Oestrogen aborbed

Updates:

The Oestrogen gel has arrived late last week. I administered on Wednesday and Thursday mornings  -two pumps to outer upper arms. I did feel a little odd afterwards. I'm not sure if that was because I was expecting it to, or maybe placebo response. It was a bit like after having a strong coffee, I felt a bit more on edge that normal.

I was going away for the weekend and forgot to take it with me, so I didn't have any on Friday and Saturday. Started back again on Sunday morning. This time I went with inner thighs. 

I didn't feel as much of an effect yesterday, and not much today (Tuesday) either. I did wake up a bit grumpy today which doesn't normally happen.

Adventures:

Weekend before last - 

I went out in drab for a drink with my brother on Saturday, took the Morris Minor to show him, he's never been in it.  It was a nice couple of hours in the afternoon.  

I had thought about going En-femme but decided against it. I had got as far as shaving for it though. Sort of regret not doing so.  But we've agreed to meet up in a month's time, so I think I will set that as a thing to do for next time.

Since I had already shaved, I did do a bit of makeup practise in the evening, but the look I went with didn't really work. 

I was getting withdrawal symptoms from not being out dressed, so I headed into Leeds on Sunday for some shopping, and another excuse to take the Morris out. It was a nice afternoon, I visited a CAMRA pub - 'The Ship Inn', seemed like a bit of a dive really, but one off the list. I was driving so I only had a half, and made sure to have it a few hours before intending on leaving.

I tried a fish and chips place in a shopping arcade, it wasn't that brilliant - I couldn't find a café that didn't look rammed. Went around the corn exchange, did a few of the charity shops and had a drink in flamingos.

It was really good to get out though.

Weekend just gone - Midlands Morris trip :

I had three things available to me near each other for Thursday / Friday and Saturday, so I planned to stay overnight and make a weekend of it.  Thursday was Chams, Friday was Nottingham Invasion, and Saturday a friend invited me for lunch in Lincoln.

Chams 

I was popping into the East Midlands outlet on the way down, as Ann and Amber were meeting there for some pre-chams shopping, and was going to have a drink with them.

On attempting to merge onto the M1 , there was another Minor to my right , we waved at each other as he went past and I merged in behind him. It was a pale green two door.  I figured I would be able to get details off the dashcam , but unfortunately it records on a loop and I did too many miles this weekend, so it's gone. 

I made good time, and managed to get to the outlet in time to have a drink and a toastie at Costa with Ann and Amber, then we headed to Nuthall for the meeting.

The meeting was really good, really great to catch up with people, I think I had missed the last two meetings, one because my wife was doing something, and another I went to Wakefield as I just wasn't in the mood for a late night.

Met a new person - well they had returned after a very long absence, she was nice - might end up seeing her at Invasion too perhaps. Caught up with a few of the regulars. We had a quiz which seemed to work really well, broke the evening up a bit. There were enough there for it to split into lots of smaller conversations which was nice. 

I left a little earlier than normal, as I wanted to get to the hotel before 11pm. I was staying at the 'Days Inn' off the A50 near Donnington. It's about the cheapest place with a roof and bed you can get nearby. I was a bit worried about the car, but I had installed a GPS tracker, and removed lots of ignition components, nobody touched it though.

Derby / Nottingham daytime fun

Ann was free for a little while in the morning, so we arranged to meet up in Derby at a McDonalds for
breakfast. The breakfast at the Days Inn came in a bag apparently, so wasn't too appealing. 

We met up at 9ish I think, had a nice chat over our unhealthy food, then parted ways - I had decided to go into Derby to do some shopping. The Morris was not 100% right, it had developed a random vibration, and I didn't want to do too many miles in her, so shopping seemed more sensible.

I parked in the Derbion centre, accidentally choosing the entrance with the corkscrew route instead of the more pleasant ramp Ann had suggested - I got some good video of it though :)

I had decided to go visit the 'Museum of making' first, which was a little walk from the shopping centre. It had some nice exhibits, but wasn't that big so I didn't spend a vast amount of time there. There was a jet engine and an exploded car to look at. It was free so can't complain - nice loo's too :) 

I wanted to buy some hair straighteners, as I had failed to pack them as well as my brolly and my oestrogen due to rushing about at the last minute.  I had brought a wig for the evening, but that was more a plan B.  Unfortunately I couldn't find anywhere that sold them.

Looked around some charity shops, got a few bits of lingerie from Primark, and decided that getting to Nottingham might be a good idea, so headed there.

The sat nav took me in a rather unexpected route, and through some of the city centre which wasn't ideal as she is not fun in stop start traffic, but got there OK, not much in the way of the vibration issue.  I filled her up with fuel and parked in the Victoria Centre North car park.

