Flying as Fiona

Well I must have just had so much on my mind on the way out and so much of a hangover on the way back but the whole thing of flying to/from Dublin completely in my new idenity was totally uneventful and free from any problems.

One thing that did happen on the way back was that I set off the metal detector and had to be frisked - not a big deal since everyone seemed to be setting this particular one off and, in the past I've been randomly selected for extra checked before.

However, I did discover why they have a female security officer; when they frisk women they actually do check for the underwire in the bra so it's certainly a little more intimate that the male version. I was a little tired and hungover so I must have seemed a bit odd to say the least. In fact I wondered if they wondered whether someone would go to the extremes of dressing up to get the full female 'security' experience!

Anyway, no problems and everyone seemed to use the appropriate pronouns and I was treated fairly normally.

One thing I did notice was that people in Dublin seem to have less of a problem with overtly staring out you! It did getting annoying after a while so I actually starred back at someone which probably freaked her out - I try NOT to do this as I prefer to not make people feel uncomfortable so they come away from any encounter with a positive view rather than being creeped out.

Will write more about the weekend when I'm more awake - have only got one pic of me in my party dress which is a little disappointing but I'll post that tomorrow anyway. Time to chill out and try and get some sleep.

Hi Honey, I'm Home!

Well, after the rather drunken post I didn't really get a chance to write any blog entries as I was busy packing and sorting everything out for flying back to the UK. FYI: didn't have a bad head in the morning after trying (and apparently failing) to drink myself into oblivion!

Packing took Friday night and a little bit of Saturday morning and resulted in one very heavy suitcase (with almost zero bob-mode clothes in it) and a suit-bag that almost wouldn't fold in half it had so much stuff in it!

Saturday I went for a wander around to kill time before going to the airport, managed to get a few shots of myself; looking both a bit winds-swept (and interesting?) and puzzled - this later look being down to the fact that it was quite bright and sunny and I forgot to take my sunglasses out. Anyway, you can see the pics on my Flickr page, here's one I really like:
So, had to finish my wanderings eventually and get to the airport where I found that the luggage was 27kg over weight (and that's even after stuffing some things into the box my mountain bike was going back in!). Just to put this into perspective, the allowance on Zoom for cattle-class is only 20kg so I had 47kg in actual fact which isn't *that* bad (considering the number of clothes and shoes in there).

Flight wasn't too bad but I can never get comfy and sleep properly on planes. Watched a good film on the flight, Juno, which was quite amusing and moving. Think I dozed through the rest of the flight so didn't get to see any other films.

Finally got back home on Sunday quite tired, jet-lagged and hungry (you don't get much to eat on these flights). And at that point I think I'll leave it there and post again when I've collected my thoughts on being back home!