Daniella's Ramblings

I was lucky enough to have a whole week to just be me. From mid-July to almost the end of July my nuclear family went to visit extended family in another part of the country. I had to stay behind for work reasons and I was able to combine this with some wonderful alone time.

I had just one such opportunity 18 months ago  and whilst I did take advantage then, I did not take full advantage of the opportunity. After the first two days out and about, I kept waiting for the perfect mood and moment to strike and ultimately squandered the time I had available to me. I therefore decided at the outset, not to repeat that mistake!

As soon as my family got in the car and drove off, I went inside and changed into a casual outfit of black skinny jeans, a black t-shirt and my trusty black sandals. I did do the hair thing but decided to forego makeup as it just seemed unnecessary and frankly, I just didn’t feel like putting it on. This, combined with my lack of shaving of my legs this winter would suggest I really am a woman! (Joke!)

I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon on my own doing some laundry, cleaning up and generally pottering around the house. I spent the evening chatting to friends on WhatsApp and surfing the net reading blogs and Facebook posts.

The next day was Monday and I had to go in to the office (I am working from home for a few months due to renovations at the office) for a rather important meeting. So, it was designated an en homme day. I was hoping to get home just after lunch, but due to the meeting running late, I only ended up getting home after 4 pm. I decided to go for my daily run in semi en femme attire. In winter, I always run in my woman’s ‘Capri yoga pants’ anyway. So, I simply added the t shirt from the previous day (it was still clean), a bra, my breasts and a sweatshirt. I decided to forego the hair as I didn’t want to scare anyone. I also thought that if I did meet anyone who would recognise me, the sweatshirt was baggy enough to hide the breasts enough to cause sufficient doubt.

This was the first time I have ever done any real exercise with breasts. Let me just say they certainly do complicate things. The bra constricted my ability to breathe. My (modest B cup) breasts added weight and changed the balance of my body. It wasn’t anything unmanageable or too uncomfortable but I certainly felt different. I have much more empathy for my spouse when she runs now (she is considerably more well-endowed in the breast department than a B cup). I completed my usual run and felt much more tired than usual. The breasts and bra certainly took their toll, but missing lunch probably also didn’t help. I then made dinner and went to bed.

Tuesday was an en femme day! I was working from home and had no meetings so I got up early and got dressed for the day. Being winter meant I needed to dress warmly, but as I was going to be indoors, not too warmly. I decided on a pair of faded grey skinny jeans, a nice thick cotton ‘gypsy’ top an embroidered scarf and my trusty cowboy boots.

I was hoping to achieve ‘office-casual’ but I think I may have been a little too casual. It was not a problem though as I was staying home. Top tip girls: if is chilly, wear a scarf. It doesn’t need to be a heavy or even a woollen scarf. This cotton scarf kept me nice and warm. If your neck is warm, you are warm.

After a few hours work I decided it was time for a coffee break. I had decided the day before, that I needed to go and see Lesley at The OPC as we had a few things to discuss after our very successful joint vintage clothing evening. I had bought some cake the day before and I headed off (unannounced) to see if Lesley was free. Fortunately, she was. And as an added bonus, Zoe was also in the shop. We had a lovely little natter and enjoyed the cake I brought. All too soon I had to head back home to do some work.

I thought I had made plans for Tuesday evening. My friend Ron has recently moved into a new home and he wanted to show me around. Unfortunately, he contacted me to say he was not feeling up to it, so I had to make another plan. Amuse Cafe has a regular quiz night on the second, third and fourth Tuesday of every month. I had never been before, but have wanted to go for a very long time so this was the perfect opportunity.

After a day of work, I had a lovely hot and relaxing bubble bath and put on a new set of clothes. I decided I needed to be warm so once again that meant my designer ‘butterfly’ jeans, the grey polar neck top, a scarf and a leather jacket, paired with matching brown stiletto ankle boots.

I did not have a team, but I thought I would take a chance, rock up and hope that someone would take pity on me, a lonesome tgirl about town.

It worked! Dirck was an amazing host (as always) and convinced one of his long-suffering patrons, Gareth, to abandon his usual teammates and join me instead. It turns out that both Gareth and I enjoyed similar tastes in witty repartee. We were also a good combination as I knew stuff he didn’t know and he filled in my considerable knowledge gaps very well. This meant that after the general and specialist knowledge rounds (the specialist theme was science fiction literature, I thought I was okay at science fiction literature, clearly, I am not, when they say specialist, they mean specialist) we went into the final round in first place with a rather comfortable lead. This was unexpected. Unfortunately, the final round was a specialist musical knowledge round in which you had to identify a song, the artist and the album the song first appeared on, by listening to the first minute of the song. Not too hard. Except the genres picked were not ones I am particularly familiar with and the rather evil quiz master included cover versions. We sucked. So, we ended up coming a respectable second place.

I had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Gareth was a great companion and I am just sorry we didn’t do better in the music round we could have won! Anyway, a miss is good as a mile and as my surname means silver, I suppose I should be happy with second place.

Before the quiz started I had a lovely meal at Amuse. As always, the food was reasonably priced, unpretentious and tasty. I really enjoyed my beef burger. The chocolate brownie I had for pudding was delicious.

Look out for part two coming soon.