I suspect I’ll get some either mildly or very angry replies to this post! What got me thinking was an old t-girlfriend who passed away recently. I had known her for years and was used to her phone calls at 04.00 in the morning, with her thinking she had bowel cancer….caught from her latest boyfriend, or asking how to stew a rabbit for a dinner party she was holding for the members of a Dutch punk band!

There were lots of this slightly deranged madness over the years and although a very sweet transgendered person, she was without being unkind, mad as a box of frogs!

Then I got to thinking about all the ‘girls’ I had known and loved over the years and the more I remembered the more I realised what an unhinged bunch of human beings they were!

Hysterical, fearful, nervous, brash, outrageous, honest, funny, glamorous and in some cases in need of a million pounds worth of classy therapy!

I have spent some strange hours in weird locations while comforting a handwringing t-girlfriend with smudged mascara, listening to her wailing about parents, family, the police, the church, latest lover, pet lizard…..etc…..etc and consoling her with me a shivering presence at her side in a thin ditsy dress and thin top on steps outside a club in the depths of winter, losing the sensation in my toes and fingers.

BUT….then I thought about me and what a towering figure of common-sense, practicality and balanced normality I am!....then after lying in bed last night and mulling over my life I had to admit that I was up there with the best of them in the unhinged, unbalanced, hysterical t-girl stakes! I suffer from that well recognised perceptual problem of thinking that what you do and justify doing in your own mind is often in the cold light of day…the actions of someone flitting down the shrinking corridor of sanity! Letting you out at last into an Alice in Wonderland world of transsexual bonkerness!

Over the years…..against the shrieked warning of a friend tried to pick up a French (straight) policeman….had sex in a discotheque in front of 30 or more people, fallen out of the back window of a moving coach while doing the Ophelia speech from Hamlet, they couldn’t find me after the coach was finally persuaded to stop, as I had been picked up of the road by an elderly couple in a passing car and taken to some anonymous A & E unit in Sussex.

I remember being let go home some years ago, after being locked up overnight in some police station cells with some friends who had got very drunk and disorderly….fully dressed in a tiny black dress and waggishly giving the finger to the assembled coppers and being promptly returned to the cell for a couple of hours to “learn some manners”! It goes on and on in much the same vein…it dawned on me that I was in reality as bad as the worst of my girlfriends!

So the point of this is to perhaps acknowledge that we can all be a very hysterical slightly unbalanced lot, judging by some of the spats that pop up on the Transtastic postings you wonder what some girls are ‘on’!

I suspect there may be a few who respond to this posting with, “I am a perfectly normal, well-adjusted transsexual, thank you Andrea, who lives in Pinner and there’s nothing wrong or perverse about wearing corduroy knickers in public or keeping ant farms in my bedroom, unlike you who represent the worst features of a t-girl confused about life, morals and whether they really like avocados or just pretend too….to give them an excuse to shop in Waitrose…etc…etc…

This post was edited by Pauline Smith at August 28, 2015 7:11 PM BST

A maybe not exaggerated account of life as a transgender person or persons......to be perfectly frank (or is that Francis?)

Hi Andrea,

Your post struck several chords with me about how we listen and try to help. Whether we are drunk or sober it makes no difference. We try to listen and even sometimes to give advice to our fellow travelers in the trans world. And we are like the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind - we have some of the answers if not to all the questions.

We all know those girls who don't ask for help - the "prima donnas" - those me me me girls out there who care for no-one but themselves, and have thousands of selfies and spend all day looking in the mirror. Daffodils I call them, as they narcissistic. They never put on the mask of kindness, as they are only interested in one person.

Like you Andrea I have had many drunken or not so drunken escapades over the years as a Tgirl. Here are a couple of stories from my back catalogue......

