Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Posted by Shirley Anne on January 1, 2012
E and I went to Preston hospital this afternoon to see our first grandchild. I couldn’t wait to see her and hold her in my arms, in fact I was only there ten minutes when I got the chance. I didn’t want to give her back! So adorable, so tiny, so beautiful. I was reminded of the time my two sons were born and how they looked and how it felt to hold them for the first time. Now my eldest at 29 is a father. How time flies. E got her chance to hold her a minute or so later. We didn’t stay too long, about forty minutes or so but we’ve plenty of time to see them all later. On the way home I asked E if she would like to dine out as we were passing a favourite restaurant of ours. She did and so we dined out for the first time in many months. A pleasant day all round.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Family, Food, Happiness, Life | Tagged: Drink, Family, Food, Preston | 4 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 31, 2011
A few minutes ago I received a phone call from my eldest son informing me of the arrival of his baby daughter. Mother and baby are fine and healthy and all is well. Now I am a grandmother or maybe a great-aunt and it feels great. Somehow I knew it would be a girl but either way would not have made a difference.
Born on the last day of the year is a first in our family. I can’t wait to see her for the first time and hold her in my arms. What a lovely way to end a year.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Family, Information | Tagged: Baby, Family | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 9, 2011
I had been under the impression that my son and daughter-in-law were going to become parents for the first time on or around about the 20th of this month but a few days ago my son told me that the expected date was actually the 25th. That should be interesting. I hope everything goes well for them and I am looking forward to seeing my first grandchild. None of us know the gender of the child because my son and daughter-in-law didn’t want to know before the birth. They simply want a healthy baby, as we all do. They don’t know it yet but their lives are going to change dramatically when the baby arrives, something all of us who have had children know only too well. It only seems like yesterday when my son was born and I have fond memories of those times and a couple of years later when my other son was born. Both of my sons were a joy to myself and their mom and were no real trouble to bring up. They had their moments of course, as all children do but they were no problem to us. I hope my grandchild grows up in the same way and I feel sure that will be the case. So in a little more than two weeks from now we may have an addition to our family but who knows? It may happen sooner!
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Family, Life | Tagged: Children, Family, Life, Parent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 4, 2011
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It was around this time ten years ago that I decided to go for full transition. I had been out for three years to all my new friends and some others but not to my family although by this time they were aware of my dressing. I started the ball rolling by making an appointment with a laser clinic in Liverpool and the first session I think was on 19th December that year, 2001. I had much more to do and to make decisions about and all of that is recorded in one of my pages above so I won’t go into detail here. As soon as the Christmas and New year celebrations were over I set about doing what I had to do and I then had the daunting task of telling my wife and family. That too is detailed in my page above. I am in my tenth year now as a fully transitioned female and although many things have changed about me I remain just the same inside. The real me, my spirit, the person writing down all of this is the same one that used to play in the street with other children sixty years ago, who went to school, who was bullied, who made something of a life, got married had children, got divorced and is still plodding along as best she can. Yes, nothing has changed inside for me over the last ten years or even over the last sixty-six years but the outside has changed dramatically. I live my life differently in some respects than I did ten years ago but the basics remain the same. I sit here reflecting on what has happened in my life and I wonder if I could have made a difference to the way things turned out. Probably yes, I could have but would it have made any real difference to me, the person inside? To the outside world we change, we fit in or we adjust so that we are happy with life. With me, ten years ago I had to make another of those changes so that I could remain happy. In doing that though made changes to other things, not least of all relationships. Not my marriage, that had died five or six years earlier and for other reasons but relationships with others did change in some cases. I never had many friends throughout my life. When I was young I had one friend but I moved house and we lost contact. He tried to re-establish that friendship some seven years or so later but I wasn’t interested, I had become very anti-social. From that point onward I