Burning for you

 

'Burning for you' - A favorite blue Oyster cult song, appropriate for a number of reasons concerning this weekends adventures 😊

But first i need to do a blog post about everything I have failed to blog about so far !! 

8th of May: Chameleons !  - I can't remember much about this, but i was there !

10th of May :  Church Fete, my friend Alice does a bit of a vintage vehicle display outside her local church every year. I had been once before and displayed Josephine, and did the same again this year.  However this time I got to drive one of her tractors !!! 

It was so much fun !!!   We went to a pub for tea afterwards, I had a very nice pork dish with crackling.  Was on the Guinness Zero so I could drive home afterwards.  It was a really fun day.  

11th of May: Trans Swimming !  

16th of May : Went to Hull on the Friday to visit my friend Charlotte, we had a lemon pasta linguine that she cooked which was lovely.  I think we watched one of the Star War films.

17th of May: Headed into Leeds, I was meeting old school friends in the afternoon for a mini pub crawl (loosely based on my Pints and Straws one) . I was a bit nervous about meeting them all, only one has seen me dressed before - but all had known for a while. It went well, and spent a lovely few hours catching up with them.  

 

 

In the evening, Charlotte re-joined, and we had a Not-Birthday meal for her at Cut and Craft.  The food was excellent, and the service was incredibly quick !  I had the cheapest steak on the menu - just labeled 'Flat Iron' , it was probably the 2nd best i've ever had - only marginally pipped by an expensive fillet at Goucho's.  But if you factor in the price it was the best by a mile. We did some cocktails, and I had a few more beers in the evening, it was a really nice day.

 

 

On the Sunday we sought a place for breakfast and ended up a fab cafe / cheese monger
combo in the Corn Exchange. We both enjoyed our sandwiches, then spent a load of money on cheese and their fine selection of canned fish !

 

 

22nd of May :  Chameleons , the lovely Wig ladies were in, as was Sally and Ann. Was a fab night, I did go a bit early as I didn't want to be tired for the morning as has blood tests.

 

 

 

 

23rd of May :  Had my NHS blood tests in Barsley, grabbed a pork pie from the market for lunch.

26th of May :  Went to Lotherton with Charlotte, we did a tour of the deer park on a
tractor ! You got to see them really up close as they threw food next to the trailer. 

The weather wasn't the best, we had showers and was a bit under dressed, but still had a nice time. I had gone in Josephine too, I don't like getting her damp, but the it was sunny when I set off.

 

 

30th of May :  My 2nd riding lesson, it went well !  I had Nero this time, he was lovely very similar in size look, and temperament to Gordon.   

It was very warm, and I got a bit more of a workout, as we were attempting to trot ! My timing is still atrocious, but I think I am getting better. I am not standing when the saddle is coming up, which isn't ideal for my undercarriage ! 

I am booked in again to ride later this month, hoping next time will be better.   

 

6th of June : Leeds First Friday - It was good to be back, I had missed the previous one due to being in Wales.   Grabbed a bagel at Flamingos with Benni for lunch, then did the Pints and Straws bar crawl. There we not that many there, but it was still good.  My friend Jess from Bristol was waiting for us outside the Travelodge as we made our way to pub 3 , I was sober enough to be looking out for her :) 

We ended in the Tetley, where a really weird (and likley on drugs) guy decided to gatecrash our group and start asking for relationship advice. It slowly got worse over the minutes, and he was soon on to telling us which ones of us he knew were blokes.  We were getting to the end of the event anyway, but we made a hasty retreat when he went to the loo. 

A number of us ate at the Adephi - I wasn't that enamored with my food, it was a belly pork dish, it was way too salty for my liking, and not what i needed after a load of beer. 

The others seemed to like theirs though. Not sure i will go there again for food.

We headed over to the Bridge End social after this - after being chased by a barmaid who thought we had one dish still to pay for - a straggler was finishing there's in a leisurely fashion and hadn't been to pay yet :)

I ended up on the pool table there, my friend Jess likes a game or too.  Ended up doing winner stays on, and I think I played 4 games, but only one 2.  One of the crown had challenged me, she was very unlucky. 

After this we did Northern Guitar, The Viaduct, and the End Bar.  I don't think I had eaten enough so I wasn't feeling that great. I wanted to try and stay out till midnight for the sake of  Jess who had come all the way from Bristol - but I gave up at about 11:20pm. My digestive system was making bad noises.

Walked back to Vicar lane travelodge, and proceeded to have no sleep whatsoever overnight and spend a lot of time going to the loo.

I gave up at 6am ish, and decided just to drive home. Not the best ending to an LFF i've had, but I had enjoyed most of the day. 

8th of June : Trans swimming, 50 lengths again !  and this was in about 50 minutes, so I
am possibly getting faster.  I will need to do more lengths per minute if I have any hope of getting to the 1 mile figure of 74 lengths ! 

It doesn't seem that achievable at the moment !  

 

 

12th of June : Chameleons again !  - It was one of the ladies birthdays and they had
brought cake - I didn't actually eat and I had stuffed myself on chocolate fingers before they arrived 😂 

Sally was there, but no Ann this time as she was away with work.  Not many youngsters attended, but was a decent turnout.  

 

 

 

Anyway here endeth the catch up, I intend to do a detailed write up of this weekends adventures later in the week - totally not going to forget to do it , honest  

 

Sad state of affairs

 

Well I didn't see any of the last few weeks events coming, so it's been a bit of kick in the guts. 