I bought some straighteners on offer in Boots for £30, and also some heat protect spray, having looked in a number of other places first. 

A drink in the the 'Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem' was now top off the to-do list, but I needed food first. Randomly walking around looking for a nice café didn't work, so I opted for a Gregs sarnie, then headed to the pub. I suppose I could have eaten there really ....

Anyway, had a nice half in there, and sat out on the benches outside, I didn't want to drink too much as would be doing so in the evening. By the time I had finished my drink it was time to check in to the hotel, so I wandered back and did so. I was in the Hilton, which although is very expensive is very convenient for the car park and the Invasion starting/ending venue.

After checking into the hotel, and getting my bags from the car I had a bash with the straighteners. I was pretty pleased with the outcome.  I have not used them that often at all, but it looked a lot better than when I started.  I also put some 'Bed Head' shine spray on to make it look a bit more glossy, and a bit of hairspray to hold it in place a bit. I went back to a side parting, I had been rocking a centre parting during the day.

I put on my dress for the night, and some heels and headed out in search of food - I had googled for nearby restaurants and found an Italian place that looked nice.  I did feel a bit self conscious as it was still quite early - about 5pm, and not many people were dressed nice at that time.

The lady at the restaurant was really welcoming, she asked if I wanted to sit at the back - I wasn't really fussed about hiding away, maybe she thought I would be !   I opted for a three meat lasagne, still not sure what the three meats were but it was nice. Not huge though - I think the one I had at Gino's in Leeds earlier in the month had swayed me to expect a big one.  

I wasn't that full so I decided on a desert - Tiramisu, which I had spied another patron having and it looked nice, and it was ! 

It was only  just after 6:30pm when I finished, and another few hours until there would be anyone at the pub, so I went back to the hotel for a little lay down.

Invasion 

On entering the Foresters I spied a trans lady I hadn't met before sat on her own, I waved and went and got a drink and joined her. She was friendly enough and we chatted for a bit until some of the other regulars turned up. I think there were 9 of us in our bit, and a few more sat by the dance floor.  

We were in there for an hour and half or so , then moved onto the 6 Barrels just on the other side of the shopping centre.  Had a nice pint in there, and then we moved to the Lord Roberts.  

A few of us departed at that point, so we were down to six of us.

The Roberts had an event downstairs and the pub was a bit empty compared to normal but it did mean we got some nice seats.

They refused to serve Jennifer half a snake bite and black - would only do pints of it, so she wrote a poem about it, and I think i got a mention :)  - she's not posted it anywhere yet though. 

It was past midnight when we left, they were all heading to back to the Foresters, but given I was going to Lincoln the next day, I decided to be sensible and head to bed. 

Lincoln

Not sure if it was the food or beer or both but my digestive system had not been too happy overnight, but breakfast helped - went to McDonalds next to the hotel for a bacon roll.

Getting to Lincoln was fairly uneventful and was parked up near the Brayford pool by 10:45am. The meal wasn't until 1pm so I did some wandering.  Looked in a few charity shops, headed up steep hill to see if anything was going on.

There was a market at the top, and some people looked to be doing some rope climbing training, or a
demonstration on the big arch you walk through to get to the Cathedral.  I had a quick look inside the Cathedral but had been before so didn't fancy paying for the privilege and headed out.

I popped into the museum just to use the loo, and then sat out on a bench in a park at the back of the art gallery for a bit. It was soon time to go meet my friend so I headed back down to the restaurant - The Botanist.

Met Alice and Helen outside and we were shown to a table upstairs. Neither of us had met Helen
before, so we did the usual sort of chat about our past, and journeys. It was very nice. Food was pretty good too - I had a spicy chicken burger. 

After the meal myself and Alice did a few more shops, then I decided I should probably get back home so said my goodbyes.

Got home fine, didn't do much driving over 60mph which is better for the fuel economy too. 

All in all a very nice day and weekend !

 

Making progress

 

Life Updates :

So a quick summary of key events in the weeks since Leeds pride :

GenderGP: 

I have started my monthly £30 subscription, this means they will send my application off for final review, and I should hear back from them in a few weeks. I should get my prescription at this time, and be able to start on the microdose Estrogen. 

A link in case of interest to anyone :

https://www.gendergp.com/hormones-and-microdosing-does-it-have-to-be-all-or-nothing/

A small but significant step.

Hair:

I think I forgot to mention in my last post,  but I dyed my hair, this was at the end of July just before LFF. I used Clairol Nice'n Easy colour 6G (Light golden brown). The colour is still good, I can start to see some grey on my roots now. 

