Ariane’s biggest local challenge yet: to attend a festival in her home town, where she might actually see people she knows. Would they recognise her?
For strategic reasons, I moved my wardrobe off-site a couple of weeks ago. When I say ‘wardrobe’, I mean the suitcase full of Ariane gear that I’d been keeping in the loft. Scores highly on convenience, but there’s always the risk of someone finding it. Also it means going out dressed from home, and coming back dressed, when the neighbours might see or my family might get back before me.
So I am now based in bedroom in a friend’s house two miles away. Ariane’s outfits are now in a proper wardrobe, which is better for them. It does mean that I can’t transform myself at the drop of a hat. I have to travel first. But the peace of mind counts for a lot more. And I have a key so can turn up any time.
Late morning on Saturday, I got made up and dressed. The local festival was all afternoon. I thought I’d better get some practice first so I drove to Guildford. In the castle gardens was their own small festival, Guildford in Bloom, although I didn’t go there for the flowers. It was picnic time for local families with a few displays and shows. I parked in the centre and walked through the gardens. Lots of people there, lots of families, but no one gave me a second look. It felt very natural to be Ariane in that busy place. In fact it felt like being myself. Various people gave me flyers but no one stared.
I walked up the High Street (also crowded) to Holy Trinity, which was open, not for church business, but for an art exhibition. Lots of paintings for sale. I had a look round the exhibition. There were a few people there, but as in the castle gardens, no one I knew.
There was nothing else I could do in Guildford, so I drove back stopping off at St Mary Shalford. I knew this would be open. The church was empty so I had another look around and left with a parish magazine.
By now I felt confident enough to tackle the big one. It was Godalming Town Day on a large field in the centre with many stalls and activities. The place was heaving. I parked nearby and walked in. Here too, I found that no one looked at me. If you want to go unnoticed, walk into a crowd.
As it happens, the only people there I knew were the ones I most wanted to see. My friends are local politicians and serial office-holders. So I met one mayor and one ex-mayor. They are active in the Lib Dems, who had a stall, so I went up to them and met some of their colleagues.
One thing I was keen not to do was appear in any photos which might be published. There was a photographer from The Guardian at the show. This is Jeremy Hunt’s constituency, and his seat is one of the Lib Dems’ key targets, so the media interest starts now, a whole month ahead of the election. She took a picture of Jeremy with my Lib Dem friend and also someone in red Labour t-shirt. That’s going to be worth seeing when their piece is published in a couple of weeks. Despite their political differences, the local party candidates all seem to get on well.
Interestingly, there was no Conservative stall at the town day. Nor have I seen any blue posters anywhere. When Jeremy left, no one asked to talk to him. His election material has very little to say about the Prime Minister or the national party. Instead it’s all about Jeremy the local MP. The message is: Vote for Jeremy, or Keir Starmer gets Downing Street. That’s a repeat of 2019, except that Keir Starmer isn’t in the same league as Jeremy Corbyn if you’re looking for a bogeyman to frighten the children.
My friends introduced me to the town clerk. This is someone I know in boy mode, though not well. I have met him once or twice. But he didn’t make the connection when he saw Ariane. So that was one small victory.
After a while I’d seen enough so I wandered back to my friend’s house to relax and eventually change. It was quite something for me to appear so publicly in my home town and brave the risk of recognition. One small step for a girl – one giant leap for girlkind.
and katieglover
