In-laws, graves and house viewing

 

I am once again terribly late in writing, this occurred on the 14th of September.  A meal out with my brother in-law, his two small children, his wife, my kids , wife and the mother and father in-law.

It was at Culcheth, a place with a bit of a stain on it's name in  due to the murder of Brianna Ghey !

I had chosen to wear leggings and a tunic top, which has become my de facto work and casual look of late. I do like wearing dresses, but I feel slightly conscious of not fitting in with what a lot of women wear these days.

The tunics are good at hiding my modesty, and the leggings are much more comfy than jeans as they have elasticated waistlines. 

We arrived around midday, and parked at the brother in laws, as the pub is only a short walk away and we were a bit early to go there.  I was a little nervous, but received a normal greeting from everyone.  There was no real awkwardness.

We ventured to the pub after a short while.  The meal was nice, I had gammon with an egg and chips.  My first egg in a while as I had ditched them thinking they might be bad for my cholesterol.

I wasn't particularly talkative,  but I never was before around them - not sure if they took this as me being upset. My wife had a message after we got home that suggested they thought I was.  But I wasn't.

There were no major errors with name / pronouns , and they seemed embarrassed and keen to correct themselves when it did happen a couple of times ! which I found very encouraging.

They did a lot better than my own parents actually, which is a shame but they are not too bad either,

We stayed quite a while, before heading back to the brother in-laws house for a little while longer.  We left about 4:30ish, I wasn't in a massive rush to leave, but I had hoped to pop into my parents as we would have passed them on the motorway, but we got a text while driving to say they were under the weather.

I was very pleased with how it went, and quite relived to have done it. It will make further meetings much less stressful now.

Other things :

Hair

I dyed my hair again, it was meant to be 'Cranberry Bliss' but it sort of turned out a bit ora
ngey ! It quite like it, but it was not want I wanted.  I have a purple one to try next time, with my luck it will probably turn out green though 😂

Grave visiting

I decided to go for a walk on Sunday afternoon, heading to some wood about 4km away down a disused canal.  They were once part of an estate owned by Charles Waterton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Waterton)

The woods are public now, but the house is a hotel, and other parts of the grounds are a golf course. His grave is on private land in a wood in the golf course.  I decided I would do a bit of trespassing to go visit it, it made the whole thing a lot more fun as I was being naughty.

Managed to get there without shredding my legs too badly, but there wasn't a path from the direction I
was coming from, so had to wade through some brambles and spiky brush to get through. Started raining hard as I arrived, so had to switch to my bright yellow waterproof that didn't exactly help with camouflage.  

Got back out a slightly easier way I hadn't seen on the way there, but did end up being spied by some golfers.  

House Viewing

I did a house viewing on behalf of a friend last night. She wants to move to Wakefield, but lives in
Croydon at the moment, so hard for her to do viewings.  I was quite nervous about this, meeting people who don't expect me to be trans, and who's views I can't easily predict I guess.

Anyway the lady owner who showed me was lovely, and very friendly, and the viewing itself went fine. My friend has put an offer in, and she hopes to hear back tommorow.

Weekend Plans

This weekend I have a car show, and then a night out in Derby afterwards. It's been 3 weeks since I last had a drink ! which is probably not a bad thing. I am looking forward to it !

Cutting back on the sausages

Life Updates

Things are not too bad at the moment.  My dad was in hospital with gall bladder problems a few weeks ago, but had thankfully returned home. There were a few visits to hospital to keep him company in the evenings. He has since been back for day visits for an issue with his mouth swelling, but that also seems to be on the mend.

I have a family meal with my in-laws and my brother in law and his family booked for Saturday, I am a little worried about this, but not massively panicking.  It will be the first time meeting any of them as me, but at least it's only an afternoon, and there will be alcohol. 

Finally got around to updating my CV - a colleague who recently left seems to think her new business would be a good fit.  It took me some time to do, as it had been so long it was sat on a hard disk in a pile of hard discs in a dusty cupboard ! 

Work is not too bad at the moment, but I would still very much like to win the lottery. 

Medical Matters

I have finally updated my details with the doctor, this will result in a brand new NHS number. It seems the ladies in the office had to print off all my letters, redact my old name, and then scan them all back in again, so I actually feel a bit guilty. I might take them some chocolates. 

They have been really lovely, spoken to one in person, and the other on the phone a few times.