Pic to the right is at Wakefield at the start of the month:

I ordered some cheap straighteners, and attempted to sort the curls at the back, but it's still quite short back there and wasn't too successful.  I did have a go on the rest of it, and it looked pretty good on that though. I used heat protection spray with them too of course.

I also tried some 'shine' product Bed Head by TIGI , which seemed to make it look nicer.

I've not been wearing my daytime wigs since really, swapping to the silver one with blue tint for my night time look.

Health:

I have been suffering with digestive issues, got booked in for a colonoscopy next week ! - such fun. My feet are still healing from Leeds pride, as long as I don't wear those same shoes I should be fine. 

The patch of skin I lost when removing the boob tape is better now, but still a red area. 

Events attended :

Wakefield Pride 

The weather was a bit poor, but I had a fab day out with my friends from Trans Wakefield at the pride. There were not nearly as many people lining the streets as my first Wakefield pride last year.  I was at least marching in the parade with people I knew this time, rather than tagging on the end.

There were plenty of people in the parade though, and the main event area was rammed with colourfully dressed people. There was some nice food on, I was quite hungry and had a venison burger, and a falafel wrap !

I hung around the main event for a while, and had half a flat cider which was very nice. 

Then a few of us went to the 'Our House' LGBTQ+ café for a beverage and a cake in the early afternoon. I departed after this, I wasn't drinking due to the tummy issues, and also I had to drive my wife somewhere in the morning.

Lincoln Pride 

I couldn't go down on Friday night as my wife needed picking up just after 5pm, and didn't see the point in going if I couldn't have the whole day there. So I went down Saturday morning instead. 

I took the Morris Minor, just to make life more interesting :)  

I was sharing a room with Lexi to keep costs down, Gemma and Cindy , and Jennifer and Justine were also coming. 

I wore a shortish summer dress, my trainers with the Trans coloured laces (got the laces free at Leeds pride), and my grey bag - there was an A4 size limit at the main venue.

I met up with Lexi, Gemma and Cindy around 10:30am by the arch thingy which i always forget the name of.  It didn't seem that well organised, they had to disperse the people waiting to form up to move one of the floats through.  Gemma was adorned with sequins and LED's so had been given a place on

the floats, but chose the back one as the front was rammed.

We set off at 11:30am, and did a short walk - interrupted by the railway crossing.  There were lots of people cheering us on, but possibly because it wasn't that local I didn't seem to feel as much for it all as the Leeds and Wakefield ones. It was still nice to be a part of it though.

I saw Jennifer and Justine in the crowd as we were past the crossing, and diverted out to grab them, and they joined us for the remainder of it.  

We ended up at the main event  just before 12pm , and had to queue for a while as they were searching everyone's bags. 

We did the stalls, got some drinks, and watched the performers on the stage for a few hours. Some of them were pretty good - mainly dancers and drag performers. They had the Viaduct show girls on for a couple numbers - but we didn't find them as impressive really. 

We left just before 3pm so we could check into our hotel room, Cindy came with us too.  Then had a quick pint, and then headed off to a quirky little pub called 'The tiny tavern' where we had another one. 

Then myself Cindy and Lexi did pizza at Zizzi's , before going back to our room to change for the evening. 

We met up with Gemma, who had glammed back up, and had a few in the Carousel, then we headed to
Popworld where we stayed until just before midnight I think. 

Jennifer and Justine met us in Popworld, and stayed for an hour or so, but they had tickets for the
official afterparty at 'The Scene' so left us to head there.

They had some very good music in there, and with the light up dancefloor and a few entertaining locals it was a very good atmosphere.

I did get described as 'a man' by one of the girls waiting for a cubicle in the loos, which stung a little. Never really had much of that, didn't really expect it - it wasn't an LGBTQ+ venue though. I guess it's much more likely to happen. 

But overall it was a really fantastic day, and evening, and great to catch up with the girls.

Lincolnshire Steam and Vintage Rally

My friend Alice was displaying her tractors at a rally just up the road on the same weekend - which was why she wasn't with us. So myself and Lexi had said we would pop over and visit on the Sunday.

The drive there was fairly uneventful, but the gearbox seemed more crunchy. We got to the show and wandered around and had a bacon sarnie and looked a few things while we waited for Alice to join us. 

We met her by her tractors, and I got a photo on one :)  , then an ice-cream - perhaps my first En femme public ice-cream #milestone  

Then we did the inside bit with the modelling section, some nice Mechano in there. 

Alice fancied a beer, and I had a 0% beer one from the tent and we sat on a table for a bit. It was sunny but not too warm as there was a bit of a breeze

There were quite a few Morris Minors for me to look at, but they were all mostly newer than mine and not of much interest to me. We watched them parade the miniature steam engines. 

