Leeds Pride Weekend

I started this a few days after the weekend as I had been suffering from quite bad post event comedown. I had a lovely video call with a friend on the Wednesday night and chatted to a few other friends on Instagram too which really seemed to help though.  

It's always quite jarring to go from a few days dressed, back to being treated as the male me. Not sure if it was just that it was such a good weekend that it's been worse. I was also quite tired from it all I guess.

I'm going to skip the full on adventure description this time, I will summarise the other days at the end for record keeping purposes. But for context:

• Thursday Night :  Trans-Wakefield, overnight stay in Wakefield (Holiday Inn Express)
• Friday : Leeds First Friday Social, staying at the Marriot until Monday
• Saturday : Leeds shopping / adventures , evening drinks
• Sunday : Leeds pride parade / after party
• Monday: Return home 

The main event  - Sunday Leeds Pride :

I walked in the Wakefield pride last year, I had watched Manchester's big parade too last year, but I had
not walked in a big one before this weekend. I had been off the dancing juice most of the weekend to ensure I felt really good for Sunday, for me the main point of the weekend was to enjoy the parade.

My friend Arabella had assisted me in the morning with medical tape to create a very convincing illusion of cleavage, so I ended up wearing a secondary dress choice due to it having a lower cut than my original choice.

My shoe choice seemed sensible, but I had failed to break them in, so it didn't go well, but they looked really nice. 

I was considering going with my real hair, but I chickened out and put my silver wig on. I just wanted to look my absolute best, and it's my favourite look.

Most of my friends were in the Marriot, and I arranged to meet up with Alice and Rebeka outside at
1:30pm , we needed to assemble at 1:45pm , and would be walking shortly after 2pm.  Alice had gone with a wedding dress, and had a fab trans umbrella, she always looks amazing. 

Our group was told to meet on Great George Street by the 'Be at One' bar. We seemed to spend quite a while gathering, and shuffling around a bit, we had ended up a bit further back than we should have been.  

I Chatted to a few friends, and I spotted the Trans-Wakefield group a bit further behind so I went and said a brief hello to them.

I think it was around 2:20 when we started to move off, we went down the side of the art gallery and turned left onto the headrow. The crowds were huge, packed all along both sides, I felt very humbled to be there.  I was waving my flag around, trying not to bash anyone.  I mainly kept towards the centre, so didn't do much hive-fiving, didn't feel quite confident to start doing that.

I did feel very happy to be involved, and it was fantastic to see how much support there was. Great to
be experiencing it with my friends too. I did take some photo's and video, but was trying to stay in the moment as much as I could. 

It was quite a long route, I think it was past 3pm before we got to the freedom quarter.  My feet were pretty sore, I took a lot of skin off them, they still have deep gouges a week later !

After we arrived back at the freedom quarter, we visited a few of the stands, but soon decided it would be better if we went and found a straight pub to sit in, as everywhere would be rammed.  So we went to the Bankers Cat. 

A few of the girls who hadn't got a place on the march met us there, so we ended up taking over quite a few seats.  We have a few in there, and then headed over the road to 'Tapped' because they also do fab beer, but also pizza !

As it got later we seemed to fragment into different mini groups, and I headed off with Arabella and Benni back to the freedom quarter.

Benni left after an hour or so to catch her train back, and we ended up trying a cocktail place before calling it a night.  We were not really out that late, but it was a tiring day and neither of us really wanted to get very drunk.

A brief  mention of the rest of the weekend :

Thursday:

My parents in law were visiting early Friday, which meant I could not easily escape to Leeds, so I ended up getting a cheap room in Wakefield at the Holiday Inn Express/ 

I went to the trans-Wakefield group at the 'Our House' café as normal, then met up with Ann in the New Union - she had also decided to come up early. 

It was a nice evening, had a good chat with a few people, and nice to catch up with Ann again.

Friday: 

It was largely spent with Ann and Benni. It was Flamingo's for lunch , some time in Tapped in the afternoon. 

I was wigless, and in a black and white wrap dress. I had only taken my silver wig this time. 

We ate tapas at Revolution De Cuba in the early evening.  Then headed back to the hotel to change. I had a teal dress, and matching shoes on. I did end up changing the shoes as they were not that comfy !

We spent some time in Fibre, which had the penthouse reserved for us all. Then met up with Alice and the gang in the Bridge, the Packhorse and finally Northern Guitar. 

I was taking it very steady to ensure I didn't feel ill over the weekend - so didn't really drink much.

