This was my 3rd Sparkle, and quite possibly my last if some rumours are to be believed !
The 1st one was magical, lovely weather, and well attended as it was the 1st after lockdown - it was a fabulous weekend. The second one was a bit of a let down due to torrential rain that spoilt both the day and evening.
This one we had OK weather, we were able to mingle in the gardens for the day events without fear of sunburn or requiring diving equipment.
Friday
I got there just after lunch on the Friday, meeting up with Ann, Benni and Stephanie who had arrived slightly before me.
We grabbed some food, had a beer in a nice little tap room and did a bit of shopping at Aflecks. We all seemed to end up with a pair of earrings :) - I can't actually remember what I did with mine, I might have to go hunting later !
We got changed met at the hotel bar where Charlotte also joined us, then we headed out for food at a pub we had seen on our travels - we had tried to get a table at a tapas place first but they were fully booked.
Other friends were arriving later, and some were bringing companions, so it ended up with about 10 of us at the meal. Was very nice food - I had a pint of Boddingtons, as I was told that this was one of the few places in Manchester you could still buy it.
It's not brewed there anymore, but still tasted better than I remember.
In the evening we attempted to be fairly good and not drink too much, but think we failed a little. We did a few places on Canal street. It was a good night.
Saturday
We had a breakfast at the hotel bar, which was pretty nice - usual fry up buffet.
In the morning we headed to the gardens to look at the stalls and see what was on. Myself and Ann had a brief visit to a pub a short walk away to meet up with Gemma - it was somewhere I had fancied going last time, but turned out to look a lot better on the outside than the inside :)
We headed back to the gardens for a bit and went around more of the stalls. A few of us went for food at a little bistro off canal street mid afternoon. I actually went back to my room for a bit of a nap for an hour after this, the lack of sleep had caught up with me.
After this re-charge we headed out for more food, which was a bit early really, but we wanted to hit the bars fairly quickly so thought was a good idea. Ended up at a bar in the norther quarter - I got a spicy beef dish but it was very salty and didn't manage much of it.
There was some entertainment watching a peddle bar getting towed away on a trailers outside though.
In the evening it was more of the same, we did go to the gardens again initially, and had a beer in the refreshment tent and watched some of the acts on stage. Managed to talk to Grai the main LFF organiser which was nice - I hardly get chance to talk to her normally.
Also met up with Romile who I seem destined to only meet for a few hours a year at a random event, but was nice all the same.
We had tickets for a club night that had been organised by Sparkle at 9pm, but did a few bars on Canal street first before walking the 10 minutes to the venue. It was a bit of a shambles, apparently there was a communication issue where the club thought the DJ's were brining the equipment, but they thought the club was providing !
They left us queuing outside for 15 mins, moving where the queue was. Someone was trying to be helpful and get us in a different door, only for the door staff to send us back to where we were initially queuing. Then they started talking about getting ID, and bag checking us all - by this point a few of us were getting itchy feet and wanted to abandon ship, and I led the charge back to canal street, with a few trying to keep up in their heels ( I was in flats 🤣 )
We did a few more bars, and had a pleasant rest of the night. Did a bit of dancing, I can't remember what time we got back to the hotel, but wasn't too sozzled.
Sunday
Another fry up at the hotel in the morning, and then it was soon time to head home. Most people had trains booked so were going back first thing. I said my goodbyes and headed home, was not a bad drive.
Aside from the wasted time and money for the night club , it was really nice to be back in Manchester - it's still a fab place to go back to every now and then, nice to have some variety. I don't find it as good as Leeds overall, but still worth the trip.
Progesterone seems to be really helping me with my sleep, but perhaps too much. I swear I feel slightly sedated and unmotivated the next day after taking it. I've not been taking it after drinking as it is supposed to amplify it's effects, so not being having it every night.
They are not solid pills, so you can't cut them in half - I invested in a pill cutter to try lower dosages of finasteride. Given up on taking those all together though for the moment.
Still doing 3 pumps a day on the oestrogen gel.
Family
My mum seemed shocked that it went OK with my parents in law, and I wonder if she was holding out hope that it would go really bad, and that I would be forced to rethink my life choices. She seems to have made more of an effort since, she actually used my correct name twice in WhatsApp messages !!
