Modernist experiance

Executive Summary 

So this weeks adventures consisted of the normal Nottingham Chameleons meeting on the Thursday evening, with an overnight stay nearby, then a day out around Milton Keynes with Ann, and evening excesses at the Pink Punters LGBT club - with another overnight stay. Then a return drive on the Saturday. I would be dressed for all of this as per normal Izzy Corp operating procedures. 

I had been preparing for all this earlier in the week, and had shaved my legs, done my nails and packed my bags so I could get down to Nottingham without a lot of stress.

Chameleons

The wig people were in ! - this is good, not only because there is the chance to possibly pick up a new wig - but I also love how it changes the group dynamic. People nipping to the room of change to try on new ones, coming back in for opinions - it gives more opportunity to mingle and move around a bit. The fuddle we have at Xmas also has this effect.

Not that I don't like other times where we don't have distractions - but it is nice to mix it up every now and then. No one meeting is ever totally the same.

There were some new people, two quite young, but they left fairly early on. Some old faces back too, they had been absent due to their partners health issues. Danielle returned, still with her cast on, but hopefully it will be off by the next one.

Spirals are fun

Lynn had a lovely top on - I don't think I mentioned it at the time.

I needed to check into the hotel, so we left a bit more rapidly than normal, but it was still getting on for 11pm I think.

Ann got there a bit before me, and I met her in reception just as she was ordering a refreshing beverage, so I got one too. Chucked my bags in my room, and we sat and chatted for a bit over the beer. It was a nice end to the evening. They had a spiral staircase which looked quite funky so I got some pics on that. I do love an interesting backdrop.

It was a Days Inn hotel, it was pretty good, all through my window seals were a bit perished and it let a lot of road noise in - but didn't sleep too badly.

Journey down 

We needed breakfast, and Ann knew of a biker café nearby, so we had agreed to get ready for 8:30am and head to that first. It was only about 10 miles away - "FactoryHeads café " near Donington Park.

We had a nice cooked breakfast in there, then we headed to the services at Donington Park so I could charge my car. I got it up to 80%, then we agreed to meet up at Northampton services, where I would need a final charge to get me within range of the hotel. 

We had a coffee some cake and a loo stop in there while we waited for the electrons to flow.

It absolutely chucked it down shortly after we got back on the motorway, but thankfully it only lasted a short while, as we were down to 50 mph with not much visibility. 

Managed to follow my sat nav mostly correctly, and after what seemed like 100 roundabouts we ended up at the hotel we were staying at - just over the road from the Pink Punters club. It was only 12:30pm. so we then abandoned my car and headed into the centre of Milton Keynes in Ann's car. 

National Film And Sci-Fi Museum

I had suggested a visit here as I had seen they had a Dalek, so it had to be good 😊 , although upon entering I wasn't 100% we were going to get value for money. 

But I was pleasantly surprised - it had a lot more exhibits than I expected. You were not allowed to take photo's of a lot of it, they made that very clear when you bought the tickets, and there were signs everywhere. But there were a few 'selfie stations' where you could.  I assume this is for copyright reasons.

There were props and models from all sorts of classic shows, costumes from some big films, some of them signed. We spent about an hour looking around, not sure you could spend much more, but it totally seemed worth the price. 

After this we did a bit of a mooch around the shopping centre, then onwards to the "MK Gallery" :

MK Gallery

This was a short walk out of the back of the shopping centre, it was very pleasant inside, and there was a friendly lady there to rob us blind 😊 - it was a bit more than we were expecting, but still thought was worth a punt.

We headed in, and spent about 30 mins perusing the sculpture, some of it was very involved and I really liked. There were a few bits that I don't really consider to be art to be honest. But they did at least provoke discussion, and we got some amusing bemused look selfies out of it.  

We wandered out of there , and decided that we should probably get some food next. The gallery was coincidentally right next to the chain restaurant section of the city - it was quite well organised !

Bella Italia seemed like a nice place, so we headed in there. The male server seemed a bit off, but he was probably off with everyone. The food was nice, I had a Chicken, Ham and Mushroom pizza, Ann had Ham Hock & Scamorza Carbonara.

After this we did a bit more shopping, not buying anything, and headed back to the hotel to check in.

Hotel Campanile

We chose to stay here, as it's literally over the road from Pink Punters, and as such the hotel bar is used as the meeting point for everyone to get together before the club opens at 10pm.

Bar outfit 1

It does have a bit of a reputation for being a "90's hotel experience" , with some friends describing it as a bit like university halls of residence. Certainly the carpet in my room appeared to have soaked up a large number of stains over the years.

