Paula's Place

Paula's Place

Friday 28 November 2014

It's nice to feel needed

I had been looking forward to a night off last night, I have been so silly busy since getting back from holiday I have had something on pretty much every night.   I did have tuesday evening to myself, but that meant laundry, washing up etc.etc.   So I had an evening of pizza wine and a film planed, untill I got a call from my wife.

Her car was playing up, could I help? the immediate problem was just a flat battery so we managed to get it charged up, then the car wouldn't start and the battery went flat again, so charge the battery again and try again with the aid of a jump.   We got the car started and all seemed well.  I have now had another call that although it has started it is not running well, could I take another look.

I quite like tinkering with cars so this is no problem, and I am more than happy to help.   Indeed it is nice to know that my wife still feels free t call on me, I ust hope that I can find and fix whatever is wrong.

As an aside I try to avoid inflicting my feminine side on my family but it wasn't until I got there that I realised I had burgundy nail polish on

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Stream of consciousness, or just rambling?

I have been working from home today, or more accurately hiding from the nasty weather by doing some of my consultancy stuff, slaving over a hot keyboard.   Spending time working on the computer has been teasing me as Blogger seems to keep saying "Well what about today's post then!"  A couple of times I have looked at it and come up with nothing to write about, I have looked at a couple of other blogs I follow and thought about follow ups on what they have written, but none of it has "floated my boat".

A random photo from last year of me
wearing bifurcated nether garments
It's not that my life since returning from holiday has been uneventful, far from it! rather that much of what I do is now fairly routine.   Going somewhere presenting my female self is no longer an event, virtually all of my life is now lived  homogeneously so going out wearing non-bifurcated nether garments is no longer worthy of note.   I suppose that in itself has been changing the nature of Paula's Place, what I started as an exploration of cross dressing has now become much more of a general observational blog that happens to be written be a transgender woman at the start of her transition.   Just as I have never wished to be defined by what is in my pants, neither do I wish to be defined by my gender, or indeed my position between or moving between gender.   In the past I never wanted to be defined by my job, If asked "What are you?" I would never have answered by giving my job, to me that was always a different question.

So what am I? how would I define myself if pushed into it? Well I would certainly first of define myself as a musician, even though I no longer earn my living that way.   I would define myself as a gardener, but I consider that to be a state of mind, or an approach to life rather than a job, for me it's more a question of doing something I want to do and then finding people who will pay me to do it; yet the most important thing that defines me is my faith, so I suppose if asked what am I the first answer would be a Christian, my faith goes with me what ever I am doing, whether it's work of one type or another, relaxing with friends or watching the telly, knowing I'm loved and cherished, that I never need be alone, that what ever else I may be I will always belong, is what gets me through everything else.

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Complimented

I'm feeling very complimented at the moment, Stana runs one of the (if not the) most read transgender blogs there is.   Femulate has over 5,000 hits per day, I'm lucky if have 300 so I feel rather complimented to have been featured on Femulate last week.  Indeed it has been a very encouraging week, during which I have received some very nice compliments.

Over the week I came out to some more of my friends at Church reactions have varied from a couple of blokes who were rather confused and haven't quite worked out all their questions yet to a couple of ladies who were just happy that I felt I could tell them as they had already worked it out from Facebook.  

The really nice thing is that this is the group I have most worried about telling, my Church family is important to me and I hate the thought of leaving them, and I hate the thought of being rejected by them even more, yet everybody I have told so far has been accepting, if not yet totally understanding.   Given that my Church is an Evangelical Charismatic church committed to spirit led worship in the modern idiom (Happy Clappy!) this is all particularly encouraging.   Evangelical Christians can so easily become intolerant and socially conservative that they are often seen as the enemy of the unconventional.   My personal experience so far has been good, but I do expect one or two members of my Church to either reject and refuse to try to understand, or worse still try to "cure" me.   I hope I am wrong.

On Sunday after the service I was complimented on my hair by a friend who was actually encouraging me to think about having it coloured, as if I haven't been tempted enough! On Saturday afternoon I was complimented about the way I lead our ceremony of remembrance, then on Saturday evening I was complimented not only on my playing but also on my legs and my sparklies.

I have even had a couple of very nice comments here, so thank you all.  It is always very nice to be told that you look good, or that you have done something well, sometimes it is forgotten how much this will encourage and build someone up as well.  I am feeling very loved, very appreciated and have had my self confidence boosted.

