Climate Crock Sacks Hack Attack: The Wrap

originally posted on Angels - a forum for trans people

Hi - I'm new on Angels Forum. I too took part in the Great Drag Race on Saturday. I left my house in south east London dressed as Lizzie - black tiered dress, lace tights, and high heel boots, with a yellow trench coat on over the top - full "au naturelle" make up and a pair of shades as I'm not too hot with putting the eye make-up on yet.

It was at first nerve racking having never been out in daylight dressed before. It was a bit windy too - so had the double hazard of wig blowing off and skirt blowing up - especially going across London Bridge where I had to hold onto it like a hat - not a good look.

Anyway - walked to my local station - not too many people about. Got some looks from the few that were about, though no comments.

Had to cross one main road - and as I got there the traffic cleared and I crossed without having to wait. Passed a woman who completely ignored me. Then to the train station - my confidence building by now - bought a ticket from the machine - thank god for automation! Crossed the bridge and stood on platform - skirt blowing around my lace stockinged legs. On the train I sat hid in a corner and buried my face in a paperback. Maybe I was worrying too much.

Then came the really stressful bit - for me - getting off at London Bridge - loads of people about even on a Saturday - I think I got outed by a dwarf with a megaphone when I walked past London dungeon...which made me smile.

I was going to walk to Liverpool Street but the crowds of tourists got to me so I dived onto the Central Line....only one stop...then got off at Liverpool street - bought ticket - got on train to London Fields. It was all starting to feel astonishingly normal.

More relaxed on this train . Sat at back with back to other passengers - a group of older people who seem not to have noticed me at all. Checked myself in the window reflection - I was worried about the affect the wind and the heat on the tube which was causing me to sweat a little was having on my look. But appeared to be fine.

Then I was at Hackney - found a park bench as I was early for event and sat and watched. Most people who passed me looked at me - I had my shades on so I'm guessing they weren't sure where I was looking. At one point all the council park workers came and stood next to me and talked about their jobs - one guy looked at me a couple of times.

Then the event started - I registered. Realised that I'd forgotten to get cash and had to walk up Hackney high Street to get cash - joined queue with about 10 people in it. black girl in front of me kept looking at me....but noone else seemed to care.

Then I started getting complements.Women told me how good I looked. I was worried it was too good. Most of the guys there had gone for the full on drag look and hadn't even shaved. I'd shaved everything off even the arm hair...and my legs even though I never actually got them out on the day. I only saw one other guy who'd gone for the natural look as I had - and that was - guess who?

I did switch to trainers for the run. Didn't exactly exceed at the running I'm afraid - but at least I tried....the blisters prove that. I'm going to get fit for next year.

Then I spent the next hour or two wandering around still in my dress and wig, drinking beer, and allowing myself to be complemented by lovely ladies.

Some guys wore their dresses to the pub but I didn;t want to seem too keen in case someone sussed me - I think some did anyway - women can be very perceptive. Now I wish I'd gone all the way and kept it on right till the end.

But I will be back next year - in the meantime Lizzie's going to get out more - and at next year's Gt Drag Race I might just camp it up a bit.

My fund-raising website is going to stay up till next year - gradually putting a few piccies up there.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundrai ... orgythecat

Anyway - I am still very excited about Lizzie being out and about and resolute that she's staying out and about from now on.

Who Do I Write Like?

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Oh really?

Lib Dem Cracks

"Now the Lib Dem deputy leader has been on the Politics Show raising questions about the drastic cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme.

I’m saying that it would be a nonsense to be taking money that could be used for improving existing schools, to create new schools where, on the ground, the will of the local community is for the existing schools to continue. So that’s a debate that’s going to continue.

Hydrocarbons in the air are more toxic than oil in the gulf...click to read more

It takes the smoggy Los Angeles region less than two days to match the pollution the Deepwater Horizon blowout produces in one, if you count the 4,740 tons per day of various emissions from combusted fossil fuel such as carbon monoxide, microscopic particles, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.

Worst-case estimates place the total oil spilled in the gulf at about 126 million gallons over two months. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the country disgorges that much hydrocarbon pollution to the air in 10 days.

Lloyds Peak Oil Warning

Lloyds are hardly tree huggers. wonder how the ignorant "skeptics" will react to this.

Haiti Displaced clinging to the Edge

No jokes about U2 please....


"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hundreds of displaced families live perilously in a single file of flimsy shanties planted along the median strip of a heavily congested coastal road here called the Route des Rails."

Guatemala nearly went narco

GUATEMALA CITY — For a 17-day period that ended last month, Guatemala seemed to be falling under the direct control of suspected mobsters. A lawyer leading a posse of unsavory characters became the attorney general and started dismantling the state's legal apparatus...

Robber Barons

no-one could have predicted the IMF coming in and actually supporting the new Labour approach to running the economy - but that's exactly what happened this week:

"In a rebuff to David Cameron's avowed intention to start repairing the public finances as soon as this spring's election is over, the Washington-based IMF said the fragility of the global economy meant stimulus packages should be left in place well into 2010."

The way this government are intent on dismantling the country's infrastructure reminds me of the behaviour of certain equity companies and their asset stripping style of management. In the way that we reaped the reward for thatcherism in the 90s and 2000s - out of control banks, no control of utlilities companies, ongoing housing crisis, millions on the employment scrap heap, and entreched permanent under-class, high urban crime, huge difference in life expectations of rich and poor, a no-hope attitude among the young, not at all fit for purpose education system, etc etc. then we will reap the reward for this in the next 20/ 30 years as our infrastructure continues to crumble and rot while large mega corporations run away with public money, and US investors suck the life out of the few remaining British companies. We're fucked. With this govermnent, doubly so.

