everett was able to carry off with aplomb, and that is not my object.

So it was black jeans and leather jacket for me, and standing back for my companions to go first, to have the doors held open for them and for them to order first, and the rather swish Jaeger knitted dress I was going to wear had to stay at home for another time (sob, sob).  Still, it will all be worth it next year...

I should say that the food was delightful, the service attentive and the ambience very pleasant.  So when you are next in Guardian-reader land, do give the Almeida a try.  If it is in the autumn, and there are 4 ladies of a certain age dining together, one of them might just be me......