Knowing how much I have enjoyed being complimented I am now going to make a conscious effort to pass a compliment when I have the opportunity, to build up and encourage my friends, rather than grab an opportunity to try to be funny at somebody else's expense.   After all it's nice to good, but it's good to be nice.

Monday 24 November 2014

Croydon Remembers

As seems to be usual for me I have had a very busy weekend.   Sunday was spent between Church and daughter, both of which where very good, but come under the general heading of "another story" but Saturday was the Croydon International Transgender Day of Remembrance, which I was to lead.

Others have written extensively about the desolation of these events, the sadness we all feel as we remember those victims of hate crime.   The shear length of the list of names, which ever list you use, is simply too long.   The individual tragedies each name represents, the youth, hope, and future snatched away ~ as the names were read out on Saturday I realised that every person on the list was younger than me.   I thank God that since he made this way I was born in England in the second half of the twentieth century, I am protected by law and convention, most of the time the worst I have to fear is derision, in Brazil death is an everyday occurrence.

The event in London was much better attended, much more "Complete" with several contributors reading poetry, singing, or making a small speech, yet our event in Croydon was just as poignant, and indeed pertinent, giving local people and those who cannot make a midweek event and opportunity to remember and to show respect.

Thank you to everyone who attended, to those who did all the organisation (all I did was say a few words, and front the event), and an especial thank you to Vanessa from Vanessa Law Photography for the pictures.

Sunday 23 November 2014

Holiday ~ Looking back VIII, the final frontier?

Thursday was our last day in Malta, and it rained, pretty solidly all day.   Indeed I think I barely left the hotel all day, we had lunch in the bar downstairs and I cooked again in the evening.   Making use of all he bits and pieces that were left I managed a sort of traditional Maltese Pasta Bake, after that we decided that we really should have bought at least one more bottle of wine, and so were about to go down to the bar, when Bob realised he couldn't find his wallet.

Fabulous Pistachio ice cream complete with pink mini cone
After much frantic searching we went down to the bar and enjoyed a few rather expensive cognacs, back in the apartment I quickly found the wallet in Bob's flight bag, completed my packing and went to bed.

The next morning came all too early, I had arranged an early flight too ensure that I was home in time for a rehearsal in the evening, none the less I would have prefered another few hours in bed.   As I was bringing home a few mementoes for some friends on the way home I wore the hat that I had packed on the way out.   Otherwise I wore the same mauve Bodycon dress and pumps that I wore to fly out.

It was quite a windy day so all to early I made the interesting discovery that I needed one hand for my bag, one hand to keep my hat secure, and one hand to hold down the hem of my dress, I hope I didn't embarrass too many people too much.

Other than my problems with the wind the journey home was totally uneventful, just the way I like it.   After landing at Gatwick and reclaiming our bags the passport control hall was packed, the queues went on and on, but since I now have one of the new isometric passports I could go through the automatic barrier.   I have a natural dislike for automatic anythings, whether it's self service tills in supermarkets or gearboxs in cars.   However on this occasion I did use the automatic option and saved about ten minutes against Bob going through the old fashioned way.   It also saved the possibility of any questions about my presentation.

So this was the longest continuous period I have spent presenting as the woman I now believe myself to be, what have I learnt.

  • Not to care what other people might think, most of them don't care.
  • The longer I spent the more natural it felt, I wasn't dressing up, I wasn't "Dressing" I was just getting dressed.
  • Officialdom really doesn't care.
  • I was very sad to have to revert to Him at the end, it now feels more like cross dressing when I have to present male than the other way round.
  • Don't wear skater dresses on windy days!

Saturday 22 November 2014

St Cecilia

St Cecilia; Guido Reni
Today is St Cecilia's day, now I'm not from a Church Tradition that celebrates Saint's day because we believe in that all believers are saints.   I also believe in the priesthood of all believers so the idea of setting some believers up as being in some way superior to others is anathema to me. Having said all that St Cecilia is the patron Saint of Music, Musicians and vagabonds, so today is a special day.

This afternoon I will be leading the Croydon event for the International Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Croydon Central Library ~ please do join us if you are in the area anytime between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.

After that I will be heading home for a quick change before playing euphonium with the All Saints Concert Band in Thornton Heath.   So this year I will be celebrating St Cecilia's day by playing music.   I do worry that as music is forced lower and lower down the priorities of our education system this is something that fewer people will be able to do in years to come.   It seems to me that rather than encouraging people to study sciences, mathematics and engineering, the arts are being actively discouraged.   It may be science and engineering that drives our economy and and builds our infrastructure, but it is the arts that make us human.

