Wednesday 26 July 2006

Three's Company

Three Bloggers that is. On Saturday, I had a very civilised and heartwarming (and only mildly alcoholic) lunch with two friends of mine, Matt and Morgan.

I can recommend the Tak Kee Roast Inn very highly. OK, the decor is typical authentic Chinese Restaurant, as found in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canton and elsewhere. Which is to say, spartan, clean and undecorated. As Morgan said :
A guy at the Kamberra wine-tasting centre described it as the school cafeteria that you’d been trying to put out of your mind.
Well, yes, that too. But the food was excellent and utterly authentic. I had the Roast Pork with Noodles, rather than my regular specialty, the Jellyfish and Pork Trotter. The others had various Laksas.

Happy memories, which I will use to wash out the taste of my recent distressing experiences with the APO. I might add that the case manager at the APO treated me with consideration, it's not his fault. It's Policy.

But I better not think about that too much, I have a 5 year old boy to parent, a PhD to do, an involuntary gender change to complete, and can't afford to break down in tears. Overmuch, anyway.

You know what? Compared to most attempting transition, I'm having it easy. Those who are Intersexed or Transsexed have to expect things like this. This and far, far worse.

Sometimes having a reasonably developed sense of proportion is a pain. Can't even feel sorry for yourself for too long. It's just that I'm not used to being a 3rd class citizen, my expectations are too high at the moment, that's all. I'll get used to it in time, and "getting used to it" doesn't mean passively accepting it without demur or complaint. It means not sitting around saying "poor little me", it means trying to help those even worse off, quietly working for correction of injustice, and living as rich and full a life as I can under somewhat trying circumstances.

Compared to the previous 47 years, it's a breeze. Trust me on that.

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