It was getting towards 1pm and both myself and Lexi wanted to head home, so we wandered towards
the exit looking at a few things on the way. 

I said my goodbyes and prepared to get on my way.

Then my troubles started - she didn't start that well, and there was a metallic noise while running that shouldn't have been there. So I just moved her to a different car parking row and put the bonnet up to check.  Lexi drove past and asked if I was OK, and I foolishly said I was.

Turns out I wasn't - I thought it was coming from the starter motor, so I turned her off, whacked it a few times with a big wrench as I though it was stuck on. But when I came to restart it just span and didn't engage at all. So I ended up crawling under the car in my dress to take the starter off.

A chap offered assistance, but I thought I had solved it - but then realised I hadn't.

Messaged Alice to see if she could come and assist, and decided it was best to leave it off , get her running and pray it didn't stall on the way home.  We did try the starting handle, but it wasn't easy. We also tried a push start, with me jumping in at the last minute, but it was a rutted gravel track, and didn't work. Some chap took pity on us and offered a tow start, which did work thankfully.

I got most of the way home, then it died at a junction 1.8 miles away. Luckily there was a Irish , possibly traveller couple in a motorhome in a layby just by it. 

They were a bit scary, but helpful and gave me a push start -  it was on tarmac and with two of them it worked much better.

I got home rather flustered , but I got home :)

 

Luxurious Leeds

 

Since previous post .......

The last post was the bank holiday, I had returned from Lincoln on the Saturday, and did very little.

Sunday was a pub lunch out with my wife's family in Culcheth, it is only worthy of note because I was really worried how my hair would go down. I feel fairly obvious now !  I removed my earrings for this reason. 

I got compliments on the hair, they said it suited me !

On the Monday I went out with the family (boy mode) and two friends from university around Clumber Park, it was a nice sunny day and had a great time. I did have the option of going en femme, one of them knew about me, and the other is friends with Joanna so would have only perhaps been surprised.

Trans-Wakefield

This was at the Café, my hair spray nozzle had gummed up, so I put a wig on for this one. 

It was very well attended, the biggest turnout I've seen - with 4 newbies. I was sat next to a really lovely NB called Kris, and a trans girl called Quill and had a nice talk with them. I think Kris was similar age to me, there was another too who seemed a similar age but I didn't get much of a chance to talk with her.  Perhaps next time !

We popped into the pub for a quick drink, but they sat outside again. I had a long dress and a jacket, but was quickly too cold with drinking a cold 0% beer. So I left pretty early.

Leeds First Friday

I was staying in the Premier Inn this time, as it was better for the walk back from
the Ball on the Saturday night.  It was a bit more of a trek from the car to the hotel, and from the hotel into the city centre and back, but Alice was staying there too so made sense.

I drove in before lunch, met up with Ann at the Marriot where she was dropping her bags off, then we headed out for a coffee at Costa. We did some mooching around the shops, and I bought some higher black heels for the ball. 

I met Alice while Ann had gone to check in at her hotel, and then we all ended up in Tapped which is a microbrewery / real ale place that does pizza. Jessica joined us in there too.  We had some pizza and beer in there.  I chose some weird halves  for fun, a fruit beer, and a Tiramisu one :)  (couldn't finish it, it was a bit strong)

Once it was nearer 3pm myself and Alice headed back to the Premier Inn to check in , via the car park for the first load of bags. She was having a makeover in the hotel so I went for a wander around the area to investigate a garden built on a bit of an old viaduct. Got some pictures of that, and went back to the car to get the last remaining bags - I had a big dress back with my ball gown options.

I then changed into a different dress for the meal of course 😊

Then it was time to head back to the pub - the Bankers Cat, where we had a couple, then onwards to an Indian place we had failed to go previously - "Tharavadu".  We had a fab meal in there, I chose a lamb dish with plain rice. The portion size was just right, and it was really tasty.

Then it was back to the hotel one last time to change for the evening, I got my steps in that day for sure. I was really chuffed with the dress I had chosen, and looking forward to wearing it all week. 

I needed to be at the Bridge for a newbie event at 7:30pm sharp , this was because two of the Chams massive were attending for their 1st time !!! -  Andie and Sasha. 

They were driving from the coast, so timings were not able to be exact, and I wasn't in there long before I got a message they were nearly there. I walked up to the car park to meet them and guide them back to the Bridge. 

They both looked fantastic, but there was certainly a bit of 1st time nerves, and one of them was driving so couldn't take the edge off with a refreshing beverage. I introduced them to Grai the lead coordinator, and Alice, Ann and Jessica. 

