Advent Calendar III

 

What can I say, last night was fabulous! The setting is wonderful, the company was fun and glittering, the wines excellent, and surprisingly for this type of event the food was good as well! 

A nice setting for dinner!

The occasion was a City of London Livery Company, a proper white tie banquet in the Egyptian room in the Mansion House (the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London). The Lord Mayor himself was not present as he had another pressing engagement round the corner at the Guildhall with the Prime Minister. 

We did have speeches from the retiring Master and the new Master (a bit like Doctor Who they get a new Master every year), and from the guest of honour, not me, but Dame Mary Berry! Since this is the Worshipful Company of Bakers I couldn't imagine a more appropriate guest!

Although I still have several concerts to go this year, this was by far and away my most glamorous event of the year. In the end I opted for the red dress with gold jewellery and a lovely black shawl to cover my shoulders. I didn't need the shawl for warmth but it definitely stopped me feeling self conscious about my shoulders. I am happy that I didn't let down my host and his other guests, and knowing that I looked OK did wonders for my self confidence and helped with the enjoyment of the evening.

I think that everything else I will be doing this "festive season" calls for all black, so maybe I will still get some more wear out of at least another couple of my other "posh frocks"!

Advent Calendar XIV

I've slipped a day behind I'm afraid, so here are a couple of photos of what I was up to yesterday evening. I do hope it doesn't put anyone off their food.

As I hope you can see I was enjoying myself, while breaking the dress code and making a bit of spectacle of myself. What can I say, I haven't got a Christmas jumper this is about as close as I can get.

Not Happy

I should be so happy! I have just started working as conductor of the wonderful Allegra Concert Band, I've just had a couple of great Gigs conducting Croydon Brass, with another couple still to come. I still have a fabulous concert to come with the equally fabulous London Gay Symphony Orchestra. I have enough work to keep me busy until I go on holiday next month, and some already lined up for next year. All in all everything should be good. But sometimes even when the big things are coming together the small things can still be really irritating.

There's a saying that comes round every now and then along the lines of "Don't sweat the small stuff"! Well just at the moment I'm doing exactly that. On Tuesday I parked my van up at the side of West Wickham High Street while I popped into Lorrimer's to buy some paper, on returning a few minutes later (feeling a little peeved that the assistant there had been surly and as unhelpful as she could contrive to be.) to find my drivers door mirror gone! The various parts of it were strewn across the road. OK this will be easy to fix and not too expensive, but it is annoying.

Even more annoying this morning I woke up, looked out my window to see that one of the wheel trims on my van was missing. It was only after I was dressed and went out that I realised all four of the wheel trims were missing, closer inspection showed that the cable ties I had attached them with were cut and still in place, they had been stolen over night while the van was parked in the private car park behind my flat. ~ Once again these are not especially expensive, but once again I am excessively peeved. This is all just hassle and expense that I could seriously do without.

I think I need to cheer myself up by thinking about the fun joint concert I've got coming up with the brass band the "Choir on the Hill" ~ I understand that they do very good cake, I'm not sure I can compete with that, but maybe I can find a little seasonal surprise for them.

A friend of mine always suggests not going on eBay when drunk, by way of explanation he cites the occasion he bought a bassoon by accident! Well, like so much good advise I failed to follow this, and bought myself a dress, well, a seasonal treat, well, maybe a costume. Well, you decide!

I really don't expect it to look this good on me, indeed even it is wide enough for me, I suspect that I will probably still be too tall! However, I am still considering bringing it out as a Christmas treat for a couple of my remaining Christmas performances, before going on holiday next month.

WOW!!!

I feel so privileged, yesterday I spent the day with a couple of hundred of the most awesome women in the Country. I was part of an event which should not be needed, but I fear it will have to keep going for quite a few more years yet.   Just now I won't go into all of the issues that women still face today, I won't bang on about how women are obliterated from history, how women artists, composers and writers are forgotten while their male contemporises are celebrated ~ I suspect that I may be preaching to the choir, but then yesterday the choir was all women, just like the orchestra.