So far has not used the wrong one either - but on the phone I haven't had a correct use yet.
Work
No issues, all is still good, been managing to get up a earlier and get my makeup on - still a fairly minimal look. Went for a walk down the river at lunchtime on Monday, found some nice potential spots for photo's under the motorway bridge :)
Morris Minor National Meeting
So overall this wasn't as good as I had hoped. I was a bit nervous about attending, but we still excited to be doing so.
I had gone down to Chameleons on the Thursday night, and had stayed over at the Belfry nearby. After a very nice fried breakfast I had visited Wollaton Hall to kill some time. I was told I couldn't get into the camping area at the motor museum until 4pm, which was not accurate as it turns out.
So I decided to visit Wollaton, as it looked like a good way to spend the morning. There is an industrial museum there that I wanted to visit, as well as a natural history museum and the grounds to explore.
Josephine needed a drink so we filled up at the petrol station nearby and drove the short distance to the hall.
It was a pretty good visit - the industrial museum unfortunately didn't open on a Friday, but the Natural
History museum in the hall was fab - and you got to see a lot of the hall too. I had a tea in one of the cafe's too. It was a bit windy so I didn't spend too much time exploring the grounds, and decided to set off to Gaydon, but call in somewhere on the way to grab some lunch and kill another hour. This would allow me to arrive at 4pm.
Draycote Water looked to be a good choice, as it looked quite scenic and had a visitor centre with a restaurant too.
On the way down, I ended up on the M69 and ended up with a camper van following us for ages - at a respectful distance, I happened to look in the mirror just as it was pulling off onto the hard shoulder - later turns out it was a fellow Minor owner, they said hello at the show :)
On arriving at Draycote, I walked to the restaurant and was shown to a table by a nice woman. I went up to order at the tills, and some bloke in front accidentally knocked the crisps all over the floor, but was then time for me to order. There was a lady coming out of the kitchen a short distance from the server at the tills, and when I ordered she seemed to burst out laughing. The girl on the till was trying to be professional but she had been set off by this other lady.
I was quite taken aback, I've had nasty things said about me, and bad looks, but never been laughed at in that manner. This did quite upset me, but the girl on the till seemed to recompose herself, and after a short silence took my order. I don't have any hard evidence she was laughing at me, but I can only assume it was to do with my voice when I ordered. I am quite self conscious about this - it was in fact a major worry for me when first attending Chameleons.
Anyway this did not put me in the best frame of mind, and I was a bit down for the rest of the visit. The food wasn't bad, and I interacted with 3 members of staff there who treated me really nice, it was just that one that seemed to have an issue.
I hung around until 3ish, so that my remaining journey time would get me to Gaydon at 4pm. The rest of the drive was uneventful, and I arrived at the museum, and the camping marshal gave me instructions on where to pitch. There were loads of people already setup, and not much room left, but I did park up and get a nice spot on the hill overlooking the museum.
There was a chap next to me, and I shouted across to make sure he was happy I had left him enough room. The camping marshal had said 3 meters, but there wasn't enough room for that, and I even ended up with someone camping in the 3m gap between my tent and the person who pitched up next to me on the other side.
Had a bit of a chat with the guy next to me, but we failed to introduce ourselves properly. He had driven from Clacton, and was having a bit of a lay down before putting his tent up.
I managed to get my tent up, and went for a bit of a walk to explore the facilities. Finding the tap to replenish my water supplies. Met a young chap who was also doing the same. He later shouted to me that he liked my grille as we drove past each other on the next morning.
That evening I didn't really do much else, I tried out my gas stove and cooked some meatballs in tomato sauce - made me feel a bit sick to be honest. But was better than nothing. I was quite tired, and decided to go to bed early so I would be fresh in the morning.
Saturday
I experienced the joys of shaving using a cup in a tent - didn't go too badly ! I got dressed and walked down to the parking area where the cars were to be shown. I chatted to a couple of marshals to find out where I could join in - I had never done this before so had no idea what normally happens. Then after a loo stop went back to fetch the car and park in the area they had told me.
