About Sophie

Trials & tribulations of my increasingly full-time girl-mode.

sophie @ baskerville.net

Category: Girl-Mode

  • Don’t Stop Me Now

    Seven weeks of full-time girl-mode and it’s going great. How I feel is simple… I’m burnin’ through the sky, yeahTwo hundred degrees, that’s why they call me [Sister] FahrenheitI’m travellin’ at the speed of lightI wanna make a supersonic woman of you After Queen, “Don’t Stop Me Now” It has been a very busy few…

  • Croatia Beckons

    Freshly returned from România, now off to Croatia for a week, most of which will be work. Some play. And some (finishing my late BCC2025 write-up for a start) a combination of the two. I don’t yet have a great feel for the level of open acceptance of the non-binary in Croatia. The larger cities…

  • BCC2025 Diary – Part 3

    Day 1 – Monday Slightly more business-oriented attire today. A little nervous, but also feeling quite confident; a curious combination – like Marmite flavoured Toothpaste (pastă de dinți cu aromă de pastă de drojdie, best I can describe it if unfamiliar with this rather peculiar British delicacy! The Marmite, that is. Not the toothpaste.) The…

  • BCC2025 Diary – Part 2

    Day 0 – Sunday Sunday is insanely busy. It’s going to be an approximately 760km round trip of over 10 hours driving. But I like a challenge. We’re heading outside the capital into less cosmopolitan territory. And one of the stops is a Catholic Cathedral (for historical rather than religious interest). So a significantly more…

  • BCC2025 Diary – Part 1

    Day -1, Saturday Early Start A long day. 0300 alarm, an hour earlier than needed for boy-mode, 0500 depart for Liverpool John Lennon Airport „Above us only sky”™️, arrive in booked parking area 0615, walk a whole 25 metres to the terminal. Luggage check-in opens shortly after, suitcase a whole 1.5 kg less than the…

  • Happy Sophie-Day

    Five years ago today, on New Year’s Eve 2019, was the first time that Sophie emerged for a proper night out. Accompanied and supported by my amazing friend Indie, without whom Sophie might never have been more than an idea never realised because of fear and lack of confidence. Fear doesn’t even really convey it;…

  • Sophie Office Days: 1-30

    “[…] you are the only person I know who could wear a tutu to work and carry it off” (Day 14!) Now Sophie is confident enough to go into an office environment, she has to find suitable non-repeating outfits which won’t match anyone else’s. Sounds simple. It isn’t. So here we are: 30 days, 30…

  • We need to talk about… Clothes Shopping!

    If you’re a man with a female partner, then when you’ve read this article ask them to read it too and see what their reaction to it is. If you’re a woman with a male partner, then when you’ve read this article ask them to read it too and see what their reaction is. Boy-mode…

  • Stepping Out of the Shadows

    As Sophie gradually & progressively steps out of the shadows and into the daylight, she thought it time to give a bit of a shout-out to a few small businesses which have greatly assisted her, one way or another.

  • Selective Recollection

    Memory is a truly amazing and complicated thing. The range and nature of things that we do, and do not, remember, is a confusing mess. This came to mind recently because of a specific recollection of mine. Some people I know can tell you what they ate in detail on any day stretching months or…

  • Nailing Technology

    Exciting and new (to me, and looking relatively new for everyone – but I don’t actually know how long these have been around) nail adhesive technology. There are a few things about nail glue that I have found rather frustrating. Firstly, it is fundamentally superglue – it’s the same chemical cocktail. But whereas superglue comes…

  • Size Specifics: Shocking Stockings

    More clothes size woes, but with a sneaky solution

  • Latent Creativity

    Saturday 2023-05-13 brings…. The Eurovision Final! Having singularly failed to obtain tickets for the event itself in Liverpool, I am instead travelling with some friends to the great City of Manchester to watch on a big screen in the VIP Lounge of a bar in the city centre. Manchester, especially the city centre, is extremely…

  • Why are some people so scared? ❄️❄️❄️

    Warning: narrow minded individuals will be grossly offended, so stop reading here eh? So often it seems like prejudice against people being who they want to be is driven by fear and insecurity. Fear amongst those who feel threatened by difference. Insecurity amongst those who are scared that they might actually be different themselves and…

