Month: May 2008

Today was a beautiful day for diving, and I had lots of fun with the Nautilus SCUBA Centre diving on Flinders Reef at the North of Moreton Island. Diving started early in the morning with a 6am start for a 6:45am departure from the Nautilus SCUBA Centre shop. The diving was pretty uneventful, however a rather nice lady by the name of <to be inserted> noticed the blue nail polish on my toes and made comment. Of course me being me, said I hadn’t bothered with my fingers as the salt water gets under the polish and it all falls off.  She said that it was a little unusual to find someone (male) on a dive boat wearing blue nail polish, to which I replied that I wasn’t the usual sort of person.

A short conversation later revealed my “secret”, which she thought was wonderful and we continued to talk, chat and have fun all the way back from the reef.

In the early evening I decided to go out for a drink and for “Michelle” to say hello to a long time friends, Randy and Dave at the Jaz Wine Bar. The results were predictable with the exception that no-one had told poor Mel behind the bar who did a triple-take before recognising me and exclaiming something unprintable here.

Is not shopping the favourite hobby and pass time of any girl?

Brisbane can be fun to explore, but so can running around your old stomping ground visiting the shops you know are there, and to that end it wasn’t long before I had a complete new outfit and some extras from the Mount Ommaney . The problem came when trying to find shoes. I had been told by Ally that there was a shop “near a train station with steps and escalators” that specialised in selling oversize/large size shoes.

A few hours running around Central Station provided no answers or leads, so I decided to go to Garden City at Upper Mount Gravatt, there I got a tip from Payless Shoes that the train station was actually Roma Street Station. An hour of traffic and an $18 parking permit (for 15 minutes) later and a local cobbler told me the shop I was looking for closed around 3 years previous and that there were two shops I should try, one in Nundah called Graham’s Shoes and the other he couldn’t recall the name.

Another hour in traffic and a little frustration with bad (usual) Brisbane signage and I spoke to a lovely lady who was most helpful, and indicated that she could not help me, but could recommend Gilmour’s Comfort Shoes of Mount Gravatt as they would be sure to have the right sizes.

An hour traveling back to Mount Gravatt was not pleasant, but necessary, and the shop was located opposite where I was earlier… at Garden City! Well what a surprise I got there, and a pleasant one at that. I asked the lady if they sold large sized shoes and asked if they would have something nice for going out in. She replied, “of course, come this way, we’ll get you measured up first and then have a look at some styles.” As I was standing in the ladies section already I replied with, “I think I’d be better looking at the styles at this end if you don’t mind?” She replied with, “of course sweetie, I had no idea, and I’m sure we can help you.” The amusing thought I had was that the tone in her voice and her attitude changed completely when I indicated I was there to buy some ladies shoes for myself.

To cut a long story short I tried on a lovely pair of Italian made shoes that were absolutely perfect and a very comfortable fit. Unfortunately at $199 they were out of my price range for the day, but I have asked them to keep a note of the type/model because I definitely want a pair at a later date. I ended up purchasing a nice low heal set of shoes for a more modest sum and went away very happy.

The events of the day, particularly the chasing around for shoes had eaten into my “get ready” time and so Kylii her friend and I decided rather than head to The Beat as previously planned, we would test the new make up I bought, and have a look at the different outfits.

Today was an interesting day, a trip to Brisbane city returned dividends in the way of a SCSI card for one of my machines, this time I was a little more careful and so took the train, which was a lot cheaper as an option.

The afternoon brought a broken nail when installing it, I’m going to have to watch that, was not a good thing, it really made a mess of the nail.

Another friend who is a lovely girl, had a lot of questions. We had a great chat, and I was surprised at how much interest she took. She was certainly surprised, but in no way phased by the prospect of someone she knows changing sex. I won’t go into the details, because as before, there were many questions some which were the same as before some not, and I don’t have the room to put a two and a half hour conversation any way.

Comment of the day has to be Wilber, who said in passing in the corridor, “I agree with Ally, I didn’t like your hair either.” I’d only published yesterdays post a few hours before, so it seems some people are following my exploits with great interest.

Last person to tell for the day was Kayne, what fun that was, he was on the train going home, and as luck would have it went through a “dead spot” a second after I told him I was on the path to becoming a woman. I redialed and gave him the URL of this blog. A while later I received the following email:

Subject: Michelle
From: Kayne
To: Matthew

It's not what I expected you to tell me when you said you'd
be causing a stir, I was expecting it to be a joke and for
you to tell me you're actually the head of the Yambo syndicate
or something spam related.

Had a look over the page, it's all sort of what I'd assumed
I guess but an FAQ would be a lot easier to answer all of
my immediate questions quickly. I do have to say, I have no
problem with you becoming a woman but I'm pretty concerned
about you put black writing over a lilac background image!  :) 

I'm glad Ally is coping with it, it was something I didn't
really want to ask you over the phone in case it'd gone
poorly. Good on you for finally going though with the
transformation, I can only begin to imagine how scary it
must be.

