Diary

This month I had to work an extra shift at the bar on our monthly T&T-evening, because we had to man two bars instead of one. We had many special guests this evening. The reason for that was we had a very special event: The official presentation of the first book by Loes Vlaming, a Dutch transsexual novelist. Her book is called "Leven tussenin", which means "Life inbetween". I was stationed at the upstairs bar, in the hall where the event took place, so fortunately I could see everything that happened and I was able to chat with Loes and her publisher.

The official happening started around 9 PM. Yvon introduced everyone and then there were speeches by the publisher and by Loes herself. Loes read a few pages from the book to us about a visit to a transgender support group in Houston Texas, but also about her memories of a visit to the same support group one year earlier, when she was not as passable as she is now. At the time two policemen stopped her and gave her a difficult time. They addressed her with "Sir" and threatened to closely investigate what was real about her and what wasn't. Only her Dutch ID-card prevented the situation from becoming really nasty. I will tell you more about the contents of the book in my 39th column...

Of course I bought it. As a matter of fact I bought two copies: One for myself and one for my parents. Although my parents have fully accepted me as their daughter, it is not always easy to talk with them about difficult subjects. A book like this can help them to understand more about my feelings.

Fortunately DJ-Silvia had recoved enough to be able to take care of the music this evening. By the way, not everybody is pleased by the music and this month people could escape Silvia's loud contribution to the party by going upstairs to the extra bar we had opened for the occasion to have a peaceful conversation. So after the book presentation I soon had a large group of, mainly Belgian, guests at my bar. For them I had to keep the bar open longer than we had planned, but I didn't mind: It was a friendly bunch of people and I could take part in their conversation.

When the upstairs hall had been cleaned up and was close, I still had half an hour left before the community center would close, so I still had plenty of opportunity to dance to Silvia's music on the dance floor.

Previous T&T-evenings: April, March, February, January, December, November, October, September, July, June, May, April 2005, March 2005, February 2005, January 2005, December 2004, November 2004, October 2004, September 2004, August 2004, July 2004, June 2004, May 2004 and April 2004.


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