We moved on to the Viaduct next. It was a bit pants in there really, the cabaret wasn't the best I've seen, and they are terrible at telling you it's about to start when it's actually going to be 20 minutes later. I also struggled to find people I knew that were not already deep in conversation to introduce them to. They survived the trip to the loo's at least. 

We moved to 'The End' bar next which is very nice, it was quiet so we were able to get some tables which worked out well. Had a good chat in there, and met up with a few more of the girls.

Then we headed to the Smokestack, which tends to be the actual end venue for the evening for a lot of us. I did some dancing in there, Sasha did too, and seemed to really enjoy it.

It was getting quite late, and given they had to drive, Sasha and Andie headed off sometime after midnight. Alice and myself left a little after this - I wanted an early night so I could be sure would enjoy the ball the next day, and Alice was fairly gone by this point too. I didn't fancy a long dark walk on my own !

It was a very good evening - I only tripped over the dress a few times, have to remember to lift it while doing stairs ! Thankfully I don't think I damaged it.

Saturday - Mooching around

I was feeling a bit more refreshed than Alice that morning, we messaged and agreed to meet up for breakfast a bit later on.  

I decided I would go without the wig during the day, but needed some hair spray to tame my hair a little  So I nipped to the little Sainsburys and got a cheap bottle of hair spray. Then I had a bit of a stroll down the canal to kill some time. It didn't look too bad without the spray, but I wanted it for walking around the city centre mainly.

Met up with Alice and we walked to the Cha Lounge which is over the river from the freedom quarter. My eggs were cold again, they don't seem to be able to time things properly, which is a shame as everything else was really nice.

Ann met us in there to say goodbye and deposit some beer for my birthday which was most kind of her.  After this I walked back to the hotel to put that in my room, and Alice went to get her eyebrows done in Primark. 

We met back up at Flamingo's for a coffee a bit later on, then to the Foleys for a few drinks - met up with Gemma and another trans woman who I've totally forgotten the name of !  I didn't want to get tipsy, so I was on soft drinks. 

Gemma had to go get ready for her night out about 3pm, so Alice and I went shopping for a dress for a wedding she had coming up. She got a fab (but expensive!!) dress in Hobbs.  Then we popped in to Tapped again for one last drink before heading back to the hotel to change for the ball.

I think it was about 6:20pm I decided to double check the time the ball started, and it was 30 mins before we had thought it was !!!  So we
walked back to the room at speed !

Due to this we had to cut some corners unfortunately, I managed to put my eyeliner wings on , and refreshed my foundation, but didn't do any eye shadow. I also put my low heels on, to improve walking speed.

Alice had forgone wings and her fake lashes. I still had time to take a photo though of course.

Out Together LGBT Ball

We arrived about 15 mins late, at 7:45 , but we were not the last, and there was plenty of champagne still there 😄 It was really nice tasting, I wish I had got another glass.

It seemed like there were not many other trans people there, so seemed like we might be representing ! -  I joked we should be well behaved.

We made sure to get some pictures, but some turned out a bit blurry. Probably for the best 😂

There was a seating chart we had to use to locate our table - we had made sure to ask to be sat on the same one when booking our tickets. Ours was table 8 .  

We made our way into the ball room and found our table.  We were soon joined by other people. 

They were all from the same legal firm, and as it turned out one of the main sponsors for the event !!

I was feeling even more like we should behave ourselves at this point, but I needn't have worried, they were really nice, and  soon Alice was talking easily to half the table. I only had one lady next to me and then a gap, but managed to chat quite comfortably with her. 

The first entertainment was an Abba tribute, with two singers which was really good.

Then there was a Mermaids dance performance thing which seemed to go on for a while too long. 

Next a heads or tails game which cost us £5 to play, where we had to guess heads or tails then sit down if we guessed right. The last people standing played for a prize.

The food came out after this, it was butternut squash soup, followed by chicken in a sauce with veg, then sticky toffee pudding to finish. We had some singers to entertain us while we ate - they were really good.

I think we managed to use to correct cutlery and glasses, there was some debate if we should be eating the bread roll to the left or the right of our plates, we chose left.

After food there were some speeches about the charity and the importance of the funding they got from this. I think partly to tee us up for the charity auction later. But they explained the work they did and such. We bought some raffle tickets too.

I think there may have been another set from the singers, then they did the auction. I bid on some back stage passes for Leeds Pride but it got a bit too steep and I gave up. There wasn't much else I was interested in. 

It was Christine Talbot a newsreader from ITV who was co-hosting with a guy who I had not heard of. They were quite a good duo, and funny.  I think it was the raffle next, I didn't win anything.

