Paula's Place

Paula's Place

Thursday 18 September 2014

Holiday looking forward ~ 2

These days I am spending a lot of Paula time, indeed just about all my non family time, to the extent that I consider myself to have started my transition.   This means that there are increasingly few new experiences.   I have shopped, played, worked, slept, cooked, entertained, been entertained, been to the Theatre, Concerts and Exhibitions, I have marched in a Pride parade and have even been to Church, but there are one or two things that I have still to experience.

One of these is flying.

I am a regular reader of Call Me Meg a blog that Meg started when she decided that she would fly pretty, since then she has moved on a lot. I am also an avid reader of Kim's Blog Traveling Transgendered a blog almost exclusively about flying pretty so I have done a lot vicarious air travel, but no actual air travel.   At the end of next month this will all change when I fly to Malta.   It is my firm intention to spend the whole week en Femme, this will be the longest continuous period I will have managed and the dealings with customs, security and airport staff should help establish if this is worthwhile.   I have been through customs before, when I came back from France, but that was at the Calais Ferry Port which I suspect is a little different.

To be honest my concerns are less about customs than about security, I have made sure that I have booked in my legal name, and will have all my paperwork that way, I am sure that I will not be the first or the last trans woman they will come across but that doesn't stop me being a little nervous about the experience.   I know about not taking anything sharp onto the plane, and of course we now have restrictions on liquids, do any of my well travelled readers have any indications of what I may expect.  Will I be OK with silicon forms or should I revert to something a little less liquid? Does my handbag (purse) count as hand luggage or can I take a small holdall as well?   Can I take my epipen on the flight or should I pack it in my suitcase (I got into a lot of trouble with my family last time I went on holiday without it!)I have not flown much anyway as I am not a good flyer (too much like hard work flapping my arms) and the last few times have pretty much relied on others to organise things for me, this time I will be on my own.

Any tips from you more experienced travelers will be appreciated, as I am sure I will forget something important ~ a few years ago I forgot something very important, we all turned up to the airport exactly one day late as I had written the flight details in my diary for the wrong day, which is why I have relied on others to organise things!

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