Playing out

I have had a very good, very busy weekend.   Some people unwind and relax at the weekend, that rarely seems to be an option for me.  My chosen activities often involve weekends and this was one of those weekends when lots of activity collided.

Saturday morning I could sort of claim to be work, in as much I was measuring up for a quote, but sine the job is for a friend, whose company I always enjoy it felt more like a social visit that work is ever meant to, from there I drove straight toRuskin Park in South London where I was playing with the Bromley Concert Band.  

Tuba Girl, by Brass Badger

I had been a bit concerned about playing with this band because of my daughters connection, two of her former teachers are the conductor and solo clarinet with this band, however at least on my own account, as usual, I had nothing to worry about.   Musically there was nothing for me to worry about either, the programme was mostly made up of pretty straight forward material, and even though I was sight reading quite a lot of the music, the bass parts at least were all OK.   The one piece that was a little more complicated was an arrangement of music from the first Pirates of the Caribbean, this is one of the easier arrangements of music from this film and one I had played before.   It did give me the opportunity to point out that this coming Friday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

I know some of you are interested so if the rest will bear with me for a moment, I was playing tuba on Saturday, and this gives the same wardrobe concerns as playing the cello, the playing position does mean that it is more or less impossible to keep the knees together.   This of course means either trousers or a pretty long, very full skirt, I don't have a skirt that is suitable, and the concert dress with this band is black bottoms and white tops, so this was an occasion for trousers.   It galls me slightly that I have no problem buying jeans that give me a good fit, but with dress trousers I find it very difficult.   Last week I bought a pair of nice black dress trousers that seemed fine in the changing room, but when I came to wear them on Saturday I spent way too much time pulling them up.   I know the problem is that I do no have enough "shape" but it is also that there seems to be an assumption that a mature woman with a waist the size of mine is about 4 inches shorter than I am.   I suspect this may be one of the reasons that many trans women do prefer either jeans or dresses.   I now have several pairs of black dress trousers (I do play  the tuba a lot) but none of them are what I would call a good fit!  I may be asking a friend of mine if she will do some alterations for me.

After a quick dinner and change I was off into Croydon for the monthly Trans PALS club night.   As well as chatting and drinking wine we did do some planing, we helping to organise the South London Trans Day of Remembrance on the 22nd November and discussed that, we have also now organised a day out in Brighton in a couple of weeks time.   As we grow in confidence as a group we are doing more, joining with other groups and hopefully serving the trans community better.