I’ve posted a lot of my Bali photos in a Facebook group called Lost Bali recently and people ask if there’s a book of them. The simple answer is yes. Here’s the cover and a couple of sample pages:

I composed this book in software from Photobook, now called Momento https://www.momento.com.au/ The deal is, you buy a 40 page voucher, compose your book on your PC and send it off to Melbourne. They send it to a printer in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and 10 days later it arrives here by post. The cost to me was approx. $40 per copy. I would have added more pages but the cost rose alarmingly, like $1 per extra page. I’ve done a 105 page book on Java, but each copy cost me $270.

Unfortunately, when they changed ownership they didn’t keep my orders, so I’ll need to start from scratch and recompose the book to get more copies. I have the original to work from, of course. I only have three copies at the moment, and one of those seems to be “lost” to someone who “borrowed” it and hasn’t returned it in two years, despite multiple requests!

The gist of all this is that I will take orders for book copies, but I would need to charge $50 per copy. That would get you a beautifully printed copy (I’m very pleased with the quality, and I’m fussy) delivered to your door. Worldwide? I don’t know. I’d have to try it.

I invite expressions of interest, and you would need to provide your mailing address for delivery. If you want to follow this up, please leave a message in the Comment box below, with your email address so we can talk.

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However, that’s not all. I’ve also done an interactive CD-ROM called Journey to Bali. This is like a DVD, but plays on a PC, not on a TV. It consists of chapters and you can go back and forth. Nice Balinese music.

And I’ve also done a DVD version which does play on a TV, but it just plays through, you can’t interact by choosing options.

This has nice music too but not Balinese due to royalty complications.

The cost of these would be $25 including postage to your home address. I produce these myself, so I’m not dependent on any other company.

Here’s a sample:

I made these more than five years ago and in light of new information from the Lost Bali postings, I’ll have to amend a few of the titles. That will take a little time.

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But that’s not all! I’m a bit proud of the Java book I’ve mentioned. Here’s the cover and a few sample pages:

As I’ve said, this is more than 100 pages and weighs at least 1Kg, and is costly, so I may have to re-do it as a PDF book so that it weighs nothing. Watch this space.

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And! I’ve also done an interactive CD-ROM (meaning you can navigate and choose different chapters and pathways) on Japan. That trip was probably the most photographically productive I’ve ever done. The CD contains more than 300 images.

I’m still working on a book and DVD of that trip. One day… So if you want to order or enquire about anything here, pcroft810@gmail.com.

I encourage you to browse my blog. I try to be entertaining and I’m a bit different! Cheers. 😉

PS: one very nice guy called Noel has commented thisly:

I am so happy that there are still more to come🙏🏽
Your pictures are a daily balm to my soul amid all the other images of what we are going through and will likely experience if we as humans do not change our ways.

Wow. Thank you very much Noel.

Holy handbags, Batman. Here’s the new Batmobile. That shine is genuine. It’s been beautifully looked after, and I must pledge to keep it in this condition.

The owner brought it to my place this morning (and caught me still in bed at 9.30am), so we did the transfer papers and I transferred the balance of his price. I must have an honest face or something, because without any prompting from me, he knocked another $500 off the price, making it $3,500.

He’d advertised it at $5,500 with those snarky black alloy wheels and low profile tyres. I asked him what he would drop the price by if he put the original wheels back on. I would have hoped for $1,000 reduction and not expected to get it, but he just thought for a bit and said $1,500. Yowee. I agreed. That made it $4,000. Then today, as I said, he took another $500 off to make it $3,500. Bargain! It turned out the guy is a mechanic, working on Isuzu trucks for a major dealer, so he knows his stuff.

He also said if I wanted to buy the wheels and tyres he’d taken off, he’d sell them to me for $700. Wow. He’s a mechanic and business dealings are obviously not his strong point. I said I’d think it over. Maybe I should buy them, I have got used to their looks.

So now I have to work hard to get the Honda ready for sale. I hope to get at least what I paid for it. That will pay for the MX-6.

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It drives beautifully, of course. It’s a V6 front wheel drive, with four wheel steering. That makes the steering beautifully sharp. On roundabouts where I usually have to slow right down and kinda pull the car around, in this it just sticks to the road and where I point it, it goes. On the freeway entrance at Reid Highway to go north, it’s a 40Kmh tight 270deg LH turn with a tightening radius. In my other cars, it feels as if I have to slow right down or I’ll tip over. Not this. Turn the wheel and it sticks like glue and just goes. Change lanes? Move the wheel sharply and zow! it changes in a second. I love it.

The only thing is it’s an automatic, which is what I wanted, but that doesn’t encourage gear shifts. I note there’s an S setting on the shift, and when I’ve had a chance to read the manual, I hope that might mean S for Sport. I don’t know yet.

Also, I have a very nice Pioneer Android 7″ double DIN car audio unit with digital radio, but the dash in this isn’t designed for double-DIN. It could probably be cut to make it fit, but I wouldn’t do it myself, and frankly the dash is so original and in such nice condition it would be a travesty to cut it. It has a Sony single height Bluetooth radio/CD at the moment, and I actually have a Kenwood single height radio/CD with DAB+ digital stored away too, so it looks like that will be going back into service. The difficulty with DAB+ car radios is that they need a special antenna which sticks to the inside of the windscreen, and the lead has to be fed down the pillar and behind the dash. That’s hard for me to do, so I might have to take it to a fitter.

Also, if I’m selling the Honda, I’ll remove the Pioneer 7″ A/V radio I went to so much trouble to fit. I’ll put the original radio/CD back. It’s a good unit, it’s just that the antenna doesn’t work, so that’s got to be fixed.

