Mr & Mr

I have never understood the desire some people have to be seen as normal, because normality doesn't exist! We all have unique individual lives, and we all have different preferences and desires, so what exactly is normal? The people who I have met throughout my life that do everything they can to be seen as 'normal' are odd just for wanting to be something they are not.

I love the fact that we are all different, but some are a little more different than others, though. I'm recently back from yet another jaunt to warmer climes. This is becoming a habit that I don't want to stop. While touring we tend to pick hotels that don't really cater for the British as I can't be bothered to listen to the incessant moaning about the very things that I go on holiday to find. Different culture, food and people. But while we were on holiday I did come across some characters that would not be out of place in my 'Twisted Minds' series of books.

I had noticed a family one evening while in a restaurant. There was a young boy and a daddy and an extremely attractive mummy. She wore a short skirt and had a perfect figure and was very good looking. But because of my work I have counselled many people from many different walks of life and with many different problems, and I could tell that Mummy would have, at one time, been Daddy!

Once you have worked with transgender people you learn to recognise certain traits that they have, and Mummy had all these traits, even though she was stunning to look at. But the Daddy of the group was straight out of a seventies British comedy show. They were a German family and the daddy dressed in a pseudo-sailor's outfit complete with hat and wore a monocle. He did strike me as the type of man that may attach electrodes to your nipples as you slept! But they seemed quite happy as a group so what the hell? I did tell my wife that they lady may not be all that she seemed but my wife just laughed and said, not for the first time in our marriage, that I didn't know what I was talking about. I was so sure that I said, “make a bet with me and name your prize”. We often do this and the prizes are not really the sort of thing that should be written up in a blog. Well my prizes aren't!

We came across this family quite a few times while we were out and about and we always had the same "she is/she's not" discussion afterwards. We named them "Mr & Mr" mainly because of our lack of imagination. I constantly teased my wife about her forfeit when I proved her wrong to which she always answered, “get your wallet ready for some serious shopping.”

It wasn't until the night before we were due to fly back home that the bet was settled. We were entering a bar that was up a flight of very steep steps. My wife had got halfway up the stairs when this lady came walking down. I can't stress enough just how attractive this lady was she was always well dressed and had a stunning figure. My wife stood to one side and gestured to the lady to pass to which she turned to my wife and in a deep husky voice said, “Danke” to which my wife replied, “Oh shit!” The woman looked at my wife perplexed at her remark, but I couldn't help but laugh.

Later my wife said that she couldn't believe that that woman was a man to which I replied, “She's not, she's a woman, admittedly with a deep voice, but a woman none the less.”

There are lots of different views about transgender - whether it is a real trick of nature or whether it is a form of mental illness. The brains of transgender people that have left their bodies to science do show some differences but there hasn't been enough study to confirm that there is a real difference. Also there are studies that show up to sixty five percent of people that undergo corrective surgery regret ever doing this, lots wanting to reverse the changes.

I think that if people feel they need to change and it's the only way they can feel complete then it should be an option that they have. It's a very difficult decision for a person to make even though they themselves may not think so. But for me, you only get one shot at life so you should try to make it as happy as possible and if changing your gender enables you to achieve this, then I don't see why not after lots of counselling.

Well as for my prize after winning the bet, I'm yet to receive it. If you knew what it was, you may understand why. It is very strange, but I didn't say that I was normal did I?