They had a posh haircut prize, it obviously ended up being won by a bald guy ! Table 13 seem to have spend all their wages on tickets and won 5 or 6 prices at least.

After this there were a couple of acts who were singing for us to dance to. I ended up on the dance floor for 3 or 4 songs I think. Even Alice was not allowed to sit, and got on there for a few.

By about 12:30am we were both feeling tired, and decided to call it a night. I think last orders was 1am anyway, so it wasn't going on that much longer. We got some hugs from the ladies on our table, and headed off back to the hotel, posing for some photo's outside of course.

It was a really lovely night, and would certainly do it again next year !  Very glad I went, and Alice was great company too.

Sunday

We met up for breakfast in the Premier Inn, then both headed home pretty soon afterwards. I was en femme of course, and spent the rest of the day so when I got home.

I did a bit of work in the garden, and on the car too - sans wig 😄

It was a really great weekend !

Yes I did buy a pink boiler suit specifically for en femme tinkering 😂

Vintage fun

Early Week

Monday was a bank holiday,  I did a 15.4km walk that day too, really trying to get the weight off. I was working Tuesday to Thursday as Friday was my scheduled day off.

Chams

I wore a brown wig -
not this one

Thursday was Chams, I went down in the Leaf, which was a more refined journey, but not that much fun. I had bought a fab safari style dress last month, and really wanted to wear that out. I put my fairly high brown boots on, which I can just about walk in OK.  Probably should have shaved my legs, they didn't look too good on close inspection.

I got there a bit early as usual, and had a nice chat with Lynn while attempting not to put her off the makeup too much. 

It was a lively night, Danielle had brought along a young friend who was very bubbly, and joined in as if she was a regular. There were also a few other youngsters back. A brand of trans specific underwear was mentioned which I should look into at some point - https://zoah.shop

Friday - Doncaster Shopping Adventures

I like trying new places, and I noticed there was an outlet village near Doncaster I hadn't been to yet, which was also next to a scenic lake with a war memorial on an island. So I got ready and headed out for the day - I decided upon my red boots and a matching red dress, with chocolate tights and the brown jacket. Maybe a bit too red looking back, but it's not too bad.

I arrived near lunch time, and after wandering the length of the outlet to see what was available, I chose a nice looking café. It was pretty busy, which was a good sign. I ordered a jacket potato and a latte, and found just about the only small table left. 

The server was really nice, I can't remember exactly what she said but it was nice. The food arrived very quickly and was really good.  

After this I wandered around the shops, got a new denim jacket from M&S, along with a top and a pack
of tights. I tried the jacket on in the changing rooms, as I wanted to check the arm length.

I looked in a few others but didn't find much, got some chocolate for my wife and kids from the Cadbury's shop. Then ended up in the discount makeup place and got a load of different nail varnishes.

Finally ended up in Next, where I nearly bought a dress, but talked myself out of it.

Then I decided to have an amble around the lake, it was a nice walk, I think it was around 2.6km around it. The memorial was nice, was just a shame it was a bit overcast. It was around 4pm by the time I got back to the car, so decided to head home.

In the evening I took some pics in some new dresses for Insta.

Saturday - Air Museum 

Decided to have a family day out, and I had seen someone I follow on Facebook had been to the Avro Heritage museum near Stockport, so decided to go there. I was not en-femme , I just wanted to try and get out with the family for a bit, as we've not been out for a while.

Had a cockpit tour of a Lancaster mock-up , then a light lunch and we spent a good while looking around the museum, and the Vulcan which was the star attraction, parked outside. 

We popped into my parents on the way back, partly as we were passing, but also because we were in my wife's new car, and my dad likes to look at such things. It was OK we didn't stay too long as it appears we were interrupting the preparation of their dinner, 

It was a good day out, boys seemed to enjoy it.  On our return it was Eurovision, which I couldn't be bothered watching, so just talked to my friends online.

Sunday - Church open day and Vintage vehicles

My friend Alice had posted about an open day at her village church, where there would be cake, and also a display of some of her vehicles. I quite fancied the idea of popping along in the Morris Minor. Cake friends and cars are a winning combination for me :)

I donned a dress appropriate for vintage motoring, and headed into deepest darkest Lincolnshire. It was a foggy start, but it soon burned off, and became a very warm day. I was a bit dehydrated by the time I got there - just before lunch. My friend had heard me coming, the distinctive sound of a vintage car approaching :)  

I bought some cake and jam from the church stalls, and we had a bit of a look around inside, then headed to a local café for some lunch - I got to ride in one of her land rovers. I had ham and pickle sandwiches, which were very nice indeed - on very ornate plates. The owner and staff were very welcoming indeed, Alice eats there a lot, I can see why.