About bringing out Michelle at AusCERT - I'd advise to go
for something low key if you decide to. Miniskirt and
fishnets would be a bit too confronting methinks (not
sure you can carry it off with those legs just yet :)).

Let me know if I can be of any help.

Much amusement was had, he has never seen my legs, and why on earth anyone would expect me to put on a miniskirt and fishnets for a professional conference I’ll never know (well there have been some wild parties, so that could be it 🙂). I should really ask Kayne, what sort of help he wants to give, and whether his fiancee would be happy with the idea of him helping another girl…?

Personally I was thinking something like slacks and a blouse, some flats and a small amount of necessary makeup. I’ll leave the miniskirt and the 5″ heels for one of the wilder after parties.

This evening was lots of fun, went to see an old friend, the owner of the Jaz restaurant and wine bar and of course I choose one of his days off. I’ll be going back tomorrow evening no doubt as I’m sure he’s going to be around, and I’m sure he’s going to get a little surprise.

Played with makeup again tonight, didn’t get very far as really tired, but am a little more prepared for tomorrow evening which will be me (as Michelle) going with a group of girlfriends heading to The Beat. If anyone wants to join us, they are welcome.

Today was the day for having some fun, so I messed around a bit in the morning, and then returned to The University of Queensland just before lunch, to have lunch. On the way through the building though I bumped into Claire, you know I do love Claire, she’s such a fun loving, lovely person, even if she’s working in the field of marketing (we can’t all be perfect can we? ;-)) Claire was a little shocked (that might be an understatement), but completely supportive, and I didn’t honestly expect anything less, because of what she is like. Funny thing is I apologised to her for a conversation I had with her some years before one late and drunk night at AusCERT, she didn’t remember, but I commented it was talking about fishnet’s and above the knee skirts (both of which I love) and the fact that I very nearly told her that I love wearing them etc. She thought this was quite funny even though she did not remember a thing about it.

Claire asked the usual questions about what it means to me, and do I fancy men etc, and then I went to get my hair cut, coloured and styled at Earth, Hair and Body in St Lucia. I chatted to Chris(3) there and showed some target styles I had in mind. All the styles were similar, and it was only a few moments before he suggested a plan for now and the future. I got my hair coloured to cover the grey, and to give a slightly different tint and life to my hair, he also trimmed it very lightly and straightened it. I love it, but the only problem is showing the picture to Ally (via my mobile phone camera) and she hates it. 🙁

The evening was spent with Kylii and Tom, where much hilarity ensued, even though Michelle didn’t get to come out for the evening.

Well today was pretty much a blur, it started in Brisbane City along with a 90 minute $28.00 parking permit (that’s more expensive than London City!) and finished at Chris'(1) place eating Indian and having a good chat about lots of things.

In the middle was a session at Helga’s House of Pain, aka getting a leg and chest wax at The Beauty Boudoir, while I was there I got my eyebrows waxed, for the first time. All I can say is, “Wow!” what a difference getting the brows tidied and shaped makes, the question is why didn’t I do this before even as a man?

As an interesting aside, as the waxing was being done I was talking away (nothing unusual there) and it turns out that I am the first transgender person they have known, or has come into their shop. I find that rather surprising, especially considering their close proximity to The University of Queensland. Not that university students are transgender, just that in todays society with a high concentration of young individuals it would be statistically probable that there would be an number of transgender people in the locality.

This evening was my visit back to see Chris(1), which I was looking forward to as the previous encounter didn’t go so well. The evening started quietly and in a predictable sort of way, we sat and talked, he seems to want to understand what it is that I am, why I’m doing it, and why would anyone do it.

The conversation was long and protracted as Chris(1) suffers from a mental condition where he does not remember anything he can not understand. As he cannot understand (yet) what it means for someone to be transgender he is having trouble even remembering some of the more important parts of the conversation.

Of course the usual questions came out throughout the conversation, for example:

• What am I going to do about toilets.
• What are my work colleagues going to do.
• What does Ally think.
• Is Ally going to stay or leave.
• What are my long term plans.
• How long does it take.
• Am I going to have surgery.
• Am I gay, or a lesbian, or what.
• …etc…

Of course most of those are easy answers, and I have covered some previously. The hard part was explaining everything in a way that Chris(1) could relate to, so that he could get that level of understanding he needs to be able to deal with it.

Later we ordered Indian from A Night In India, which the food was uncharacteristically disappointing, and continued chatting until I decided I needed an early night when I left.

I left a lot more positive than the previous occasion as I am sure that Chris(1) is a lot more happier in himself, even if he doesn’t fully understand it yet.