Who is Sophie?

• Where did she come from?
• Where is she going?

Well… that’s complicated.

Sophie was summoned into tangible existence on 2019-12-31, although strong hints of her can be found many years earlier, at least as far back as 1996, less obvious hints as far back as when she was around 9 or 10 years old, and tenuous hints even earlier. The important bit being that this didn’t appear from nowhere or result from being kicked in the head by a horse.

As the embodiment of girl-mode, complimenting – but separate from – boy-mode, she burst onto the scene in a bright explolsion of enthusiasm and excitement, just in time for the entire world to grind to a halt three months later in March 2020. Two rather frustrating years followed, and it wasn’t certain that she would even survive as an independent and free-thinking entity.

In 2022, she began to emerge once more, but initially much diminished and lacking in confidence, and without the close support from her friend Indie who had emigrated to Malta to beat the brexshit deadline.

November 2022 was for Robert rather traumatic. An escape was urgently needed to provide respite, and thus Sophie got the chance once more to find her feet/heels, and trip the light fantastic on her own account. She has her own looks, and her own signature colour:

Purple!

Sophie contains many elements that have brought Robert to his current reasonably successful position careerwise. Sophie has always been the inner voice which challenges him to do things he’d never otherwise dare to do.

She is braver by far than he could ever be, more outgoing, more gregarious, possessor of far fewer cares about what other people think – especially the ones who would seek to repress people just for trying to express their true selves.

To walk out in public in a dress takes some considerable nerve, and it’s simply not going to work if one cares too much about what others may think of this. She is the source of confidence.

After starting with the occasional night out, she moved on to attending some Pride events (Manchester, Chester, Salford) and then further flung ones (Malta, Rome) and nights out in more far flung places – Bucerești in România, maybe not the most obvious choice, Köln in Germany, and others.

Most friends, colleagues & family were by now aware of their dual-nature, and as time went by Sophie became less and less worried about introducing herself.

Then in January 2024, on a day when they were going into a physical office, a last minute decision – almost on a whim – Sophie decided to attend the office. And it felt great, and was accepted without issues.

Sophie had intended to attend about half of the office-days. But then this happened.

F**k the haters; Sophie’s natural reaction was to be MORE visible, not less.

Now every office-day is a girl-mode day, and she has had to expand her wardrobe considerably with office-appropriate outfits, being a bit of a tarty dresser on nights out, without many office-appropriate clothes at all.

In mid-September 2025, the opportunity arose to pack away all boy-clothes for a few month and live as Sophie full time. This she is loving, currently over seven weeks in. She has flown to  România – to attend an international security conference, revisit a nightclub she likes, visit a castle or two and some historical sites of interest – without bothering to take any fall-back boy-clothes. She felt a bit nervous about travelling to Croatia so flew in boy-mode but since shortly after arriving abandoned wearing boy-clothes and was all the happier for it.

What does all this mean for the future? Well we don’t really know yet, and are determined not to let worrying about this get in the way of Carpe Dies (with an internal adjuration to  “Carpe those Diems”, which makes up in playful enthusiasm what it lacks in strict grammar!)

It will be an interesting journey, even if the Final Destination remains uncertain.

Like Monkey, the nature of Sophie is irrepressible! And of course, Tripitaka the boy priest in the TV show was actually played by a girl.