More to the point arts and science are not in conflict, just as faith and science do not need to be conflict, until very recently they were considered to be different aspects of the same thing, we need an understanding of the science we use to make our art, and scientist need to have an understanding of how art expresses our condition.

Friday 21 November 2014

Sunday Morning, or the aftermath

Girls Just Want to Have Fun
I have already written a fair bit about last weekends excesses at the Way Out Club, I for one drank way too much, talked lots about all sorts of subjects, from Theology to Meteorology, via Brassicas and Monarchy, all in all I think I enjoyed myself.





Patricia Posing
As so often happens I totally failed to even think about taking any photos so those I am sharing are from my friends.

It was fun to be out, it was fun to try something different, it was rather flattering to receive the attention of some men, even if they were pretty relaxed, (as in "I only drink to relax, sometimes I'm so relaxed I fall over") 

Would I go again, certainly, but I don't think I will be making a habit of it.

Thursday 20 November 2014

Holiday ~ Looking Back VII

My outfit for dinner on Tuesday
Well, while we had a lot more holiday left and enjoyed every bit of it there are not that many more stories to share.  Tuesday was a pool day, I did manage a little swimming but mostly exhausted myself working very hard on my tan.   At first I felt a little nervous stripping down to my swimming costume to sun bath, but was very comfortable very quickly, that evening we enjoyed a very good fish supper at one of the many local restaurants.   I have something of a weakness for fish and the fish in Malta is always good, one of my favorites is swordfish steak, simply presented with some new potatoes and a salad  lovely!

Wednesday was another day for sightseeing, as the see was rather choppy we couldn't go on the boat trip we really wanted, instead we booked onto a harbour cruise.   For the small time we were outside the protection of the harbour there was enough motion to be glad that we hadn't gone for the round the Islands cruise.    This was a great way to get a bit more of the history of the place and to see the harbour side from the best possible view point.

That evening rather than go out I decided to cook and made a local influenced pasta dish, including olives, capers and anchovies, with a bottle of local wine and the rest of the evening on the balcony, I was a very happy girl.

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Clubbing

First off can I remind all of you that tomorrow is International Transgender Day of Remembrance, I will be going to the event in London, please go to your local event, your support is important and you will be welcome however you dress.   On Saturday TransPALS will be hosting our own event in Croydon Library, we will be meeting at 12:00 for a cup of tea or coffee prior to the Act of Remembrance at 1:00 p.m.   Please do join us if you can.

Now; back to Saturday night, after getting changed at Patricias we made our way up to the Way Out Club on this occasion Rachel had decided to drive so at least we were guaranteed a way home.   By the time we got there it already felt pretty late to this old lady, but the club had barely started going, I bought a bottle of wine (to share between us) and we settled into some comfortable seats at a table that gave us a good opportunity to observe?

Well I suppose the first thing is that I really didn't need to worry about the length of my dress, several girls were wearing very (ludicrously) short skirts, or maybe they were belts, certainly no more than pelmets!   Some girls looked good, others should have known better, certainly there was a fair portion of mutton presenting as lamb.   Maybe it's my age, or maybe I'm growing into my gender but to me the girls who looked best were not the ones prominently displaying themselves, but the more modestly dressed (though definitely not frumpy) self confident ladies.

Then there were the men, this took me back to my teenage years when I would go to a club and hang around somewhere between the bar and the dance floor, not wanting to dance and too uncertain of myself to approach any of the girls, ending up just watching the dance.   Well the only thing that seemed to be different was that the men were older, given that they all knew what sort of club they had come to I would have expected better.   Some were downright slovenly in their dress, and others would have presented a hazard to traffic, but nearly all of them did nothing to approach any of the girls.   The other observation was that they all seemed to be on the short side! Maybe the girls were tall, especially in 4 inch heels, but if I am going to dance with a man it would be nice if he's taller than me.

Thank you and Good Night

I had so much to write about, Saturday night, Sunday morning, more about my holiday, then there was some social comment on todays news along with some very learned observations on the weekends Rugby internationals, but sorry folks.

My computer went BANG! still not sure what happened but it's taken me about two hours to get it working on line, and now I have I'm going to bed.   The posts and the e-mails and facebook will all have to wait till tomorrow.

Good night!

