New Years Eve

Well I should really be going out to Wakefield tonight, but I'm a little tired, and I would be driving, so I've decided to stay in and have a virtual NYE, which most of mine have been for a quite a while now.

Obligatory Brief 2022 Recap 

Xmas-eve-eve pub visit

It's been a year of many firsts - at least when en femme :

Coming out to friends and family

First visit to a group - Chameleons

Nottingham Invasion 

Dancing again, after decades of not 

Making new friends 

Instagram 

Pride(s)

Sparkle

Shopping trips

Cinema trips

Adventure days 

Leeds First Friday

Branching out to other groups - Wakefield

Ear piercings

Laser hair removal

Hair dressers 

It really does sound like a lot when you make a list, and I'm sure I would have not expected to be able to achieve even half of that if you had asked me earlier in the year.

Fortunately I don't really have any major events to be too sad about, I suppose the worst is that I'm still not really any closer to deciding what I want to do with myself. 

The steps I've taken could be still easily explained as wanting to make it easier to cross-dress, and well don't seem to be attracting too much attention from those not in the know about my secret double life.

I really hate waking up and seeing myself in the mirror still 😢 - but if that's all I've got to worry about, I think I have it pretty easy compared to most.

Festivities 

I was dreading meeting up with my in-laws on boxing day, I thought the hair may ring alarm bells, but I actually got complemented on it !  Mother in law even joked I should dye my grey streaks, and wasn't phased when I suggested purple .....

Christmas day was with my parents and brother , our kids , it was all normal, nothing said - I was in man mode of course. But it was as nice as it ever was.

The last few days I've been working on my car - I had cut 5mm off my nails to avoid any questions about those from in-laws or my brother, so it's been easier to get grubby in the garage without breaking them. Still a bit sad they are so short, but I can get stick on ones worst case.

En Femme activities

23rd of December -  Xmas-eve-eve drinks at the local bar

I felt the need to dress, and figured I would pop to the bar on the off chance that people would be there, but there was nobody around that I really knew. So I just nursed a shandy for an hour and chatted to friends online. 

It was still nice, just to be sat somewhere where I felt like I belonged, some nice background noise. It was a nice relaxing hour at least.

29th of December - The Trans-Wakefield support group. 

I had forgotten that it would be on between Xmas and new years, and was glad of a reason to go out.

Turns out there were 'spys' from the Leeds group who had dropped in unannounced. I do find the level of suspicion about other groups quite amusing 😂  - someone warned me of them while I was getting my first drink at the bar.

One of them as a trans man called Sam, who was really nice - only a little older than me I think. Had identified as a lesbian for many years, and only recently come to the conclusion that perhaps it was a bit more than that.

He lives in Wakefield, and I got the feeling that may end up coming to our group as well as Leeds. Looking forward to seeing them again on the 5th. There arn't many in my age bracket, so I sometimes find it hard to join in. Although I did seem to manage to do better this last time. 

We are at a new LGBT meeting place venue 'Our House' , which is near the pub for the next one.  First meeting of the month will be there going forward.

There was a very drunk young CIS lesbian there who gave me some compliments and was quite tactile, possibly the drunkenness takes a little credence of the compliments  - but still better than none at all. She knew I was trans, but didn't seem to phase her. Was a bit worried she was going to fall over at one point. 

As always there was a random dog there too, 'loki' , sort of greyhound-ish looking. I left fairly early, Sam had left earlier to go for a meal, and I had already had two shandys.

Last events of the year

So this weekend was likely the last opportunities for mingling with fellow trans people until the new year. Unless I happen to go to the local LGBT bar for new years eve, but that is far from decided.

I had two outings, Nottingham Invasion on the Friday, then a trip out to Lincoln with Ann on the Sunday.

Invasion

I was meant to have the Friday off, but there is considerable pressure to get year end activities finished
early so nobody has to work over the festive period, so I ended up working for nearly the whole day.

I did still manage to find time to do my nails and have a shower and shave - I waited until the afternoon so it would really be 3 days (had to wait due to the laser). 

