Deploy the emergency penguins

Trans Updates

I have a call booked with Pride In Health for next week, i think they are still lacking a doctor, but I will get a formal diagnosis I believe. With this I should be able to go to a 3rd party endocrinologist that i know of, so hopefully can bin off GenderGP and get some
proper care. 

I have started on blockers, I have had them for ages, but had not bothered. Only had two doses so too early to tell. My plan is to do another blood test in April, see how I am doing.

 

IT Changes

In light of the issues over the pond, I've been attempting to move as much of my IT from US hosted services to UK/European ones.  

I am Microsoft free for my laptop and PC now,  Linux Mint on the laptop, Manjaro on the PC. 

I found a cloud provider in Norway which I have used to replace OneDrive (https://jottacloud.com/en/ ) this has a CLI based client for Linux which does what I need.

I have a new email and domain hosting provider in the UK ( https://www.fasthosts.co.uk/ )  , but not changed my email address on a lot of things yet.

Coincidentally, Skype - who I have been using ever since they binned MSN Messenger, is due to be closed down in May. So my Uni friends and I have prepared a Discord server to use after it's demise.  

This blog may get moved at some point, I did a backup a while ago, I might do another soon just in case.

I've also binned off my Amazon Music and Audible accounts too. I had binned off Tw@tter a long time ago. 

Still got my Insta, Youtube and Facebook - I would be upset if they went, but they don't cost me anything, so no need to totally throw my toys out of the pram :)

I don't expect they will starve just because I reduced what I spend, but if enough of us do it then it will convey a message.

 

March Social Events:

Leeds First Friday - 7th 

Had a pizza at Rudys with Benni on arrival. We headed to Pints and Straws afterwards, it was a pretty good turnout. Fun times were had :)

Sally turned up towards the end, which was nice.

We ate  at Bundobust before the main event, it is an entirely vegetarian Indian streetfood restaurant with craft beer.  I really liked it, had a fab burger.

In the evening we met up with Gemma, who I don't get to see a lot of these days.  After the usual Bridge End Social visit, we did cocktails at the viaduct, then I think we went to Behind closed doors which is a fun place I think will try and add to the schedule next month.

We did 'The End' then 'Smokestack' after this. I was getting tired and Sally was done for the night too, so I walked her back to the Leanardo, then headed back the Travelodge.

Chameleons - 13th

I had missed the last two Chameleons, partly due to stress at work leading to a lack of
motivation, but I knew I wouldn't be missing this one, as it was an overnight stop on my way down to Milton Keynes the next day.

Ann was there which was nice,  it wasn't the busiest of nights, but not a bad turnout.

There was a talk planned by a guy who runs a dance company, who it seems grew up not far from where i live. 

It was a nice night, I enjoyed the talk and presentation, but he hadn't expected to be talking so long so he ended up rushing off :)

I stayed over at the Premier Inn near the tram station not far from the community center. It was undergoing some building work, but it didn't end up disrupting me too much.

Pink Punters -  14th

I couldn't decide on anywhere fun to go on the way to Milton Keynes, so decided to go
straight there. It was an uneventful drive, I had charged fully at the church next to the community center the night before, so got there fine.  

I pottered around the main shopping center for a bit , couldn't find anywhere I fancied to eat so ended up with a Greggs meal deal.  I was meeting Benni at the train station later in the day, so I could give her a lift to the hotel. I had hoped to go around the art gallery again, I liked that when I did it with Ann one time, but it was not open that day.

After picking up Benni and checking in, we met up with Sally in the bar and had an early meal there - nothing special, just to get us ready for the night!

Then we went to a local real ale pub for an hour which was nice, they had some good beers.   

We went back to the hotel - via an off-license where a local recommended a tonic wine for us to try ! we got a small bottle each, and tried them back in the room. It was drinkable, and fun to video our reactions, but I wouldn't want it again too soon :)

It did help fuel me for some Kareoke in the bar after we changed, I ruined 'Breaking the law' by Judas Priest. 

We went over to the night club later on, and mostly stayed in the cocktail bar. I didn't drink that much really. I went to bed a bit earlier than the others, had some tea and water and watched a bit of TV before going to sleep.

We all met up for breakfast in the morning, it was pretty good, but wasn't feeling 100% so ended up laying down for a bit afterwards.

I drove Benni to the station before heading home.  Was having difficulty finding a free
charger again, but I noticed one not at a services I had never seen before on my google maps, so headed there.  

Turns out I had a quite a big charging complex all to myself !  

 

Hull - 21st 

A visit to Hull to explore some more real ale pubs with Charlotte.  We were also going to try a Brazilian restaurant (meat on a stick type place).

It was a very nice afternoon, we did two new ones (new to me) and then one we had done the previous month. One of them was where the plot that started the civil war took place !

We stopped for a tea at a little gallery on the way to the restaurant, just to sober up a bit :)

The Brazilian restaurant was really nice, but we probably had too many drinks to fully get our moneys worth.  You had a card that you flipped over to stop or start the delivery of meat, and a salad bar. 

 

Swimming

I did attend on the 2nd and 9th , I think I managed 42 on both !

