I have recently reread this story that I last posted a new episode about eight years ago. Over the course of it I had many lovely comments but in the last one there were many asking for me to conclude it. It has some quite powerful chapters and it took me a lot of effort and energy to write, I thought I left it with a reasonable ending but accept some like everything done and dusted. There is a lot of me in the story and I don't want to spend hours and find no one reads a final chapter, plus it will take a while to write and to get in touch with the characters.

I've read several of Karin's books and like many TG authors she puts together arguments as to why we are just ordinary people trying to get on with our lives, however, in this book, she cleverly introduces the fact that we all know something, because everybody does, like the burning of bras by ardent feminists or George W Bush's ranch, no bras were ever burnt, just dumped in a bin - the burning being journalistic embellishment, second, George Bush was never a cowboy or had a ranch, she asserts that he doesn't like horses, may even be afraid of them - probably the only thing he and I have in

Many will remember that authors Bryony Marsh and Chris Archer gave away copies of this ebook some while ago, I read it at the time and enjoyed it. I have just re-read it and i really did enjoy it, it captures the emotions of the characters very well and I think the difficulties of young-love story , with all its complications when you include some gender complications as well, and for a change Kate, the older sister of our hero, Danny, is a real brick and very protective and supportive of her younger sibling.

In the Scottish courts they are actually debating this, Women for Scotland, partly funded by JKRowling, are trying to overturn the 2004 law of someone with a gender recognition certificate ( such as me) shouldn't have the same status as biological females. Read the article and see how at least one judge sticks to her principles, I admire and respect her.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/28/transgender-...

Given the murder of a non-binary child in the US recently, this article was interesting. It claims the parents of other schoolkids are more trouble than the kids who are interacting with a non-binary child. And remember most opinions held by children, including prejudices, come from the parents.

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/child-non-binary-friends...

The children who brutally murdered a transgender girl have been named, in a positive article about her death, Zoe Williams comments that transphobia seems to be a component of why Brianna was murdered and how it is whipped up by the right-wing press and politicians, I think it's worth a read and I agree we should remember the name of the victim not the perpetrators, who will locked up for years.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/02/briann...

I've been doing some preparatory work/ study for some surveys I'm doing and also some teaching I'm doing next week. As you probably know I have an interest in freshwater macroinvertebrates (Mayfly larvae etc) and I came across TG being used in a dictionary of entomology - it stood for tracheal gills. There will be more of those than transgender people, so should obviously spring to the ordinary person's mind (or what passes for one). I knew you'd be glad to read that.

I don't know if others have noticed that when Christmas nears, we seem to have a series of disasters, usually earthquakes, aeroplane crashes or killings. I looked at the Guardian website and beside the awful murder of Brianna Ghey, there was a shooting of 14 or more in Prague, the murder of a little boy in London, the continued genocide in Gaza, Russian atrocities in Ukraine, the earthquake in China and so on.

I'd had never heard of this site before, am I the only one?

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/16/transan...

I'm afraid that I'm away all day on Saturday attending a national dormouse conference. I'll be leaving home with a friend at Sparrow fart and returning home late so I won't have time to write Bike, sorry and all that.