Our current crisis was caused by the private sector and not enough public sector regualation. Most of us at the time realised this and thought that capitalism as we know may be over for ever. Now the right seems to have gained control despite a public shift to the left - they really didn;t want the Tories, with Murdoch support, an expensive campaign, and a truly awful incumbent Labour government, people still didn;t want to vote tory, however thanks to the traitorous Lib Dems we have the most right wing tory government we've ever had - and the right are intent on reducing or destroying the part of the economy that saved us and build up the part that nearly, and maybe still will, caused us to sink.

The Tories will blame New Labour for this - and while I hate New Labour for their refusal to challenge the status quo set by the tories - I can't see that they are the root cause of any of this. If anything their policy was to make the wealthy, mega-wealthy, having attracted them into the UK, and syphoning off a teeny tiny amount of this wealth to funnel to those not quite at the bottom, - for them it made living in a shit broken country with no opportunity just about tolerable, that and the ballooning consumer and celebrity culture. but there was nothing for the very poor, and nothing for the talented and bright who didn't just want money as a reward.

The US Helping Al Qaida Gain Foothold In Yemen

US bombing will be Al Qaida's most powerful recruiting tool.

"The missile had struck in one of the most remote and inaccessible valleys on earth, in a place where Al Qaeda has been trying to establish a foothold. Quso was the local cell leader and had been recruiting young men for years. Ahmed knew him well.

I met Ahmed several weeks later in Sana, the Yemeni capital, where he works part time as a bodyguard. By that time, Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch had claimed credit for a failed effort to detonate a bomb in a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day, igniting a global debate about whether Yemen was the next front in the war on terror. Yemen's once-obscure vital statistics were flashing across TV screens everywhere: it is the Arab world's poorest country, with a fast-growing and deeply conservative Muslim population of 23 million. It is running out of oil and may soon be the first country in the world to run out of water. The central government is weak and corrupt, hemmed in by rebellions and powerful tribes. Many fear that Al Qaeda is gaining a sanctuary in the remote provinces east of Sana, similar to the one it already has in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

This Week

Some really good news - at least for now - BBC6Music appears to have been saved. So I can listen now without that nagging feeling of depression in the back of my mind, wondering how long I have before this, one of my last great pleasures in life, finally disappears for ever. If the BBC is serious about making it's legacy of unmatched archive material public, then it will need 6Music as one of its outlest - BBC4 on tv and 6Music on the radio.

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More fox related hysteria

I wonder how far down the league table of risks to children foxes really sit - somewhere near the bottom, under cars, own parents, electricity, gas, kettles, stairs, friends, shoe laces, plastic toys and undercooked food, I would have thought - so I would stamp out all those others before thinking about foxes.

And now about me...

My face went almost back to normal this week. I had to see the dentist on Thursday as the infection seemed to have spread to the area around a tooth that partially cracked a while back.

I was in agony three nights running - why does tooth pain kick in at night - the misery zone for me was midnight to about 3/4 am. then I was fine by about 8/9 am except for lack of sleep. Boss is understanding though and is letting me come in any old time. Now on anti-biotics, but still feel groggy. Appointment for having tooth out is still over a week away.

Only response from my police complaint so far is a letter confirming my intial report and a call from a victim of crime counsellor. Now if there are cuts to be made surely we can start with these useless tossers. I'm sure that in quite serious cases they can be helpful but I've had them call me up after reporting minor burglaries and the theft of my bicycle. Yes you can help by finding my fucking bike - short of that - piss off and get a real job!!!

This Week

Thank God the football crap is over - I know there's still matches and that - but all the England nonsense is over. We should do what Nigeria has done - suspend the team for being useless...though not for a mere two years. I reckon if we were ever going to make a come back as a footballing nation we would have done it by now. better to concentrate on something else I reckon, like making solar panels or windfarms. Engineers could be the new over paid pin ups - which would be fairer as girls can be engineers.

I started the week as a healthy confident human being and ended it as a physical and mental wreck. On Wednesday - early into work for a change - a fat bald violent tosser jumped out of his car in Bermondsey, pushed me off my bike, kicked the bike and then punched me in the face.

I reported it to the police and got taken to a walk in centre at whitechapel. I have to say that the policeman and all the medical people - espeically the ambulance crew - were all absolutely marvellous. The motorbike copper did try to find the guy after he'd driven off with his young daughter but my description was a bit out. it did all come back to me but too late for the initial search...though as a witness saw his number plate - the police do know where he lives.

I had a great chat with the ambulance people - didn;t get their names - but they bent over backwards to see I got treatment, and quickly. I guess they were concerned I might be concussed. Don't think I was - though I was a bit stunned.

Received 5 stitches from lovely nurse and then cycled into work as if nothing happened.

It was the next day I really started to feel it. I just felt groggy, and a throbbing unrelenting pain kept up. My face is still all puffed up so I can barely eat. Only beer makes everything OK. Really worried this weekend that the swelling will get out of control though if anything it's slightly better for first time this morning.

While I am getting some funny looks no-one I know is mentioning it - even though it is pretty bloody obvious.