On our return I got to see some of the work in progress vehicles in the workshop, and a tour of her veg garden. It was a most pleasant afternoon - and very peaceful location too, not much traffic, mainly bird song. 

The journey back was even warmer, but there was a short downpour that cooled things off for a bit. I got back before 5pm I think.

I got some video of the journey, so will have to upload that to YouTube at some point ! 

Out and about

Out - to my Brother !

I wrote my previous post on a Friday thinking that I probably wouldn't get up to much on the Saturday and Sunday. I was due to have a quiet drink with my brother on Saturday lunch time, and thought it might just be a few hours of chat, then back home early afternoon.

Anyway, we both got very very drunk, I tried Jägerbomb's for the first time, I have some memory loss. I remember showing him a picture on my Instagram, and then being outside the pub with him being quite nice about it all. I think the picture to the right was it, or at least one with that dress on.

I don't remember getting home, or getting into bed - this was before 7pm , but I do recall my wife coming in to give me a bottle of Lucozade and a pepperoni pizza she had ordered for me - which I ate. I think this saved me from much of the hangover I was really owed !

Due to the memory issue I wasn't 100% sure of where it all got left, so I sent him a text early in the morning, and got a nice supportive one back saying he would always be there for me and such, and we have been fine since. Mainly talking about cars, as we did before - as if nothing had changed. Which I am very pleased about.

I've added him and my dad to a WhatsApp
group, titled 'cars' , we are all quite interested in them, I don't want them thinking I am a totally different person now, I still have much the same interests, I would just rather be dressed differently while doing them :)

Not sure my dad is really checking it much, nor did they get the emergency tests, perhaps need to persuade him to get a newer phone.

About - Mum has questions !

Being open to my brother unexpectedly resulted in my mum wanting to talk about things with me more deeply, and in detail - about my plans. Apparently they had discussions that they might need to get their wills updated to be my new name ! 

She was also enquiring how far I wanted to go - the topic of genitals seemed to be highest priority for them to know about. I do find that quite amusing, as it's generally the last thing anyone actually gets done, if at all, but non-trans people seem fixated on it. 

Anyway, I think they think I have a firm plan - I have desires, I have money, I have no firm decisions. I am not likely to change my name any time soon that's for sure.

She was also saying that she has nobody else to talk to about it, so wants to talk to me more often. Which I suppose isn't a bad thing. She wanted to know if I was finding the support groups useful, if they were helping and such - which they certainly are. 

Chameleons 

It seemed like a more quiet affair compared to the previous meeting, but I think this was partly because  the wig people had come to the previous meeting, which tempted more people out - plus the two ladies themselves, so it was a packed room. 

I think there were actually 9 of us at this meeting , which was still not exactly small compared to some
of the summer ones - as I'm sure you know a high proportion of trans people are also vampires, so the summer months are challenging. 

Halloween last year
Most vamp look 
I've managed :)

Well it's either that or it's due to it being harder to sneak out of the house dressed in the light, or too hot to wear wigs, but vampirism is a much more sexy and plausible reason I'm sure you will agree.

Speaking of which it's the first of the two Whitby goth weekends at the moment - I didn't go, it was meant to rain, and my wife was less than pleased with the idea. It's a long drive for just for the afternoon, and I had no hotel booked, so probably for the best.

There was a new person there, a university student, they were very well spoken and seemed quite switched on, knowing all the current terms. Definitely officer grade material for any secret trans-army that may need forming !

Lynn had a fetching top on, with sort of mesh effect arms, looked very nice in it. 

Was also great to catch up with Ann, and Danielle was back too, sans cast on her wrist, with good news about a GIC referral. Didn't speak too much to her, but I think she will be at LFF so will do so then.

Trans-portation 

I finally got enough confidence to take the Morris Minor down the M1 to Chams. She has been christened 'Josephine'  as apparently it's illegal to own one without giving it a female name.

The journey down was pretty steady, with only a bit of light rain to contend with, I have a YouTube channel, and I have created a video of most of said journey for anyone's viewing pleasure (it's sped up in the middle, only 6 mins long) :

I tried to keep to 60mph, for the sake of the engine, and my hearing, it is very loud, there is no sound deadening at all.  I arrived really early, partly in case I had issues and had to stop and troubleshoot, and partly because I had been chomping at the bit to set off.

So I spent a bit outside with my tripod getting some pictures of us both - this was also the first time I had been out in her enfemme !

