Daniella's Ramblings

As you may recall from last week’s blog post I have had a few days to myself of late thanks to  spot of leave. We have had a few days where I could be dressed before the girls came home from school.

Two weeks ago, my spouse and I had some errands to run and we decided to turn the errands into a morning out. Unfortunately we had no time for pictures, but I wore a pair of skinny jeans (jeggings) my ‘Elsa’ top from Disneyland Paris and a pair of Skechers boots (they are actually quite cool as they are essentially ‘high top trainers’ with a heel). I was very comfortable and ready for a morning of firsts.

We started off at a haberdashery. We needed to get some material to cover our budgies’ aviary and the haberdashery was therefore the place to go. This was out on the Westrand. I had never ventured very far west before and I was a little anxious, especially as we were out in the cold (literally, it is Autumn here) light of day. The shop was owned and run by a Muslim family and I decided to both respect them and their beliefs and play it safe. So, we looked at the material on display on the pavement and when we had selected what we were looking for my spouse went inside to pay and collect the cut lengths, whilst I loitered outside in the sun (keeping warm) and replying to some messages on my phone.

I have no idea what the Muslim shop owners thought of me, but I decided it would be better to not have to speak to them and rather than provoking a confrontation just play it cool. I wonder if this displays some degree of Muslim-phobia on my part, or is it just being sensible? I like to think that it is the latter but you need to check your motives all the time, I suppose.

Having secured the fabric we needed, we headed off to the sweet wholesaler, which happily was just next door. We like to give our Priscilla’s Services clients a small thank you gift by way of a PS Bar and we lime to buy in bulk as it can save a bit of money. We found a few different sizes and settled on the box of chocolates we wanted. We paid for the chocolates without incident and we then headed to the next stop.

Our eldest daughter’s birthday is coming up soon and she is mad about Lego and Harry Potter. On a family excursion to Clearwater Mall the previous weekend she had seen a box of Lego and a Harry Potter themed board game that she fell in love with. We decided to the two items for her birthday before they sold out. So we drove to Clearwater Mall and acquired said toys. In the parking area we had been approached by some car cleaners and we decided to get the car cleaned. We thus had some time to kill as they needed time to finish the car.

We decided to look for some decorative items for Priscilla’s studio and also get a few complimentary soaps and other small items for the studio. We went to a pharmacy to get some soaps but they  did not have what we were looking for. We therefore headed to a second pharmacy, on the way we stopped in at the Typo which was on the way to see if they had anything suitable. As soon as my spouse stepped onto the wooden floor in the shop (the mall’s corridors are tiled) she slipped, right off her feet and landed heavily. This was very strange as she was wearing flat, rubber soled boots, that usually have plenty of grip. We were decidedly unimpressed. Not only had she fallen heavily and hurt herself quite badly, the staff in the store were completely uninterested in her plight and did not even come over to assist or even see that she was alright. We left pretty quickly, taking extra special care not to fall.

We stopped in at an art gallery. They had some lovely pieces, some of which may even have been suitable for decorating the studio, but spending nearly a whole week’s revenue on a decoration seemed excessive. We finally reached the pharmacy found what we were looking for and then left.

All in all the (near) West Rand proved to be a perfectly safe place for this transgender person to visit. Sadly the same can not be said for cisgender women wearing flat, rubber soled, boots!