never had friends by my own choice until I got married when we both shared the new friends we had made during the previous two years. Again, we moved on and lost those friends due to the pressures of life. When we divorced I had no friends apart from the one girl I had met in Spring of 1999 whilst out socialising as Shirley Anne. We have remained friends ever since but we don’t see much of each other now. Other friends either live too far away or have dropped off the radar. My family is dispersed and for the most part out of contact. I wrote a letter to one of my sisters some weeks ago but she couldn’t be bothered to write back. My children have flown the nest and I get to see them quite often but fleetingly. Basically I have nobody at all except my ex who for the moment is not very close at all. Am I better off now than when I was ten years ago? In some ways absolutely! In other ways no! That’s life and try as I may to change things it doesn’t always mean that it will improve. A happy and sad Shirley Anne at the same time.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Family, Friendship, Life, Philosophy, Relationships, Time, Transsexual, Values | Tagged: Christmas, Family, Holiday, Liverpool, New Year, People, Relationships | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 29, 2011
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On Tuesday morning I had the cab of my van cleaned it took the guy a mere 40 minutes to make it looking brand-spankingly new. I was amazed at how good it looks and it smells better too! Just like a new one does. It looks new from the outside anyway but the outside gets far more attention than the inside, a little like human beings. We pay far too much attention to our outward appearance instead of what’s inside that facade. Once upon a time in my life I presented as an outwardly nice person but the inside was far from that. I was completely anti-social, a rebel (although in some respects I still am a rebel), a non-conformist and a person cut-off from mainstream life, lacking friends from choice. I had issues that I couldn’t deal with but didn’t know that I had a problem. One problem was my dysphoria which I didn’t resolve until much later in life. Another was the fear of people and being in a close relationship with anyone. I was secretive and isolated but eventually I climbed out of the pit and began to live my life. I still had problems with timidity and lack of self esteem and confidence due to my being bullied when younger. As I grew these things fell away and one of the most influencing reasons was my coming to know God through Jesus Christ. It was then that I began to blossom out and realise that there was more to life than what I had previously experienced. I now have an enormous family of brothers and sisters all believers in the same way. It was my faith in God which got me through many of life’s problems and eventually gave me peace of mind after my transition too. In the afternoon of Tuesday I went to visit two of those brothers and sisters, Barry and Mandy a married couple whom I had not seen for over six years. Ostensibly it was to assess some electrical work they want doing but most of the time I spent with them was discussing Christian matters. It is simply something that Christians do. I was happy to see them and learn how they were coping with life. The joy in their hearts precluded any evidence of the problems they revealed to me, it’s what God does for those He loves. Being a Christian doesn’t relieve us of life’ problems but it helps us to cope with it all, or should be doing if we allow God to take control. I will be seeing them again when I go to do their electrical work.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Christianity, Family | Tagged: Christian, Christianity, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 28, 2011
Our first barbecue on our new patio went down extremely well even though some of our guests had to back out because of other pressing matters. One friend, who was supposed to be bringing his mate, turned up with his daughter and her husband and two (grown-up) children instead assuming we wouldn’t mind! Well, as he is a friend and we did have the space and food we didn’t mind. As it turned out they were very good company and were the last to depart. It seems they enjoyed it that much they didn’t want to leave.
By the time this photo was taken three of our guests had gone home. Peter, the friend I refer to is being his usual self by giving my camera the sly fingers! He is a real character and once he starts to tell stories about his life we end up in stitches with laughter. A real life-and-soul of the party type is Peter. We put away some wine between us all and the beer was hardly touched. You can just about make out the little drinks fridge on the left of the picture which had been stacked with different beers but only four bottles got drank! There was plenty more in the cellar which didn’t see the light of day. It is handy being able to use the fridge outdoors, it saves having to dash indoors every time you want a drink! The red wine didn’t need refrigerating of course and the white wine wasn’t on the table long enough for it to warm up! We did have to make a couple of trips indoors to replenish the white wine which is kept in the kitchen fridge. Anyway a splendid time was had by all.
