Anna in Suspension

Apologies for dropping off the radar, but it’s been a weird year. I read early on after discovering Anna, about purges; people purging their wardrobes trying not to be the girls they were. I decided I’d never do that.
And I haven’t, but the last year has been a virtual purge at the mental level. I guess that accompanies every ones purges, I just hadn’t realised it.
I did have a respite in August 2012. Jay got an awful thing in her legs. They tried antibiotics at home, and put dressings on the massive blisters. It still got worse, and her toes went black, so they put her in hospital, and it took ten days of a mixture of intravenous antibiotics to get it under control. The blisters had nearly got to the top of her thigh. It was awful. When ever I thought about it, for months afterwards, I burst into tears.
None of this stopped me having a really good girly time. I painted my toe nails, and it was so gorgeous seeing them all the time. I also washed all my girl clothes and got them nice again, and slept every night in a nightie. Fantastic. Wore my feminine clothes all the time in the house of course.
And then Jay came home – and the withdrawal feelings made me so sad too.

Medicationally Speaking

I have been a bit out of sorts, and after a message from Calle, it may be the girl hormone things for my prostate. I hadn’t banked on the medication doing things to me like that. It could be just a relapse into my depressive condition of course, which raises it’s ugly head every now and then. I had to stop work the last time one started, eleven years ago now, and that took me all the way to retirement, which was a nice bonus.

Lets talk about fun and interesting stuff. How am I doing other wise? Well, the libido came back after a couple of months or so, and I had mixed feelings (ha ha) about that. Did this mean that my body was getting used to them, and that I wasn’t going to get the side effects I’d hoped for? I got hot flushes early on, and they have gone now too. However, my boobs, albeit small ones, have a nice feel to them, soft and firm and feminine; but the most noticeable thing being my body hair is thinning out. I first notice the other day that my knee hair hasn’t needed waxing for a long time, and still hasn’t got to that disgusting bushiness that I hate so much. The hair on my chest that I pluck, to leave a vee from neck to cleavage, hasn’t needed plucking for ages. A minute ago I just nipped into the bathroom to check the rest of my chest hair, and it is definitely thinner. So I’m pretty well chuffed to monkeys.

I mislaid a pair of my panties the other day, underneath something or other. Well – I moved the something or other, and Jay saw the panties, and went into a sulk, but I’m back underdressing again, but the stress and aggro doesn’t help. I’m still a lot better off than a lot of girls, and I’m not in a life threatening situation like some women, so I can’t complain – too much, LoL.

A Transistor radio in the hand

We were sitting around the dinner table, having had a delicious roast lamb cooked by Jay. We had some GUKs (grown up kids), their partners and my niece-in-law and her partner, and we were reminiscing about our teens. Jay said that she used to visit my mum every evening with her trannie in her hand. Transistor radios were called trannies in the 1950s, the latest invention, and Jay, working as a nanny to our neighbours, (we lived on the country, and our nearest neighbours were a couple of hundred yards away), had used her wages to buy one.

Everyone burst into peals of laughter, and made fun of Jay. Me, I just smiled, thinking that she still has a trannie as we often hold hands and cuddle. I looked across the table and our niece (who is 50 plus and has a figure to die for) was looking straight at me. I’d been throwing in girlie mannerisms, as I try to do anyway, with my long fingernails in view, and I suddenly wondered if she had put two and two together?

I’ll never know most likely. How can we capitalise on these moments? Sadly, never, I guess.

Apple lion shoot

So much for saying how nice my iPhone is, but I upgraded the Mac Lion, and the phone to what ever, 5 something or other, but now the App store doesn’t recognise me, even though I’m using the same name and password. God, I hate you &£@@&£ software writers.

Don’t get me wrong, the phone is brilliant, it’s just Apple being as rubbish as Windows software writers. I won’t use the word developers, because that implies the @&£(:s are intelligent. I would so like to plant an un_ladylike fist into someone’s monitor – actually, that;s just a dream, I don’t like killing bugs and slugs – LoL.

