I’m here to have a happy time and I hope my presence here manages to make your day just that little bit happier as well. I’ve met some truly lovely people here in Flickr-land. Although I'm just an inconsequential little person, probably the world's dullest and least interesting and my photos are just amateurish snapshots but I hope you won't find me too shallow and dreary. I'm not available by the way, very much and very happily pre-booked and unavailable!! I do not meet anyone. I’m well over 18 (sigh....so way over!). I don't do web cam or text or phoning or any of that clever techy stuff.

I’m mid-fifties and feeling anything from 18 to 99 depending on the day! I’m a definitely-non-scene not-really-passable cross-dresser, transvestite, part-time woman, whatever (choose your own title to fit, they’re just words) who just does it because it is a lifelong and important part of me (and, try as I have, I can’t stop). I am very lucky in that I live in female clothing (I have hardly any male things left and they are worn only on very exceptional occasions), am seldom without earrings and bracelets and nearly always have my nails painted. I couldn't imaging not having a handbag with me at all times, nowadays. However, circumstances limit my opportunities to fully express myself (my wigs and full makeup), which is sometimes a little frustrating and sad-making.

I realised at a very young age that I preferred many feminine things to masculine ones and a substantial part of me is more girl than boy. I have spent half a century battling with conflicting impulses and expectations trying to work out who and what on earth I should be. With a steel toe-capped work boot planted firmly in one world and a pretty sparkly-silver sandal in the other, I veered erratically to and fro, sometimes embracing my feminine tendencies, sometimes rejecting them. Sometimes I dress up and pretend, rather unconvincingly, to be a woman, other times I dress up and pretend, equally unconvincingly, to be a man. In truth I fall somewhere in no-(wo)man’s land between the two genders. I remain a muddled person, but the real difference now is that I am more accepting of the muddle than I used to be. My wonderful wife knows and tolerates Mikaela with an eye-rolling smile of exasperation, I know that I am incredibly fortunate.

But I am also now an almost full time housewife, a role I am finding even more enjoyable than I expected to. I have also been able to largely put my male self away where it is only very occasionally revisited. I now possess a funeral suit and a set of clothes for doing really dirty jobs, but those are now my only male items of clothing. From my pics you will see that my current "male" mode is actually pretty androgynous being comprised of female clothing throughout. I always like to wear earrings and painted nails and my handbag is never parted from me. I try not to take myself too seriously, in either male or female modes, being able to laugh at one self is a prerequisite to staying sane I always feel.

I’m also a little prone to treading on peoples toes, both literary and metaphorically. I never want to upset anyone – I can’t bear being unpleasant, but I am not immune to “getting it wrong”. Just say “Thank you, but that’s ENOUGH Mikaela!”, or even “SHUT UP!” will usually get the message through my thick skull! I’ve worked on building sites long enough to gain a pretty tough hide, so while you’re unlikely to offend me I worry that I may inadvertently trample people's feelings beneath my damned big feet! Things that do offend me include being set on fire and thrown in the river, but in the event of the former I am quite happy to accept the latter as a gesture of true friend ship.

Please feel free to fav’ any of my pic’s, if you so wish. I consider it a complement, not something to be stressed about. An interesting fact regarding the favouriting of pic’s is that regardless of how many people add a friends or family photo to their favourites, it will ONLY be visible to those people that YOU have granted access. Try signing out and looking at your own favourites. So many profiles come laden with dire threats of blocking and so on. If I visited someone’s house and, on arrival, was handed a sheet of fierce dos and don'ts, penalties and punishments, I would turn round and walk away, I do the same with Flickr, life's to short for all that nonsense. The whole blocking thing is tedious. I’m so bored with endless threats of blocking in profiles. If it makes you happy to block me go right ahead. The only people I ever block are either aggressively rude individuals or people with illegal or profoundly distasteful content. Happily these people are only a tiny minority.

I enjoy some banter on my pictures, I’m always happy to laugh at myself. But please don't be toooo offensive or hurtful. I may look like a bag of cheap firewood but I'd prefer not to be reminded of it too often! PLEASE don't leave crude comments with words like F*** and C*** on "open" pics. I’m no prude (I’ve work on building sites with some pretty choice individuals) but my family members look in here and also I don't want to be deleted by Flickr because of crude comments. If you do then please don't be offended when I remove them.

Smile...it makes you look good and feel even better.

Mikaela.

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The legal bit...

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The even more boring bit:

People I admire:

Stephen Fry

Derren Brown

Christopher Hitchins

Douglas Adams

Paul O'Grady

Eddie Izzard

My favourite films:

TransAmerica

Billy Elliot

Kinky Boots,

Pride

Ice Cold in Alex

Paddington

The Third Man, .

Four Weddings..

Love Actually

Forrest Gump

The BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (Mr Darcy!....sigh! Love Colin Firth!)

Dam Busters

Hell Drivers (David McCallum....sigh!)

Brokeback Mountain

The Sound of Music

Most things Stephen Fry has done.

Every thing that Derren Brown has ever done! Oh he is both brilliant and sooo cute!

Favorite music:

Most of the Beatles

Hollies

The Seekers

Dusty

Cher

Sandie Shaw

Some Bowie

Bronski Beat

The Sweet

Slade

Righteous Brothers

The Osmonds (yes....’fraid so!)

ABBA

BeeGees

Rolling Stones

Bob Dylan (earlier stuff)

I LOVE Wurlitzer cinema organ played well (listen to Phil Kelsall at Blackpool...oh wow!)

Lots of classical

Chopin piano concerto 2

Rach 2 and 3

Elgar cello concerto

Elgar Pomp and Circumstance and Enigma variations

Beethoven Emperor

Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade (Fabulous!!)

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings

All of Vivaldi mandolin pieces

Tchaikovsky's piano pieces (actually, pretty much everything he ever wrote! Especially his Liturgy of St John Chrisostom).

All of Strauss waltzes.....oh my how I wish I could dance!

Dvorjak....pretty much everything

Pretty much everything Mozart ever wrote

Shostakovich (Piano concerto 1..2nd mov!! Divine!!! and his Jazz suites....get them and enjoy!)

Schumann, Mendelssohn and Boccherini, all great.

I'm no expert, just a happy listener. I have a few favs but know very little about the world of classical music.

Recent discovery: Khachaturian third symphony, just dazzling!

I just tried this quiz: www.quizfarm.com/quizzes/new/TristanWagner/should-you-be-...

You Scored as Either

You brain is neither specifically male, nor female in the way you perceive your surroundings. As bad as this may sound to some, it can easily mean that you are capable of combining both gender aspects to your advantage. Rather than being genderless you are possibly able think freely. This does not mean that you are bisexual or androgynous or indecisive, but it might.

Either86%

Female82%

Male32%