50's Seaside fun

 

Updates

GenderGP  - they have provided me with a link to an online Pharmacy which will fulfil my prescription. There is a payment problem, but hoping I will get my gel through the post soon !

Laser - I got sunburnt at the weekend, and they didn't want to do my face because of this :(  . But they are not going to charge me for it, as I did manage to get the unaffected parts of my torso done.

Think I am feeling a bit down, didn't want to attend my group tonight. Some of it was due to the heat and the fact the café can get very warm. My social calendar is looking a bit sparse this month too, not much to look forwards to for a while, probably some post event comedown too.

Adventures 

The previous weekend was a very good one, it was Leeds First Friday as normal, then off to Morecambe for a Vintage event for the Saturday and Sunday. 

LFF 

I was trying Roomzzz for the first time, which is a 'Aparthotel' - so it's like a bedsit.  It was really good, had a little kitchen and seating area, dishwasher and washing machine too. It wasn't really much more than I would have paid for a hotel room. 

I did some shopping, met up with Alice and the gang in the afternoon, and was joined by Arabella for a few drinks before I checked into the room.  

Had a fab Italian in Gino's in the Marriot for evening meal with Alice, Cindy and Lexi. I had a lasagne, it was very filling, tasted like proper pasta, lots of layers.  I was hoping to hate it, as they were there reason why we lost access to the Marriot bar when they bought it, but it was all quite good. 

Service was a bit slow, but I think we broke their system by not wanting to order drinks before food.

After food we joined the Newbie event in the Bridge - we didn't want to change into our final outfit of the day, in case we looked a bit intimidating 🤣

Met some nice people in there, one from Scotland who runs a Glasgow event, and who I can't remember her name now.

After a while I nipped back to my room, which was visible from the pub window to get changed into something a bit more adventurous.

We got some nice photo's in the Viaduct, and then I headed out around some non-LGBTQ bars with Arabella.   We did 'The Botanist' , then 'Rolands' for cocktails (next to Northern Guitar), then into Revolution De Cuba for 5 mins, before heading to 'The End' for a final drink. 

We were both driving to Morecambe in the morning, so didn't stay out late, or drink much for fear of being unfit to drive !

Vintage by the Sea 🌞🍹💃

I had been buying dresses and shoes, and a petticoat for this for a while before the event, and was really excited to be going. My friend Arabella attends lots of vintage events and had suggested it.

https://www.vintagefestival.co.uk/vintage-by-the-sea/

I had even contemplated taking the Morris Minor, but she has been a little unreliable of late, and initially we were thinking of only taking one car. The train strike put pay to that plan, and we both ended up driving in the end.

We both managed to get ready in good time, and after a brief stop at the Lancaster park and ride to get everything into my car (so we didn't have to pay to park two cars)  we headed into Morecambe which was rammed, but we were lucky and got a space within 20 mins or so.

We did a bit of shopping at some vintage stalls setup inside a theatre, and slowly made our way to the Midland hotel which was the main focal point for the event.  There were lots of vintage cars parked up in front of it, and had a good look around those - well I was mainly looking at the other Morris ones :)

Then we headed inside the hotel where there were more stalls - and we soon spied a bit with some hair stylists doing some vintage do's on some women. I probably wouldn't have signed up if I was there on my own, but with Arabella wanting to, I signed up too.  We had about 45 mins to look around before our slot, so we did a few more stalls and I got a bottle of coke.

The stylist was really nice, she asked me what I wanted and I said to make me look as vintage as possible, and we agreed on some curls - she was a bit unsure if my hair was long enough, but seemed to like a challenge.  I think it took about 30 mins, there were at least 6 hairpins, and lots of curly and half a can of hairspray, but I was really pleased with the results.

 Arabella didn't seem so pleased with hers, but I thought it looked really nice too. I was beaming for a while after we had it done, I was most happy.

We went to check into the Travelodge after this, as was past 3pm.  They were having the carpets redone and it all smelled like a carpet warehouse and was a bit grotty. The rooms were red hot too. 

So we didn't stay long, and headed back out to find food.

The woman on reception had recommended a pub, but it was a bit rough inside and we decided to look elsewhere.  Unfortunately didn't find anything great, so we ended up eating fish and chips on a bench in the park. 

We did a few more photo's next to a bus, then headed back for a bit of a rest , before changing into evening attire.  

I was in a British Retro dress, with Irregular Choice shoes.  I decided not to wear my petticoat in case I got too warm dancing in it, but still thought it looked fab.

We had bought tickets for the afterparty, which was in a big tent out the back of the Midland hotel. 

It was fairly dead when we arrived, but it soon started to fill up. 

The bar wasn't staffed very well, and it got progressively impossible to get served, so we didn't end up drinking too much !

We met some lovely people, Arabella is good at talking to random people, and attracts interaction so you are never lonely for long.  Met a middle aged woman with her daughter and son in law, had a really lovely chat with them. 

One of the DJ's was a famous fashion guy, and I ended up stood next to him for a bit, not having a clue who he was - Wayne Hemingway , he seemed like a fairly ordinary nice chap !

Arabella had some trouble with a few rowdy girls who tried to pick her up, which put a bit of downer on the night - but overall it was really good, and would definitely do it again. 

We finished the evening sharing a kebab and meandered back to the hotel. 

Day 2

The stylist had suggested that I sleep with a pair of knickers on my head to preserve the hairdo - it worked mostly !!!  There are no pictures of this fortunately. 

I did get Arabella to help smooth some loose bits - I had seen the stylist use a technique where she sprayed hairspray onto her hand, then rubbed her hand along the loose hairs to get them to stay. This worked when we tried it too, which was nice !

Having not worn the petticoat the previous day, I did feel the need to put it on, and was really happy with how it all looked.

After checking out and stuffing our bags back into my car, we headed back to the Midland and I got a photo with a fab lilac Morris Million !  Then we did the vintage stalls in the old station building opposite.

I had my first experience trying to go to the loo in a petticoat - I ended up taking it off and hanging it on a hook on the toilet door :) 

Had some nice chats with some of the stall holders, but I didn't buy anything, We had pizza from one of the vans parked out the front of that. Then I nipped to Morrisons for some supplies.

Arabella was meeting one of her friends in the afternoon, we wandered down the front with her and her little girl, and got some traditional ice-cream. Then I left them all to talk for a bit and wandered down the stone pier to see what was down there.

I met back up with Arabella mid afternoon and bid farewell to her friend, then we decided we had seen all there was to see and set off back to the car at 3ish 

I got home about 5pm, and realised I had been quite badly sunburn on my neck and chest and arms !! I hadn't felt it due to the pleasant sea breeze, and then the aircon in the car.

Silly me .....

But anyway it was a really fantastic event, and weekend, and hopefully worth the pain. I will be more careful next time. 

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 :)