Quick selfie during rehearsals

I was a little disconcerted when I first heard that I was not going to be part of the orchestra this year, then I was pleased that there were other women tuba players applying, then please to be called up, and also sorry that the original Bass Trombone was too ill to take part. All a bit on an emotion rollercoaster.

I love my Orchestra, but the WOW Orchestra for Mirth Control is something very special.   We just gather once a year for this event, but I do believe it may well be the only all female orchestra on the planet.   A mixture of Professionals, Students and Amateurs we have a wide range of experience, and age, I think my trombone was older than any of the other brass players, I am certainly old enough to be their grand mother, but we all worked together for a great musical result, and had a lot of fun along the way.

Sneaky shot of the Royal Festival Hall audience ~ My Office Today

The Brass Section and Horns walked on stage first and sat there waiting for the beginning of the evening as we started the whole thing off with a fanfare. Joan Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman no.1, written in the 1960s as a response to Aron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man. To my shame it is the first time I have come across this remarkable piece.

We were asked to stand to play, so that did slightly restrict my choice of shoes ~ playing the trombone standing up, in front of 2,000 people while wearing stripper shoes with 6 inch stilettos felt like just too much of a risk. I also had a few restrictions on my choice of dress ~ having put on a bit of weight I found that on my first choice the zip wouldn't do up (actually it wouldn't even meet!) and my second choice made me look pregnant, I went for the classy option with my black velvet gown gold jewelry and nice shoes.   It was a good choice since I felt comfortable, but fabulous!

So pleased and proud to have been part of this truly fabulous section, I think these girls (sorry but they are all so young compared to me) show that you don't need to be butch, big or manly to play Tuba or Trombone! 

Advent Calendar XV

When I am deciding what to write about here I am often inspired by other blogs. Rather than simply relate some of my own experiences I will muse on the things others have stirred in my mind.   Today will be one of those days, over on Stana's Femulate Blog she has a picture of a girl in a red dress with the caption "You haven't done the holidays until you've worn this hue" This may well solve one of my current problems.

Tomorrow night I will be going out to dinner with a couple of my friends, and I am facing the perennial question of what to wear. Until relatively recently I could just look in my wardrobe and select a suitable dress that they hadn't seen me wear before.   This Christmas I am realising that I have very little in the way party frocks that my good friends will not have already seen.   I have several "Cocktail" dresses, in white, black, black and silver, and black and white.   I have evening gowns in Green, Black and Red, I have a variety  of day dresses in a variety of hues, I have suits, sun dresses, trousers and tops. I have far too many clothes many of which can be worn in a variety of combinations.   I enjoy clothes and I enjoy shopping for them, but over the last year I have managed to curb some of my excesses and most of what I have bought comes under the heading of practical.

Maybe this is an opportunity to wear a dress I have had for a few years but don't wear very often, not least because I do feel a little conspicuous when I do wear it. But since it does seem to be the colour for the season I may just give it an airing! ~ What do you think?

This photo goes all the way back to Christmas 2014, looking at it I haven't changed that much in the intervening years, but it does remind me that I need to replenish the colour in my hair, so maybe I will get on and do that now, before I go out tonight for another dinner with another group of friends!

Concert Dress XV

Tomorrow is the 21st anniversary concert of the LGSO, this is a very special occasion for a very special orchestra.   We have all been practising hard (haven't we lads!) and tickets are selling well, so it all looks like being quite a gala occasion.

We have been given a slightly enhanced dress code for this one,  a little smarter than usual. We're saying all black, no jeans, no tshirts, no trainers and definitely black socks please! We'll be on the raised platform so we need to look great as well as sound great. Well I may well not be wearing socks, but how do I improve on perfect?

After much consideration I have decided that this is a special night, and warrants a special dress, or maybe that should be THE special dress.   I bought this back in 2013 and have only had a couple of occasions to wear it since, and one was for a photo session!