Yesterday I went to do a job in a house some eighteen miles away where I had been asked to disconnect the wiring to a large garden shed and to trace the fault that had cut off the supply to the power outlets in the kitchen. The strange thing was the power was leaving the distribution point but not arriving at the kitchen! Obviously a break in the cable somewhere along the way. This meant a physical trace on the cable, lifting boards and such to find perhaps a broken connection in a junction box. Unfortunately, having determined that the fault probably lay beneath the bedroom floor, the client was reluctant to allow lifting the boards until she had spoken with her husband who was at that time in work. The problem is the large amount of furniture in that room which makes lifting floorboards extremely difficult. It appears they will clear the room themselves and decide on any further action later. I was able to locate were the supply to the shed was connected within the kitchen and I disconnected it. So the job has been left only half done! The circuit itself requires altering in any case, even after the fault has been located and rectified. It is one single cable presently supplying about eight power points! The limit for that size cable is two and they have to be in the same area! Converting it to a ring circuit is relatively easy though but requires an extra cable be run under that same bedroom floor!
Shirley Anne
Posted in Enjoyment, Family, Food, Friendship, Leisure, Work | Tagged: Food, Home and Garden, Kitchen and Dining, Recreation, Wine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 26, 2011
Yesterday I became a lady of leisure doing no work all day as is my usual behaviour on a Saturday, although occasionally I will work at home on this day. It is important to me to keep the sabbath day as a day unto the Lord always remembering that the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath. I go as far as working at my profession if somebody asks me to do a job in an emergency situation. This fortunately has only happened a couple of times and all other requests are deferred until the following week. So all I did yesterday was watch television, go online or amuse myself on the computer, play my guitar and generally pottered about the house and garden. It wasn’t too warm in the morning but that didn’t stop E from messing about outside and later in the day she dug out all of the potatoes that had been cultivated in our raised cultivation bed between the two greenhouses. For such a relatively small area she recovered a large bucket full of potatoes. They look good enough to eat! LOL.
It got much warmer as the day wore on and by evening it was quite warm and sunny, not as warm as the Cote D’AZur but just as sunny. Today promises to be at least warm and perhaps it will turn out sunny too! I hope so because we are entertaining family, friends and neighbours by having a barbecue in our new patio. Today I shall be working by ensuring they all enjoy themselves! One of my friends is presently on the other side of the world nearing the end of her three-month tour of the far east including Australia, Thailand, Singapore and I’m not sure where else. I haven’t heard from her for some time so I hope she is alright. She enjoys herself when she is our guest and we both will miss her presence this time. I am not sure how the day will go but I am determined to enjoy it no matter how it goes.
Shirley Anne
Posted in Community, Enjoyment, Entertainment, Family, Friendship, Fun, Life, Lifestyle, People | Tagged: Australia, Biblical Sabbath, Christianity, Entertainment, Friendship, God, Lord, Old Testament, Singapore, Thailand | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 18, 2011
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Friday morning
After breakfast I was looking for something to do. I had no electrical jobs and as the weather promised to be wet and windy I decided to fetch my toolbox from my van and set about removing the fittings from the downstairs toilet/cloakroom. Before long I had removed everything that had been fixed to the walls, except the mirror over the wash basin. Next, I removed, demolished would be a better word, the cupboard standing in the corner then proceeded to strip off wallpaper and wall tiles. In a matter of an hour the room was left with bare floorboards with only the wash basin and toilet suite still standing! I shan’t be moving them out until after next weekend as it will most probably be needed for my guests at the barbecue we hope to have. It will save them having to traipse up the stairs to the bathroom! No doubt our new decor will be a subject of discussion! The week following will see everything taken out of the room ready for a complete refurbishment. We are transforming the room into a ‘wet room’ and that is going to take us a while to do but there is no hurry. Now that our eldest son’s wife is expecting a baby in December they may decide to move back here sooner rather than they would otherwise have planned. It just means their own house will become empty until they get a buyer. What it means for us is the need to redecorate a bedroom and a lounge, both of which are not presently in use except for storage of furniture and other things. This means that we have to find alternative places to store what is in these rooms too. You might think that a seven bedroom house with plenty of rooms in the (clean) cellar would give us the space we need but many of those rooms are already filled with possessions. It is going to require some clever manoeuvering to get everything stored. You have to remember that our children’s furniture will perhaps be here only temporarily.