Saturday:

Mainly with Arabella and Benni.  I took Arabella for a visit to the armouries in the morning, then met up with Benni towards lunch time.

We did some shopping, then the LGBTQ stalls at the museum. We had cake at an LGBTQ event at the Age UK building.  

For our evening meal we ate at Pieminster. The pies were gorgeous - it was really slow service though.

In the evening we headed to the Viaduct Showbar, we paid to get in - they had converted the road outside to an event space, with a stage and bars and covered areas. It was really fun, we did lots of dancing. 

Arabella had helped my tape my chest up, so I had a cleavage, which I was very pleased with indeed :)

We ended the night with a visit to some cocktail places outside the freedom quarter.

Monday:

My feet were ruined, and so I was not best pleased when my car fob didn't work, which meant a walk to Poundland for a new battery.  

Thankfully I could still get in with a key to dump my bags in it - but it did set the alarm off doing it that way.

I was in man mode, as I had originally planned to pop to my parents to see them on the way home, but it would have been near enough lunch time when I arrived, so decided to do it another day.

Aside from that it was a good journey back home.  I managed to get out and cut the front lawn, but didn't' get much done for the rest of the day. 

 

Right boob on the loose !

I've been lax at updating on here, so I am running a bit behind ! 

Wednesday 14th - Makeup Practise

My makeup game had become a bit stale, and I was slacking on it really. I had bought some proper false lashes to try - I didn't like the magnetic ones I tried before. I got some more expensive glue for them as well, rather than relying on the cheap stuff that comes with them. 

I figured I would spend some time trying to get them on, as I really wanted to be able to do them for the next big socials- LFF / Sparkle.

So I spent a leisurely 1hr 30 minutes getting ready, I was also practising metallic eye shadow and also blusher as well.  I had bought some eyelid primer to help with the eye shadow - "Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion".

I watched a video on how to use eye shadow primer, and it said to ensure to put normal foundation over the top, otherwise there will be a noticeable colour difference between the two. It seemed a bit counter productive, but it seemed to work OK. 

Lashes went on OK, I used the smallest ones in the box. I was pretty chuffed with the results ! 

 

Thursday 15th - Trans-Wakefield

We were in the Café again - I can't remember if I said, we've switched to doing two evenings per month in there.

There were not as many people there this time, but I got to speak to some that I had not done much before. Phillipa was back again, she seemed to be feeling a bit better. 

It was a pleasant evening, I was given a birthday card when I left, which was unexpected. I was intending to go to Invasion the next night, so I decided to head straight home instead of joining them in the pub, as I wanted to pack.

Friday 16th - Nottingham Invasion

I really really wanted a night out, so I was very keen on going to the Invasion this month.

I got ready at home, and I attempted to repeat my success of the previous day with the lash application - made a total mess of them, and ended up giving up on them 😢

Due to the unfortunate events in Nottingham, the hotel prices seemed lower than normal, so I was able
to bag a room in the Hilton for £90 (a cosy double).  Joanna had wanted to meet up to give me something, so I suggested she meet me at my hotel just after my expected ETA.

I drove down and parked up at the Victoria Centre North car park , and plugged into the chargers there. I was going to be naughty and block a charger all night, as I wouldn't be sober enough to move the car after it had finished. But they are usually all empty soon after the shopping centre closes anyway.

Met Joanna in reception, and got my free glass of bubbly from the reception, then I went on a bit of a walk to find my room. There were lots of doors, I was right at the back somewhere. The room was nice though, and although cosy had everything I needed.  I did a quick 5 minute outfit change, met back up with Joanna and headed into the Mc Donalds next to the hotel for a quick Mc Plant to help soak up the alcohol I planned on consuming.

We headed to the Foresters which was pretty empty, and headed outside where we  met up with Simone. 

It seemed it was just going to be the three of us for a while, but I had seen some FB questions from two of the Chameleons girls , Gemma and Natasha who were on there way.  We went back inside after a while and found they had arrived and they were sat inside with a regular and a new lady.

Joanna left as she had to be up early, and we headed outside to sit at a table in the fab lower area. A few more turned up and joined us there, a trans guy Kendrick who was lovely, Jean, Imogen and Lizzy. 

We all had a really good time chatting, I got some nice compliments on my Shein dress, some mock anger that I was able to fit into it, as they also wanted the same one, but it wasn't in their size.

Some new younger people came over and joined us - one had sort of talked to me earlier in the evening, but I wasn't really sure if they were a chaser to start with. I felt a bit guilty about that later.