It is a pretty spectacular gown, but is almost totally backless, so I could only wear it with the application of adhesive and artificial aids.   Indeed during the course of the photo session (just after Pride if I remember correctly, and certainly before I was fully out) the warmth from the lights induced a bit of a glow, which led to the failure of the adhesive and the gentle descent of the artificial aid!

Thanks to the HRT I think I can now manage without added assistance, so I plan to finally live up to my cover girl billing, and be Fabulous darling!

The Long and the Short of it

It has been mentioned by a few of my friends that I like short skirts, I hasten to say that this is not said in any bad way, there may be a little jealousy but no antipathy.   Having had a look through my wardrobe, and the photos I tend to post here it has to be said that the accusation is not without substance.   I could simply invoke Stana's excuse and plead that "It's not my skirt that's not too short, it's my legs that are too long"

Ever since I first started dressing and going out properly I have been aware that my legs are one of my better features, I also remember my Father saying that the girls with the biggest noses wore the shortest skirts, so maybe there is a subconscious thought that if people are looking at my legs they are not paying so much attention to my face. Whatever, I think I look pretty good when I "get my legs out".   However do I have to point out that I am not always in a mini skirt.   Just like real people, most of the time I will be found in jeans and a sweater or tee shirt.   I do also have a few much longer dresses and skirts which I do wear and some that indeed I quite love.

What I don't have, and indeed don't like are the ones in between, those hemlines that seem to dangle somewhere around the knee being neither one thing nor the other.   Maybe it is a factor of my height (at 5 10 I'm not outrageously tall but I'm certainly not short!) but I want my hemlines to be positively above, or below my knees, and it just seems that there are more that I like that fall above the knee than below.

I wrote the other day about the dress code for a concert I have coming up, I will be playing tuba so need to either wear trousers or a long full skirt, and try and get the Green, Purple, and White thing going as well, I now have a long, full purple skirt, and am hoping to find a green blouse to team it with, but do Green and Purple really go together?

Concert Dress XII

Nothing to Wear

I've got a Gig coming up, it's a big one and one I'm sure that I will be writing plenty about it, both before and after the event.

It is part of a much bigger event, and one that I am proud to be part of for a second time.   However this year I am faced with a problem that I didn't have last year.

Not really suitable

Having just got an e-mail with the details we have a dress code of a combination of Green, Purple, and White ~ the more astute of you will recognise these as the colours of the suffragette movement, and I am very happy with the association.
However it does mean that I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!!!

Not quite suitable either

Sure I have a green dress, and a mauve one, and a number of mauve tops, but somehow none are suitable, looks like I will have to be out hitting the Charity Shops again.

I'm a Star Darling! (or at least my back makes a brief appearance!)

Since the show was aired on Wednesday I can now tell the story, around six or seven months back I got a phone call inviting me to try on some "posh frocks".  
The invitation came from a Channel 4 researcher working with Mary Portas on her new "Secret Shopper" series.   Basically they were going to send a taxi to pick me up and take me home, pour wine down my throat all evening and all I had to do was try on some dresses and give my educated opinion.    After thinking about it for fully a quarter of a second I reluctantly agreed ~ for the sake of the community of course!

The story was that a failing Bridal shop run by a husband and wife team had bought a load of dresses because the husband liked them, he liked them because he is a cross dresser and they were what he wanted to wear.  The team wanted to get rid of them and find out if there was a potential untapped market.   I was one of a selection of Trans Women, Crossdressers and Drag Queens there especially to try the wares.   A quick look told me that the dresses were much more appropriate for the Drag Queens and the Trans Beauty Queens than for full time trans women.   Now I do have occasion to wear posh frocks, I actually have three evening gowns and another couple of long dresses, and they do get worn, but there is no way that there was anything there that I would even consider actually wearing.

Still we did have some fun trying them on, making a couple of new friends and giving our opinions.   In the final broadcast you just get see me in a couple of shots, including one of my bare back ~ the dress was so miss sized that it wouldn't even meet, never mind do up! However there is a nice little bit where Mary is talking to my friend Patricia who explains some of the facts of life.