Late Friday afternoon
I’m playing guitar and drinking red wine………….my hammer has been put away…….for now
Shirley Anne
Posted in Activity, Family, House and Home | Tagged: Activity, Family, Furniture, Home, Room, Sink | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 17, 2011
On Wednesday E and I went to do some shopping after I returned home from a job. We bought furniture oil for our outdoor furniture (seems logical) and some more brick sealant (we ran out of the stuff when we treated the patio brickwork last time). That will keep me occupied for a day or two I am sure! Whilst we were out E paid a visit to the store where we bought the materials and furniture for converting our toilet/cloakroom into a shower/wet room and cloakroom. Coats will only be left there temporarily by visitors, our own coats are stored in our bedrooms. It is the only room downstairs that can be used as a temporary cloakroom. I digress. She went into the store whilst I sat in the car. We were wondering why it was taking them so long to deliver our goods, E was told that it would all be delivered the same day, a matter of two hours later! They were true to their word and it was delivered as promised. This means when it is raining I have a job to do indoors and when it isn’t I have plenty yet to do outside! There is no escape. All this depends of course on my availability, I do work as an electrician too!
Next weekend we hope, weather permitting, to have our first barbecue of the year (we did have a small one a week or so ago, just the two of us) where we will invite family, friends and neighbours. This will make good use of the patio too, well that was one of the reasons for building it! If the weather is not fine we simply eat indoors but that means cooking indoors too which takes more time I find, especially when it comes to cleaning up! As long as it isn’t raining or it isn’t too windy we should be alright. I like having people around for drinks, food and fun. We usually have music, games or a quiz to help things along. As long as my guests are happy, I am happy.
Shirley Anne
Posted in Drink, Enjoyment, Family, Food, Friendship, Fun, Life, Lifestyle | Tagged: Drink, Food, Friendship, Fun, Garden furniture, Home and Garden, Life, Patio, Shopping | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 16, 2011
This evening our eldest son and his wife paid us a fleeting visit. They were en-route to dine with her parents who live three miles away. They had news for us, E and myself. They are expecting a child in December! Later, when our youngest son arrived home we gave him the good news. He was very pleased to hear that he is due to become an uncle and when we told him the expected date of the child’s arrival, 25th December, he immediately (and jokingly) asked if they were going to name the child Jesus. Ha-ha. Now then if he is going to be an uncle and E is going to be a grandmother, what does that make me? I suppose I could be a third grandmother, which would be ridiculous but better a Great Aunt don’t you think?
Shirley Anne
Posted in Family | Tagged: Family | 4 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 14, 2011
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During the last few days we received delivery of the three windows for the garage and some bits and pieces to fit them. I had taken a look at what we had and was not quite sure about a couple of things regarding their fitment. E suggested she telephone her youngest nephew who is a builder by trade and who has fitted these type of windows before. She asked him if he had a couple of minutes to spare to call around and set me straight on how to fit them myself, which was always my intention since the firm who supplied them wanted £317 to fit them! They cost a little less than £200 to buy! Within a few minutes he arrived and soon told me what I wanted to know. However, E came to the garage and started to chat with him and then said to me, ‘Did you ask him how much he would charge for installing them’? He looked at me with a little look of expectancy and said straight out, ‘I will do the job for £100′. I looked to E and said, ‘Thanks a bundle, I was going to fit them myself’. He looked back to me and said, seemingly reluctantly, ‘If you want to do it yourself that’s fine with me’. Well the price was a tad too much to ask for the time he should take doing the job but as he is family and is in need of work I decided to let him do it for the price he asked. At least I know he will do it properly and promptly, not like his brother who is the one doing the paving for us. He did not turn up on Friday after starting the job on Thursday and now he tells us he won’t be back until next Monday and Tuesday to finish the job. I know for a fact that he won’t finish both the rear garden and be able to complete the front garden in just two days, there is too much work involved. Well thanks a bundle again! The jobs should have been completed weeks ago! Some people simply cannot keep appointments. On a job I was on early last week I had loaned some Allen keys to the young joiner who was supposed to be bringing them back to me on Saturday morning but he never showed. I telephoned him again yesterday and he promised he would bring them around in the evening. I had to call him a couple of times as he kept forgetting my address. So he said. Eventually he did call around at 7.30 in the evening with a brand new set of keys! Evidently his uncle had taken my set to another town and probably won’t be bringing them back for some time. The new set didn’t cost much to buy and consist of 25 keys, more than my own set! I thanked him that he took the time to buy them for me. He refused any payment, which is probably fair, considering the run-around he gave me trying to get my set back!
