It's Official !

I don't know why it means so much to me, but on Saturday I received my new driving license as 'Ms Robin Moira White' complete with new photogragh and female driver number.  I stood holding it for a few seconds.

Perhaps it is because this is the most 'official' recogfnition of my altered status so far.  Or perhaps it is because it is what I use, quite regularly, to prove identity when collecting post from my local postal sorting office.

I know for others in transition, achieveing an altered birth certificate is important.  I am not so certain that is significant for me.  After all, I was born male, at least apparently, and the change to female is something happening in my 40's.

All I can say is that I am now very comfortable indeed with the altered me, and the quicker the remaining steps can be completed, the better.  Almost without thinking about it, I note that it is now only 11 months to my 'final' surgery and I know that the months will click by faster and faster.  Be ready, Dr Kunaporn!

Robin Moira White

A lovely day

Had a great day on Saturday.

Went up to London for 4-month post FFS surgery check-up with Dr Bart van de Ven.

But first booked myself into Toni & Guy hairdressers at Canary Wharf for a wash and blow dry with 'Carli'.  A great treat and my hair is steadily getting longer, so it becomes possible to do more interesting things with it.  In fact I liked what she did so much that I have booked in again with her for my next cut just before Xmas.  I am having my hair cut every 12 weeks or so and it is lovely to have some length now.

I did have a look in the shops and found a lovely black dress and jacket in Austin Reed.  Perfect for court wear and with something of a circle skirt, so a bit more feminine than some of the more straight up and down black court dresses I have.  Lovely to be a bit 'floaty' as well as 'professional. 

Then on to the 'Four Seasons' Hotel nearby for my check-up with Dr B.  I was an hour early and as I walked in, he and his son were just crossing the lobby for lunch.  What a nice chap.  Anyway, I sat for a lovely hour reading the paper and enjoying a coffee (one of the true marks of civilisation at weekends) until the appointed time.

Dr B was very pleased with his handiwork and my progress (as am I) and he took some photos.  He is sufficiently pleased with them to want to use them on his website (which I am happy to permit) and to want to record a video interview with me in London shortly (gosh!).  Anyway, no more surgery is reccomended, which is good - cosmetic surgery addiction is not a good thing.

Then on to the second treat of the day.  A make-up hour with stylist 'Bunny' at the MAC cosmetic concession in Harvey Nichols in Knightbridge.  London Underground was having a 'signal failure' at Covent Garden, which gave me some concern, but I did arrive a few minutes early, which allowed me to scoot to the loo from where I booked treat 3 of the day, but more of that later.

This is the first professional make-up session I have had since surgery and it was helpful to be able to discuss how my ideas have developed. MAC has the best range and their £25 sessions are great.

Treat 3 was to go to the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall to see 'Three Days in May', a play recreating the cabinet discussions in May 1940 when Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax wondered about negotiating a peace with Hitler, or whether to fight on.  I know the story well but it was well acted and presented.

And then off to London Bridge forthe train back to Sussex.  A lovely day.  I am now really very comfortable with my new self, as, apparently, are folks around me.

Bye for Now

Robin White

The view from the balcony.

Yes, yes, I know my posts are like London buses, nothing for ages and then two come along together.  But then, that's life, isn't it.

Quietly, while everything else has been going on, my hormone patches have been quietly working away to redistribute my body fat.  In particular, my breasts have been doing their thing, so that I am now more of an 'B' than a 'A'.  On my trip to Yeovil yesterday for essentials like a new printer cartridge and some food, I took a look at the lingerie department - more of a necessity these days rather than a guilty pleasure - and treated myself to two rather nice 'balcony' bras.  They are rather less substantial that the 'ironclad' style I have been using so far (and which were necessary when they were not entirely naturally filled, but no longer).

The result?  A lovely, natural looking, visible decolletage which makes me feel wonderful.  At least the top half of me will be ready for a bikini next summer, and I should have a little more growth by then as well, as I have not yet been on hormones for a year, and I am told that the full effect takes a couple of years.....time will tell.....

regards

Robin

Winter Draws On

I made the jump to living as a woman in the summer, when it was nice and warm and linen and cotton were the order of the day.  Now the gloomy (and colder) autumn weather is here and I find that the geography has changed......

I dont find female-cut trousers especially comfortable for a reason which gets solved at final surgery next November (less than a year away now - hooray!) so it is skirts for me most of the time.  But how the wind howls around the nether regions!  Off to Marks & Spencers for some thermal tights!

We have also had some unseasonably warm weather for October and November, making me wonder if we are to be punished by yet another unusually cold winter when December, January and February are here.  However, this raises an opposite piece of new geography.  As a man, my hair was very short but now, I am pleased to say, this is getting longer and longer!  Now on warm days I feel a bit like I am wearing a wooly hat the whole time.

Both bits of geography take some getting used to.

I have now paid the deposit for hair transplants 'round 2' just before Christmas which should deal with the resudual thinness at my crown (ansd so complete the 'balaclava' effect).  And next Saturday I have my 4-month check up with my facial surgeon. 

Meanwhile, still plugging away with electrolysis.  Facial hair definitely on the run now, butr still some way to go as still having ca.300 insertions each Saturday morning - eeeek!

regards

Robin Moira White