  • The Big Question

    Everyone wants to know, but not many know how to ask, or dare to ask This might end up quite long, so here’s the TL;DR “Much to the confusion of many, I’m a straight man who like to crossdress as a woman some of the time, but not all of the time. This appears to…

  • Stranger In A Strange Land

    Circumstances find me alone in an Eastern European capital for several days with very limited grasp of the language and even that only really extending to the written form. Not a specifically LGBTQ+ friendly country, although not a specifically LGBTQ+ unfriendly one either, at least in the capital – the provinces are likely to be…

  • Sunday, Bloody Sunday

    To go out for a night in girl-mode I have to travel some considerable distance from home. The stark reality is that there are not a huge number of areas where I feel both safe and welcome. Some of that might be an abundance of caution, but I’m not intending to become reckless. Even so,…

  • ̶B̶l̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶H̶o̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶ Xmas Parties and Revelations

    An Xmas meet-up of around 10-15 former colleagues presents both opportunities and worries. All the ladies in the group except two already know about Sophie. Only one of the men though – and that was accidental (see this article) although he was on the list I was planning to tell. That left a substantial number…

  • 1̶2̶ ̶Y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶S̶l̶a̶v̶e̶ 12 Days in Girl-Mode (2/2)

    1̶2̶ ̶Y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶S̶l̶a̶v̶e̶ 12 Days in Girl-Mode (2/2)

    When the opportunity arose to spend 12 days in girl-mode away from home staying with a good close friend and attending a series of Pride events, it felt kind of scary yet kind of exciting.

  • 1̶2̶ ̶Y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶S̶l̶a̶v̶e̶ 12 Days in Girl-Mode (1/2)

    1̶2̶ ̶Y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶S̶l̶a̶v̶e̶ 12 Days in Girl-Mode (1/2)

    When the opportunity arose to spend 12 days in girl-mode away from home staying with a good close friend and attending a series of Pride events, it felt kind of scary yet kind of exciting.

  • Half Life of Glitter

    Glitter can look fantastic, but it has a few drawbacks. The most obvious one is that it gets everywhere and is almost impossible to get rid of. I’ve turned up to an office in boy-mode before only to discover (because someone told me!) that I’ve got tiny sparkly highlights on my face from glitter –…

  • Design Annoyances: Petrol Station Card Reader

    “Please remove your card” the screen says. And this is where it all goes horribly wrong.

  • Gender Wage Gap Thoughts

    The gap between earnings for men & women is a complex & tricky area. It’s difficult to compare like-for-like when the types of work are so skewed between the genders in the first place.

  • ♂ Guest Editor

    Today I was invited, rather surprised and bemused, to guest edit an item on Sophie’s blog.

  • Bathroom Bingo / Restroom Roulette / Lavatory Lottery / Toilet Trepidation

    The question everyone either asks me, or wants to ask, is this: Which toilet do you use when out in girl-mode? It’s a valid simple-sounding question. And the short answer is: “It depends”

  • Giving Up Some Privilege

    In girl-mode, I basically give up my male privilege – a surprisingly real thing despite those (men) who deny it exists. Maybe they should try living as a woman for a while to experience it from the other direction. This doesn’t mean that I don’t retain significant privileges though; white privilege is also real (and…

  • Pride. And Prejudice.

    Pride All the Pride Events which I have attended have been welcoming, friendly and diverse. Of course, they take place in real world cities & towns where not everyone is as welcoming or friendly. But it’s still much better overall here in the UK than in many parts of the world, even with the attempts…

  • A Few Days Away…

    ….in girl-mode. Taking the opportunity to visit a Pride Event in another country felt a little daring but… well, if you’re not living life on the edge, you’re taking up too much space, right? Liquids and gels With the best will in the world, I cannot contemplate trying to take make-up through in hand-luggage. Which…

  • A Question for Men

    Have you ever complained about the time any woman has taken to get ready to go out? Have you ever felt frustrated by this time, or wondered how it could possibly take so long? If you’ve never tried it, then you simply have no idea. The expectations (by society, by partners, by everyone) to look…