A Lucid Moment

It's been really quite a long time since I've properly injured myself. Thursday evening, which mostly consisted of a lovely friend appearing from Sydney and taking me out to dinner, concluded with me clumsily letting the front wheel of my bike slot into wet tram lines on Flinders St. The bike went abruptly to the left and I put my foot down to save myself. I was still going fast enough that it meant I came crashing down on my right heel with substantial force leaving me with a bruised heel and my ankle and knee so sore when I woke up yesterday that I could barely walk. Given that roller derby tryouts were today, this was extraordinarily bad timing. I went anyway. I was *not* silly enough to attempt skating although had I taken the skates with me, my frustration levels watching everyone else skate were high enough that I might have had a go. Going was a good thing regardless. It meant I am now firmly on their radar and will be welcome to attend whichever training session coincides with me feeling up to skating again which might even be Tuesday given how much improvement there's been over the past 24 hours. The people are nice, the training looks fun and the itch I had to get out there with everyone else today was strong enough to suggest that this whole exercise was a very good notion.

I spent the time on the train to and from derby today finishing up the most recent Stephen Hunt novel 'The Rise of the Iron Moon' I am very much enjoying this series and apparently the next book comes out next month. I'm just about to start in on the Julian May trilogy that I ordered recently as the first book conveniently appeared in the mail yesterday. This should comfortably see me through into March as there are three rather substantial books in the series so unless I devour them voraciously the degree to which I'm filling my evenings at the moment should mean that they'll last me at least that long.

My new housemate made curry again tonight which she does really very well indeed. Another book I ordered recently is "Wild Sourdough" which looks like a lot of fun. I think the communal kitchen doings part of what I was hoping to have in a sharehouse will come to fruition, especially as the weather gets colder and I'm really rather looking forward to this, especially as this place is big enough and possessed enough of a dining table to invite people over to share such doings. Fun!

There is a plan to see the Mad Square exhibition at the NGV tomorrow which I've been eyeing as a thing for ages. This should be a fun thing to see and potentially a nice consolidation of a new friendship. I really ought to spend the evening doing something about starting to clean the old flat though...I only have a couple of days left for that exercise. I think I will have to go there immediately after work on Monday to get some of that done.

At random intervals over the past few months the subject of skating has come up. I used to skate quite a lot when I was a kid and for a short time back in the early 90s a pair of rollerblades was my primary form of transport. I adore skating; it's a beautiful, fluid, graceful form of movement that makes me feel all deft and stuff. At the Midsumma queer festival recently someone handed me a flyer for a roller derby event that was on tonight so I bought a ticket and went along to have a look. A little more body contact than I usually like in a sport but it still looks awesome and I'm led to understand that they're quite trans friendly. I collared one person to ask about it who sent someone else over to have a chat with me and the upshot of it is that there's a tryout happening on the 18th of Feb. I shall buy myself a mouthguard and give it a shot and if the stars all align which I rather hope they will, I'll then commit to the expense of skates and pads and helmet and find out how enjoyable and beneficial skating training 2-3 times a week can be. They don't have a policy with regards to trans people but it's apparently something that's under discussion and all looking promising in that respect. The rule of thumb seems to be that I'd have to have been on hormones for 12 months and I passed that mark a couple of months ago so that's all fine.

It really does look promising. There's a pile of associations and connotations there that tell me I can be both athletic and feminine and they people will accept me as both.

So a fun afternoon watching that followed by an evening of sitting about chatting at a party marred only slightly by the temporary filling I had put in a long time ago finally giving up and falling out. I should probably have a less temporary one put in. Expense. Grr.