I'll be back

 

Cyberdyne Systems prototype model 69  'Isobel' proved unreliable in service, preferring to eat kebabs and drink beer rather than kill humans

What have I been up to  ( aside from not writing a blog )  :

• Leeds Pride -  21/07
• Chameleons - 25/07
• Family Meal  - 26/07
• Emley Moor -  28/07
• LFF - 01/08 - 02/08
• Walking In the Dales -  03/08 - 04/08

Leeds Pride 

It was really good, just did the Sunday this year as it wasn't tagged on the end of an LFF weekend.  I had my 360 camera on a 3 meter selfie stick and got the march.   The turnout was big, and it was such a nice atmosphere.  We had fun times in a few pubs afterwards, then onwards to the 'Boom Battle Bar' where there were games to play - they did Axe Throwing !!!! 

...but they were blunt axes , not sure if by design, or just lack of maintenance.

It was fun, but Rebecca won, I came 2nd at least.

Chameleons 

It was a good night as always :)  

Family Meal 

Myself, my wife and kids went to an Estabulo Bar and Grill in Barnsley - it's only worthy of note because it's not something I have done a lot of really at all.  Most of my outings over the last few years have been with my friends.  We haven't done a vast amount of outings as a family with me dressed.  This is clearly now going to change now.

It went well, and we had a nice time in the restaurant.  Afterwards we went to superdrug for some hair dye, then to the indoor market.  I bought a couple of dresses from one of the stalls on the upper level. 

Was a very pleasant afternoon.

Emley Moor

I was taking Josephine to the Dales in the few weeks time, and had been working on her, replacing the fuel tank and fuel line.  Decided to go for a pootle out to Emley Moor mast to make sure all was well before such a long journey - also I had never been before.

LFF

Benni and Ann were up the day before so we ended up meeting  up on Thursday night, eating out at Las Iguanas.  I had a few cocktails, and some spicy food - this was likely not the best idea I've ever had.  

I wasn't feeling great the next day, but got through till midnight, mostly drinking water - but I actually still had a really good time.  I wore a 'romantic' style dress , which was quite short for me, and my rainbow heels.  But I had to go change after a few hours, as the heels were killing me.

Pints and Straws was good, numbers were back up again.   I had gone in Josephine as I was taking her to the dales for a walking weekend with Alice, Rebecca and Olivia the day after.   Was a bit worried about leaving her in the car park, but nothing bad happened.

Dales Walking

I had breakfast in Leeds at Riveresque , met Olivia in the car park at Level 8 - she was very hungover. The journey over was OK aside from breaking down going up a steep hill on a windy road.  I had to change the ignition coil at the roadside. 5 or 6 people stopped to assist, but I didn't need them.

She managed to get us to the pub fine, but I was taking it a bit slower than normal, as had lost a bit of confidence in her.

Alice and Rebecca were already there when we got there , and had ordered lunch. So I did the same, and gave Oliva (who was still suffering) some of my chips.

After lunch we went up a hill which was very very steep and rocky , I was immediately feeling quite out of breath and not up to the task, and Alice was powering upwards at great speed - she has much longer legs than me.  But thankfully, the terrain became less vertical, and the walk much more enjoyable.   

It was a warm day, but we all had plenty of water with us. I got lent a walking pole which really did
help too.   We stopped at a pub after 10 km or so, and had a beer as well.   I was holding everyone up a bit on the way back to the pub we were staying at, but not bad enough to cause friction.

We had some lovely food - fox pie (didn't contain any fox, was chicken and shroom), and more beer in the evening, I was feeling very tired though, and ended up going to bed fairly early.

The next day we met for a fab fried breakfast, then headed out on another walk.  This one started off fairly leisurely, but we were going over a really big hill to another village with a pub, then the plan was to go back over the hill a different way back to our base pub.   This was not a fun hill, but we did make it up,

We had packed lunches from the pub which we ate at the highest point we got to - I happened to have a trans flag with me, so we also got some photo's of us all waving that :)

While descending into the next valley, Rebecca twisted her knee, and was in a bit of pain. We got down fine, and had a refreshing beer at the pub there. However she wasn't confident she should get back up the big hill, so we ended up going around the hill on the road, which was a lot longer in terms of
distance.  My feet were not good at all, and I was way behind at some points, But we did make it to civilisation eventually.   There was a pub in a village about 4km from where we were staying, so we had a couple in there to recover.   

The last 4km I had to go in front to set the pace otherwise they would have been stopping every 5 mins for me to catch up.  But the beer did help numb the pain a bit.

I was very glad to be back, and also to be on time for the evening meal we had booked.  I had a beef roast, which was fantastic.  I couldn't drink much more beer though, ended up on soft drinks,

My digestive system was most unhappy with what I had been putting it though, and I had a really bad nights sleep. 

Did manage to have breakfast the next day, and get home dropping Olivia off on the way. It was a really good weekend and so glad I did it !