I was very pleased with these, and got some lovely comments on Insta about the car - well and my dress too :)

The return journey was horrible, the rain had got a lot worse it was hammering down, and the M1 had a lot of water on it. By the time I was on the motorway the windows had misted up, and due to my high level of meticulous planning, I had not actually got anything to wipe them with. So I used my hand for a few miles until I got to Tibshelf.

I stopped at the main part of the services with all the shops, and went in to use the loo, and see if any of the shops sold the demister pads. They didn't, so I figured the shop at the fuel part would, and attempted to drive the short distance there.  I made a school girl error of trying to start her with the choke fully out - even though she was still warm. 

She didn't want to go, and I must have flooded it. I was sat in the dark for a while pondering my life choices, and the possibility of hotel rooms.

Then I thought I would give the 2cv hot start method a go - you  keep the accelerator peddle floored, it would splutter into life and then you backed off the throttle before the revs got high. This did result in it firing on at least 2 cylinders, but it soon died. 

So I sat for a bit longer, and thought well, maybe it doesn't need the choke - and it fired up after an excessive amount of cranking. I haven't actually driven it much so it's all a learning curve !

We got to the petrol station OK, and I filled her up with some E5 - that was another concern it's got a tiny tank and seems quite thirsty, so I wanted to make sure I didn't run out ! 

I found some demister pads in there, and got two of those, fired her up again - easily,  and headed out in the darkness. 

We spent most of the rest of the journey in the slow lane following lorries, everyone was driving slow not just me, it was quite hard to see the lane markings in some places. I think I got home sometime after 1am. 

I found some leftover pizza in the fridge and ate that, with a lingering smell of premium petrol on my fingers - it was lovely.

Drying off 

The following day I put her in the garage and used 3 bath towels to get as much water off her as possible - it really is like owning a big dog. There was puddle in the boot and on the drivers floor. I've got a dehumidifier on in there now, with all the windows down. If it's sunny again tomorrow I might push her onto the drive as that will probably work better.

Today I have purchased a new car for my wife ! She was owed one really. I can borrow it for long journeys (it's a petrol) , like Pink Punters, so I am also happy.

Trans on the Go !

 

Prologue 

Hair update

I have been very happy for the first few days of the week, I only say as it's often the case that heading back to work after a fun weekend is usually fairly depressing, but not so much this week.

We will be having a new thing on our work HR portal where it asks you how you are feeling periodically, maybe I should do one on here.

The last few days were quite busy though, although it's nice to be needed.

This pic is from a few weeks ago, I wanted to see how I looked with my real hair - I'm pretty pleased, although I'm going to stick some just for men on to get rid of some grey - It does rather age me.

Lasers

I had my last of my block of six face sessions on Thursday, and also started the 1st of six on my torso. 

So I was there a little over 40 mins, instead of my usual 15 mins. It should have actually been longer, but they have upgraded to a new machine which produced a bigger spot size, thus reducing the number of zaps required.

It went well, I shed a lot of hair on my face, it's mainly the top lip and the sort of goatee type area where I still have growth. She was also pleased with the reaction on my torso, it went bumpy very quickly which is a good sign.

I've bought another block of 6 for my face, I expect that should be more than enough - perhaps even to present makeup free ! I do sometimes feel a bit over the top at certain groups.  

I had to ask my wife to help me shave my back in preparation for it, which she relented to. She is concerned it's not working very well - but I have been really pleased with the results, and I know of many who have had a lot more sessions and still seem to have issues with shadow bleeding through.

  

Trans-Wakefield

Due to the lasers that afternoon, I was unable to wear makeup, and thus went in boy mode. I really wanted to go to see Philippa as she is out of hospital now, and I had not seen her in a while.

We ate cake, and drank coffee and did our own version of a pub quiz - they have changed the venue so that we are doing two days in the LGBT café now, instead of just the 1st of the month. We still end up at the pub afterwards most times as the café shuts at 9pm. Although this week I came straight home to do some more work - as I said it's been a bit busy.

The Weekend

My current plan is to work tomorrow morning - I need to make next week less stressful. Then I should
be going for a few drinks with my brother at lunch time.

I had been thinking of telling him about me, and I think my mum really wants me to, but well there is currently no rush from me to tell him.  I do wonder if she has dropped him some hints. I will see how it goes, watch this space !

I am plotting taking the Morris Minor on an outing, possibly to the next Chams, so I will likely be tinkering with that at some point too. I have a kit to fix the inlet valve on the carb float chamber. She does leak petrol a bit - but she's getting on a bit, and you've got to expect some incontinence at that age.

I had driven to Woodhall services down the M1 last Sunday, and it seemed to go well. The oil was a tad low on my return, but not sure how much it had in when I set off, school girl error 😊

Chat GPT to the rescue