Monday 17 November 2014

Saturday Night ~ Sunday Morning

I have observed all too often that there are less and less things I can now do for the first time, r even fr the first time as a woman.   Well I am also constantly surprised that there are still plenty of things out there for me still t experience.

Much to the amazement of many of my friends, family and indeed myself, on Saturday I went out clubbing.   Something I haven't done for somewhere between 30 and 40 years!   Of course back then it was very much "him" who went clubbing, and from the tie apse you may infer hat the only reason I was there had nothing to do with the music, or cheap booze!

For those of us who are not into a physical expression of our appreciation of repetitive rhythmic "music" the only real reason for going to a club is being "on the pull".   As a young man that was certainly my reason, so now going as a middle aged woman was going to be, errm interesting.   At first I was a little resistant to the idea but my friends Patricia and Rachel talked me into it, and then of course the planning had to start.

What should I wear? do I go for sexy, slutty or safe mumsy?   How do we get there? and home?   How much am I prepared to spend? can I dance? (this may seem like a silly question but the other day I saw a post from a girl whose male self never danced, but the girl loves to dance), and slightly frightening what do I do if I get chatted up?   With all my planning and preparation the one thing I didn't anticipate was how much time it would all take up.

Old photo from when I kept my hair in a bag!
We arranged to meet up at Patricia's and then Rachel would drive us up to town for the "Way Out Club" as I was going to travel to Patricia's on public transport I would have to change once I got there, so the getting ready process was going to be a long one.   As I had been out playing the previous evening as well a least I didn't have too much shaving to do and my hair was in a reasonable state but I still had to "get my face on" and sort everything out.   To travel I just wore jeans and a sweater with a pair of flats, for the club I packed a little bag with my bling for the evening, some heels I haven't worn for some time and my zebra stripe cocktail dress ~ this night I was going to be the prey, not the predator.


Sunday 16 November 2014

Holiday ~ Looking Back VI, Valletta

When I first went to Malta, many, many years ago a friend of mine who was an ex Navy Provost who had been posted there observed, "Malta! What do you want to go there for you might as well sit on rockery under a sun lamp with your feet in a bucket of water."

The Upper Barrakka Gardens
I have now been to Malta five times and am still fascinated by the islands.   It has the oldest man made structures known, It is the sight of St Paul's ship wreck. It has marvelous idiosyncratic architecture, It has it's very own cuisine, somewhere between mediterranean Europe and north Africa with a tinge of Barnsley.   And of course it has Valletta.
Inside the Cathedral

Caravaggio's The Beheading of St John the Baptist
The Capital city, Valletta is not only a World Heritage site it is also scheduled to be the European City of Culture in 2018 And as the centre for the Knights of St John has many interesting palaces and the most wonderful baroque Cathedral, complete with a couple of Caravaggios.




One further advantage, Malta has enshrined Trans People's rights in it's constitution!

View from Grand Harbour




Saturday 15 November 2014

Holiday ~ Looking Back V, Sightseers

By Monday morning we had already settled into our apartment and our roles, or to put it another way we were beginning to feel comfortable and at home.   After breakfast we set out by bus to the Maltese Capital, Valletta.  We started with a visit to The Malta Experience, this would put the rest of the experience into some sort of historical perspective.

After that we visited the Old Infirmary, St John's Co-Cathedral and various other sights.



Rather than go through a list of everything we saw, I will just a post a few photos, so you can see for yourselves some thing of the beauty of the place.






Friday 14 November 2014

Stand Up

Generally when I think of stand up I think of comedy, and my personal ambition to do a routine in public, but today it does mean something else altogether, nothing to laugh about.

On the 14th November Peter Cohen (Brother of the 1966 World Cup wining George Cohen) was beaten to death after he went to help another man in the club he owned.   In response to this his son, Ben Cohen started the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation a foundation dedicated to eradicating bullying, by Standing Up to them.   Bullying in schools, bullying in the workplace, bullying in the street, all types of bullying, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, racist ~ all types of bullying.


When I watched Ben Cohen scoring in the 2003 Rugby Word Cup final I never expected to be writing this post, he never expected to become a Gay Icon, I never expected to be transitioning, we, none of us know what to expect.   But we do know that if we display weakness, or difference then there will still be a bully out there, somewhere waiting to take advantage of that to enlarge themselves by belittling others.

