I'm on my way to Nottingham but it's only an hour's drive so there's no rush. Took a slight detour to Atherstone. The centre is pleasant but I think the sign in front of the church at the top of the market square exaggerates how unspoilt it is
I'm having an Americano and an arogistine in a little Italian café, it's in the red brick building by the phone box in the picture above.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the café is called Sofia's and that the woman who served me (Sofia perhaps) mentioned my bare feet saying she hated shoes too and complimented me on painting my toenails. She was wearing the shoes commonly called barefoot shoes and said they were the closest to barefoot she could get. I think that meant at work where one is in and out of the kitchen all the time with the risk of slipping on spills.
Checking in to the hotel was interesting. I announced that I had a booking under the name I never use on SW. This name is never given to girls. The receptionist presented me with a form to sign, to fill in my car registration number, and to sign again to acknowledge the prohibition on smoking and vaping.
He pointed out that he needed me to write my name next to the one printed on the form. I must have looked a bit confused, as I was, because he went on to explain that he needed my name in addition to the name of the person booking the room. It then dawned on me that I must have passed as fem. So I explained that, no, the name on the form really is me and that although I do have another name that I use it isn't a legally registered one.
Passing isn't the achievement it sounds like though :-)
I was wearing my sunglasses and broad brimmed straw hat at the time just as you see in the selfies on this post so it's not as if all that much face was visible and he is just slightly taller than me so perhaps my Adam's apple wasn't noticeable, it's not very prominent anyway. But the retinol face creams I apply at least once a day have smoothed the skin of my face so that helps too.
In the old days it would have been perfectly reasonable to use any name you wanted, all those Mr and Mrs Smiths having a dirty weekend away from their respective spouses for instance. But these days more and more places ask for government issued ID so you risk complication or at least extra confusion so I stick with the name on my passport when booking accommodation.
So now I wonder: should I tell hotel staff to address me as Nina. It wouldn't be the first time I've done it after all. When I stay in Paignton I always stay at the Great Western and there everyone knows me as Nina I've even booked by emailing from my Nina email account. But it's different there, the proprietress takes a keen interest in all her guests and despite having such poor eyesight that she is legally blind recognizes almost everyone the moment they walk in the door. So it's not quite the same as the big Best Western here in Nottingham.
There are several charity shops in Atherstone, one had a one pound rail but there was nothing interesting that would fit, another had a half price rail and I found a nice white crop top that said it was size 16 which is usually big enough but I only managed to get my head and one arm in it before giving up in case I couldn't get it off again. Found a larger, fuller, top nominally the same size that fitted easily. Was originally four pounds, so now just two. Just 25 pence more than my arogistine.
