Level 9A

Thursday

I should have gone to Wakefield in the evening, but the prospect of getting ready just for a few hours out of the house, when I was going to spend the whole of the next day En-femme around Leeds just didn't motivate me. 

I thought it would be better to get packed and sort my outfits out, so I did some try-ons and got my stuff sorted. I was quite pleased with how feminine  my longer hair seemed to make me - even without the makeup. I had also shaved in case I did suddenly find motivation so I guess that also helped.

Friday - Leeds

Daytime

I spent a while doing my eyeliner wings, as is my way - so was ready half an hour later than I had hoped to be. I managed to get in the car, with only about 5 mins of OCD door checking, then repeating the checks, then checking the hob, such fun.

My friends Ann and Alice had travelled up on Thursday, and had spent the evening trying out a number of real ale places, so were both a little worse for wear in the morning anyway. 

As I hadn't received any messages suggesting they were awake yet, I decided to drive up to the top floor of the multi-storey and get some pics with the clock and city skyline as a backdrop. 

There was a bloke up there in a Hi-Viz, he must have wondered why I had driven up 9 levels when there were spaces a lot further down, but he soon left and I had the level to myself. 

Sent Ann a message to check she was up, then after a mini photo session I drove down a level and unloaded my bags and headed to the Travelodge - Ann had kindly suggested I could leave my bags in her room until I could check in at 3pm.

We headed out in search of food shortly after, aiming for Flamingo's the LGBT Café in the Central Arcade. By utter coincidence we found Alice in there, looking fantastic in a black dress, she was feeling slightly hungover and had a black coffee on the go.

We ordered some food, I had Fig compote, goats cheese and honey on sourdough toast with a side salad. It was lovely, the food always is in there.

Afterwards we all headed to the wig shop in the County Arcade, Alice was in the mood to buy a new one for work, and Ann had dropped one off for a spruce the day before.

We parted ways with Alice to let her choose in peace and headed off in search of brown boots - I didn't find anything.

A first timer Jessica was arriving in the afternoon, we were in doh'hut having a coffee and donut when she messaged to say she was in Leeds, so stayed in there to meet her. 

She had been talking to Ann before on Insta, but I didn't really know her - she was lovely and got on swimmingly. 

We decided to head to Foleys for the first beer of the day, but we spied Alice heading to the bankers cat - it's almost like we have a tracker on her !

So we went in there for one, and had a nice chat - I had a milk stout, can't remember the name. I had watched a webinar (mentioned later) on hormones, and took the opportunity to chat with Jessica about them - she had been on them a year I think. 

Alice was heading back to her hotel after this drink, so we decided to take Jessica to Foleys for another.

I was trying to take it slow, so I had a zero percent Guinness in there. It was food time by this point and sourdough pizza had been requested by Jessica, so we went to Franco Manca near M&S.

I had  "Organic tomato, cured chorizo [Natural & Iberico] & mozzarella" - it was very nice, but I couldn't finish it.

After this we headed for the hotel to change for the evening 

Night time

I did a rush job of sprucing my makeup up, I put a load of blue eyeshadow on, it wasn't my best effort, but I was past the time we had agreed to meet at already so just made it look even and made my way down to reception.

Couldn't get hold of them so nearly headed off in search, but they turned up shortly before I got out of sight of the reception.

We went in the Viaduct for a few, but I couldn't find the people I was hoping to meet, did a couple of photo's while it was quiet then we headed over the road to Fibre.

It was too early and very dead in there, so ended up back in Viaduct. By this point the people I was looking out for had arrived, and I spend a while talking to them. 

Danielle also appeared, one of the other girls I usually hang out with, so she joined our merry band for the rest of the evening.

We went back to Fibre and there were lots of other girls in there by this point so it was much nicer.
Then we decided to go to Barcoda, but there was a private function starting soon, so ended up in the Bridge. There was Karaoke but it wasn't too loud and we got seats, so it was nice. 

Next was 'the end' which was a lot bigger inside than I thought, and really nicely done out - not cheap though.

After this we did Smokestack, but It was getting towards 2am and people were starting to flag, Ann and Jessica went back to the hotel, I had one more with Danielle and then headed off too.

It was a good night, nice to have a slightly bigger group of us, Jessica and Hannah should be up next month, but the others may not be.

Saturday

I was fairly groggy and not in the mood to hang about, so I was up showered and dressed by 8:30 , got my things in the car and came back to checkout, validate my parking (you get 50% off) and say goodbye to Ann before I left. 

I was back in the village for 10ish - I popped into my local co-op for eggs and bread on the way, it's only a 10 minute walk from my house if that. This does put me on edge a bit, I've done it once before, but it still seems much more scary than doing it away from the village. 

There were no issues of course, spoke to one of the staff who was grumbling out loud about her squeaky cart wheel, asked her where the eggs were, she was lovely.

I didn't do much for the rest of the day, a little tiding.

Today 

I was de-Izzying the downstairs as my parents in law are up next weekend, so we can't have size 8 heels and tons of makeup kicking around. My wife is a 3, and doesn't wear makeup :)

Filled two boxes with shoes, moved my dresses to the top floor. Still got some other clothes to box up, and my wigs to put somewhere safe, but that won't take long.

I've trimmed 5mm off my nails to make them less obvious, I can type so much better, maybe I should invest in false ones.

I watched Casa Susanna as well - see next section.

I have laser on Tuesday, then a work do at Centreparcs all day Wednesday, staying over there too. Potentially I am Chams on Thursday, but would have to be unshaven, not too sure yet.

Then it's family things all weekend, which I am dreading, but will probably not be too bad,

Things watched this week :

A friend (thankyou Jess) who thought I may be interested had shared a link to a recorded webinar that had been circulated on a Bristol group about hormone treatment.

I think it was Wednesday I watched it :

https://bristol-crossroads.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=01cdc83f54b9524871842bcfa&id=e5470da599&e=e8b356260e

It was very interesting and informative, and much more useful than any of the small amount of knowledge I had already gained.

I have spoken to a few people previously about what they were doing, but there were lots of things I was missing. 

It answered a fair few questions. 

Also I finally watched Casa Susanna on iPlayer over the weekend, it had been recommended by a number of different people on Insta, and on the Chams forum

Well I had to pause it a few times, as there were some very emotional parts.

Such a shame that so many had to go through such bad times, I can't imagine how it must have been for it to be illegal. I suppose the hiding for fear of being outed still makes some of us feel like it is. 

There were sections where I drew parallels with how I am feeling, especially on the talk of time pressures, and feeling the need to do things.

Also thinking that you can handle the desire to dress, that it would go away, just try to be 'normal' etc.

From a nerdy perspective - I had no idea that trans-women had been involved in creating Smalltalk at Xerox, that was good to find out. 

There is a probably a list of notable people that I am not aware of.