Shirley Anne
Posted in Family, People | Tagged: Family, People | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 27, 2011
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Today, late this afternoon, I have another appointment with the dentist. This time it is to replace a filling that popped out on Wednesday evening. I don’t mind visiting the dentist in the least, the only problem is that my dentist is more than twenty miles away in Liverpool so it means driving there and back. I could take public transport if I choose and it wouldn’t cost me a penny if I travelled outside peak times because people of my age are given passes and can travel free of charge. The drawback is journeying by public transport would take far longer. At least with my own transport I can travel door-to-door.
Yesterday it was raining in the morning but it brightened up in the afternoon. I need to do some work in the garage, to be precise move the outside water tap (faucet) to a new position which requires drilling through the house wall into the cellar from the garage. We had large amounts of plywood and other timber stored in the area so all that had to be moved as did a huge pile of bricks (about three hundred of them). This took me until lunchtime after which I had to go out to do an electrical job. When I returned home E had gone shopping and our youngest son had come home for the weekend. After next weekend he will be here permanently or at least until he finds a place of his own. He had to give up his apartment because his boss cut his salary in half! He is now also looking for another job. Whilst he has been coming home for the weekends he has been working for a friend who owns a nightclub. He works Friday and Saturday nights and comes home early in the morning. Hopefully, he says, it is only a stop-gap measure but for now the extra cash will come in handy. We moved some furniture together ready for his return home after next week.
When we had finished that I prepared the evening meal and made myself a rhubarb crumble. I say ‘myself ‘ because nobody else eats it! A woman’s work is never done they say.
Shirley Anne
Posted in Cooking, Family, House and Home, Work | Tagged: Dentist, Family, Liverpool, Tooth | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 23, 2011
Image by wEnDaLicious via Flickr
It used to be considered the norm in the UK to have March winds and April showers, they marked the beginning of Spring. Nowadays, more frequently, we don’t seem to get that combination. Last month was for the most part gloriously warm and sunny with little rain at all. March wasn’t the roaring lion we have been otherwise used to. Now it is two-thirds into May and the weather has gotten progressively worse. May started off promisingly enough but after the first week things began to change for the worse. Of course we need rain and after April’s poor precipitation level we needed it even more. Today (Sunday) it looks more like an Autumn day than a late Spring one. It is very windy indeed and it is raining. Perhaps the weather will improve soon. Let’s hope so. In the meantime it is good to be indoors. Today we have our two sons and our daughter-in-law home for a Sunday roast dinner, chicken, new potatoes, roast potatoes, carrots, turnip, parsnip, for the main meal with a pineapple sponge pudding to follow. We don’t normally have formal dinners with our immediate family unless we are eating out but it is nice to lay on something a little special at home now and then. I will be having a glass or two of wine but I am not sure about the others as two of them will be driving later. So the wind and rain can do their stuff outside whilst we enjoy the warmth and comfort inside both the house and our tummies!
