Wedding next week

It's ALL HANDS TO THE PUMP.
Apart from this morning (after many weekends of parties at home and overseas visitors arriving to stay with us tomorrow), my dress up days are on hold for a few weeks.

Wife and I have been having a few discussions lately about what is deemed "cross dressing in secret" versus "me visible in front of the neighbours". She likes "secret" and I'm more in the "don't care" category.
It does mean I have to be out really early, or out of the neighbourhood, preferably out of town.

This morning I was in girl heaven
7 am coffee, 7.30 shopping (found a nice new top that really hugs my boobs, down from $20 to $7), Supercheap Auto car shop doesn't open until 8.30, so time for another coffee. Finally got to Supercheap for a new brake light at 8.45, chatted to staff and another custom also having problems with compatible light bulbs. On the way home stopped at an underground car park to get changed as the wife would not have appreciated me turning up in girl mode around 9.20.

 

 

27th Dec, not a good day

Vet visited at 11.30 and while my cat sat in my wife's arms, the vet put him to sleep, a few minutes later he injected a drug to stop my cats heart. Lots of crying from the whole family.
While preparing him for burial my dog was okay, just though of the cat sleeping, but as soon as we put the cat in the ground, the dog got upset and tried to get my cat out.
24 hours later and I still want my cat back

Boxing day

Spending the day with the best cat in the world, tomorrow I'll be inviting the vet around... sorry, crying at the thought. Tomorrow I'll have to pretend to be tough for the family.

Merry Christmas

My work has finally broken up for the year and I get 3 weeks off.
Day 1 of my holidays and I'm still on "work time" waking at 5 am.
Hopefully I'll learn to sleep in, but it did give me time to play dress up at home followed by my regular coffee.

My cat in the photo, after 10 years of semi-loyalty to the family, is about to die from kidney failure. The vet is surprised he hasn't yet passed away. Going to be a sad Christmas.

At my regular coffee stop, I had a chat to my gym instructor and even though I haven't been a member for about 2 months, he still knows my name. Sounds like my old gym is having a renovation.

 

Once I got home, I spent 30 minutes making pancakes for all the late sleepers.

 

Last 2 evenings, I've had the pleasure of accessing, removing and re-building my "unmarried son in law" car starter motor, ie been elbow deep in oil, coolant, etc, busting my knuckles when bolts release. I've had lots of fun getting back into auto electrical and fixing broken stuff, but unsure why a modern male wouldn't know how to do this sort of stuff (but neither does the gym instructor I met this morning).
Probably because removing and repairing a starter motor doesn't need a keyboard or a mouse.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone, 
may it be filled with fun, family, pretty clothes and wine.

Borrowed my daughters dress for the evening

Garrison Pub, Sylvia Park shopping center

A special "hi" to my Blenheim blog reader.
Blenheim is an amazing part of NZ, with great scenery, great wine, a fantastic museum and just a really laid back town. It's also close to Picton if you need a ferry to the capital and a lovely drive to Nelson. Blenheim also has a significant meaning in my late teen years, that I could never forget.

Parties over for a while

Hen night, a smashing night, or a night to be smashed on. 
The girls had fun but from all accounts, the dancer/strippers while nice, apparently worked up a sweat on the dance floor before mingling with the crowds of women (my girls didn't like touching sweaty men).
On confetti balloons, when they pop they leave confetti everywhere so I had to spend a bit of time with the vacuum cleaner getting sparkles off windows, blinds, chair, carpet as we're having visitors over for a late lunch. It's really the first time I've seen my cat wearing sparkles, luckily he doesn't mind the vacuum cleaner.

This morning, while waiting for the house to wake up from a late night of drinking, I managed to get out for a bit of girl time.
Coffee, shops looking for Christmas presents, took the wife's broken engagement ring to the jewellers, more coffee.

20 Degrees C at 7.30 am, going to be a hot day

 

I did manage to try on about 6 different outfits while out, including two different white pants (a first for me) and several tops.

The blue top I liked 4 weeks ago, was still in the shop (Kmart) so I tried it on again, figured it would be perfect for my 9 hour drive south in 2 weeks time. As a bonus, instead of it being $10 a few weeks ago, they were selling it for $5. 

Party Central

Almost hiding again as this weekend there's a 21st birthday party at my house and next weekend is a Hen Party.

7 pm Saturday, baby photos on display, mum and I having a date night, without kids.

