Sunday is Bastille Day, the anniversary of the storming of the notorious prison in Paris which was one of the trigger points of the French Revolution and arguably, the French have been revolting ever since.

It's also the twenty seventh anniversary of my own revolution in that it was on the 14th July 1986 I began my transition by going into work in a skirt. Sometimes it seems longer, sometimes it feels like only yesterday. The only difference in me then and now (apart from the change of a small piece of anatomy) is that I'm bit greyer and heavier, otherwise I'm still the innocent and charming psychopath I've always been.

The second anniversary is a sixth one. On Tuesday, 'Bike' is six years old. Who in their right mind would have thought I'd still be tormenting Cathy and her growing family six years from when it started, and some two thousand one hundred episodes later. Mind you the bigger question is, how come there are still people reading it who challenge me as soon as I do anything less than pleasant to any of the characters or who cheer from the sidelines when Cathy or her brood triumph over some obstacle or opponent, or Trish drops one of her frequent malapropisms or one liners.

Sometimes I regret the odd storyline, the mafia, the blue light and goddess stuff because it was intended to be a light hearted look at someone who had no idea much about life, but a strong moral code, find the way through the maze of hazards caused by transsexualism, coming to terms with their sexuality, dealing with others who found her attractive and then the needs of a group of children and young adults who needed her guidance and protection all while doing the odd bike ride.

Life was never going to be easy for Cathy because like me, she finds it difficult if not impossible to walk by on the other side, we're both good Samaritan types, which is poignant because as transsexual women, like the original character in the parable, we're both outsiders or outcasts from polite society but we don't let it stop us trying to adhere to a moral code even if it's seen as old fashioned or irrelevant in this age of rampant materialism. While I enjoy my material comforts, I try not to let them rule my life; preferring to believe that the real treasures of this world are the relationships we have with other people and some pets. My own daughter's recent illness brought that into a real life perspective, and I am grateful for all the good wishes and thoughts I received on her behalf from readers and friends here. It's her birthday on the 26th, she'll be thirty five and is in reasonable health, six months ago we were really worried about her as she struggled with the spinal tumour and the subsequent surgery to deal with it. So far so good, and her courage before, during and since was salutary.

Thank you all for the support I've received here for my writing and personal issues which I've aired here. I presume you want me to continue composing my nonsense and sharing it with you, which somehow has amassed to the largest body of work here - what I lack in quality, I make up for in quantity. So until either you get fed up reading or I do writing, it looks like we're stuck with each other.

Finally thanks to Erin and her team for keeping this place going and for indulging my posts, occasionally sorting the mess I make in arranging them or in listening to my grumbles. For all its faults, this is still the best TG story site on the web by a very long way and I'm privileged to have clogged up so much of its servers with my nonsense.

Angharad.