With Joanna being at a loose end, I offered to take her along, she had mostly never been available to come along for previous ones. 

It was likely we would venture outside of the 'New Foresters' pub to try a few other places, so I was dressed in a sensible warm blue Next jumper dress that has had a few outings this month, paired with knee high boots to keep the pins warm.

Got down to Joanna's in good time - I took the petroleum powered car for ease.  We headed into Nottingham, parked at the Victoria Centre as normal. I hadn't eaten so I grabbed a cheeky Mc Plant before we cut through the shopping centre to the pub. 

There were quite a few girls there, it can sometimes be quite a small affair, but was well attended. Spoke to Rachel for a bit, and a lady I have not spoked to called 'Joanne' - just to confuse matters. Danielle turned up a bit later on - was nice to talk to her. Joanna seemed to be getting on well with Rachel which was nice to see, she lives in Nottingham but not sure where.

There was a few girls who I knew from LFF who were there, but I didn't really get chance to speak with them. But I see them every month at LFF so will have plenty of other opportunities. 

We did the 'Lord Roberts' which I had been in before at least once - it had some nice beers, will have to ensure we do that again if I am ever staying over to enable drinking. Then we headed to the 'Hockley Arts Club' but it was closed due to a private party. So we went to the 'Six Barrel Drafthouse', had one in there, and then back to the Foresters. 

There was a drag act on there, but think was wrapping up, and was pretty tired, so decided to head off at that point - it was after midnight. Dropped Joanna off, and headed home. Was eating cold pizza in the kitchen at 2am :) 

All in all a nice night - not anything exciting, just a steady one, and nice to meet up with Joanna and Danielle, and introduce Joanna to her local friendly bar - although there wasn't much there for a more refined beer connoisseur :)

Lincoln

Was Ann's last opportunity for freedom this year on the Sunday, so she invited me along to see the bright lights of Lincoln. I've had a few people tell me it was a nice place to visit, and had been on my list for some time, so was nice to finally get to do so.

It was going to be a cold day, so I put on an fairly warm jumper dress, and my big coat and knee highs again.  I also took gloves and a beanie just in case.

Wife wanted her car for church in the morning, so was burning electrons to get there, stopped off at Markham Moor Starbucks on the way there. Paid my 40p to get over the toll bridge on the A57, and got to the car park about 11am.

Met Ann, and we headed up 'Steep hill' which did little to get me warm, but did live up to it's name.

There was a Santa fun run going on near the cathedral, but seemed to be coming to an end, and we could still get through to have a look around. Headed to the café first for a scone and a tea. Then we looked around for a bit, and took advantage of having a camerawoman to get some nice shots for Insta.

Then we headed on out to the castle, but it seemed a little expensive, so we didn't bother with it. Instead we went to a nearby museum, which was free - the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. It had some interesting stuff, and it was warm inside, which was nice :)

Next we headed back down the hill, perusing a few shops here and there on the way down. Then we did the shopping centre, miraculously not managing to buy anything ! 

Then was lunch time so we headed for a Tudor inn that was built on a bridge over the river 'Stokes'.
Had a light lunch in there, I think I had Ham Brie and Cranbury sandwich - it was lovely.

Then some more time around the shops in the lower part, ending up near the Brayford pool, where we had a final coffee and cake of the day at the Costa in the cinema foyer. 

It was past 4 now, dark, wet and the shops were mostly shut, so we decided to call it day and headed
home.  I had to stop off at Markham Moor on the way back, the chargers at Mc Donalds were both in use, so I diverted to the Inn on the other side of the roundabout -  which was available, and did a top up there.

The range estimator is way off in the winter, so I made sure to get at least 20 miles more than I needed. I was driving at 65 most of the way back and only had 10 miles left when I got home, so had eaten into the contingency as expected. Not sure it would have made it at the speed limit.

Didn't sleep too well last night, too much caffeine after midday :) - but it was a fun day. Definitely want to go back in warmer weather.

 

 

What Zombies Can Teach You About Fuddle

I couldn't think of a title, so I used a generator 😁 , I was pleasantly surprised....

