Blogs

Last week, all unnoticed passed my 18-month anniversary. Wow! It has both really been 18 months and has only been 18 months. Chrysalis has come so far.

Basingstoke! That’s what this week is about. Time to think and plan and talk about Basingstoke. I have a full day up in (hopefully) sunny North Hampshire to focus on development of our support in the area. We are actively looking for volunteers so if you are interested in getting involved with delivering the groups, speaking at the groups or helping promote us then drop the office a line.

Wow! What a day at our conference! The trials and stresses and blind panics in the lead up to the 9th April just melted away. I hope that you all saw SuperDawn’s cloak, what a stunning amount of organisation. Thanks to everyone who volunteered, compliment after compliment did I hear about how good you all were, how well informed and attentive.

Ooops, sorry about that. Sometimes these 80s references slip out before I can stop them. Sorry, not sorry. Conference tomorrow! Last chance for tickets www.chrysalis-gii.org/conference Doodle ooh do, doodle ooh do do! OK I’ll stop now, happy April, my gift to you is a brand new ear worm.

The world is certainly turning, are trans people more visible? For sure. Is it safer to be visible as a trans person? Well sometimes. Our friends are accepting, our company likely has a policy, even our family know a bit about what we are trying to describe to them, but still the papers use us to sell their stories. I was really saddened to see the article in the Economist with a click bait headline that was a sucker punch to anyone who considers bodily autonomy to be a basic human right. No trans people’s bodies are not there for your entertainment, your edification.

I can’t start this week’s blog without a recognition of the horrific attack in New Zealand, in sadness of how extreme views, of division rather than acceptance and inclusion have gained such ground recently. It filled my feed over the weekend (no mean feat considering I live in a trans echo chamber most of the time thanks to algorithms) and was the main item on the news as I drove into work.

Spring has sprung, the birds are singing, the sun is shining and yes, the temperature is below zero and my feed is full of people in other parts of the country dealing with blizzards and road closures. Here we are nearly 17 months into Chrysalis’ transition and the ideas are certainly not stopping.

The week before last the trustees and I sent cards to our founders telling them our wonderful funding news, this week it was great to get emails from Laura and Dianne sharing our joy. The ideas aren’t showing many signs of stopping any time soon.

Today's blog is going to be short and sweet as I have half an hour to get it written before Sammy joins the team today for our Sharepoint training. Office 365 implementation is on track and every day we get that bit faster and more knowledgeable.

Sometimes it is hard to know which piece of good news to start with. For those of you who are ardent followers of our page and the Daily Echo you will know that on Wednesday Jon, Steph and I met with Matt from the National Lottery Community Fund to confirm Chrysalis’ award of £283k funding for core costs over the next five years. Wow! The culmination of many months of hard work which started on the 7th Dec 2017 and a massive thank you to all the players of the National Lottery who made it possible.

Today in the adventures of Tiny Car – what to do when your owner forgets their laptop on the way into work? Thank goodness it is half term and a swift round trip was possible otherwise I fear you would have been waiting rather longer for my blog than usual.