Liverpool
Leeds first Friday were nominated for the 'Community Organisation Award: LGBT' at the National Diversity Awards, hosted in Liverpool cathedral.
https://www.nationaldiversityawards.co.uk/2024-shortlist/leeds-first-friday/Due to myself and Ann's work in organising the afternoon bar crawl 'Pints and Straws' we were give the
option to attend the ceremony.
It was actually a bit more complicated, too many people wanted to go, and there was a kerfuffle that led to a valued team member leaving, but I won't go into that.
Anyway, we did have pay to attend, the table was quite a bit, and I think it was £180 I paid , then there was hotel costs and some food for the night before, so it wasn't cheap.
We had a meal out and a few drinks on the Thursday night, which was a bit of a mistake for me as I managed to upset my tummy and then had a really poor nights sleep.
Friday myself and Benni had a lovely veggie breakfast at a café just around the corner from the Travelodge. We had to change hotels in the morning as it was a silly price for the Friday, so we did that first thing. Once in our new hotel Benni had to do some work, so I ended up trying to nap while she did that. Later in the afternoon we decided to go get our nails done at the nail bar in the Primark.
I had never had my nails done before, always choosing to do it myself. It was a nice experience, I went with a metallic purple that I thought would match Vinnie (my vampire cat handbag) who would be my date for the evening.
The ladies were nice, and it didn't take very long to do both our hands. Benni was having a pedicure too though, so I went off to do a bit a shopping while she had that done. Nipped into M&S for some new tights, and got a phone charger as I had forgotten to bring one.
I got a cheap meal deal sandwich to tide me over till later, as it was likely to be 8pm before we had the food at the event. I re-did my makeup in the room, and got everything laid out ready.
We were both ready for about 6pm, so we booked an Uber and went outside the hotel to wait for it, getting a few photo's while we were there.
Took a bit longer to get there than I had thought, as the one way system forced him to drive in a bit of a circle, but we were not the last to arrive by a long way.
We stood outside with a few others for a while, as the intention was to get a group photo, but a few were getting a bit cold and we decided to head into the Cathedral, stopping to show our QR codes at the door.
Once inside we could see there were a lot of people already in there, with some tables with welcome drinks setup. There was also a big wall with all the sponsor logo's on and a photographer taking shots of people and groups. We got some drinks and then joined the photo queue.
We did a bit of schmoozing with other guests, got some more photo's then were eventually told that our tables were ready. We were on a Bronze one, so were in the back 1/3rd of the layout, which was nearer the bar and loos, so not a bad place to be :)
There was wine on the table, I didn't really want to get tipsey so I did get some Pepsi from the bar, and alternated between that and the wine all night.
The food came out slowly, it was raw salmon to start, followed by pork I think, then a lemon cheesecake. It was all really really nice.
During the food servings, ITV were walking around doing interviews with different groups, and we were picked - Grai the main organiser got the short straw with the interview. There was a wide shot of our table that was briefly on TV but it didn't get me :)
They started to do the awards after desert has been served. Claire Balding was the host, and she did a good job. Most of the winners had turned up, and did nice acceptance speeches. It was a great atmosphere everyone clapping. I think there was only one set of really sore losers, a drag show who walked out after not getting it.
Ours was in the 2nd half , and there was an interval with some children singing to break the evening up a bit. It was soon time for ours, and we were all a bit fidgety, I had my 360 camera running , in case we did win and I could record us walking up to the podium. But unfortunately we didn't, so I won't be using the disappointed look video for anything :)
We took it on the chin though, and continued to drink the wine.
At the end of the event, there was a famous singer who did a few of her hits, then all the nominees were asked to come up to the stage for a big group photo. I think you can just see the top of my head in one of them :)
After this we hung around a bit getting more photo's at the logo wall, and trying to locate a team member who it seems had already got the bus to the afterparty.
Myself and Benni got an uber back to our hotel, she was going to change her shoes and go to the afterparty, I had already decided I would be heading to bed - it was about 1am already, and I saw no need to drink any more alcohol.
The morning after
We had breakfast at the Premier Inn , checked out , then headed towards the museum to kill a bit of time before her train was due. Ann met up with us outside the museum too. We had a nice time wandering around the exhibitions - they had a lot of Egyptian artifacts which I enjoyed.
After the museum we had a drink in a café and the other two had some food. I wasn't in the mood for any after a big breakfast.
I headed off about 2pm , stopping to charge on the way home. Was very tired when I got back !
All in all, a lovely experience, and very glad I went. Think I did well with my outfit choice, my handbag got some compliments too. Probably for the best that I wasn't feeling that great otherwise I would have had too much wine and made a fool of myself 😂