Lips and Nails

This has been a fun week, with lots of blog to reads, ad some interesting topics. Tina’s ‘Honesty Hurts’ (Read it here ) threw up a lot of interesting comments, and all those adorable sights on the right of this blog have had interesting bits going on too. Both Tina and Susan have the skill at seeing the important bits behind your writings, and coming up with stuff I hadn’t thought of.

A bit of pressure from Jay this week though – complaints about my lack of leg hair, and that I’m making my nails too girlie. I’m going to show you my hands and nails. OK, I own up to getting them as girlie as possible, but at the moment I’m failing miserably – ‘cos’ they are nothing like girlie, and the physicality (a nice Strickly Dancing term) of them means they are NEVER going to be girlie. But I can live with that – not that I have any choice, do I , LoL.

The offending nails

Lipstick; I have been carrying on with the practising / experimenting of applying the stuff. I have three lipsticks, two are Rimmel ones, and a third unbranded. Number three leaves very little tell-tale signs on my drinking glass, the Rimmel ones are awful, in that they leave big lip shaped marks behind. So it’s not just technique, that helps cover your tracks, the darn things vary too. OK – I’m practicing, so I buy the cheapest, but I hadn’t realised how much they vary. I guess I’ll have to buy better and more expensive ones, and I still haven’t got my lip-liner yet – LoL.

I’m going to be out of net contact, for a few days, but with my new phone, at least I can read all your blogs as you write them. Interestingly, I can read blogs off the phone without raising Jay’s suspicions, (so far, LoL) whereas, when I’m on the computer, she suspects I’m up to no good as standard – LoL.

Have fun, Hugs Anna x

More Make-up Moments. (I really should write headlines for the Sun !!)

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was collecting the ‘Make-up Master Class’ pages from ‘You’ magazine in the Mail on Sunday. Before you say, ‘How could you read that awful paper’, and I know, their record on condemning minority groups rather than supporting them, puts the paper in a poor light, but we only get it for the crosswords and ‘You’ supplement – so that’s my excuse. The ‘Make-up master class’ is written by Jemma Kidd, and I hadn’t paid much attention to her as a person, but it appears she really is a well renowned make-up person.

I have probably got 70 or 90 issues of her master class, but in one of her recent lipstick articles, she explained how to put it on – and you thought t was so obvious didn’t you – but not to me. It appears I should have been applying more than one layer, and taking off the excess each time with a tissue. I’ve seen girls on the tele do this, and wondered why they were removing the stuff. It seems that layering builds up a firm and long lasting cover. Not only that, it actually looks better than the single smear I’ve been doing now. It’s brilliant. So thank you Jemma Kidd, you’re my heroine, or better still, a role model – should that be make-up model – LoL.

Do remember the hint I got about brown mascara? Well, I bought some yesterday. Actually, it appears that brown is short-hand for brown/black, or so the lady in Boots make-up area told me. She asked me what brand I wanted, and I said, ‘It doesn’t matter, I’m just practising at the moment’, and neither of us batted an eye-lash. Don’t ask me why I said it, but it’s probably that – I want to be normal in the girlie sense – and also the, ‘Why should I feel ashamed of who or what I am?’ syndrome. I do accuse myself of not ‘putting my money where my mouth’ is kind of thing, so it was nice actually to take a stand on it. There are lots of you, out there doing things in public, and I envy and admire you all, so this was my little bit.

Oh yes, the brown mascara that is really a brown shade of black – I was advised, if you remember, that I could wear it in bob mode, and to use it on the upper outer lashes only. I’m at home, with Jay, and we have my niece-in-law coming for lunch, and —- I’ve had it on all morning, without a hint of suspicion from my lovely Jay. Another triumph for girlie-hood I think. LoL.

Hugs, Anna x

The Techno-ising of Anna – ish!!

I was going to do some crossdressing this evening, but I’ve decided to use the time to write a blog.

