Our last few days have been the perfect unwind after a very busy 5 weeks with a rather unexpectedly pleasant evening on Friday with my cousin and family. I have to say when I organised it there was a fair amount of trepidation as apart from an hour in 2015 I haven’t seen my cousin since leaving the uk in 2006 and to say a great deal has happened since then would be an understatement. We drove for one and a half hours from Amanda and Steve’s to Chiswick in Friday night rush our traffic and it was worth every second of it, Dave, Katie and their two lovely girls could not have been more welcoming. When we rang the door bell I have to say I was nervous as I have been seeing anyone for the first time since my transition to Stephanie but once we got over the initial uncertainty of being offered a hand shake which as always I turned down and went for the hug we had a most enjoyable evening. The dinner was excellent, the wine flowed, we enjoyed a full and frank discussion about my journey and I answered many challenging questions which is I think what I have found to be the best way to get my story over and to go some way to explaining how I have felt for the last 40 plus years so thank you for your support and love Dave and Katie, it was very much appreciated and I think brought us closer than we have ever been.
Tomorrow we head for the airport to start our journey back home. On the whole our trip has been good, yes the weather could have been kinder to us and yes I could have done without the two negative reactions which I experienced but we have caught up with over 80 people which I think in the time we had available was a tremendous achievement, sadly there were people we didn’t manage to see but we are back again in April so they will be at the top of my list of visits. One of the best highlights of the trip would have to be the party which Yvonne and Stephen put on for us, it was just perfect, I cought up with so many people I have not seen for years and would not have done so without this event, I can’t even remember the last time I saw some of them but I really appreciate all the support and love we were shown, I also met some for the first time like my gorgeous great niece Darcey which was a lovely bonus, I hope to see lots of them again next year when we are over.
So, it’s back to Australia and the challenge of finding a surgeon who is willing and able to sort my revision issues out, sadly the one I was hopeful of being able to help hasn’t replied to my enquiry so I’m guessing that he is either too busy or not interested in helping but time is short so it will be the first job when we get home. There is always the option of going back to Philadelphia but realistically it would be a huge challenge, one which I just couldn’t contemplate this year so would end up being a bigger job as I would need to be opened up as well. Hopefully we can find someone nearer home willing to take on the job, it has been a big blow to me but I’m sure it is sortable.