I am alternating between feeling numb, angry and scared really.  I am trying to avoid the news, it just gets worse every time I see something new.

I am aware that no laws have changed about which loo's I can use, but the media has been effective at spreading the lies, and I am in no doubt that a good percentage of the populous now believe it to be true.

I must be feeling a bit like disabled people do when they need to go out somewhere, got to know where all the accessible toilets are going to be in advance. Emailing places to check on access etc.  Certainly feel more trapped and restricted.

I can't say I will never use the gents, but it would need to be the absolute last resort.  I don't really want to risk being confronted in the ladies either. So if there are no gender neutral facilities, it will have to be the disabled.

Radar keys can be acquired from a neurodiversity shop in Hull apparently. I have had friends get them off Amazon only to find they didn't work. But a friend has vouched for these ones. 

Transition Status 

No immediate change to my plan at the moment, but if things are going to get significantly worse then the pipe dream of emigrating may require some genuine thought, and reservation of funds.

I am going to progress with the laser hair removal down there, I hadn't planned on contacting the surgeon till much later in the year anyway. 

I've had my medical interview with Pride In Health this week - it went well, and she seemed pleased with my progress.

It was an hour long call, but for some reason the calendar had messed up at her end and she was 10 minutes late.  We spent about 45 minutes in the end, which was good as I had a work call 5 minutes after it ended.

We covered my dosage history, what effects physically and emotionally I had experienced, and  what effects I was still hoping to see. She was happy with my last blood test results, but needs to see a full health check with Liver Function Tests to see how my liver is coping with the blockers before she will prescribe.

I have 6 months of everything left at the moment, so it seems no rush at the moment.

Not had my letter from her yet with a summary of everything we spoke about, but should get it by the end of the week.

 

Social Activities : 

I did go out at the weekend, and I did still have a good time, but the issues were at the back of my mind, and I should have been more happy than I was. It did help to be out though.

 

Riding Lesson

My friend Charlotte had suggest that I might like to try riding a horse ! she was planning to go on the Friday afternoon, and had offered to pay for me to try it too. 

I do like to try new things, so was quite excited.  I had taken Josephine over too, partly as a bit of a shakedown drive before my wales trip in early May, and also to make sure she and Charlotte got on , as she is joining me on that trip and has never been in her.  There is very little passenger seat adjustment, and she is quite tall.

So I drove her to a pub for some food to achieve that aim. We ordered a fish goujon sandwich, which sounded light, but was basically a massive piece of fish in bread. I didn't finish it all !   - as it was before some of the more recent press garbage I still felt OK to risk the loos, nobody said anything.

After returning to hers, and swapping to her vehicle we headed to the yard in Beverly.

I got equipped with a helmet, and asked to fill in a disclaimer form, with emergency contact details etc !   I have a small head apparently, and there was disbelief I was in my 40's - she thought I was a lot younger.

I had to wait for my steed 'Gordon' to return to the yard, he had been out in public with a young lady on a bit of a ride and hadn't returned yet.  They wanted to give me one that was size appropriate, and also very well behaved given I had not ridden before.

Gordon seemed nice, the young instructor led him into the riding area, and I had to walk up some box steps so I could mount him.  

She taught me how to do the basics, start  , stop left and right turns.  I got to do some maneuvering, they have letters on the fences around the area, so she would tell me to A for example, then to B.  

We did try some faster riding, where I had to try and stand on the stirrups - that wasn't so much fun for me, I think I should have untucked !  

Anyway I was told I did really well, and that she didn't really need to be helping me - at least with just going around at walking pace.

I would like to try again some time, but I would prefer to go with my friend, and it's in Hull so may not be something I do often.

 

Beat the Clock - Vinyl disco

Sally, Rebeka and a few of Charlotte's friends were meant to be coming, but her friends sadly pulled out, so it was just the four of us.

Sally, Charlotte and myself went to a Pizza restaurant first, then met Rebeka in a bar afterwards. 

The disco was in a room above it later on in the evening, it's a semi regular retro vinyl disco, playing obscure music from the 60's 70's and 80's  -  it was nice, but I had hoped for a few more popular ones. 

There were no loo issues, the cubicles were all self contained with sinks and dryer off a central corridor and were not gendered.  

We did some dancing, and drank some refreshing beverages - I had a lot less than the others though, as was being good.

I think we left after midnight some time. 

Hornsea

I had decided to stay an extra day since the weather was nice, and I had Josephine on hand, I suggested we go to the seaside to get some nice air.

Had a nice pootle out there, and a bit of a wander around town for a bit.  I bought a warmer coat from a charity shop as it was quite bracing near the beach.  We had a light bite at a little cafe near the Boat Launch , then proceeded south down the beach to look for fossils and such.

I should really have taken a hammer from the car, but forgot they had them down there. It was a pleasant walk, there was a paraglider taking advantage of the sea breeze to fly up and down over the edge of the cliff.

On our return we headed back into the centre and grabbed a drink at a cool gaming cafe, then we went to a deli and grabbed some traditional saveloys which we planned to have with pasta for tea.

Then we headed back.  The saveloys were really nice, we had with spaghetti and a spicy tomato sauce.

Headed home the next day, Josephine seemed happy, which was nice :)