I’ve been quite happy with my mobile phone, which I’ve had 5 years or so. Keeping your old phone normally gets you cheaper tariffs on it’s upgrade birthday, but as I mentioned somewhere, I’ve taken on my sons iPhone, as he has upgraded to the 4 version. Oh my god, how good is it? Awesome, that’s what. In my normal lacklustre way with things technical, I am never going to learn everything it does – but who cares – the bits I have discovered are so brilliant.

Stupid or Brave? That is the next question. Somehow I got it to link with my iPhone account, my Geocaching account, and my Yahoo mail account – and all this in Bob mode for my Andy stuff. It was so easy, so after a couple of weeks I added my Anna Yahoo mail account. Yes – that’s the stupid or brave bit. Andy at Yahoo only gets sensible mail, all our main mail and joke rubbish goes through the computer with – with – hmm – some program that you click on, and it goes there and down loads the stuff. (Outlook Express – Ed!) For Yahoo, I log on manually and read everything on line at Yahoo HQ. I found all my Flickr update emails were coming to my phone – how cool is that. So that’s why I thought it would be cool to add my Anna account – it’s fantastic.

I can read all your blogs that get sent to Yahoo, right off the phone. Some, with wider columns are not very user friendly, cos it takes too much cursoring around, but the narrower ones, I can fit in the screen and just pan down as I read. So I get instant updates of all my mail, blogs, Angels and Transliving Internatiional posts, and Facebook bits. The mail updates don’t make a noise when they come in, unlike texts, so there are no tell tale give-aways. It’s so nice having my proper stuff, (Anna’s stuff), on the phone. I’m taking the risk as Jay is even less technically minded than I am, but if the world blows up, it’s my fault – LoL.

Do you remember I was experimenting with full-briefs underwear, and I said that I thought they would be too big, and would show above the waist line? I finally tried them out the other month, and worn with belted jeans, or sports-style-trousers with a tea-shirt tucked in, they are no trouble at all, and they are SO comfortable. I can under-dress quite safely with them. The other thing I like about girls underwear, is that they are so flattering; in as much that for reasons of restraint, and to keep everything tucked in, you need to wear items a couple of sizes smaller than your dress size. I’m a 16 top, 14 bottom, and so a 10 to 12 in panties – roughly speaking, as it’s amazing how sizes very from different suppliers.

Shampoo and Strictly Make-up

I must tell you – I’ve discovered shampoo. I know, it’s been in the shops and on the tele for more years than I care to think about, but I thought it was all hype, so I used whatever shower gel I had to hand. The other day my daughter used my shower, (it doubles as the guest shower you see) and she left some Pantene Pro-V extra body shampoo and conditioner – I tried it, and it is GORGEOUS. My hair feels so silky and soft, and it lasts for a couple of days. No wonder girls are always doing their hair. Needless to say, I bought myself a bottle the next day. Jay wasn’t impressed – she normally gets her shampoo from Wilkinsons, who sell all the named brands at the best prices. We only go there when Jay wants to replenish her girlie stuff or get Xmas presents, and I wasn’t going to wait for THAT – LoL.

I’ve started using brown eyeliner today, just a bit, but I wore it around the house – not sure whether this is brave or stupid – time will tell. I have yet to get some brown mascara, as Demi suggested – (I was in Tesco’s, and Jay was busy at the cake counter, so I grabbed the eyeliner, and nipped through a check-out. I got my eyeliner and mascara confused – LoL.

I adore ‘Strictly Dancing’ – the American version is called ‘Dancing with the Stars’ I believe. All those gorgeous dresses and make-up, I’m in heaven. It’s one thing I can share with Jay, as she likes to cast a critical eye over everyone’s turnout, and so we can actually hold a discussion. She’s very uncomplimentary at times, and we have a different range of tastes – I like almost every thing she likes, and everything she doesn’t like – LoL.

I do wonder about the professionals sometimes, as they seem to choose most inappropriate stuff (dresses and make-up) for some people. If you like ‘Dancing on Ice’, just think what a mess of the clothing they made for the swimmer, Sharon – they made her look so gangly, it was as if they had something against her looking nice. On this series of ‘Strictly Dancing’, Michelle Williams looked lovely during the week, in rehearsals and interviews, but the make-up they put on her for the Saturday shows made her look very bony and hard faced – not like her usual glamorous self at all.