So at 2 am this morning, family arrived and have crashed in my "changing room" (aka the spare bedroom). While most of my wigs and clothes are still in the room, I did manage to sneak some out yesterday in case I got the opportunity to escape.
Which I did this morning 6.30 until 7.30 am as all the late to bed people, slept.

 


I even managed 30 minutes relaxing on my front porch watching the neighbours starting their Saturday morning rituals.

 

It's probably my last outing until Sunday the 16th, but who knows, there might be an hour spare somewhere between working for the man (work boss) and working for the woman (home boss).

BTW, got the Christmas tree up, a real one this year as we have contacts in the business. I don't like real ones as I have to wait months before being able to burn it and it leaves it's needles embedded in the carpet but more importantly, I don't like killing stuff for decoration.

Day of drinking

Very manly Saturday of drinking and games, forgot about drinking water, got too dehydrated and woke up Sunday with a lovely headache.

7.30 am and in serious need of coffee.

 

Feeling better, but not keen on wearing this thin, shiny blue top so at 8.30 visited Kmart to check what tops would work for me.

 

While nice, I decided to save the money and change into my alternative clothes before having brunch with my girlfriend Jen.

 

Not my best photo, day was getting hot and the sun was shining off the water. Anything after 9.30 outdoors requires summer clothing as the heat and humidity is starting to get a bit too high.

Crate day

On the other side of the road, because it's "crate day" buy a crate of beer and try to drink it, there's a guy lying on the driveway, in his underwear, semi coherent and, being a concerned citizen, on questioning he is "sun bathing and the concrete feels amazing".Luckily he has quite a few other mates in a similar situation to look after him.

Productive day

OMG, just googled "Jake Graf and Hannah Winterbourne", what an inspiration.

After 10 years of working alone, due to staff changes at work I now work with a young lady (late 20's). While we've worked together briefly over the last couple of years, getting used to working with someone else 40 hours a week has been interesting and I think we are getting into a good work rhythm as we seem to think alike on projects. The down side for me is no nail polish, no mascara, no bra underneath my clothes while at work.

The big excitement this week, has been the neighbour's 1960's weatherboard house that was lifted, put on a truck and driven off. The rumour is that the owner (who has never lived in New Zealand) intends to build 2 two story houses on the land. Of course no one here except the Auckland Council likes the idea of our neighbourhood changing.

Today, we had visitors over and apart from an hours outing this morning to have a coffee and read the paper the rest of the day has been spent on renovations (mowing the lawn, remove gutters, paint under them and reposition all the brackets). Daughter has had me make some poles to string overhead lighting and I spent the evening with the wife around a small outdoor fire - really wishing I had bought some beer.
Tomorrow I have to refit the gutters, paint some chairs and I'm sure I heard mutterings of other jobs to be done - we always tend to do stuff like this when overseas family are arriving soon and staying with us. I doubt I'll be allowed out over Christmas as my extended family take over Rachel's room.

I love summer, specially as most of my clothes are summer clothes.

Almost Summer

Well, yesterday was, as I worked the day in the garden while the sun worked on my tan.

Today I was also hopeful, that the light cloud layer would open up to a beautiful blue sky.
I dressed lightly for such a day, deciding pretty lace was required as I headed out for my 7 am coffee.

After coffee, I decided to change to a nice singlet in the hope of getting a bit more of a tan.
For some reason in the trans world, there's a bit of a "thing" about how un-feminine it is for shoulders to be on display. I for one, love shoulders and I don't know why, maybe because they are expressive in the way they show either tension or relaxed attitudes almost as much as the face does

 

My optimism in the weather was dashed by midday by a light rain that settled over Auckland which looks like it's here for the remainder of the day.
Back to boy mode, t-shirt and shorts and grocery shopping with the wife.
Over coffee with the wife, she is concerned still, that my work would find out about my dual personalities and would prefer it if I just had the occasional girls weekend away. I doubt that her idea would be a solution and expect it would just encourage my female personality.

Dog has been repaired (not fixed)

Dog was fixed years ago, but last Tuesday we finally had his bladder stones removed (again), total bill $3,500.
Cat has an eye issue that's gotten a lot worse in the last week, he'll be visiting the vets in the next few days.

Wife is really happy watching her garden develop. The trellis that was leaning against the fence for 2 years, has now been framed and fixed into the ground, deck has been cut back a few feet in preparation for new shrubs. I think I'll need a new back after all this work and I still have to add the top soil.