If you haven't seen it yet I do recommend that you do, if only to see Mary Portas' embarrassment when she realises that she has inadvertently called her client a Tranny!

Advent Calender XXI

No sooner have I written about the Christmas colour should green rather than red, than I turn on the radio and hear a discussion on BBC's Woman's Hour about how we should be putting away our Little Black Dresses, and taking up a Little Green Dress!  Listening to this it dawned on me that although I have an absolute plethora of LBDs I rarely wear them other than for concerts.   I also find that I only actually have two green dresses, one of which might be better described as a gown.

All this does make me reappraise my thoughts on what I might be wearing over the festive period.    I need to arrange outfits suitable for dinner on Wednesday night, midnight communion at Westminster Cathedral, Christmas lunch with friends and then I can start to worry about the New Year when I get home.

I worry slightly that I may have turned into "one of those women" as I look at the thirty plus dresses in my wardrobe and exclaim "But I have NOTHING to wear!"

On a different note I see that this blog has now passed 300,000 page views. I am reminded that when I started writing this, I would often sign off this way, If you have been, Thank You for reading.

Advent Calendar XI

Tomorrow, Saturday, is the TransPALS Christmas dinner, and I still have the perennial problem of what am I going to wear. I see that last year I ran a poll, and let you, my gentle readers, decide which of three dress I would wear. So I Thought I would do the same again this year.

Once again there is a choice of three dresses, it's just that only one of them has managed to make it through to year two. The green one from last year I love, but is not really very celebratory, and I wore the red one so this year we have these three.

These are all old photos, but that's fair enough I'm an old lady, I think now I would wear the black dress with sheer black tights, the black and silver, more as a tunic with leggings, and the white one, just as it is.

Concert Dress XI ~ Your Slip is Showing!

There are things I didn't say about Saturday night in my last post, not least what a fun concert it was.   Some of the choices of music were ambitious, 1812, William Tell, Hymn of the Highlands, but I think we got away with it.   This band is not like my main band, the Croydon Symphonic Band, where the emphasis is on musical and technical excellence, giving the best performance it is possible for us to give, All Saints is much more about entertaining the audience, and if that means a few musical compromises then so be it. Whatever, the audience were definitely entertained.

Because it was to be such a dress up occasion my preparations actually started the day before, with a manicure, when I got a glittery gold gel coat polish to go with my accessories.

I had some earrings I wanted to wear

I managed to find some rings and a bangle to match

And as for the shoes!

We had a run through before the concert with a break to have something to eat, and then time to change, as expected I needed all of the time available.   I had of course had a trial to make sure everything went together OK, but I did have to buy a new strapless bra, I don't know whether it was the new bra or some temperamental fit by the zip, but it took three people tugging away to get me into the dress.   I was worried that I wouldn't be able to breath, but I managed OK even if it did feel a better fit at the end of a very long note!

I like the dress, I like how it makes me look and I like how it makes me feel, I do hope I get another chance to wear it.

After the concert I got changed back into some baggy white linen trousers and a casual top as I had to take some of the percussion back to the rehearsal room in my van, after loading up we joined some of the others at a local hostelry, I ordered our beer, twice, since the poor lad serving was having some difficulty, and then the beer we wanted had gone "off".   After he managed to get everything sorted he added it all up and told me how much it would be, adding "Sir". I just looked at him for a moment before he realised what he had said, he then turned bright red and fell into abject apologies.   As we walked over to a table to join our friends I heard him saying to his boss, "Oh no, I've just said the most awful embarrassing thing ever" ~ in all honesty I don't like it but I have had worse, and I am rather glad to find somebody who is embarrassed by their slip.

Sleepy

When I get down I get tired, maybe it's just me, maybe it affects others the same way, the other day I wrote about laying in bed trying to work up the enthusiasm to get up, then Sunday morning I saw these two cartoons and saw a bit of myself in them.

