mylifebyandrearaven

My shopping outfit  I suspect many that read this blog do not live full time and many do not go out on a regular basis. This was the case for me for a long time, then several years ago I started to venture out and that turned into a regular monthly outing. Then the pandemic hit and everything came to a halt.   Since then I have been going out but not on such a regular basis. I have written about a few days I had earlier this year and recently I was lucky enough to meet up with a lovely friend and spend a few says just being me.  As much as I would like to get out more often at the present time that is just not possible, that being the case I feel it is important to concentrate on the quality of time I have not the quantity. When I go away for my few days 'Andrea time' myself and my friend spend a lot of time planning what we are going to do so that we get the best possible out of our relatively short time. That planning not only covers what I am going to do but what ...

I recently took part in a research project undertaken by a student of the City University of London, this came about because my friend Stephanie had also taken part and I offered to assist as well. The project entitled " How do trans people arrive at the decision not to see medically assisted gender affirming care " is a bit of a mouth full, but basically asking why trans people like me choose not to go down the medical route.  My part in this study was to take part in a 90 minute interview via Teems, prior to this, a screening phone call of about 15 minutes had taken place. The purpose of the screening was to ensure I was suitable for the study but also to check on my mental wellbeing as some of the questions could be distressing to some people. The phone call proved successful and a date and time was set for the video interview.  As it was on video, I wanted to present the best image of myself that I could, although the video will not be made public I do believe we should t...

  The simple answer to the question I posed above is Yes you most certainly can! Obviously it does depend on your definition of 'classy' but with a bit of thought and searching in the right place it can be done. I think the place to start is to decide on you version of 'classy' and the sort of clothes that look good on you. There is no point trying to be elegant if the clothes just do not suit your build and physique.  Once you have discovered your style you can begin your search, there are two main sources of reasonably priced clothes, on line auction sites and, in the UK at least, supermarkets. Starting with the auction sites look for charities, on eBay you will find The British Heart Foundation that has hundreds of items, it is a bit of a trawl but you will be surprised at the items people dispose of, another is Loved by Cynthia prices are very reasonable, and you will be helping a charity as well. You can also go to your local charity shop as well to see what they h...