Jean and Simone left, then Imogen and Lizzy and it was just the two younger ones, Kendrick, Gemma and Natasha and myself left. Me and Kendrick were fairly sober still, we had a good chat about music, he was really nice.

Gemma was a bit worse for wear, towards the end, and Natasha was not exactly sober, but I couldn't really do much to help, they both got home OK in the end though.  I had joked with Kendrick that I would never forgive him if he left me on my own to deal with them - he left anyway 🤣

I left shortly after him, and he was still outside waiting for a cab, so I got to say goodbye at least.

I wobbled back to the hotel, via a takeaway to get some cheesy chips, unfortunately they only had 'cheese on chips' which is not quite the same. But I still managed to eat
most of it. 

I got back to the room at 2:30am looking at the time I took a picture of my chips - which is mandatory. 

I did notice that it was a lot quieter than normal, both in the Foresters, but also on the walk back to the hotel. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon !

Didn't bother with breakfast in the morning, and was able to get home before lunch. I popped into my local Co-op on the way back (still en femme) for bacon and bread, so I could at least have some fried greasy food. 

Tuesday 20th - Makeup Practise, outfit try on

With my failure on the lashes on the Friday, I decided I should re-try.  I bought some different tweezers , and I watched some more YouTube videos for tips.

I also wanted to try some different bra options for a halter neck dress I had bought. It's possibly a bit too big for me, but I will wear it anyway. I have a halter neck bra, and I also bought some clear straps for my multiway one.  

The multiway looks better, but I had an incident where I needed to bend over to pick something up and my right boob fell out !! - well more than one incident actually. So I may go with the halter neck bra.

It went well this time, I got the lashes on OK - I wasn't able to re-use the set I had tried for Invasion, they were ruined, caked in glue. So I went for the next size up.

I was also trying some KIKO Lipstick, colour : 421  , which I really like ! An Insta friend was raving about it.

Weekend Plans

It's my Birthday tomorrow (23rd) , and I am going to Stockport Beer and Cider festival with two trans friends who also went to the Lincoln one. Bagged a cheap room so I can enjoy a few. Probably going to wear the dress I tried on Tuesday for the day. But we are also planning on going glamorous for the evening, just to stand out a bit more - so I am taking sequin ones for that.

Hopefully it will be a nice day/night.  

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 😂

The Other Half

Since I did a short post last time, I figured I would just post the other half of the week, I have quite a lot planned for the bank holiday weekend, so that one will quite likely be an epic one anyway😄

Hopefully in a good way !

Thursday Trans-Wakefield

I was keen to get out - given the earlier events of the week, and I was due to go to my usual Thursday night meeting in Wakefield.  I had to check their discord as we are alternating between the pub and the café now. 

Turns out it was the café, I decided to wear the same dress I had used on my call with GenderGP, as it seemed like a fairly warm night and the café can get a bit warm. 

I put my makeup on, and liked the way I looked without the wig, so I decided to just go out without one. I did put some hairspray on to keep it swept over. It felt really nice. 

My wife was on the phone, but I did my usual twirl for her and got a surprised looking thumbs up.

I was perhaps a little more self conscious walking from the car to the café than normal, but overall it felt very liberating, and more natural. 

It seems they have started doing a new thing, where we all sit in a circle of chairs, and go around giving a short update on our life's events - positives and negatives. I obviously got to mention the GenderGP stuff, but also pointed out the lack of wig. I got some nice compliments.

I also posted the pic on my social media and didn't seem to lose any followers for it 😂

One of the cis partners of a member recommended some posh shampoo that they said did wonders for their partners hair when they starting presenting with it "Plantur 39 Caffeine Shampoo". I have ordered some, and will give it a go.

It was a really good night overall, I nipped to the pub for a quick drink after they booted us out of the café, but they wanted to sit outside and I was a bit cold without a jacket, so headed off.

The Weekend  

I could have gone to Notts Invasion on the Friday, but didn't feel in the mood. 

My wife had plans on Saturday so I took the opportunity to work on my car. I am putting a new clutch in. I was getting crunchy gear changes from 1st to 2nd. 

I spent Sunday afternoon on that too, then did a 13km walk in the evening.

GenderGP Update

I had an email this morning (Tuesday) about the session I attended :

"Dear Isobel,

Thank you very much for filling out your Appraisal Pathway form. :) Thank you for attending your Information Gathering Session - I can confirm that we have now received the report and no concerns have been raised."

So I guess I have met some minimum standard for sanity and trans-ness with them - yay !  