I did some wandering around, looking at other cars, did the auto jumble stores, grabbed a bacon roll and a tea too. Didn't really get much interaction, I saw a Youtuber who had been nice to me, and went to talk to her. She was nice enough, but seemed to be on a mission to get around stuff, so I let her get on her way. She told me one of the organisers of the women's drivers club was around, I did see her but she was quite busy too , and didn't get chance to speak.
I grabbed a burger from a van for lunch, it was quite nice, then looked around the motor museum for abit. Ann was going to pop down on her motorbike in the afternoon, but it was quite sunny so didn't want to just sit around waiting.
I did go sit by the car for a bit, putting my 360 camera on a long pole on her roof, so I could do a timelapse. It worked OK , going to do it as s video next time, it's easier than combining all the images into one.
We grabbed an ice-cream as the van pulled up just as we were nearby, it was a hot afternoon and they had missed out on a lot of trade turning up so late.
Ann departed, and I went back to the car for a bit - the show part finished at 4pm, and I had to move her back to the camping area.
I had originally hoped to spend the evening having a few drinks, and attempting to socialise with other attendees, but the bar had gone bust, and I only had a few cans of warm cider I had brought with me. The entertainment also seemed quite lacklustre, as it was just a stage set up on the back of a truck. There was no seating, and the food stalls had closed. So I was quite disappointed, and made the decision to head home early.
I did have a nice chat with Bruce before I left - we did eventually exchange names :) He had an earlier Minor with a split screen, and also a more retro themed bell tent. Which I perhaps might look at if I do more of these.
I drove home and got in after 9pm, it was mostly light all the way home, but did rain a bit. Was a nice enough journey. Stopped off for fuel at a services and the guy in the garage complemented my car which was nice.
Overall, it was good to have done it - I did have a nice time, but it would have been better if I had not gone on my own, but I don't really know anyone who would have wanted to join. Bruce did mention that previous years had much better food / drink / entertainment, so hopefully it was just a bad year for it.
I have another camping adventure with the northern meetup of the Women's drivers social club in August - a Facebook group I was invited to. It will likely be less than 10 of us, and so I should hopefully get more chance to interact, there is no hiding in a crowd with so few.
Leeds First Friday
In brief - it was very quiet , likely due to Sparkle / Leeds pride happening in the same month. We had a low turnout for Pints and Straws, but it was still nice. Sally from Chameleons made it up again, was really lovely to see her.
I had picked Bennie up, and we did brunch at the pub on the canal near hers, then proceeded to Leeds where we did some photo's on the multistorey roof. We had a drink, and did some shopping before heading to Pints and Straws.
Pints and Straws was good despite the low turnout, and was nice to chill out and enjoy some interesting beers. I ended up eating a Bau at the Northern Tap Room, and a gammon and duck egg at the Tetley.
We retired to the room to get changed, then headed to the Bridge End Social for the main event. We did the usual , Shed, 'The End' , Smokestack. Both myself and Benni had one too many cocktails - not helped by one of the server in the Shed getting distracted whilst making some for us, and seemingly doubling the alcohol content of it.
We had some chips from big bites, made sure Sally got to her hotel, and were back in our room for after 2am.
Saturday we were meant to be heading to a beer festival in the afternoon, but the weather wasn't the best, and a few of us were not feeling great. Neither myself or Benni managed to eat all out breakfast, and we ended up doing the Leeds gothic market in the morning.
We had a few beers in the afternoon, then went back for a snooze ! then met up again later. We were thinking of going for a pizza for tea, but Olivia started complaining of chest pains, which seemed more like indigestion, so we took her back to the hotel to have a lay down for a bit. Ended up getting pizza delivered there and eating on the bed :)
Oliva got the train home, and then we headed back out for a few hours, ended up playing pool in the bridge end social - I lost three nil :(
Sunday we had breakfast at Riveresque again, it was warm enough to sit outside, an American who had bought an apartment on the opposite bank stopped to ask if we could see through his windows !
We had exhausted all of Leeds delights, so we checked out and I drove Benni home on the way back to mine. It was a pretty good weekend all in all :)