I also got the results of my latest blood test - it wasn't for hormones though, it was a normal health check one.  Unfortunately my cholesterol is a bit high, so I need to cut back on the fry ups, cheesy chips, sausages and such 😐 - there were no warning labels on the menu's , it's clearly not my fault. 

I also managed to wangle some more tests for my hormone levels, which I shall book shortly.

Peterborough Beer Festival - 22nd / 23rd August

I had a blood test first thing on the Thursday, but had tea and toast in a café in Barnsley before setting off on the drive - didn't feint which is a bonus ! 

There were a number of 1st timers that came along, Benni and Jo had never been before.  Alice , Cindy , Rebeka and Gemma were all back from last year.

There were lots of nice beers on, the weather was pretty good. The layout of everything was almost exactly the same as the previous year, with even the food stalls being in the same place. The loos were a bit closer, but didn't seem to be as many of them !  There were 20+ queues in the evening.

I didn't try anything too strong, as I didn't want to ruin the Friday, or be too hungover to drive back. Apparently there was a very strong peanut butter stout that did sound intriguing, but had run out. 

There were some really good bands on, almost worth going just to watch them, most covers. There was a really good punk band did a number of classics that got a lot of people dancing along. 

I had a lovely deep fried soft shell crab at the Thai place on the Thursday that was worth of note. We also had a fab breakfast in a café attached to the Theatre on the Saturday morning. 

Leeds International Beer Festival - 6th September

This was in the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey, it was very photogenic, but I didn't get that many photos :)

It was organised by the council, not Camra so was a lot more commercially focused, with each brewery or business had it's own stands and employee's, rather than barrels and volunteers. 

It did make it a much more slick looking event, with neons and logo's and such. But it came at a cost, it was £15 to get in, and all you got for that was a pint glass.  They also kicked you out between sessions, so you couldn't simply pay to get in on the afternoon, then stay for the evening.

I didn't do the evening, but some of my friends had done the night before, and the abbey was really nicely lit, it looked fantastic in the photo's.

I was there for about 4 hours, we got an Uber from the city centre. I had been helping my friend empty the remnants of the furniture of a house she was selling into a skip the night before, and on the Friday morning, so we had got in a bit later than normal.

We had some lovely Indian burgers shortly after arriving, then I was mainly on the ciders.  I did have a couple of strong stouts, as it would have been rude not to :)

After the bars were told to stop serving, I managed to flutter my eyelids at the guy running the cider stall, and he let me buy a half :) 

We got an Uber back after this, then checked into the hotel. Pizza was booked for 6:30 at 'Pizza Pilgrims' near the Marriot. I changed into my evening outfit before we went for food - a gothic look, but not particularly gothic makeup.

I had an American inspired one, that had sliced hotdog sausages and chips as a topping ! it was OK. There were 8 or 9 of us eating there, it was fun.

Leeds First Friday - 6th September 

We headed to the main meeting venue 'The Bridge End Social' straight after the food, and met up with other friends. It seemed quiet again, which was a shame - I had become used to it being quite busy, I
hope this is just a lull before the xmas season.

I ended up leading a number of us, first to 'The End' , then 'The Shed' , then 'The Smokestack' , skipping the Viaduct again.  I only had a couple of drinks the whole night, a Long Island Iced Tea in the End, and a flaming Zombie in the Shed.  I had consumed enough during the day. 

Didn't feel like I needed any cheesy chips, so skipped the call of Big Bites, and headed to bed shortly after 1pm.   It was a nice night, but nothing special realy.

I wasn't feeling too great in the morning, my digestive system was not happy with me - I blame the
flaming Zombie.  I didn't manage to eat much of my breakfast at Riveresque - I had gone with a veggy one this time.

My friend needed a lift back to the house we had been clearing fairly early, as there was a man with a van on the way to collect some mattresses, so we didn't hang about.

I spent the rest of the morning helping her with a few last bits and pieces, and took some boxes of things away with me to store for her - she is hoping to move up here again soon.

Swimming 

Sunday night I had swimming booked at Bramley, and a few LFF friends had also booked. So I actually knew a few people, which made it nicer.  We did still manage to do a few lengths in between chatting.  Although one of them is a much stronger swimmer and was literally twice as fast as me.

I was a fab ending to the weekend, and nice to get some exercise in, my foot is still not right from the walking over 2 months ago now ! 

I have booked another session on the 29th, and one on the 6th.