But aside from that one thing, it was really nice, the staff were super friendly, the bar was nice, beds and bathroom clean. Everything you would expect in a cheap hotel really.

Once we had checked in, we headed to our rooms to change, and decided to meet up in the bar and have a few before the evening got going. There were a few other people in there, and several seemed to be trans people in male mode (from overheard conversations).  Someone who Ann had talked to at LFF arrived and we got chatting with her.

One of the popular makeover artists and her partner arrived and were very chatty. There was also an older trans woman called Gloria who had not been out in years, she was really nice.

As it got towards 8pm, we decided to head back to our rooms and put on our evening outfits, and both of us switched to blonde wigs too - just to confuse everyone we had met so far 😊

There was a old gentleman with white hair and a bushy beard who Ann identified as a likely chaser, but I put down as a confused local - I nicknamed him captain Birdseye.

A karaoke / disco guy started up, and put on some 80's tunes that I was quite enjoying. It was quite loud, but it was still OK to chat at the far end where we sat.  I met a few people who I had talked to online before, Judy and Katie.

It was soon getting towards 10pm, and we decided to head over the road to the club - it was raining but Ann had a brolly, and we both had jackets on.  

Pink Punters

When we got across the road we chanced upon Rebecca, who we know well as she is at a lot of the events, and she offered to show us around. So we headed down to the security gate with her. 

They are very keen on ensuring the safety of everyone, so they generally want to take a copy of some photo ID, and then also take a picture of you. He was obviously unphased by having my male drivers license and my female pic, as at least they could then hunt me down if I did anything bad !

There were lots of different areas once inside, a long outdoor area with a bar and fire pits. An upper area with a coal fire, a Karaoke bar, Cocktail bar with selfie room, main dancefloor (with it's own bar), and a dinner selling burger and chips and such - last order for which was 5:30am !!

After a loo stop, we headed to the cocktail bar, and I had a White Russian, Ann had a Mojito.  We met a few other LFF's in there, did some chatting. I think we did the Selfie room next, this is a very famous backdrop and many trans Insta people post pics of themselves in here. 

We tried some of the other areas, ending up in the Karaoke bar to hear our friends Dee and Gabby do something famous which I'm sure they sang at LFF last week, but I can't remember the name of.

Ended up back in the cocktail bar and had some beer with tequila in it, which tasted weird. Met up with Judy and I got some more photo's with her in the selfie room.

Some dancing was done at some point too, I forget the order of events. Then by about 2am I was getting tired and suggested we get some food and call it a night. We were both keen on not getting too tipsy, due to the long drive back in the morning.

We had a burger each and some cheesy chips to share. While i was waiting for it to be cooked, I nipped to the loo and a really lovely cis girl awarded me with a flower garland for having nice hair 😊

I do recall that the wall of the dinner was vibrating very badly with the bass from the dance floor as we ate.

We headed back after we had finished, and agreed to meet up for breakfast at about 9am. 

All in all a very pleasant and successful evening !

Breakfast and Return Home

I had a shower, got dressed and met Ann in the bar for breakfast - had another chat with Gloria too.

Then did a bit of packing, then headed over the road as I wanted some pictures with the Pink Punters route master bus which is in their car park. 

I think it was about 10:30 am by the time the car was packed and I was on my way home.

I needed to charge at Northampton or Watford Gap, tried both - no available charging points. Went to a holiday Inn one junction up from Watford Gap - that was in use, I had about 18 miles left by this point and was getting a bit annoyed. Looked on Zap Map and located one at Rugby golf club 7 miles away. 

When I got there it was thankfully unoccupied, and functional, and I didn't need an app to use it !! yay.

I was however down to less than 10%, so it did mean sitting in the car for nearly 40 mins. This was still not enough to get me home, so I figured I would try Trowel next - this has two Gridserv machines, each with dual charge ability.

When I got there they were all occupied, so I parked opposite and waited for a bit. 

I needed to use the left machine as it had CHAdeMO, the right machine was dual CSS, so no good to me.  Fortunately all three cars seemed to end at the same time, and after some kerfuffle where the BMW driver blocking the bay I needed was unable to disconnect, I was finally able to pull forward and charge.

I popped into the services for a tinkle and to get a takeaway Costa, and in hardly any time I was back up to 80% and I could do the last stint home. 

It was about 3:15pm when I got home, so a pretty long trek - but totally worth it, it was a really really good weekend.