yes, it's me back to wittering on about St David's Day again, and why it's important to me (brace yourself, there's a bit of lifestory thrown in too) :)

I'll confess that I've kept St David's day better since I left Wales, this break from the ties of Home also gave me the freedom to be open about my sexuality, and crossdressing. I pretty much jumped in both feet first, some of the details of those first hectic years are on a website I built at the time - www.geocities.com/ceri_e99/ . My life was quite literally split in two back then, all the boring stuff was done in male mode, but all the fun was conducted in heels. On the whole people seemed to prefer my company when en femme. I was quite full of myself back then,and probably tempted fate.

It all came to a crashing halt when I was 35, and first diagnosed with MS. I had a couple of rocky years while I waited to see what the long term prognosis would be. Fortunately it's pretty good, I've lost a little of the fine use of my hands, and walk with a limp (and sometimes in relapse with a cane). The social group I was part of broke up (I've written a short about that, but it's a bit too raw to post), and I'm self-conscious about the way I walk, so don't appear much in public anymore (sounds a bit 'Sunset boulevard' that doesn't it), but I do still attend the two company annual parties, and head up to London twice a year dolled up - Christmas and St David's Day.

I meet up with the crowd several times a year and I'm treated as another of the lads (there'll be a few gay jokes thrown around, but I'm not the only one in that village). For my two 'special events' though, it's quite remarkable... someone makes a point of meeting me at the station, and during the day the boys are quite protective of me... at a nip over six feet tall I'm not difficult to miss! A few might treat me to ironic chivalry, but most are quite sincere... they're a bunch of gits usually so it's a bit difficult to understand.

For many of you I'm guessing a day out seems quite trivial compared to living full time, of the struggle it took to become the person you really were. It is really, but famous rugby victories aside it's often the highlight of my year :)