The next step (once I have talked to my wife) , would be to pay the monthly fee, then I can discuss what I want from them.

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

Excessive fun

The Work Week

Well it's been a busy week at work, been given a fun assignment to do, really getting my teeth into that. 

This gave me an opportunity to play with ChatGPT - I was using it to assist me with coding problems, I'm a bit rusty with my PHP and a framework I haven't used in a while. 

I found it brilliant - I mean it's not getting you any answers you couldn't google yourself, but it does so quickly and with fairly high accuracy. 

I also tried asking some questions on Excel , then decided to quiz it on opponents to the existence of Trans people. It got rather cagey with me on those questions, and complained that I was asking it thinks which violated the terms of it's use. It seemed less bothered about listing anti LGBT people in general than the T group specifically. 

It's better when I'm busy at work, as I can distract myself from other matters, as such I have nothing to report on those !

Thursday Trans-Wakefield, 'Our House' Café / LGBT centre.

There was a £5 cake and coffee deal, the cake was some sort of cookie dough affair mixed with Nutella, a very generous wedge. I couldn't finish it, nor could 3/4 of those that tried it ! but it was really nice.

The leader brought some cards with common trans terms and gender identities, and a matching set of definitions of those. There were three sets and we grouped up to try and match them up. I was with Nicole, it was fairly trivial to match them up, but the discussion of the answers afterwards did spark conversation.

The road outside the café was still shut from the gas leak, when leaving the police were in the pub opposite sorting out a fight - a typical Wakefield evening :)

We went to the New Union pub afterwards for a drink as the centre shuts at 9pm. I left about 10pm, as I wanted to get home to pack for LFF.

Friday Leeds Daytime 

My usual posy was not coming to Leeds this month, as they are bored of me, or had family
commitments, or couldn't afford the silly bank holiday hotel prices :) 

Fortunately Alice never misses one, I've got to know her fairly well over the last year and she was very welcome to me joining her for the day.

We met up in the Trinity shopping centre in New Look, I was buying a new jacket as my current leather one was a charity shop find and looking a bit tired. She got a couple of nice Quiz dresses from there, then we headed to the Travelodge to meet up with Lexi and Gemma who wasn't in girl mode, but I don't know her boy mode name, so she will be referred to as Gemma :)

We walked the short distance to Rudy's Pizza - never been before. I had a white pizza, Goats Cheese with toasted pistachio, sliced red onion and rosemary - was really nice. 

Then we headed to Foley's for some afternoon drinkies - I went on 0% lager as was trying to be good at that point. 

We had a good time in there, and then myself Alice and Lexi went for a quick look in Roman near the St Johns centre, and then back to our rooms for a quick freshen up before some tapas.

I decided to change into another dress, as I had brought it along, might as well, this was the size 6 dress I had bought by mistake in Next the previous week - fits really well I think.

Cindy was joining us for the tapas, and we met up with her in the Marriot and walked down the calls to that. It was really nice in there, they recommended 3-4 dishes, but Alice suggested 2-3 is usually enough. I went for two, but then ended up eating leftovers from everyone else :)

After this it was back to the hotel again, for my final outfit more suitable for a nightclub !

Leeds First Friday - 15th Year Anniversary

We met in Fibre, but didn't bother to get a drink as there was an unveiling of a commemorative bench
outside for one of the LFF organisers who had sadly died the previous year. Met a few people in there that I usually look out for - and also one of the Trans-Wakefield group who I had not expected to see. She looked gorgeous, had some fantastic green sparkly lips !

We stood outside for a bit while the bench was unveiled, it was a really good turnout, they had three speakers, all but the third one seemed to know how to use a microphone.

Afterward we headed back into Fibre for a bit, but there wasn't any beer on tap, so Alice and crew decided to head over the road to the Viaduct, where oddly we ended up drinking cocktails. It was two for £10. 

I had a 'verry cherry', which had whipped cream, it was verry nice ! We had a few more drinks in there, we watched the cabaret.

My friend Danielle had joined us by this point, and we lost Alice for a bit, so headed to the bridge to watch the karaoke for a while.  

Then manage to find where Alice had gone via Insta messaging, and headed to the Bankers Cat - a straight pub not that far outside to freedom quarter.  We had a few in there, then onwards to 'The End'.

This is where I lost all sense, and had an Espresso martini - I seemed to stop taking photo's shortly after this point, a good measure of me being a bit too gone.

After this it was 'The Smokestack' and people gradually went to bed, as I should have done too ....