 

And this one because when I saw it I thought "I've got that dress!"

But it looks better on Edda

Concert Dress VII

Tonight I have a concert with the wonderful Croydon Symphonic Band.   We will be playing a good selection of mostly contemporary original wind band music at the Croydon Minster a lovely and impressive old Church, with an interesting acoustic.   The audience hears wonderfully well, but the band struggles.

I am playing tuba so will be opting for a combination of modesty and warmth in my clothing choices, but how I might like to look is like Edda from Chickweed Lane,

However I shall try not to behave like her.

Concert Dress VI

The no dress concert dress

Back here I last wrote about dressing for a concert, since then I have played at a couple of concerts but failed to reveal  the resolution of my deliberations.   As it happened the 22nd of February did not dawn warm and sunny so I decided for the first time since playing with the LGSO to wear trousers.   As I always play Bass Trombone with this Orchestra I  an retain my modesty while adopting a good playing position pretty much whatever I wear.   I generally choose one of my any LBDs, but just felt like a change and went for the comfort option.

I had initially excluded these trousers as I thought they were a little bit large for me, but since I have put on a little weight they fitted quite nicely, and the top is warm, and comfy but between the velvet and sparkles is suitably glamorous as well.

As it happened that day ou tuba player was due to borrow one of my instruments as his was being repaired, I trolled up to St Sepulchre's with my Bass Trombone "Precious" and my Little Besson EEb tuba in the back of the van.   I was looking forward t the concert as we were playing Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony, one of my favorites.   Indeed this was the first piece I ever played on trombone, way back in the Youth Philharmonic when my tuba teacher first convinced me to take up the instrument as well.   Not only was it the first piece I ever played on Trombone, but also one I had never played on Tuba.

With my "Little Besson"

Being a day for complications the tuba player fell ill and we couldn't find another one at that notice, fortunately we were able to drag a trombone player out f a local pub, so he played the Bass Trombone part on my Precious while I played the tuba part on my little Besson.   Not only was it a freak of luck that this happened to be the one concert where I had both instruments with me, but somehow it was also teh first one where I was wearing trousers.   If I had opted for either of the dresses I was considering there is no way I could have worn them and played the tuba, at least not while retaining any modesty whatsoever.

Star Treking

I have been enjoying the re-runs of Star Trek TNG on CBS Action.  I'm sure that as far as they are concerned it is a bit of cheap programing, but for me it is a great little trip down memory lane.   I watched these when they first came out and loved them then, and now I find that I still do.

I am amazed that there seem to be episodes that I either have forgotten or never saw.   I was even more surprised by the uniforms.  

I remembered the jump suits and the trousers, but had totally forgotten that in series one we still had the mini dresses hanging over from TOS, the big difference of course being that in TNG the men had the dresses as well.I have only found these two examples on line and I expect that the idea was dropped very nearly as quickly as they dropped the idea of a female senior officer in the Original Star Trek.   Shame if they had continued with this idea a lot of us might have been a lot happier for a lot longer.

Concert Dress I

The Other day J Spurling asked an interesting question

"I've got a question Paula, as a transgender low brass player .... do you consider how to sit with your instrument? I mean do you consider trying to sit in a feminine fashion? I know with the horn I sit with my legs shoulder width apart, but even with an ankle length gown I can't imagine sitting like that."

Feeling rather nervous before Paula's first concert

To a certain extent it depends on the instrument and the environment I am playing in.   Of course most of my playing is in rehearsal, in which case I tend to dress pretty much the same as any of the other women there.   Like most of the other girls at the moment I will probably be wearing jeans and a sweater often with boots, when the weather gets warmer the sweater will get replaced with a tee shirt or other top. But the general principle is the same, as a general rule I will be dressed and will behave like all the other girls.

