Michelle's Blog

Tonight was the night, and after an eventless drive to Sydney, I took my time in the hotel room to get ready for the ball.

I was ready for the ball early, and received a few messages from “Wendy” about my ticket, so I jumped in a taxi and headed for the Sydney Airport Mercure. A few minutes later and I was standing in the lobby, looking and feeling somewhat apprehensive about the night. Wendy thankfully was not far away in the lobby bar, so I went and got a drink as well as the tickets. I couldn’t see any faces that I recognised, but Wendy made sure to introduce me to all the people she knew there.

The glass of bubbly did little to change my feelings.

A short while later Wendy indicated that everyone should go through, so I finished my drink and followed.

My first impressions as I walked through the lobby were being confirmed as I walked to the entrance of the Ball. I was horrified and intimidated (if that’s a good word to choose) by what I saw… This was a ball, a dinner, an event, for men in dresses, drag queens, and not for transsexuals, transvestites. I saw men of all different ages dressed in dresses from the sublime to the ridiculous, intermingled with family members and the odd person that was really trying to be like a woman in appearance. There were a couple of very larger than life drag queens with huge hair, mingling, and there was me, trying to be as feminine as possible feeling like a fish out of water. Who were all these people?

After a couple of quick pre-dinner drinks I was feeling a little more relaxed, and had the attitude, “Hey, I’m here, I should just enjoy myself”. Whilst waiting I was looking for “Clare” whom I had spoken with on many occasions in the last week and hoped that she’d look as she did in her photo.

Joy of joys I spotted Clare in the crowd heading in my direction at about the same time as she spotted me. She had a couple of friends in tow, all (bar one) looking more like I was expecting, men trying to pass themselves off as women (and making a damn good job of it). My night started to settle and I knew I was going to have fun.

Clare introduced me to a few people, and I must admit I can only remember the names of her and Sara, both of which are from Canberra, both fantastic people by my reckoning.

The night was long, and involved some dancing (I don’t do dancing, but Clare ensured that I had a go).

After the ball we migrated to the bar, and some like Clare got changed. It was a very late night with much fun had by all.

Note: Upon reflection, my horrified reaction and my disappointment at the number of men in dresses were self centered unfounded.  I assumed that everyone would be like me, and the only major difference being some would be on hormones, and some not.  Of course I’m completely wrong, the Seahorse Society is for Cross Dressers and transgendered people, and it seems  a lot of fully transitioned transgendered people leave the society.  Of course that’s my speculation and it could be that the transitioned people don’t attend the functions as much because they like me are happy to wander in public as their preferred gender, so they don’t feel the need to get dressed up.  All that said I’m looking forward to going to the Christmas Party then to the Ball next year with some of my new found friends.

Tonight Ally, my beautiful wife, helped me get ready for the weekends fun.

I had no dress to wear, so it was a purchase or purloin decision, and Ally came to the rescue.  After loosing 24kg, most of her dresses no longer fit, so rather than sending them to the charity shops she gave me a couple for this weekend.

The first was a knee high red dress with a high split (I love this one), but unfortunately it didn’t really fit all that well (still need to loose a little more weight myself).

The second I had asked her for, it was a very short dark blue “crushed velvet” look dress, which would be perfect with my 4″ soft leather knee high boots.  I was told in no uncertain terms though that the dress was not suitable for a ball.

The third dress was a very ‘slinky’ feel black and white patterned one.  The dress was described by a friend as a “spring picnic” dress, so I chose not to wear it.

The forth and final dress was the only floor length dress, bright red, with shoe lace straps.  I tried each one on, and found that they all fitted, though some better than others.  I decided that I would take them all and decide what to wear on the night.

Well Ally gave me an early birthday present today, after telling her about the ball, she asked if I wanted to go, and when I had said there wasn’t enough time, she dismissed that as an excuse and said I should go.  It came as a shock because it was not expected at all, but it does show that she is being very supportive of me and my life.  It is yet another example of why I love her so much.

Well Laserderm Civic phoned me an hour before my appointment today to cancel it, citing that the nurse had not showed up for work today.  I found it really odd, as they always phone the day before to confirm the appointment, so I think that there is more to it than that.  The appointment has been rescheduled for Friday, but I think that I’m going to cancel that as there will not be enough time between then and the following Saturday for recovery (I’m diving Sunday 24th August and you are not supposed to go out in the sun for 10-14 days following a treatment).

Today whilst browsing some of the links I had visited before I noticed a link to the ‘NewCTN‘ Yahoo! Group, the initials turned out to be something called the ‘Canberra Transgender Network‘ so I went to investigate. I signed up for the group and got almost instant access, and went browsing for information. I read some of the mail archives and added my bit to some of the more recent posts, particularly as some I cold answer from direct experience.

When I had finished I browsed their links page, and came across another interesting link called ‘Tranny Radio‘ which was a site dedicated to Cross Dressers, Transvestites, Drag Queens and Transgendered people, and they are based out of Sydney. I threw caution to the wind and signed up there as well, my membership was approved in a short time and I was able to setup a profile of myself. ‘Tranny Radio‘ also has online Chat facilities that seem popular so I got stuck in there. Almost immediately I was asked if I was going to the ‘Ball’, and of course not knowing anything about it, said exactly that. Many were quick to point me to the website and the ticket page saying there were still tickets available, I dismissed the idea as I knew I was going diving the following weekend and guessed there was no way that Ally would entertain the idea (not to mention a girl has to have something to wear!).

All in all, if there are any Trans* people in the ACT that are not part of NewCTN, I wholly recommend joining, the are a nice bunch of people and the group is fairly low volume.