As I may have related before about how free I am able to dress here in my hamlet and now my main town for shopping is slowly opening up for me there. All of this week I have been dressed the big thing was being so welcomed by our new shop owners, of course on top of this is that all of the village council and too many others to mention (it would get boring to list them) but the big thing for me is up in the village. Over here some of the ex pats form little cliques to the exclusion in a way of others. Now knowing how out I am to the village, yesterday was a good day to expand my horizons so to speak and after lunch in the shade of the restaurant were the proprietors and an expat, I had on my floral jump suit (not a loud coloured bold one but a nice summery pattern on it) I sat down with them had a fizzy soft drink, now the expat who had known about me before but had never seen me dressed before was very pleasant, polite and accepting towards me.
Having finished my drink it was time to leave, but being aware now of how out I am and I hasten to add that I no longer worry about what people may think behind my back, but I have never had any hostility from any of the locals. And the same goes for in town as well.
Well with these facts in mind I have come to the conclusion and totally agree with if there is no need to tell then don't but the expat community here is like a wildfire, a snippet of juicy gossip and before you know it everybody else knows plus the original narrative now totally twisted and bent. So with this in mind there is up in the village is an expat holliday couple who helped me a lot through my divorce, they are friends with the biggest big mouth expat here and I did not want the big mouth to twist things.
I believe that if something needs to be told then it best coming from the original source so after my fizzy drink I visited this expat couple and began explainingg why I dressed, what it meant to me, why was I dressing at this time of my life and so forth, I also went onto explain the reasons why all of us are different in our ways of sexuality and gender levels and so forth. Christine (the wife) asked most of the questions and of course I was totally open with my replies, Charles (the husband) asked small bits and pieces here and there and then totally floored me by saying "I would rather you did not come to my house dressed then". I was literally speechless! I was astounded, having known them for getting on 6 years now, going out to meals with them and so forth, but I was so surprised I had no words to answer at which Christine could tell I was disturbed by this said in no uncertain terms to Charles "you cannot say that to him". To which he looked down, said oh and nothing more. Pleasantries were exchanged and it was time to go Charles did not get up or anything but at the front door Christine gave me a warmer than normal goodbye kiss and added "You should buy an outfit to match the colour of your new car" smiled at me and waited at her front door for me to drive away.
I have not lost anything by all of this, I am liked by too many people to be bothered by one who will not or cannot accept me and the rest of us. but time will tell.
