Michelle's Blog

Today was the first day of AusCERT 2008, and as usual brought plenty of surprises for many.

The conference welcome drinks started at 6pm, I arrived fashionably late (as usual) and there began the surprises, both for me and for others. It was nice that Claire had advised the conference organisers that I would be attending as both Matthew and Michelle, so when I arrived I got two name badges. This also meant that meeting Michelle was surprising but not shocking for those who I had not had time to warn and inform.

The nature/profession of some of the AusCERT conference attendees has left the photos of me and the event in a protected place, so I won’t talk about the conference much. I will say though that a few of my colleagues were attending as well as a couple of customers that I deal with directly.

Unfortunately I was not able to warn some and as such poor Jeff got the fright of his life as he was completely unprepared. I’m glad to report though that he got over the initial shock quickly and we spent some time talking, not about me, but about work as if there was nothing unusual about the circumstances. That is true professionalism if ever I saw it.

The other unfortunate occurrence was bumping into Trevor, who was pleased, surprised and completely supportive. I didn’t think to pull him to one side and ask that he didn’t say anything back at the office, hindsight suggests I should have.

The evening was eventful, in surprised looks and comments, but otherwise pleasant and quiet, at least until late.

First thing to go wrong was the realisation I had left my mobile phone in the golf cart during the afternoon. I went to the hotel reception, as Michelle, and asked if a phone had been found. The receptionist dealing then talked loudly to a colleague referring to “him”, “his phone” and finally finished it off by referring to “Mr Sullivan”. I found this very upsetting as I was clearly Michelle for the evening and whilst I might not be a convincing woman yet, I was clearly dressed as one, and had a name badge indicating I was “Michelle”.

The second problem was after I went to the bar to join some of the other delegates, I sat chatting and drinking. The one accidental slip by a delegate and a bottle of beer got spilled down me.  This event in itself did not upset me as it was accidental and I was happy in myself, the upsetting part was the result which occurred on another day.

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.