An interesting 12 days, especially as I didn't "deliberately" take Shirls with us but it seems that she pops up regardless...

Probably the only thing I brought you could consider as being female was my Chinese Silk Dressing Gown which I wore from about night 3 in the evenings in our room.

I was travelling with my family which includes my 7 year old son so it can be a bit of a long haul (11 hours to SFO from Paris) and then trying to adjust to the new time zone in time for an important meeting in Mountain View 2 days later and then off to a Conference in Chicago (and yet another time zone change). In any case, by the time we actually got to Mountain View we were all a bit frazzled, especially my partner who had to master driving on the opposite side of the road and was a bit of a nervous wreck (so was I).

Anyway that all went well in the end, passed a TS at a certain company while there (I think an employee) and we ended up in Evanston forthe conference. This was where things got a little more interesting....

First night I wore my dressing gown my son seemed a bit surprised (he has previously commented that Daddy looks a bit like a girl). In any case i don't remember his specific comment about the dressign gown but I think he perceived it as being a female garment (it's unisex). Anyways we ended up at American Apparel in Evanston as I needed some board shorts (that's swimming trunks to the sales girl who looked completely baffled at our inocrous request) as our hotel had a pool.Anyway my son wandered off in search of items to try..... and returned with a mini dress, a tank top and a thong bottom from a set of swimmers. I asked if they were for Mummy to try on but apparently not (well they were much closer to my size!).

After four days of receiving tactile interpreting at a conference though I was in a lot of pain through my shoulders and ack and had taken too much codeine during the day and ended up constipated, writhing on the floor in terrible pain in my stomach and my back was twinging as well. I described it as an "instant pregnancy". I was terribly bloated and had a very heavy tummy. Ended up with a brief trip to Evanston Hospital where I described the pain as felling like I was pregnant (well I couldn't think of a better way to explain it). Ended up with a bit of a hiccup though as after they referred to me as "she" and "her" for the entire 2 hours they needed my passport which clearly says "Male". There was a bit of flustering about after that....(some apologies too with me having a secret smile).