Lets Stand Up

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Holiday ~ Looking back IV, Lazy Sunday

I'm beginning to think that maybe I should have made some notes while I was away so that I could make my account a little more accurate, but hey if I make a couple of little errors there are only two of us who will know, and the overall story won't be so different.

So if I remember correctly Sunday wasn't quite such a nice day weather wise, temperatures only in the low 20sC, none the less we had a swim and a nice relaxed day.   The sight seeing we were planing involved churches so it seemed best to leave that for another day.

To be perfectly honest I can'r remember that much about the day but since this photo was taken then we must have spent at least some time drinking coffee on the balcony.   I do know that that evening we had a nice dinner of some traditional Maltese dishes, I stuck with fish as I love fish but don't eat nearly as much as I would like to at home.

It was also around Sunday that I realised that we were starting to fall into the stereotypical gender roles, some of which (like being bought dinner and not having too carry the shopping) I was quite happy with.   However it was a little disconcerting that waiters automatically assumed that Bob would choose and check the wine, as well as be given the bill.

Monday 10 November 2014

GRRRRRRR

Just to break into all these wonderful frothy holiday memories, I want to have a quick rant.   I have only been back from holiday a couple of hours and already I'm exasperated with London drivers.   I can deal with nasty aggressive little s*%#s who barge into the front of queues or pimply oiks who carve me up.   I know that they only do this because they feel that certain parts of their anatomy are too small, and I suspect that they are right.

It is the total inconsiderate nature of some drivers, whether double parking their Chelsea Tractor to drop Damian or Samantha off at school or the idiot who decides that the A23 is a good pace to do a three point turn. I am staggered that I don't see more accidents, it can only be the alertness and the avoiding actions from the rest of us that stop the whole system gumming up to a total stand still.

If it was not so expensive I would star carrying copies of the "Highway Code" around with me to hand out in the hope that I might be able to show these selvish wastes of skin the error of their ways.   How did these people ever pass a driving test?

OK Rant over back to holiday snaps tomorrow.

Holiday ~ Looking back III, Pastizzi for Breakfast.

Saturday dawned early, around an hour earlier than my body was really expecting it as their clocks are an hour ahead of ours.   Having said that I had enjoyed a decent night's sleep and was already benefiting from being away, so I got up and went for a walk to get breakfast.   I don't know if it is a big thing in Malta but whenever I visit I always like to have Pastizzi for breakfast.

Pastizzi are the traditional Maltese street food.   Sold from small shops or booths around the islands alongside pizza, pies, and pasties a real mixture of the Mediterranean and British cultures that show everywhere from the architecture, the food and even the language.  English is still a joint national language alongside Maltese, until just a few years ago speaking Maltese in public was seen to be a bit uncouth, and something the aspiring middle classes would never do, now I find I am hearing more and more as the Maltese reassert there own identity.

Saturday was a lovely day so we had a walk around and spent a little time by the pool, generally being lazy and just enjoying the locality, and other local specialities.








Sunday 9 November 2014

Holiday ~ Looking back II, a room with a view

I had pre warned the "Hotel" where we had our apartment that despite my official paperwork I would be travelling in the name of Paula so it was no surprise to them when I checked in, and no surprise that they took it in their stride.   The paperwork was quickly processed and we went straight up to the apartment.   These apartments sleep four, there is a bedroom with twin beds, a bathroom, a galley kitchen and a lounge/dining room with a fold down double bed.

The view from our balcony
We shared the bedroom but it soon became clear that I was going to dominate this room, with two jackets, three dresses a couple of pairs of trousers and some tops I used the lion's share bit of the hanging space and my pots, potions, smellies, make up and bling took up nearly all of the surface of the dressing table, while Bob more or less lived out of his (rather capacious) suitcase.

At this point we were planning to eat out each night so we only had a very little shopping to do, just the essentials, milk, tea, coffee, beer, and wine.   After laying in these supplies we were ready for our diner and popped out to La Stalla, a local restaurant where we enjoyed a nice meal with a decent bottle of local wine.   When I first visited Malta back in the 1980s the wine left much to be desired, things like subtlety, taste, and smoothness, in those days the local wine had colour and alcohol,  these days either they are a whole lot better (while still pretty cheap) or my palate is shot to pieces.

We decided that we would return to the apartment for coffee on our balcony, and ended up staying up longer than we had planned talking long into the night.