1. Back when I lived in Holland I went with my T GF Mandy to a party in Amsterdam. The party was organized by the Brit Soc (expatriate group of Brits in Amsterdam); we often used to go to their events. The Dutch BF of the girl hosting the party gave us a lift home to Mandy's place (a lift with a difference) brought us back in his boat through the canals and was dropping us off at a place near Mandy's flat. Unfortunately when I was getting out of the boat I slipped and ended up with my feet in the boat and my hands on the quayside....as the boat moved away I knew that only thing would happen......

Yes, dear reader I ended up in the canal...but at least had the presence of mind to throw my handbag onto the quay. Mandy helped me out of the canal and we walked back to her place with me squelching water in my heels along the way. Grrrr.....we should have taken a taxi, and having a shower to get rid of the stink of the canal was useful - the clothes went in the bin. Amazingly my wig was not wet and all keys and papers and cards were in the bag. Mandy p..sed herself for days laughing at me about it. Though she did lend me some clothes to drove home in on the Sunday.

2. When I used to live in Salford, this was about 5 years ago, I came back from a night out rather the worse for wear...in a taxi of course. To get into that flat I had to go down a flight of steps, open the door to the building and then go up 3 flights of stairs to my front door. As I was walking down the steps I dropped my keys on the grass......no big deal you might think but I managed to fall flat on my arse and then spend about 15 mins scrabbling for my keys and struggling in my heeled boots not to fall over again. That didn't work at all - I fell over at least 4 times and my coat was covered in mud; the heels of my boots and the boots were caked in it. And having found the keys I still had to negotiate the stairs - by the last flight I seem to recall being on my hands and knees...luckily I was able to put the key in my front door and get inside !!!

Whilst I have never propositioned a police man, like Andrea did, I have had many interesting experiences over the years. It's a good job that I am now a mature trans woman who would never dream of doing this sort of thing now...cough cough.


hugs


Pauline xxxx
This post was edited by Pauline Smith at August 31, 2015 12:52 PM BST

Wow

Just love these " experiences " of life in the " Trans lane of life " !! can not wait for some of the other gurls stories to be told ... who know's could end up publishing a book of them all . Could be called ' Transtastic stories ' !!!
Alas , I have no real story to tell as I copped out for far to many years to have these sort of happenings , but thankfully these two gurls are still around to share them with us . Thanks for the laugh's !!!!

I think its more on the level of girls just wanting there part of the world to be normal in there own way. for people to accept them for who they are and not to stare at them or put them down or want to harm them because they don't see or understand that this lady just wants to be a lady and pretty much left alone to do her thing. Friends come and go and you'll make more along the way but your true friends are there with you through thick and thin and don't think twice if your in trouble they are there to help in any way that they can. Now some ladies have very strong opinions and sometimes they don't think before they blurt something out that to them is very understandable but can be taken in several different meanings. My though process is this. Can you find away to say what you need to say without putting someone on edge to the point of blowing up. Maybe talk with them privately so that they understand what your trying to say instead of putting it out there for everyone to see. Be respectful of what others are trying to do even if you don't agree with them. Its there life let them live it. None of us is perfect so don't start casting stones at glass houses. We all have skeletons on our closets.

both mad glad and sometimes deranged but still enjoying life

follow your dream' s gurl's dont be a sheep xx

Andrea, I love the original post, both the theme and the style in which you have written it.
And Pauline, your response is equally as readable.
My latest escapade will be explained in the local Sherriff court next month!
XXX

Great post Andrea, and Pauline too. Looking forward to hearing if any others are as brave in owning up about their own mishaps/trepidations.

In reply to the original posting title, I will say, "Generally No".

We can look for stories from accross the globe and find them "That is all that yahoo news is" :Yawn:

I feel that Andrea and others (& myself)... err, so basically Transgendered individuals, struggle with expressing themselves and that then "Wild behaviour" can ensue.

We need to give more freedom for people to express themselves.

But good on andrea for posting, it may have taken guts to post, more importantly it helps open up discussion.

Is it being unhinged, hysterical or are we just having fun and living life to the fullest. If there latter is true then theres noting wrong and we can describe ourselfs as "well balanced form pinner"