Saturday night - my Uni girl left her fake tan in my room, so wanting to look good for you, I decided to tan my legs and my upper arms to hide the T-shirt tan - I love the results.

Today (Sunday) 
Windy, rainy morning, but only a little chilly so I can still wear a skirt for you.
I had to drop one of the girls off at a course.
We stopped at a McDonald's close to her course venue, shared a McMuffin for breakfast and just before we drove across to her venue, she mentions I have lipstick on my chin - how the heck, I've no idea. Wiping it off also removes my foundation, but better than than leaving it there.
After dropping her off, I then returned to McDonald's for my coffee.

It was kind of weird wearing my black boots, just because I had forgotten how to walk in them after so long. While I was relaxing, the weather changed into a windy but warm sunny day so I did another car change.














Sylvia Park shopping center and time for a browse around, check out new fashion, so many pretty summer tops and dresses to fall in love with.

Ever been shopping, looking at girls clothes and when asked, you say it's for your wife or "a friend"? - "a friend" is a code word for yourself - just saying.
In this case, I was hoping to find some nice office pants for a friend, who wasn't myself because I don't need to pretend anymore.

I did have to use the ladies room while there.
Two 20 ish girls smiled as I walked in.
As I was washing my hands, a woman in her late 50s also went to wash her hands, gave me the look that could have pealed lead paint off a 2 story house.
I doubt the way she looked at me had anything to do with age, maybe more about her culture or about her life experiences.
Either way, it was more her problem than mine.

I did manage to buy white bikini pants cheap as now I'm into that new white skirt as seen in last week, black undies just don't work.

I really hoped to get to Spotlight to buy some new material to re-cover the cushions on the cane chairs on the front porch. Wife nearly through the chairs out yesterday she was so upset about the rips in the covers. I love relaxing in the cane chairs on the front porch. Yesterday morning while sitting there in my pyjamas, the neighbour came over to complain how the house next to him is being demolished and he's expecting a 2 story to be build which would kill his view and sunlight.
I didn't have time so will have to try to get to Spotlight later in the week.

Off to a shared lunch soon, don't tell anyone but wife is making my contribution as well as her own as reward for working so hard on her garden project.
It's the first year I haven't gone 100% on making my own food for this yearly "friendly" but very competitive competition. Often between the 14 of us, we often produce top restaurant quality dishes.

Update: Okay I didn't place in the top 3 for this years food competition, I've no idea why wife made a sweetcorn muffin on my behalf and next year I promise to cook my own food instead of spending all my time gardening, to redeem today's shocking entry.
But it's still a great event and next year hopefully it will be a cocktail making competition, or even "best curry".

90 minutes

My wife signed me up for a Landscape Design seminar this evening.
I got home and had 2 hours before it started, so without due regard to my 36 hours worth of chin stubble, I threw on some foundation, mascara, lipstick, clothes (of course) and raced out the door.

The venue for the seminar was 30 minutes away and I decided to hit one of the shopping malls on the way for a coffee break only to find out my favorite cafe was already shut.

So you observant followers may have noticed I'm wearing my Paris top, the same one my wife bought me several years ago as a souvenir while we were in Paris. It's a thin top and appropriate for such a lovely warm day in Auckland - no, I still haven't gotten around to shaving my legs, so please don't go thinking I've woolly stockings or anything.

Anyway, I decided to stop at "Bird on a wire" cafe only to find at 4.15 they had also shut, I believe they have a late night, just not tonight.
Bird on a Wire is located inside a garden center, hence the flowers in the back ground

I finally arrive at the venue in Parnell, but with still an hour to kill, decided to have a drink at a pub behind the venue.

 

It was a lovely relaxing drink.
Then the wife rings up, tells me she's arrived early and parked outside a pub and doesn't know how to work the parking machines.
Being the gentleman, I walked past her car, tapped it on the bonnet and indicated I needed 2 minutes for a car change, before helping her.
Back in male mode and we still had 30 minutes to spare so we went back into the pub, had a great meal and some wine. She again complimented me on my shorter hair although she prefers me in BOY mode.
After a quick dinner we meandered across the road to the Landscape design seminar.

Earlier in the day, I bought a new pack of underwear and once home I showed my lovely wife who immediately burst out laughing,
What !!!
She points to the waist band declaring "Alpha Male"