I play several instruments and which instrument I am playing will dictate both what I wear, and how I sit.   With the trombone and the euphonium it is perfectly possible to sit in a ladylike manner while maintaining a good playing posture, as long as the back is straight and shoulders back but relaxed I find there is no problem keeping my knees together, and maintaining a ladylike modesty.   The tuba on the other hand, sits between the legs, either resting on the seat base or in the lap, depending on both the instrument and the player, either way this means a minimum of legs and feet shoulder width apart (interestingly the same as  horn, which although playing generally much higher is actually the same length as an F tuba).

When playing the trombone or euphonium I have a selection of little black dresses or skirts and tops that I can choose from, with the tuba I a much more limited, I do have one mid calf length dress with a very full skirt that works well, but most of the time I will be found wearing trousers and a top.   I have a couple of pairs of dressy trousers that teamed with a nice top, heels, and some sparklies looks very nice and still has a little glamour.

I always try to remember that people are coming to hear me not look at me, I feel better and suspect that I play better as well because I feel good when I am dressed properly, but it is the playing that take precedence, so yes I do consider sitting in a ladylike fashion, but much more I consider a good playing position.

Another milestone passed

I note that this post will be number 1,200 at Paula's Place, looking back to where I was in August 2011, a lot of water has gone under the bridge, so much has changed in my personal situation, and it looks like even more is going to change over the next year.   Over the last 40 months I have averaged 30 posts a month, I have survived an April A-Z Blogging Challenge, completed an Advent Calendar and shared my thoughts on subjects as diffuse as Lingerie and Garden Sheds.  

Initially I just wanted somewhere to record and talk about my crossdressing, now I find that I happily Blog about whatever is on my mind, now I am so much out that I no longer need the confidant that a blog can be, but I now have so many new on-line friends who read regularly and this is my main means of contact.

Yesterday I revisited a subject I first wrote about around three years ago, writing it and looking at the old photos I used to illustrate the post I actually managed to inspire myself.   This morning I had one of my regular appointments with my beautician for electrolysis, I see no reason to attend looking dowdy or drab even if I am limited in my shaving and make up, this morning I decided to wear my high heeled boots with a nice M & S grey sweater dress.   I do like these boots and they are surprisingly comfortable even with 3.5 inch heels, I felt comfortable, elegant maybe even just a touch glamorous, and perfectly warm enough.   In my book that means a successful outfit!

Hair Brained

Yesterday was a funny old day, if that sounds like the beginning of a very poor stand up routine, it still may be.   I should have started with an electrolysis appointment but had to postpone that till the afternoon as I had an emergency fence repair to get started, just as I was starting to dig a post hole (a ppst hole that ended up looking more like a well!) I got a phone call summoning me to a business meeting between a recycling company and a local authority officer.    So I had to finish the first stage of the fence repair (putting in new posts) then dash home get changed into a respectable looking businessman man, to attend the meeting before getting changed back into myself again before going for my electrolysis.

In the evening I had a jazz band rehearsal with four friends.   Throughout the day I met ten people who I knew pretty well, only two commented, or I suspect noticed that my hair has changed colour, yet the lady in SUperdrug who I saw last week noticed straight away and congratulated me on the look! (and yes the two who noticed are women)

Taken on my return home, around 1:00 a.m.

The poll is now closed! I am slightly surprised by the popularity of the red dress, not only is it a 10 to 1 winner on the poll but also all the facebook comments and messages have been in favour of red.   I had selected these three partly because of the colours, but mostly because I like how they each make me feel., I was intrigued by one comment that the green dress was "too old ladyish", I thought it was elegant and classy, but then maybe I am a bit of an old lady.

When I first wrote this I was getting ready to go out, I have now returned after a very enjoyable evening with my TransPALS ~ more later ~ maybe.

Advent Calendar ~ 10

This is the first time in this Advent Calendar that I have wished you all a Merry Christmas.   I can assure you that it will not be the last time, neither will it be the last time that I feature Betty!

Please remember to take part in the poll, so far I have had more reaction on the Facebook share than the poll itself,. I will add up all the opinions and follow your choice ~ WOW the POWER, just don't let it go to your heads!

It's OK I won't be wearing it to the office.