HR Meeting

Having completed 3 days of training today was my first day on the shop floor. Well actually it was my half day. It was also the one day of the month that I could not shave before work. Once a month I have to let the hair grow so that my IPL laser treatment has a chance to work.

I only spent a couple of hours on the shop floor as I had two meetings today. The first was with a HR representative from HQ. I was glad that meeting took place on the day that I could not shave, as it meant that she got to see me at my least feminine looking state. All seemed to go well and I was informed I would be treated as female in all aspects apart from for pensions. They apparently have to reflect my male birth gender at least until I have passed my two year life trial and possibly changed my birth certificate.

The second interview was with my manageress and it was not very formal. It was more of a chance to get to know each other a little better. We seem to get along just fine, so I can't see any potential problems working with her.

Birthday Girl

Yay! It's my Birthday! I had lots of cards, visitors and enjoyed a pleasant evening at home. I have some gift vouchers and some cash to pamper myself with. Trying to find time to do that will be interesting. I had a call from work and they want me to start on Monday!

The formal offer will not be with me by then, but the store is undergoing major changes and all new staff require till training.

Role Play

After the blatant discrimination I received after my first interview in the female gender role, I was not particularly looking forward to today's interview. I had passed the online screening and today was the role play and formal interview at the recruiting branch of a certain well know high street store.

I have never attended a role play interview and wondered just how it would be performed. After a short introduction I was presented with some cards that represented my area of the store. My brief was to serve a customer that wandered in from another area of the store. The customer was played by one of my interviewers, while the other took notes.

After 5 minutes familiarisation with my product range, I interacted with my customer and helped her with her purchases. I had to maximise sales and keep within the customer's budget.

After the role play I was asked to take a seat for a few minutes while my interviewers conferred. Then I was called back into the interview room and informed that I had been successful! :0)

RIP Nan

Sadly my Nan passed away. Most of my immediate family had recently moved to Carrick-en-Suir, Ireland and so they were able to see her before her fight for life was over.

I was uncertain as to whether it would be better to stay away or to attend the funeral. I know that not all my relatives are comfortable with my transition. I would have offended someone no matter what approach I took and so I decided to pay my last respects to Nan in person.

I would like to be able to say that all went well, but it would be more accurate to say that for the most part it was bearable. I am glad that I went all the same.

The town is steeped in history and under more favourable circumstances it would have been nice to explore my roots.

Discrimination

Shortly before my holiday I attended a job interview for a post in Halfords Bike Hut at Harlow. There were two positions available and my interview went very well. I am more than capable of building and servicing a push bike. I was informed by the interviewers that I was the first decent candidate. They went on to say that they could not appoint as the store manager was away on leave, but that I should expect to be interviewed by him upon his return. I should have smelt a rat at that point as one interviewer had asked the other if they could appoint without the manager being available. In that case why were they interviewing anyway!

I returned from my holidays expecting to receive some form of communication inviting me to attend the second interview. Instead the communication I received was a standard rejection letter with no reason for the decision given.

This in my opinion amounts to blatant discrimination. My first thoughts veered towards pressing them for answers and reasons for the decision. However I decided not to bother as I would not want to work with such a bigoted company anyway. A sales assistant post just is not worth all the effort it would take to make my complaint official anyway.

Owning several pushbikes and several cars, I did used to be a frequent customer. Needless to say I would never knowingly spend a penny with Halfords now.

Summer Holiday

About a month before the school summer holidays Samaya (Suzanne's daughter) unexpectedly came to live with us. At the beginning of the 6 week holiday she unexpectedly went back to live with her father. A month on and just as unexpectedly she returned to live with us. I guess that teaches me I should expect the unexpected! J

There were 2 weeks of the summer holidays left. We decide we could all do with a break, but it was the height of season, everywhere was booked and was too expensive anyway. The Wendy bus (VW Camper) had a fresh MOT certificate, but many of her fittings had failed after 2 years of neglect. I managed to get the gas to the cooker working and figured we could manage without a heater, microwave and fridge anyway.

We were a day late in loading the Wendy bus up for the magical mystery tour of Kernow's lay-bys. We did eventually get loaded up and headed off for the last 10 days of the school holidays. Apart from one small problem when I ran into some mouthy youths in a filling station at Salisbury, the trip went without any transphobic incidences.

We spent most of our trip camped up around the Bude area, but made a few trips to other places. I had a few surf sessions at Widemouth bay. The waves were not that big but it was great to be back in the water. I surfed Widemouth last time I was in Kernow. At that time I was still androgynous most of the time, but surfed wearing a bikini under my male wetsuit. This time I had a ladies pink and black wetsuit and a very pink bikini. Heading into the water I had makeup on, but that was pretty non existent by the time I exited.

One day we ventured into Newquay and browsed the shops. My favourite Kebab shop was now a burger type grill house, so we ate in a Pie and Mash Shop. As nice as the home madesteak and ale pies were, you just can't beat a nice beef and onion pie! Fortunately I had one of each type. The guy in the Longboard House seemed a little bemused when I first wandered in, but he soon warmed when he realised I did actually surf one of their boards already and that I had my eye on the hand shaped balsa wood longboard. No, I did not buy it. It is far too pricey for me to want to ding.

We went to the Cornish Markets near St Austell one day but never really got time to wander around all of it. We just managed to get burger and chips from the burger vans outside the market before they closed. I had quite a conversation with the two ladies in the burger van, they wished me luck and asked that I pop back and see them again next time I am in Kernow.

We travelled down to Lands End one evening and I took the opportunity to show the others Sennan Cove. We ate in the local pub there. I think they were a little shock to see a transgender person there, but they were pretty chatty and offered some tips on where it was best to camp up for the night.

The following day we headed into St Ives for a wander around the shops. We had a pasty and managed to keep the seagulls at bay. It was a good test of my heel walking ability! J

The last day of our stay had come around all too quickly. We had breakfast/lunch at the burger van in the lay-by on the A39 between the 2 turn off's for Widemouth bay. We had stayed in the lay-by a few times and made friends with the guys that operate the burger van. We exchanged email addresses and said farewell, before heading into Bude to buy a mirror we had seen in "Wild Wood".

We decided to head out on the A39 and followed it through Devon. Just before "Porlock" we picked up a Hungarian girl hitchhiking from work. She was glad of the lift and we chatted for a while before setting her down a few miles later. The Wendy bus was slow climbing the steeper sections of the road, but never once gave the impression that the hill was too steep. In fact I was more concerned about the descents, keeping the engine revs down without excessive wear on the braking system.

Taking this route home did put a few hours on the journey, but it was a much nicer route to follow.