That will give me two double height A/V units spare. I might have to buy another car to use them! 🙂

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Parking will now be a problem – three cars in a two car garage, so the Verada will have to occupy the laneway for a while until the Honda goes. I had the Magna out there for six months last year and it wasn’t a problem.

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Yesterday I talked about how I went into the city, Yagan Square and Northbridge, dressed as a woman for the Burlezque performance. Well, to prove it, here I am.

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By the way, just in case you think I’m a weirdo, there are a few of us around:

I don’t mean the car. I did that too, and I pick it up tomorrow. That excitement is still to come.

No, I mean that last night I went to a Fringe Festival event in Northbridge and I went out of my way to be daring. I went dressed as I thought appropriate for the performance. It was a show called Burlezque, a troupe of seven lesbian women performing burlesque on a small stage in a tent, so it was quite an intimate setting. I was seven rows back. It was kind of high class strip-tease for women, very very good. I got tired of all the screaming young women in the audience, though.

I threw caution to the wind and went out dressed out-rageously! I was dressed as a woman, but a very, um, daring woman. I took a couple of very unflattering photos but I dare not post them. Maybe….

And, I took the train into Perth and home again, so I was exposed, unprotected. Yeaaah. But I might as well have been the businessman on his way home from a banking meeting for all anyone cared. I expected trouble from young guys, but nope, nothing. Didn’t even look at me. Bagus!

What amazed me was how, in the city, nobody stared, nobody laughed, no-one pointed. Imagine yourself walking naked in public through crowds. You’d expect stares, yes? I wasn’t naked, but I expected stares and hard looks, yet no-one gave me a second glance. It was a bit disappointing in a way.

However, while walking along William Street, from having a glass of sparkly brut at the Moon LGBTQI bar-restaurant, a strange looking woman was walking towards me. She did a double take and touched my arm to stop and talk, which I was very pleased to do. She was quite attractive, but looked a little zany, wearing a top hat with goggles on it and she was covered in more heavy jewellery than I’ve ever seen on anyone. It must have weighed kilos. Anyway, we talked and we actually kissed a couple of times, which was wonderful. She told me her name and to find her on Facebook, which I’ve done and sent a friend request. She lives in that area and it looks as if we might even have a mutual friend. Anyway, it seems I’ve made a new friend. She’s quite attractive to me.

I was also very pleased that on the way home, a young woman sat next to me and talked to me, asking how I felt and so on. I told her what I was doing and why, and she reassured me and was wonderful about it.

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I think it’s about time I declared that after a lifetime, 70 years of suppressing my desire to dress as a woman, I’m coming out and doing it now. Nota bene, I’m not gay! I call myself a male lesbian, a male who wants to be a woman but who exclusively loves women. Guys, go away.

Those 70 years have been torture at times. I never went out dressed until 2006 and the Cross Dress for Red Cross fund raising campaign, and the subsequent ones in 2007 and 2008. After that, I had mostly lost my fear, but still only did it occasionally. My beard was my disguise and my armour.

However, I’ve noticed a change in society’s attitudes. The constant LGBTQI publicity has made people much more aware of gender fluidity and diversity. I don’t feel any need any more to be anxious or even to fully hide my maleness. I used to fear being caught in a lie, with some male clue showing through, but not now and no-one bats and eyelid any more. On the contrary, I get smiles and compliments sometimes.

This year I feel I’ve crossed a threshold. I nearly always dress female when I go out now and it feels wrong if I don’t. It’s so easy and natural for me. Strange, so late in my life. Oh, all those wasted years when I had to hide it. Aaaarrrrgh. It was hard.

As well, I’ve always had gynaecomastia, prominent man-boobs. I hated it when I was younger and it caused me terrible embarrassment. Going to the beach was an ordeal. I used to swim with a T-shirt on in an effort to hide my boobs. Unsuccessfully, of course. The benefit, though, is that my skin has not suffered sun damage, especially my complexion. I have the smooth skin women would die for. I have the no-wrinkles gene. I hardly need to do any makeup, actually, just a light liquid toner and nice lipstick. When I’m made up, I look pretty damned pretty, if I say so myself. Too bloody over weight, though, but if I lost too much weight, I would develop loose skin. Hah.

And man-boobs? I’m 24DD in bra size! I can easily find bras in that size, too.

Funny, on three occasions while I was working, in my thirties and forties, my fellow techs said, “Gee Pete, when are you going to start wearing a bra?”

The irony is that I would have loved to wear a bra. I yearned to do it. But I had to keep my deep, dark secret. I couldn’t tell anyone. Especially not Mum! She would have been all over me, trying to show she understood and probably trying to help me dress and do makeup. She wanted to interfere. It was hard, very hard.

The irony is, too, that when I’m dressed and made-up, with my natural hair, when I look in the mirror, there’s Mum looking back at me. All my aunts used to say, “Oh Peter, you look so much like your mother!” As a boy and young man, I hated it! But now I can see it.

But that’s over and I’m here to state that if you meet me, I will probably be dressed as a woman now. My neighbour knows and we have girl-talks. The funny thing is, it used to be almost impossible to find women’s clothes to fit me, but women have, er, grown to Plus Sizes so I have no trouble now. I’ve also completely lost my fear and anxiety when buying female clothes, and I haunt the racks of specials in the larger sizes for bargains. Easy!

So there, it’s out and I feel good about it. At last!!!!!

Oh, the stories I could tell.

As well, how lucky I am to find a partner who is completely with me in this. If I had to hide it from her, it would be intolerable. I’m wearing one of her dresses in the Moon shot above. We can share clothes! I bless my stars and her. Thank you, V! Thank you, thank you.

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So finally, I can post this picture:

How about that?

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PS: I’m picking up the red Mazda MX-6 tomorrow. I’ll have to dress male, though, unfortunately. My black stick-on long fingernails from last night might give me away, of course… 😉