Coronation Weekend

Since last time 

There was a charity classic and American car show in Wakefield last Sunday, I had been chatting to a local LFF regular Jane on Instagram and mentioned I was going, and they decided to come along too. I was there earlier than them, and had looked around and gone for a coffee at the LGBT café before they arrived.

It is nice to start to get to know some local trans people nearer my own age, the member of the Wakefield group are mainly much younger. We were both in male mode, for this, so only nice pics of the cars unfortunately. 

We spent an hour or so looking at the cars. There were a few Morris Minors, only one older than mine, but all looking more shiny and pampered after :)

Monday was the bank holiday, I went for a fairly long walk in the afternoon. Iwas working Tuesday to Thursday, so nice to have a short week !

I should have been at my Wakefield group on Thursday night, but I wasn't in the mood to rush about, and it was LFF the next day, so I decided just to stay in and pack my bags for that, and do my nails. 

I do a 'Nailkale' base coat, two colour coats, and then some rapid shine on top, and it can take a while to put that all on, as I don't like to use UV lamps.

It was 'Sun Street Passage' by Nails Inc, a sort of Neon pink. 

Leeds First Friday

There were going to be quiet a few of my friends coming along to this one, Benni , Hannah and her
girlfriend, and unexpectedly Ann, who had booked a room and forgotten she had 😊 

Decided to be brave and go with leggings, I do fear the showing of bumps with these, but aside from them slipping down a bit, they were fine.

I arrived before midday shortly before Ann. We needed to go to the hotel to steal some Wi-Fi for a work matter at first, and met one of the makeup artists called Gordon. I might have to give him a go one time, he specialises in more of a natural look. I introduced myself to a few other girls who I had been following on Insta for ages too.

We then went for a coffee at Starbucks (costa was rammed) while we waited for Benni's train to arrive and she joined us when we were nearly finished - then we headed to the Flamingos LGBT café for lunch. 

Then nipped to M&S for some tights for Ann, and onwards to the Bankers cat for the first pint of the day. The weather was a bit weird and we had some hail while we were in there.  But fortunately had passed by the time we were done. 

After that we headed over the road to a microbrewery pub 'Tapped Brew Co', where we had arranged to meet Alice.

Alice and then Lexi joined us in there, and after a few more drinks and some chatting the afternoon was fast disappearing and  it was time to head to the hotel to check in, and also change for the evening meal. We were doing the Thai place under the Travelodge this time - it was meant to be a curry somewhere else but there was a problem adding more people to it.

I had been feeling a bit poor in the morning, so had been taking some cold and flu pills along with soft drinks instead of beer, so I wasn't particularly tipsy.

We got ready fairly quickly and headed to the restaurant, Hannah and her girlfriend met us there, so there were seven of us in total for the meal.

We had a cocktail on arrival, it was a bit like raspberry bubble gum. I shared a starter platter with Ann, which was quite filling, and I couldn't manage much of my 'Royal Lamb' main and rice. 

I asked a waitress to take a photo, which didn't come out too bad. I was wearing a posh Next dress I had got in a sale at Doncaster on an adventure the month before.  

They were a bit slow, and by the time we had paid, and gone back to our rooms for a final freshen up and outfit change, we had missed the official start time by a few hours. It was 8:40pm before we got to the Viaduct.  I wasn't really feeling that great, and just decided to stick with what I had on, and put some fresh lipstick on.

We spent about an hour in the Viaduct, then I figured it would be good to get Hannah to the bridge as she likes to do a bit of kareoke - this tends to divide the group as some can't stand the bridge, but we tend to re-group later.

Hannah sang Chubby Checker - Let's Twist Again, and had a good time of doing so !  I was feeling pretty done but it wasn't even 11pm yet, so popped another pill, found out where Alice and the rest had gone, and we headed to the Packhorse. 

This isn't in the freedom quarter, but is a favourite of some of the girls, and we have had funny and nice interactions with some regulars in there.

They must have ordered the bunting for a pub twice the size or something, it was everywhere  - they also had some nice selfie spots setup with 'thrones' and balloon crowns, which of course I had to take advantage of .

There were some rather worrying looking characters 'dancing' in there, so we didn't stay that long. One looked like he had wet himself, the other had their front teeth missing. 

Someone ended up following us while recording as we headed back down to the freedom quarter, I was at the front so didn't realise until I was told, most odd.

We ended up in the Smokestack where I got a bit of a 2nd wind, and did spend a bit of time on the dancefloor boogying to numerous oldies. I can't remember which ones. There is a Spotify playlist if anyone is interested Smokestack unofficial playlist

We found a booth on the middle floor around midnight. and I lasted until about half an hour past midnight before deciding to head back the hotel with Hannah and girlfriend in tow. Benni stayed for one more drink I think, and Ann was out for another three hours !! 😂

But it was still a really good night, despite my lurgy and I had a really good time, was great to catch up with everyone again. 

Coronation Day

We all managed to get ready and down to the lobby by 9am to wander over the river to the Cha Lounge. I wore my grey dress with patterned tights and the fab red suede boots I got from vinted. 

Fortunately we were there early enough to snag a table without pre-booking. It's quite popular and we saw quite a few people being turned away while we were there.

The coronation coverage was on a big TV, but with no sound, so we got to see some of it. 

I wasn't feeling hungover as had hardly drunk anything compared to usual, so had not problem finishing my breakfast , except for the beans. We must have been in there an hour or so. Alice and some of the others turned up a bit after us, they pre-book a table every month. 

So we got to say our goodbyes to them as well which was nice. Once we had paid, we headed over the bridge and went back to the hotel to go our sperate ways. I left at 11:15 and had a very nice drive back, the roads were pretty quiet due to people watching the coronation I guess.

I ended up going to bed shortly after getting home, didn't really watch any more coverage, and didn't do much at all for the rest of the day, other than a really long soak in the bath.

Sunday

Feeling a bit better today, after a nice long sleep, I have been for a 13km walk this afternoon, was very warm and sunny. I have been trying to get into the habit of putting sun cream on, as I am thinking all this laser is probably not doing my long term skin health that much good.

It's bank holiday tomorrow, but currently have no plans.