Saturday 8 November 2014

Holiday ~ Looking Back I; Many Firsts

I can't help but notice that I managed an awful lot of posts about looking forward to my holiday, well you can anticipate at least as many, but probably more looking back.   I have only been back in Blighty for a few hours but already I recognise a couple of themes from the week, the main one being a week of firsts.   I won't go into all of them now but instead will try to start at the beginning, or maybe even slightly before that.

We flew out on Friday morning, that meant most of my preparation and virtually all of my packing had to be completed on Thursday evening.   Not sure what was most amazing, that I managed to pack everything I wanted into one case (and hand luggage) or that I was within the weight limit of 20kg.   While I was packed and ready when my friend (I will call him Bob because he was) arrived to pick me up.   I would have liked to have had more time to clean up before leaving, but at least I had fed the fish and washed up.

The first first of the week was going to be the air travel.   It has to be stated (or maybe it doesn't but I'm going to anyway) that I was "flying pretty" but all the paperwork had to be in my legal (male) name, also that Bob is just a friend.   Check in went fine, with no issues around any difference between my presentation and my paperwork, but that was the first of many times that we were assumed to be "a couple".    Next came security, inevitably I did set off the alarms and had to go through the full body scanner  and get a pat down.   All the way through I was treated with respect, referred to as madam and the pat down was conducted with respect but efficiently by the female officer.

As with everything else the flight when pleasantly enough and was pretty uneventful, arriving at Luqa airport we bought our duty free supplies for the week and passed through passport control to collect our luggage.   A small piece of glee to start the holiday off well when the Malta passport officer looked at my passport and started to say that I had given him  my "husband's passport by mistake", then half way through looked at Bob (six foot five and black hair) looked back at the photo and realised. He had the good grace to look a little sheepish and did the classic "oh, right yes, erm thank you Miss"

Friday 7 November 2014

Honey! I'm Home

I have just returned home after my little holiday, happy and refreshed but a little tired from the travelling.   S this is just to say I am looking forward to catching up with all my friend's Blogs, starting to record a few here from my holiday and to generally catch up with life in the UK

But before any of that, I need to make a trip to Tescos to lay in some supplies, unpack do the laundry and the myriad of other things that need to be done.

I promise, more will follow.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Poppies

Here in the UK and the Commonwealth the Poppy has become a symbol of remembrance, based on the flanders poppies they have been adopted across the country since the initial Poppy Day on Remembrance day, the 11th November 1921.   Since then every year the British Legion have sold their paper poppies to both raise funds and aid remembrance every November.

In my memory during the 1960s the act of remembrance was pretty much universal, those who couldn't attend a ceremony would still stop all activities during the minutes silence.   We would hold an act of remembrance at my Church and as the silence fell all the traffic outside would stop and a general silence would fall so much so that we could clearly hear the minute guns firing miles away in Hyde Park.   In later decades the whole remembrance thing seemed to wane as less and less people could remember going to war, or people who went to war, then in the 90s it started to come back, and is now a very big thing.

Through out all this time I have always bought my Poppy and worn it throughout the week leading up to remembrance day Sunday (or if it is the Sunday before the 11th then from then till the 11th)   As this year is the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War there have been a lot of poppies around, I worry that for some this is almost a celebration, some sort of jingoistic looking back to when "We won the war" I will be wearing my poppy for one week in November, I will not be wearing it with pride, I will be wearing it as a sign of my support for those who were injured and sign of my remembrance of those fell, not just the British in the that awful First World War, but all those wh have died on all sides in all wars.

Monday 3 November 2014

Sunday 2 November 2014

Hope

How I hope I'm spending my time
How I hope I'm NOT looking


Saturday 1 November 2014

Truth

They say that honesty is always the best policy, I'm not so sure, maybe the truth but rarely the whole truth.


Unusually for me I would like simply quote at length from the novel I'm currently reading.

"Truth is female, since truth is beauty rather than handsomeness; this Ridcully reflected as the Council grumpled in., would certainly explain the the saying that a lie could run around the world before Truth had got it's, correction, her boots on, since she would have to choose which pair - the idea that any woman in a position to choose would have just one pair of boots being beyond rational belief. Indeed as a Goddess she would have lots of shoes, and thus many choices: comfy shoes for home truths, hobnail boots for unpleasant truths' simple clogs for universal truths and possibly some sort of slipper for self evident truth.   More important right now was what kind f truth he was going to have to impart to his colleagues, and he decided not on the whole truth, but instead nothing but the truth, which dispensed with the need for honesty"
from Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchet