July 2009 Update 2

All my most recent posts have been largely doom and gloom so in an attempt to counterbalance this I will report that life in general is improving. The whole of this year so far has been spent either striving for or recovering from gender reassignment surgery with an unhelpful background of a redundancy threat. It is only recently that I have been able to point to any day or any event this year and say that I enjoyed it.
But now I can. I have been on leave for just over a week. Last week I took the campervan for its MOT and fortunately it passed, so last weekend I took the van, my two canoes and six children, if I am allowed to include Matthew in this number, to the Erewash Canal at Shipley Gate to introduce them to messing about on the water. We all had a very good time. Michelle is not big enough to paddle a canoe so she sat in my lap whilst I did the work. I made some beans in the van for lunch, Rhuarhri's share was eaten by him whilst he sat in his canoe. The only person who fell in was me, a victim of bravado of course. I attempted to slide my canoe from the bank and went straight under, but I did learn that you can swim in a long skirt and the water was not too cold. On reporting that the water was not too cold, Roseanne and Caitlin were soon swimming in the canal, shortly followed by Matthew and Liam. Not having learned my lesson from my earlier failed bravado I showed the brood how to do a running dive from the bank, without, this time, coming to harm. Ryan turned up with Sheba and stopped to have a cup of tea and Liam earned £1 opening the locks for a passing narrowboat. Eventually having had a good day out, costing only three tins of beans, several tea bags and a small quantity of diesel we returned home.

July 2009 Update

I had the operation on 14th April 2009 in Montreal, Canada under the auspices of Dr. Brassard. I am still recovering. The swelling has gone down and I can sit down without a rubber ring but I am still very sore along some of the suture lines which to quote my doctor have not yet granulated.
I have signed a new contract with Weatherford and I am now officially based in South Africa on a five week rotation. This does not mean that I will ever go to South Africa for work. I will probably go directly from home to current projects which need my attention. Ongoing projects are in Gabon and Senegal with upcoming work in Equatorial Guinea.
I will take this opportunity to clarify for all and sundry the nature of my relationship with my partner Kathryn. When I realised that Gender Reassignment was in my immediate future it also became clear very quickly that my relationship with Kathryn was suddenly very different. We no longer have a sexual relationship, Kathryn is one hundred percent heterosexual and since I am no longer able to satisfy Kathryn's sexual needs that aspect of our relationship has become open. Kathryn is free to find a new man if she wishes without any hindrance from me. In fact, I prefer to be with a happy Kathryn than an unhappy one, therefore if she did find a man who made her happy I would, I hope be thankful not jealous.
Kathryn likes to say that we are like sisters. I do not believe that this is true. We have a much closer relationship than that and a much closer relationship than most friends can attain. There isn't really a name for our relationship that fits the reality.
I know that if Kathryn enters into a new relationship, that I may have to leave the family home. I am not thinking too deeply about the ramifications should this come to pass, I prefer to remain blinkered and deal with this if and when it happens.
The negative aspects of my transition are the price I accepted that I would have to pay as the price of being allowed to finish my life as myself rather than continuing to try and fit into the groove dictated by our society.