Speech Therapy - First Session

This morning was my first proper session at the speech therapist. I've been a few times to have a chat and to see how she can help but today was the first actual session.

I'm quite heartened by the initial assessment. Apparently my voice is quite soft and I'm breathing correctly when I speak. Ever since I sung in bands I have had an interest in voice and I think between this, teaching and presenting, which I have done quite a lot of, has helped with breath control.

It seems as if I am at a good starting point. So we went through exercises to start to raise the pitch to a comfortable and sustainable level and once this is done then I think we will work on resonance.

I had to smile though. Both of us had tickly coughs so we took it easy. The irony of going to speech therapy and both me and the therapist losing our voices did make me smile.

Tears again

I was on tooth fairy duty tonight. My little boy has lost another front tooth. So, as you do, I waited till he fell asleep, nipped into his room, got the tooth (rap it in a tissue, much easier to find) and replaced it with a pound (inflation).

Before that I'd been in my home office/studio playing on the PC and listening to music. So when I got the tooth I went back in, looked around for a safe place to put the tooth, opened a cupboard and found an old packet of photos.

Now when I say old, I mean the late 1960's. All in black and white and a lot of me when I was about 2 or 3. My Mum had had a serious accident at work and was recovering in a sea side convalescence home, so she looked really quite ill, while I looked a bit chubbier than I remember.

The memories came running back, especially when I saw a picture of me with the 2 girls I was friends with at the time. I can still remember wondering why we were treated differently. I can even to this day remember a dream where we were all dressed the same. Since I was no more than 4 at the time I can't imagine it was anything sexual.

Whether it is was seeing my Mum looking so ill or seeing me so young, still to feel the impact of gender dysphoria, I don't know. But the tears just came. I looked at my face, thinking that the only thing I was worrying about was how long I could stay out playing.

I'm happy with the way my life is progressing but sometimes the regret of missing what could have been gets too much.

RIP Peter Christopherson

New Bike

Have just ordered my new bike. After 20 years of using nothing but mountain bikes, I've gone back to a road bike. A Specialized Secteur Sport 2011.

Now, when I did the 50 mile run a few months back I was very pleased with my 4 hrs 45 min time. But I want to do a few more 50 mile runs next year, including the pedal for Scotland run again. I would like to get my time below 4 hrs and using a mountain bike is not going to help. Hence the road bike.

So, as soon as this damn cold starts to shift, it's back to the gym. Maybe I'll even look seriously at my diet this time.

But fear not. Just in case you think I've gone all MAMIL (Middle Aged Men in Lycra), straight after buying the bike Mrs J and I went out to the shops and bought dresses and tops.

Was a fun day.

Remembrance Day Parade

Woke up to find our first snow of the year this morning (if you don't count last winter that ended round about May). The family are still loaded with this horrid cold but at least last night we all slept better. I put an oil burner in each of the bedrooms with some tea-tree and eucalyptus and I think this helped a bit. We've run out of lavender.


Despite being Sunday we were up early though as our son had a remembrance day parade to go to. It was cold, wet with snow still on the ground, as all the local groups met at the local cemetery and then paraded down to the village.

Now I've never been that involved in this kind of thing but with the simple setting and atmosphere it helped to create something quite touching. The weather seemed to go with the lone piper playing a lament.

When I saw my son helping to lay one of the wreaths it was hard to keep a tear away. Thankfully, having the cold meant it just looked as if I was blowing my nose.

I grew up in Glasgow. Anything like this was always bigger and very organised. This wasn't any less well organised and I'd say there were about 100 people there. But somehow it felt quite intimate and for the first time, rather than just going through the motions, it brought it home to me a little of what it means.

The Kids Party

This cold is doing a fine job at making sure I can't sleep. But enough of that...

I've done something I promised myself I'd never, ever do as a DJ. I DJ'd a kids party!

This does somewhat spoil the image of super cool, alternative music DJ. But since no one thinks of me as a super cool, alternative music DJ I don't think much harm has been done.

Mrs J volunteered me for a fund raising night at our sons school. I've got to admit to being nervous. This was quite a step outside of my comfort zone.

Once it got going though I ended up quite enjoying myself. I just DJ'd - no suddenly turning into a children's entertainer. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and they just had request after request. They didn't stop dancing, even when some of them were starting to fall asleep next to the dance floor.

In the end it was a good night.

Will I volunteer to do it again? No! No! No! Will Mrs J volunteer me to do it again? Without a doubt!

Not the man flu

The joys. I have a cold today and so I'm off. Being off though is more to do with my son, who has a cold a lot worse than me. He was up most of the night because of said cold. So he's off and I'm really tired.

I know when I've got a cold as, on top of everything else, I get really hungry. Now, I'm not going to go mad but I think there may be a day of comfort food ahead. Plus lemon and ginger tea. Love that when I have a cold.

As long as no one accuses me of having man flu I'll be quite happy.