Thursday the 8th of December , Chameleons Xmas Fuddle 

Changing room selfie

Was really looking forward to this, as figured it would be well attended, and also Joanna was going to be there - it had been quite a long time since we met in person. I had some boots I had been meaning to let her have for ages.

I also had some nice dresses that needed an outing. I had originally decided to wear a silver sequin one I had bought while shopping in Leeds the week before, but after getting ready, and modelling for my long suffering wife, our collective opinion was that it was a bit too much.

I have no objection to wearing xmassy dresses throughout the year, so perhaps it will get out in January.

I spent a while getting my makeup on, I haven't actually worn eyeshadow a great deal recently, but had plenty of time so did a split pink and blue look I had seen someone on Insta do, think it turned out pretty well.

Ended up changing into a lovely quiz black diamante dress which I was also chomping at the bit to wear out. I have a lot of dresses, but I REALLY like that one. 

It is a pain in that you get foundation over the neck taking it off, but have found shaving foam to be good at getting it out.

I do really need to try and tame my waistline for it, but December is probably the worst month to start. 

Anyway outfit aside it was a really nice evening, lots of people there, lots of nice food, lovely atmosphere. It allowed the formation of smaller groups, which I find easier to join in conversations with. 

Would put it down as one of the best Chams meetings of the year. I have been continuing efforts to try and get certain people to come along, only really got Ann so far, but resistance is futile and all that.

It snowed on the way back, not too badly. I ended up stopping off at Woodall again. I discovered that if you plug into a unit that is also being used by someone else (some allow 2 cars to charge at once), it still charges slower when they disconnect. So you need to stop your charge, and re-start to take full advantage of the unit's output.

The Weekend

Friday I had the day off, but my son was at home due to lack of teachers, so I decided not to do an adventure day. I did go out for a run in the early afternoon, which meant I was too tired to do anything for the rest of the day 😊

I thought about going out on Saturday night, I even got ready to do so, but with the football being on, I figured it might be dead at my local LGBT friendly bar. So I ended up just doing a load of outfit try-on's, which also gives me some more Insta content.

Sunday I had to work in the morning, and then got the xmas tree up and did some tiding in the afternoon.

Oh and I started a youtube channel too, put one up with more from my foggy day out at Nostel the other day. Not really sure how people are going to find it, so I stuffed the title of the video with keywords.

Keeping them short, as that is the in thing apparently - I had good fun making it, and I take way too many photo's that I could hope to use on Insta or on here, so a good use for them.

Tuesday the 13th

This was my 2nd Laser session, which went really well. I shaved at 10pm on Monday night - I did manage to cut myself though. Likely because it was a new razor  - they want you to use a new one, I think to ensure the ends of the hairs are flat to absorb more of the light. 

I also remember to use my exfoliating sponge too.

It didn't hurt nearly as badly, I think mainly due to it being less sparse, so absorbing less light/heat. She turned it up a bit too.  The jawline was particularly bad last time.

It's been about 7 hours since and it doesn't feel very bad at all, will put some more Aloe Vera gel on before bed.

I have myself booked in for January, she wanted to do the 5th, but that would have been the day before LFF so was no good, so got it for the week after.

Foggy reflections

Tuesday the 29th

I was on leave for most of the week, and it was coincidentally coming up on exactly 12 months since my first jaunt outside the house. I had gone to Nostel Priory, a big old house not too far away.

It was meant to be a foggy day, and I figured it would be nice to re-visit, and get some nicer photo's than the first time I went. My idea was to try and wear as much of the same outfit as I originally had on.

I didn't fancy the wig, as that was pretty bad now, and not really my style. Also my original boots didn't actually fit, and had given me blisters on my little toes, so those were swapped for the gothic-ish biker boots I bought before getting my haircut on the Monday.

But I had the dress and the coat, and the glasses on still, not that you could see much of the dress in the only half decent shot I got last year, 2021 left, 2022 right :

There is a church on the grounds not far off the main path to the house, and I found a nice looking lamppost, with a convenient switch for the budding photographer to make use off - Yet another thing that will be on the list if hell exists. Probably not near the top end though.

