Eau de Chlorine

I am overdue with a post again, most lax of me. 

Friday/Saturday last week

I was feeling quite down last weekend, lots of people were out having fun and I was at home. On Saturday I had taken Josephine over to my parents on a test drive but turns out they were out. 

Thankfully she performed mostly flawlessly on the drive, but there was a bit of niggle with the pressure switch for the brake lights, I noticed they were coming on when I didn't have my foot on the brake.  I think there must be some air still in the system which is expanding when everything gets warm. More fun in the garage this weekend then.

Sunday

Sunday I was due to go swimming at a LGBTQ+ session at 5:30pm. It was at Bramley baths in west Leeds, about 45 minutes drive from here.  I was feeling quite nervous about it actually, I had got ready by about 2pm, very minimal makeup as I wasn't sure how well it would cope with being wet.

https://www.bramleybaths.co.uk

I had put on primer all over, with some orange colour corrector on the beard shadow area - probably not required now but old habits die hard.  I only put foundation over this area, and blended it into the rest of my face. I had eyeliner on, and I drew my eyebrows on.  I had purchased, or been gifted some setting spray at Chameleons a while ago, and figured I would put some of this on top too - never used it before. I didn't bother with lipstick so had to clean off the foundation that had gone on the lips.  

I was pleased with the result, it was the least makeup I had ever dared present En femme outside the house in, but I still think I looked OK.

I arrived at 5pm , I always seem to turn up 30 minutes early everywhere - better than a frien
d of mine who is always 30 minutes late :) . Thankfully there were plenty of parking spaces, as I was worried I might have to find room on the road outside.

I waiting until about 5:15 to go in, as I didn't want to be hanging around by myself, I had seem a group of LGBTQ+ looking people go in a bit earlier though. After entering I spied Alex who I had been questioning about this session at LFF previously, and went and talked to her until we were told we could go into the pool.

Nipped to the loo first, then went towards the pool, we had to take our shoes off to enter, then once through the door you are in the main pool room. The changing booths are either side of the main axis, individual cubicles with a tiny seat and a hook, with lockers on the outside. 

I got changed, took a few selfies for posterity then ventured out.  There were already keen people in the pool, I went down the deep end ladder and got acclimatised. The skirt of the swimsuit floated up as I entered the water but soon when down when the air escaped.  

I must have done 20+ lengths of the pool, it is only a 22 meter one, so not full size. Alex told me that 47 is a mile, and she tries to do this when she goes.  I was knackered by the end, and was taking longer and longer breaks between each length.  Some of the other people did float over to introduce themselves, but it will be a good while of being reminded of them before I will remember them.

A good deal of the group were using it mainly as a social session, one was floating around in a ring, generally getting in the way of anyone trying to do lengths. There were only a few of us really attempting to get exercise done.  

My swimming technique has never been the best, and I was probably only going half the speed of some others, but it had been more than a decade since I last tried. I was doing breast stroke as that's the only one I mastered at school - I was the worst in the class.

When the session ended I returned to the cubicle and the first thing I did was get my phone to check I had some makeup left on - it looked the same as when I entered the pool, which was good !

Numerous muscles , tendons and other random bits have been taking great pleasure in reminding me that I really should have taken it a bit more steady on my first visit. But I hopefully have another week to recover before I do another session.

This group only does one Sunday a month, but there is another Leeds based group that does another two, so I should be able to do 3 sessions a month - and hopefully lose some weight ! 

I was on a bit of a high when I left, I didn't get to speak with Alex, it's a bit of an odd system , the exit takes you into a tiny room where you can put your shoes on, and then you have another door which takes you out of the building, you don't end up back in the entrance.

It was a really lovely beautiful old building though.

I have marked myself as 'Interested' on the FB group for the sessions early next month. 

Thursday - Chameleons

I was going dressed this time, so didn't set off massively early and arrived to find a few others already there. 

Had some a nice chat with Sally who hadn't been for a while - although I was convinced I had seen her at xmas, likely me being senile. Also fab to catch up with Ann and Debbie. 

There was also a new lady Abby who I knew from Instagram, she was quite nervous to start with, but towards the end of the evening seemed to have settled down and we had a nice chat. Hoping she comes back again.

The elderly lady who had transport difficulties last time seemed to be heading the same way again, and looked to spend the first hour of the meeting trying to organise her transport home on her phone ! Hopefully Lynn didn't have to offer her trans-uber service again.

The drive back was a lot better than last time, much less lane closures, still a fair bit of 50mph around Sheffield, but I was back by midnight. I was a bit hungry so ended up having cheese on toast, then was talking to an Insta friend until 1 am.

Today - Good Friday  

I braved putting a pic of Josephine on the Morris Minor owners group FB page 'Front end Friday' is a
thing that some people do, where they post a front on pic. I had been a bit hesitant as I wasn't sure what reception the trans-flag grille would get.

But I shouldn't have worried, I only got one negative comment, and they haven't clarified why they don't like the grille, it's possible it's because it's a non-original colour scheme, they haven't replied to my question about it yet.

I've just been to the Co-op in minimal makeup, not even colour corrector, but with a bit of foundation on the beard area, eyeliner and brows.  Felt quite liberating, didn't feel out of place. I had my leggings and top from Chams on, my blue swede boots and an old work fleece, no forms or bra and my hair tied in a pony tail.

Not sure what I will do this afternoon, perhaps look at the brakes.