New housemates, transgender and proud, and other updates

Hello all

I trust everyone is well?

I figure that I haven't done many updates recently so I will give you an update on my life, oh yes, thrilling stuff indeed.

Firstly, I'm going to share a song that I have found recently that I love. It's called Dream Catcher by a band called Set It Off. It's about achieving what you want in live (more on that later). You only have one life (I'm going to say that stupid chavtastic phrase) and this song is all about that.

Well the biggest change in my life recently is that I have new housemates. Dan, Andrew and Jim all moved out in the last month and for about a week I was completely on my own in the house, it was quite strange. Then last Saturday I came home to find two new housemates waiting for me, Natalie and Amaury. Natalie is a girl from the Manchester area and Amaury is from France, and although things are relatively early, I actually quite like them. I had an in depth conversation with Natalie a few nights ago and other than the fact she likes the Samsung Galaxy Note, she seems reasonably sane. Both are a definite improvement on Dan.

Another thing I have become involved in recent is Vodafone's new drive to promote an LGBT network within the company. It is really strange to become involved in something like that because I have often struggled to connect with other members of the trans community. I am a member of a trans group called Chameleons on the outskirts of Nottingham but have only really developed a friendship with one of them, but other than that one person the only thing I have in common with any of them is that we are all on the LGBT spectrum somewhere.

Anyway, I recently went for a night out in London with the Vodafone LGBT community and it was strange because whilst not strictly different from Chameleons, I felt like I belonged. It didn't just feel like 15-20 random people in the same room, I had a lot in common with these people. It was helped by my friend Catherine going with me (and she ended up staying a lot longer than I did), but it was nice just to have a real connection with people. For the first time in a while I was proud to be part of the LGBT community, something I haven't felt for some time.

IN THIS NEXT BIT I TALK ABOUT PHYSICAL CHANGES, AVOID UNTIL THE NEXT BOLD BIT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT THIS STUFF

As for body changes, things are proving a bit unusual in several senses.

My body has started to develop breasts, however, they are far from consistent in their appearance. Some days they will barely be there at all, but then on other days they are right there sticking out. It's awesome to see them coming through, but it would be nice if they were always there when I looked in the mirror, rather than sporadic appearances here and there.

I have noticed that my skin is certainly getting a lot smoother as well, and my hair is growing noticeable faster than it was before. Body hair is starting to become a bit patchy. I was never overly hairy but it was still there, and whilst I keep shaving and it comes back, some of it has now stopped coming back and it's well on the way to stop growing on my torso alltogether.

OK, YOU'RE SAFE AGAIN

Away from new housemates and being transgender to my long term plans. I have started taking steps to relocate. I can't go into it too much just yet but in the near future things might start moving on. I don't want to jinx it because I have a habit of getting too excited about things, but things are looking up in many ways. I think I just need a new start in a new area, a place where I don't know anything and no-one knows me. Whilst I make it seem like nothing bothers me, it bugs me to tell when people call me Nathan, even though Nathan hasn't been my name for some time now. Fortunately the people who I've only known for a few months have no choice but to call me Kate because they have never been known as Nathan, and moving to a new area where no-one knows that my name used to be Nathan will be very good.

Hopefully moving to a new area will also help me start to achieve some personal goals of being able to process in various aspects my life. I just feel stale at the moment and I feel like the menu on a DVD, constantly looping over and over again until someone presses play or off.

These have been thoughts that have dominated by life for some time and they're not helped by the Red Bull adverts that I keep seeing. These adverts are of people doing what they love and they keep making me feel like I have wasted my life. I want to do something I can get passionate about, and hopefully going to a brand new area will afford me that opportunity.

But anyway, I will leave it there.

Peace Out!