I took a lot of shots, and probably far too many with my coat off, it was quite chilly. So I probably only have myself to blame for the sniffles that affected me for days afterwards.

Was mainly using my tripod and Bluetooth remote this time, bit more of a hassle to setup, but a lot better results.

After this, I went to the café at the visitor centre, and warmed up with a nice coffee and a cake. I do love coffee and cake on my adventures. It was surprisingly busy, but managed to get a seat. Nipped to the loo, then decided to head into the woods to take some more photo's. 

I recall feeling truly very happy, it was nice to be back, and to be wandering around not trying to avoid people, trying to say hi to the friendly looking ones. It was very nice to be back and to reflect on how things had changed in the past year. 

The first time was obviously more of an adrenaline rush, this just felt really really nice.

It was getting on, and was getting cold again, and I had nearly run my phone flat, so decided to head back to the car. 

Thursday the 1st of December

This was Trans-Wakefield - I had a cunning plan, Ann was up here early for the LFF the next day, so I had suggested we meet up at my Wakefield group in the 'New Union' an LGBT bar in Wakefield.

There is a quiz on Thursdays nights too.

I don't normally do that well at the quiz, and figured she would likely be a good asset to have on hand for it. Anyway we won !!! - well there were two others helping too. 

I stuffed up the play your cards right thing they do for a jackpot, but I'm sure that's rigged.

I thanked Ann by mercilessly beating her at pool, and celebrating as if I had won the world championships, I'm nice like that. 

But I did give her a lift, so at least she could have a few beers, and I think she enjoyed socialising with the rest of the group.

Friday the 2nd of December - Leeds First Friday

This would be the last month we will be able to use the Marriot hotel bar, as it's been sold to a restaurant , and even if they want us back, it's going be shut for months while they 'renovate' it.

This is a shame, as it was really good for first timers to be able to get dressed in their room, come down and socialise without even having to leave the safety of the hotel. 

I wasn't feeling that good, I had been on cold and flu pills since Wednesday trying to keep my sniffles at bay - my main concern was rubbing all the foundation off on my top lip when I blew my nose. But I managed ok.

Anyway things proceeded as normal, I got a lift in with Ann, and we did coffee, a bit of shopping, ate a tasty bagel at the Flamingo's, more shopping. Then met up with a few girls at Foley's tap house for a few real ales.

I tried a 'sour' , reminded me of my attempt at elderberry wine, not trying one again 😊

My friend Hannah who I had gone to Manchester pride with was coming in on a train, and would be ready by about 4pm, so went back to the hotel to meet up with her. 

We ate at Wagamama's - having failed to get a table at Las Iguanas - I had shredded duck. It was OK, probably wouldn't have it again.

We came back and got dressed for the evening, I had found a black dress with red satin floral design in my wardrobe the previous week. 

You know you have an issue with buying too much when you forget you own it. It wasn't as Christmassy as many of my usual dresses really, but perhaps more classy 😊

Went down to the bar and tried to assist Hannah in finding some more Insta-friends she wanted to try and connect with in 'real life' ™  We were moderately successful.

There was a group photo scheduled for 8:30 - I think because it was the last Marriot one. Somehow ended up at the front - I didn't barge my way there I promise.

After this we did a tour of the usual haunts, Viaduct, Fibre, Smokestack and the New Penny. Did a lot of dancing in the Smokestack. Hannah was a little tipsy, so we decided she should get her to bed. But made sure she got some chips in her first. 

The takeaway was really fun, they were cheering when the order numbers were called, and there was a nice atmosphere in there. Although the chap in front of us was doing his best to ensure that nobody behind made the mistake of ordering the kebab meat.

We got her to bed before 2am, I made her a peppermint tea, got her wig put somewhere sensible, and tried to make sure that she didn't attempt to have a drunken shower, as she wasn't walking too well. 

I was ready for my own bed by that point so headed off to sleep. 

There was a LGBT fair at a hall somewhere the next day, but was pretty tired, so after breakfast and meeting up with Hannah for a coffee before her train, just came home.

Saturday was a bit of a write-off, but worth it.