Catching up with Wakefield

I have missed load of Trans-Wakefield recently, and was feeling a bit guilty. So with pride being on on Sunday the 14th, I thought I could not only go on my first pride march, but also catch up with the Wakefield gang.

I had hoped that they would be marching, and in my head I had imagined meeting them in the pre-march formation, but it turns out that they were mainly at the pub. So I was just in the tail end with a group of random people - some of whom had chosen to make it a more difficult experience by doing it on roller blades.  I think it was only 0.6km in the end, but there were lots of supporters all along the way, and it was a fun experience. 

I wasn't wearing the best shoes, I was running late so grabbed some sandals, but I hadn't worn them before and turns out they don't fit that great. Also it appears from later conversations one of the Chams group had worn the exact same pair to Darlington pride the day before :) - Amazon's finest fashion.

We finished at the pride venue which was a big fenced off carpark, with a main stage, lots of loo's and inadequate number of alcohol vendors  - at least for everyone else, as I was driving. But this worked for me in the end, as I had figured that they would likely want beer, so it might be a good place to find them, and it worked !!

There were only a few there, as the Trans group is based at a pub, which it turned out had it's own stage and acts away from the main pride venue. So we watched the dignitaries open the event, and then went to the other venue via Greggs.

It was very hot day, and sitting out in the sun was not fun even with an expensive trans coloured hand fan I bought. Also the other venue also had beer queues to rival the march itself.  But I mingled with other members of the group for a bit, treated myself to a couple of shandy's, and left later on in the afternoon. I did say to them that I would be along to the next meetup which was on Thursday night , the 18th.

Thursday was a bit of a sh*t show with work, so I nearly didn't make it, even the car was against me, it wouldn't detect my key - but I got there in the end, 10 mins late, but they hadn't started anything.

There has been quizzes, killer pool, darts etc on these nights, but it seems only the quiz was going that night.

It was fun, did manage to play pool for a bit, and won despite potting all my balls, half of his and numerous whites. He was a bit tipsy though .....

I did also finally get chance to have a word with the leader - she normally takes people to one side on their first visit, but there were two of us on my first, and it just never happened. Turns out she was conscious of this and had been meaning to on my next visit. 

She is a slightly older trans lady, with a great deal of experience with assisting with the medical side of things. Her main aim was to find out where I was now, what my plans were and what she could do (if anything) to assist, and to ensure I knew that the group was there for me as a whole if I needed anything. It was really nice - I sort of already knew this, but nice to be told :)

It was nice to catch up with everyone else too, a very pleasant evening.  I expect I will be back again in a couple of weeks.