Shirley Anne
Posted in Drink, Enjoyment, Family, Food, Weather | Tagged: April Showers, Fruit and Vegetable, Home, Parsnip, Rain, Sunday roast, Yorkshire pudding | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 12, 2011
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The guys duly turned up yesterday morning and two of them proceeded to build the wall in the front of the house. In the afternoon they returned to the patio area and completed the brickwork there. Late in the afternoon the third guy returned and began to lay the natural stone capping to the walls of the patio. Unfortunately he wasn’t particular as to where each stone was being placed as there were different colours of stone. Those coloured pink or sandy-coloured happened to be thicker than the normal grey coloured stone so he decided to place the greys on one wall and the colours on another! It looked ridiculous and i told him so! I told him that all the stones have to be grey and that the job will have to be continued on the morrow, that is today. He removed the coloured stones and replaced them with the grey until there were no more grey stones left. The rest of the job went well. The owner of the firm will be completing the work today hopefully.
In the evening our eldest son and his wife stopped over for dinner, spaghetti-bolognese, which we thoroughly enjoyed. During the meal we chatted about their proposed move to stay with us for a year or two. They are in the process of selling their house, partly for financial reasons and partly because they wish to get out of the area in which they live now. With the housing market as it is of late they want to start afresh by saving for a decent deposit before proceeding to buy another property. We discussed the possibility of installing a shower in the main bathroom, something we don’t have at the moment. It would be far better to strip out the bathroom as it now stands and start over. More cost, more work, more time. I know it will be worth it in the end but at this particular moment in time all I want is a bit of peace! I can ill-afford to spend anything else on the house for the time being as I have spent quite a lot on the house over the last twelve months, about £30,000 to be exact and still there is more to do! Ah well, I can’t take it with me but I do want to make sure E is financially secure should I ‘pop my clogs’ so to speak. LOL
Shirley Anne
Posted in Family, Garden, House and Home | Tagged: Bathroom, Construction and Maintenance, Masonry and Stone, Patio | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on April 20, 2011
Tuesday turned out to be quite a busy day which at first I thought I couldn’t handle but as it turned out all was well. I’d had a really good night’s sleep on Monday having been so tired after Sunday’s work and again on Monday. It was like I had aches and pains where I didn’t know I had parts! Anyway my first job yesterday was not until 9.30 so I didn’t rush to get out of bed. The job was relatively easy but a little time-consuming. My second job at 1.30 was extremely easy. I was back home for 2.00. I’d had my lunch at home after the first job was completed. So I had the afternoon and the rest of the day to myself. I made myself busy relaxing, playing guitar in the warm sunshine and generally pottering about. E went out in the afternoon and didn’t get home until after 5.00. I had a visit from our youngest son who told me his job was under threat and he would be losing half his salary at the very least. He works for his friend who pays his salary but it is his friend’s father who is cutting back on expenditure by paying his son less. He is in property management and is a multi-millionaire. Why he wants to do that to his son (and subsequently our son too) is anyone’s guess. Both my son and his friend actually make money for his business! I suspect it is just greed. Even his wife has pleaded with him not to do what he is doing. My son has a lot of debt to control, his apartment, car, telephone and television contracts aside from general living expenses and to top all of that, his university loan. He may have to return to live with us if things get too difficult. It’s such a shame when he’s just beginning to get on top of things. Even his older brother and his wife are considering a move back home with us if they can sell their property. Their present house is too small and is losing them money. I am only happy to help my children and I am fortunate in that I am in a position to accommodate them should they come back home. Well the house is certainly big enough!
Today I have two more jobs to do. It looks as if things are picking up a bit for me after a recent dry spell. I am being careful though, I am not taking on too much work at once so that I can find more time to myself. If I could just work every other day or perhaps mornings only I would be happy with that. Assuming I get the opportunity of course!
Shirley Anne
Posted in Activity, Family, Life, Money, People, Values | Tagged: Business, Business and Economy, Employment, Family, Property management, Property manager, Youngest son | Leave a Comment »
