Passing the teenager test

If I work at home it can often be a bit lonely as I might not see anyone except the postman, so I tend to break up the day by heading into Sherborne to collect my newspaper and enjoy a coffee and a cake at one of the several pleasant cafes in the town.  I favour one which is also a delicatessen.  I have been doing this for some years and the staff have seen the transition in progress, so have no doubt who (or what) I am. The lady owner discussed it with me a little while ago and expressed the flattering view that, apart from voice, I was doing rather well.  Perhaps she wasn’t just being kind, as we shall see.

A few days ago I was in the cafe mid-afternoon and into the table next to me piled a group of 6 teenage boys from the famous public school in the town.  With that teenager’s ability to eat and eat, they had come in for an ‘extra tea’ between lunch and school tea.  Economic concerns have not bitten everywhere as they paid with a £50 note.  At least one had an accent that was not so much ‘cut glass’ as ‘lacerate diamond’.

They chatted away about school sports, the impossibility of the physics homework (‘prep’) they had been set and what they had been up to over the Christmas holiday.  I sat demurely working on the Sudoku in 'The Times' newspaper.  I should say that I was wearing a black knee-length skirt, a pink knitted top from M&S showing a hint of cleavage, and mid-height black heels.  (I am finding that I really like pink these days – must be the oestrogen.) They paid me no apparent attention whatsoever.

Just after they left the lady proprietor came over and asked if I had heard what they had said on the way out.  I hadn’t.  It appeared that one had a broken watch and there was some debate about the right time.  One had said to another that they should have settled it by asking the lady they had been sitting next to ‘as she was wearing a Rolex’.  That was me!  The lady proprietor wanted me to know how well I was now fitting in – so sweet of her.

Teenagers are often very sensitive to gender, given that they are busy exploring it an their sexuality themselves.  They also are less inhibited about commenting on an apparently odd-looking man or woman but I seemed to have passed the test.

My facial features are still rather heavy and masculine, at least in my eyes, hence the facial surgery I have booked for the summer, but it is true what they say, ‘passing’ unremarked in public is at least as much about attitude as looks. Not that I say ‘unremarked’ not ‘unnoticed’.  I am 6’ tall and favour 3 or 4’ heels, so I always going to stand out and I will be looking for some male companionship when this process is over (definitely another post in those thoughts, readers!) so I do want to be noticed, for the right reasons.......

Lol

Moira

P.S.
I can see that a few folks are following my blog now.  It would be lovely to be left a comment or two to tell me what you think.  Also, if you click on the featured adverts it even makes me a penny or two.  All that electrolysis to pay for........