Anyway soon there was only me and Cindy left, and we were being booted out of the Smokestack, so I paid us both into the New Penny - the only place still open. I do remember speaking some people in there, but it's a bit fuzzy. 

Then the floodlights came on, it's was apparently 5:30am, and the bar staff wanted to head to bed. So I staggered back to my room.

The Morning After

I managed to get up with just enough time to check out and head to breakfast as the Cha lounge - however I wasn't able to stomach my breakfast, so my friends cherry picked some of it. The coffee was very welcome. Alice headed off afterwards, and I went along with Cindy to watch Gemma get some
drone shots of the river which was fun. I am tempted to get one !

I was still nowhere near sober enough to drive, so ended up dumping my bags in my car, then mooching around Leeds with Cindy for a bit. We had a tea in the Corn Exchange, I went to the wig shop to get a couple more of the strong wig caps, and Cindy got some nail files from Superdrug, 

Cindy and Gemma were staying over the Saturday night, and had agreed to meet at Foleys for 1pm, so I joined them in there for another hour, sipping coke until I felt well enough to drive again.

I got home, then caught up with my sleep, didn't manage to do much, or eat much else that day.

Sunday

I was productive with housework in the morning, then we had a nice family lunch at my mums.

 Nothing problematic came up. I was worried my hair would get comments. But other than my mum offering me some hair dye, as I had said I wanted to look to get rid of the grey, and she's decided to go natural with hers, nothing about my appearance was mentioned.

A fairly visible week

 

Blue Monday

I was feeling pretty down on Monday morning, the usual guilt of being me. But one of my wig purchases came in the post - a 2nd hand but hardly used brown one, and this gave me the impetus to dress in the evening. I did three outfits in total. The first being a vintage satiny blue one, assuming likely 80's as it has shoulder pads.  

This really lifted my mood - it's odd that I don't sometimes realise how much it will, it shouldn't be so surprising. But I do sometimes feel so down that I don't want to dress, even when I have the opportunity to do so. 

I used to feel the same about social events, even though I knew I would probably enjoy it when I got there, the getting the will to go was the hard bit.

The blue dress was purchased from eBay in 2021 pre coming out, the last period of purchasing after a purge the year before. The other two outfits were Everything5 Pounds purchased last month, I had got four, and three of them were lovely, which given the price is a very good result ! - I have already worn the best one out at LFF earlier this month, check previous post for that.

Anyway I was a lot happier on Tuesday morning.

Wednesday 

I went for a walk to Aldi in the evening, partly for the exercise, partly for interesting meat.

I'm on another diet, trying to cut out sugar, and increase protein to get me feeling less hungry and liable to snack. I am also trying to fast after my evening meal.

So I'm having a boiled egg for breakfast, a tin of posh beans for lunch (Heinz 5 beans), this is carb and protein heavy to keep my going until the evening meal. 

Then I am doing some form of meat and veg , and fasting for the rest of the evening.

So having some nice meat is good. Aldi do nice venison steaks - but they had none when I got there.

I had lost 1.4 Kg over the week by sticking to this ! 

Thursday - Trans Wakefield

Ann had messaged to say she was going to be in the vicinity due to attending a work event that day, and was keen to come along, which was very nice and fortuitous as she was really good at the pub quiz the last time she came.

We managed to get a couple of games of pool in before the quiz started, she was very unlucky to lose one by accidentally potting the black, and the next one I won but it's wasn't that decisive. 

We teamed up with Zoe, who I have joined up with on some previous occasions, and we actually came 2nd !! We did get quite a few wrong, but not as many as some others it seems. We did good on the picture part of it, which was 'famous sayings'.

I got us some posh buns £2 each !! - the profits were going towards the Longboat LGBTQ charity run by the committee members which are all bar regulars, and Ann kindly shared some cheesy chips with me.

It was a very pleasant night. 

Friday - Trans Day of Visibility - Doncaster

The fact it was TDOV didn't really influence my day time activities, I would have been going out dressed anyway, it was my day off, and that's what I tend to do, but perhaps it did lend a small feeling that I was doing something positive. 

I had been hoping I could get out in the Morris Minor, don a 50's style dress and go somewhere nice for a cake, coffee, and photo's and such - but the weather was against me, it was a grey wet day, and the car is about as waterproof as a sponge so I binned that idea.

So instead I decided upon a shopping trip to Doncaster - I like the shopping centre there, it's not as big as Meadowhall, but has the main shops I like, and you also then have the rest of the town centre and markets to explore, and charity shops should I desire them.