 

Baby Guinness

General Updates

I have recently signed up for a new trans health care provider, 'Pride In health'. It was one a friend had suggested to another friend - they were were not an option when I first looked. They seem to be a lot cheaper, and I am hopeful they will be more interested in my well being.  GenderGP is not proactive at all.

I have ordered a home blood test kit - a fancy one, that sucks from your upper arm ! - I have tried finger pricks before, and didn't get on with those.  This is a stop gap to get me some hormone levels until I speak with a doctor to ask for a free test. It was that stressful dealing with them over the NHS App, I have not wanted to go back until recently.

I tried cutting my fringe yesterday, it had started to annoy me, getting over my eyes. It doesn't look too bad, but it far from perfect. My next appointment is on the 28th of this month, so i may need to do it again before then.

I have been for laser today (04/03/2025)  , it was not fun, hurt quite a bit.  I had sent pictures of a few days growth so she could target the worst areas.  You have to shave before the session, so it's hard for them to tell.

Work is a tad stressful, there is a re-org going on, I am unaffected by it really, but my own department move is still ongoing.  I have a new laptop at least, and I got some praise for saving the company some money by doing some work in house rather than pay our contractor. 

Swimming - I managed 48 lengths on the 2nd !! 

Adventures

Catch up with an ex-colleague - 14th of Feb

I went to Leeds in the morning for brunch with an ex-colleague who I have been friends with for quite a while. We had some breakfast bagels at a place I didn't know existed down a narrow passage near the
cat café. 

It was a pleasant couple of hours.  She did ask if I had done more with the voice training, which I haven't done at all.  She also thought I had lost weight, which I haven't - possibly my face might look thinner with the hormones ? that is about all I can think of. 

Blackpool - 14th / 15th Feb

I drove to Blackpool straight from Leeds, I was staying at my friends new house, and she wasn't meant to be getting away from work until 6pm.  So my plan was to dump the car on her drive, and then go for adventures. 

I had been looking at real ale places near where she lived, and had seen a Micropub I quite fancied.

My friend was very impressed I had dared venture there alone, as it was in the roughest part of town ! and is something she wouldn't have considered.

But anyway, there were no issues.  It was a bit cold inside, not very big.  The barwoman was OK with me, but not overly friendly.  I tried a bitter which it seems was nearly done, so not at it best. 

I sat for a bit and did some social media, but got bored and put my phone away. An older chap who was nearby took this as a sign that I was open to conversation, and we had a bit of a chat.  He was into real ale himself, and had been all over in the past. 

I had a pint and a half more while we talked. Nice fellow, we never exchanged names though :)

My friend messaged to say she had unexpectedly got off early, so I said my goodbyes and walked back to hers. 

I got the guided tour of the house, which was very nice indeed.  It had a lovely garage with a rollup door. Unfortunately my friend is not into cars, so it will never likely receive an oil stain 🥲

We popped to Lidl after a bit, but ended up popping into another pub - once she had been in 20 years
ago, but had never expected to go into again. It was OK, we had a drink, then went
to Lidl to buy breakfast items.  Shopping in Lidl after a few beers is dangerous however, and I bought some cheap metal taps and dies from the isles of temptation :)

After dumping the shopping back at hers we drove into town to find somewhere to eat, ending up at the Abingdon Street Market.  I had a disappointing curry, but it filled a hole.

We had a look at some bars, but they were quite noisy, so ended up going back to hers and watching some telly.  

The next day we did Lytham St Annes in the morning, mainly the charity shops - I didn't get much, but they were nice shops.  I picked up a corgi Morris Minor, series 2 but in Lilac. Not sure that combination ever existed, but it was only £2.

We lounged around the house in the afternoon, then had some of the food we had bought the previous day.  There was a gig at a rock pub nearby  - The Waterloo Music Bar , which started about 9pm, and ended up going to that.

The bands were not that good, but it was a great venue, full of memorabilia - it has one of Lemmy's bass amps !  (behind a cage).   I had a few Guinness's and enjoyed the ambiance. Lots of weird looking people there, so I fitted in :)

We didn't stay too late, and got home at a reasonable hour.

I left pretty early in the morning, I wanted to beat the traffic, so was back by lunchtime.

Hull - 28th Feb

A hull meetup had been organised by Cindy, I know a few people from that area so was keen to go.  I had done it for New Years Eve, but not really been to any other bars in the city centre. 

I arrived at a friends house in the early afternoon, and it was about 3pm before we made it into the city centre.  Ended up at a few real ale pubs, and played some pool.

The others had gone to check into their hotel, and so met up with us a bit later in a tapas bar.  We had some lovely food, then ventured to the gay quarter.

It's not a huge area, only really four bars, two owned by one person, and two by another. But they all seemed to have their own character, so was still nice to move around them.  We did encounter a drunken bloke who took a bit of a shine to Sally, but we did eventually lose him !

Persuaded a few of us to try Baby Guinness's - got a shot of me trying to do the old 'small and far-away' comparison 😁 

We decided to leave this area and go to another gay bar which was about 10 minutes away.  Unfortunately they were charging to enter, and nobody seemed to have an appetite to pay - but I spotted a pub called The King Edward, which I thought sounded like a good idea, as pubs named after potatoes must be good !

Had a couple in there, then decided to call it a night, and got a taxi back to my friends house. It was a fab night, and would definitely go back again - I believe Saturdays are more lively though.