You may not want to take my word for it – from the most inexpert of make-up appliers that you are every likely to meet – but take a peek and check it out. Does that count as more homework? LoL.

Waxing Lyrical – Again!

‘Ok’, I thought, ‘lets put my wax strips where my mouth is’ – just figuratively of course. I did wonder, whether my big wax strips would be just as good, along the bikini line, as the little ‘ bikini line’ strips. So I put them to the test, and? I was wrong. The top of my thighs looked liked they had been kicked by a navvy – a thick line of bruises. The hair came away ok, but bon’t ask me why pulling hair off created such a mess, ‘cos I don’t know. I had to do some careful undressing for a while, so Jay didn’t spot the evidence – LoL.

We went to Kent for six days to see mum and various relations, and then onto Bristol. My son was having his graduation, his second one. He went through university many years ago, and graduated as an archeological preserver, but couldn’t get an archaeology type job, so he works in a call centre. His current employer paid for a Contact Centre Management degree, and it took three years; one afternoon a week off work, so that’s an eight hour day, four in the firms time, and four in his own time, plus all the homework etc. Lots of work, but he came away with a 2.1, so we are all pleased with that.

We didn’t go to the post ceremony party, as we all opted to do a bit of a family history hunt. We went to Berkeley, just outside Bristol, to see the house where my great granddad was born, and where he lived, before moving to Kent. We then went to see his mum and dads grave, in the local cemetery there, and it is such a pretty place, I wouldn’t mind being buried there myself – LoL. Not for a while I hope! The family worked at Berkeley Castle some of the time, but also had their own cooperage, brewery and sauces.

I had booked us into a guesthouse, on the outskirts of Bristol for two nights. I’d asked for a room with twin beds, thinking it would be cheaper than the doubles, but unfortunately, all the en suites were the same price. There was a surprise bonus for me though – it enabled me to sleep in my feminine underwear. I usually manage to underdress the last two days of a stay anywhere, but underdressing in bed – a sweet delight.

I’ve bought a brown eyeliner pencil, but I haven’t used it out yet. Every time I go out un-chaperoned, I take my lipstick, and put it on when I get to town. My eyeliner skills are so useless though, so at the moment I’m practising at home. It’s always a bit of a panic situation, as I never believe I’m going to get the stuff off cleanly, before reappearing downstairs en homme – LoL. It comes off a lot easier now that I’ve got the gen from Stacy, but it’s never a quick fix – or un-fix, LoL.

I’ve just read the instructions in my wax strip box, which tells me that I should cut the strips into small strips, before using them on the bikini line. They never remove 100% of hair, and I use each strip three to five times on the same area, to remove as much as possible. Reading other girls epilatory endeavours, leads me to think that no system is perfect.

More hair – or less.

You know what I’m like with wax strips – almost addicted, LoL. I normally use Boots own, which are quite tacky, and you can use them four or five times on the same spot to get rid of reluctant strands. This time I am using Veet, and instead of being one size per box, these have a variety. Being an inquisitive sort, I had a closer look, and found some narrow ones, labelled ‘bikini line, and ‘underarm’. Bikini line? whats wrong with the big ones – my bikini line is thick as everywhere else – LoL. Yes, I decided to do the underarm.

I have never had any issues with my underarm hair; it does a good job, a sort of dry film lubrication as I saw it. But removing it was fun – I told you I’m addicted – and better still, I’ve got a new ‘girlie thing’ that I can do. The best thing is, no one noticed, and so I don’t get told off. I know, it’s a bit childish, but to me it’s a bit of that reverse control freakiness, to combat that which comes my way when Jay spots something girlie.

I decided to try a less bright shade of lipstick last month, and it’s so less bright, it’s the same colour as my own lips. HHHmmmm, so what’s the chances of wearing it in mixed company, and no one knowing? It’s ok, relax girls, I won’t being trying it – but I would so like to, LoL.

Hugs to you all,

Anna x