I got there around midday, and decided that food should be first aim.  I didn't want to eat in the shopping centre, I like to give my business to more down to earth independent's where possible. 

I had been to one the last time that was very nice - I found it again and had a look through the window but it looked pretty rammed, so decided to look elsewhere. 

Went through the market indoor bit, there were some fresh baked pies that smelt divine, but I wanted to have a proper sit down meal.

I exited there and went down a side street and found another place that looked nice, but again was very busy. Kept going a bit further from the busy parts, until I stumbled across a place with four people in it.

It turned out that two of them were just there to chat , and the other two were the owner and cook - and the visitors left when I arrived, so I had the place to myself. Which was a bit weird - I did want quieter but not that quiet !

He was very chatty, apparently had owned it for 10 years, but it seemed like passing trade was dwindling due to the big shopping centre causing nearby shops to close. 

I possibly chose badly from the menu, I went with lasagne, which I had expected would be one that
they  had previously made and then frozen, but from later conversation between the two of them likely came from Iceland !

It was very small but still tasty. They did a jacket potato for me, as I said I didn't want chips (attempting to be healthy). It also had salad and coleslaw and beetroot with it too. The latte I had with it was nice.  He kept up the conversation while I ate, nothing too heavy, asking why I had come out that day etc. It was pleasant enough.

They didn't accept card, which threw me, but he said I could just do a bank transfer. He asked my name, and I told him Isobel, but said it wouldn't come up as that on his bank. I'm not sure if he actually needed to know for the payment, or was just curious. Anyway I told him my male name as he seemed genuinely curious.

He said he had 'lots of people like me in' , and was very open minded. It was a bit odd, but in a positive way.  I would go back - perhaps choosing an all day breakfast or something next time. 

However if all they are getting is socially awkward trans people, they won't last another month. 

After this I headed back towards the shopping centre, I didn't really see any shops on the way I wanted to go in, but had a number of chain shops in the centre I wanted to look in.

First I went into TK Max, they sell cookware now, I don't recall ever seeing this before, but couldn't see any clothes I liked, so only stayed long enough to get a mirror selfie.

Found a lovely handbag in a leather shop, very colourful, but £70 , and I resisted.  They were nice in there and said if I wanted to look at anything they would unlock it - the leather jackets and such were chained up !

Then I went into Next and found two dresses in the sale section. I decided to go try them on, they both seemed to fit really well, so bought them both. The black one was £18 down from £42 I think, and the patterned one was £11 down from £20. 

Although on getting home it turns out that the patterned one was on the wrong hanger, it's actually a size 6 !!!! - but very stretchy. So although it does fit, the pattern is perhaps a bit off what it should look like on a stick insect. I still can't believe it's a 6.

I had a look in a few other places, and found some shoes in Select I liked, block open toed heels with pointy metal studs. 

Then I saw a perfume counter in the middle of the walkway - I had been given a sample by the same people at the Nottingham shopping centre and quite liked it. So I ended up sampling 5 or 6 samples there, before deciding to buy some ! She was lovely, didn't bat an eyelid, a sale is a sale I guess.

After this I looked in a few more places, then figured I best get home, so headed to the car. It was a nice afternoon out.

Friday - Trans Day of Visibility - Wakefield

The was an art event at the 'Our House' LGBTQ centre in Wakefield - I wasn't 100% sure it would be on, as the was a big gas leak just outside it the previous day and the road was closed and police making sure nobody got near it.

I checked our group chat and all was well, so I did an outfit change and lipstick refresh and headed out
there. The shoes I had chosen were a bad idea, I wore them out to Chams once, and I could barely walk in them, but I had clearly forgotten they were so bad. I just can't point my foot at the angle required.

The short walk to get there was a bit downhill which made things worse, but I managed it OK.

Once there I spent a few hours chatting with many of the other TW group members that had also come along. There was a competition to name a painting by one of the artists who was there, my effort came 2nd ! but there was no prize for 2nd.  The 1st prize winner got a print of a dragonfly painted by the same artist.

This is the painting :

I had suggested "A spectral vison" , the winner, (also a TW attendee) came up with "Reflection of Pride" - which to be honest I prefer.

It was a nice evening, it finished at 8pm ish, and the others walked back to the car with me as they were also parked outside the pub we go to. 

They were walking very slow, and I was hobbling at maximum speed , nearly fell over once :)

Today, there is an event on in Leeds for TDOV, I may well go to that this afternoon !

But I will post this now, as we are already getting very  long.