Damp Sparkle Weekend

If anyone reading this hasn't heard of the Sparkle weekend, it's defines itself as the "world’s largest free-to-attend celebration of gender diversity", it's held in Manchester each year in July. It's on for three days Friday to Sunday, and this year I would be staying two nights then coming home on the Sunday afternoon.  I would be hanging out with two of my friends Ann and Gemma.

Friday

I had the day off on the Friday, which meant I was able to get into Manchester for lunch time, Gemma was getting in a little later as she was working in the morning.

I met up with Ann on canal street, we took a few photo's then headed to her Air BnB to get her checked in. Then we had a quick drink and sandwich and headed for a real ale bar near the railway station to meet Gemma. She was in fab drab, as only tends to dress for an event, and is always very glamorous when she does.

After this it was time for Gemma and myself to check in to the Premier Inn, so I went to grab my bags from the car with the assistance of Ann, and got checked into my room. 

While Gemma was getting ready myself and Ann headed out to do a bit of shopping in the Arndale centre. Ann got some bra's and I got some perfume. Found another mural to get a pic next to too.  

Then we headed back to Canal street, and decided to try 'The Thompson Arms'  , where I had a
Guinness, for medicinal reasons of course.  When we were done we headed back to our respective hotels to get changed for the evening. 

Gemma's posh room had an iron and board, so I nipped up to hers to iron the two metallic dresses I had brought for Friday and Saturday evenings.

I had found a nice Peruvian place online, which was very close to Canal street, and had booked a table for 7pm, so  we were all aiming to get glammed up for the evening meal, and then carry on into the evening from there.

I wandered up to Gemma's room (she had a posher on on the top floors)  for some photo's before we left
for the restaurant, and we did a corridor walking video - I really like these they are lots of fun, but the fickle people of Instagram don't seem so keen 😐

The meal was at Peru Perdu, it was very nicely furnished with old cassettes being used to decorate the bar. I had "Pollo Tigre de Leche"  which was a spatchcock chicken in a citrus marinade. It was very flavoursome, really enjoyed it.

After this we headed to Canal street, did some schmoozing outside Via.  We hung out with a few people on the tables outside. They were being a bit strict with the glasses - I'm sure last time everything was in plastic ones. This time we had glass ones, but we were not allowed to stand holding them, they had to be on a table when not being drunk from. It was a bit weird !

Also they seemed to have a curfew where they removed all the tables after so long, probably for noise reasons - not sure if this is new too, I don't recall it last time. 

After a while we headed to Bar Bop, 'New York, New York'. Then I think we did Oscars. 

I was mainly on halves to try and not overdo it on the first night. I did a bit of dancing in 'New York, New York' , they had some good 80's music in there. 

We were not out that late really, I think it was about 1am I got back to the hotel.

Saturday 

We all met up at the Premier Inn for breakfast, unfortunately Gemma had not slept at all, so she went back to bed straight after this.

I was feeling a bit rough, my digestive system was not happy - a common theme on multi day events. This was despite me being fairly restrained the night before.  I hadn't had masses of sleep either. I was having temperature issues, hot one minute, cold the next, so I decided to go without a wig for better cooling :)  . I don't look as good without one, or feel like I am 'blending' as well as normal, but I feel fairly comfortable without one now. 

Anyway I thought it was best to keep active and try and power on through, so me and Ann decided to head off to explore Manchester, aiming for the Science and Industry museum that Gemma had recommended 

The museum itself was partially closed, only the main building was open - but it was free. It was nice
inside, they had a lot of interactive exhibits upstairs, some very interesting old machinery in a hall downstairs, and some cool computer exhibits. 

We were just about done in there, and would have probably nipped into their café for a drink afterwards, but unfortunately the fire alarm went off, and we were all ushered out of the building. We were largely done by this point so headed back towards canal street.

It was starting to rain, but we had brought brollies so were OK. We stopped off for a drink at a little coffee shop just as it started to come down hard.  I had a ginger beer in a can to try and assist with my tummy - which did help, I think ginger is meant to be good for that.  

Then we headed to the Sackville gardens to take a look around. The first act was coming on as we were
queuing to get some pizza from one of the vans there.  It wasn't really our cup of tea , nor the vendor who could barely hear us.

We didn't stay long, it was raining, and not many people there. We had a mooch around the stands, and the stalls outside the garden, but we were largely done in 30 mins or so.

Next we headed to the New Union, where I had a J20 .  We were both a bit tired by that point, the lack of sleep catching up with us. Ann actually fell asleep briefly !  

So I decided I would head back to my hotel for a lay down, try and get refreshed for the evening. We
ended up doing our own things for food that night, I went to a Sainsburys local and got a sandwich.

After which I donned my 2nd metallic dress of the weekend, and popped up to Gemma's room for photo's and another corridor video !

It was raining quite hard, so we did wait in her room for a bit for it to lessen a little before taking our brollies and walking quite fast back to Canal street.  

It was raining quite hard all evening, which meant no outside drinking, which was a shame as it's so much nicer being sat outside - easier to see people you want to meet. We did some bar hoping, but not much as we didn't want to risk not having a table anywhere. 

We were quite lucky to get one in Via that was not directly under an aircon unit - our 1st one was, and
we were feeling a bit cold !

I think we did Bar Bop next, where Gemma got some fab interactions with a girl attracted by her LED handbag and belt, which was nice.

We ended up in 'The Church' which used to be called 'Churchills' . We met a few people in there, but we were a bit out of sync with many of the others I would have liked to have talked with. 

It was still a great night though.  It wasn't as bad walking back as the rain had mostly stopped by that point. 

We were back at the hotel before 1am I think.

Sunday 

Ann was leaving early so didn't meet up at the Premier for breakfast, so it was just me and Gemma.
After which Gemma had a little time to kill before her train home so we did a bit of exploring and took some footage of an interesting, but rather smelly canal underpass !

Soon it was time for her to leave, so we said our goodbyes, and I checked out of my room and did the short walk to my car to dump my bags in it. I moved it down to the bottom floor to put it on charge, then headed back to Canal street for one last time. 

The park was still flooded due to the rain so it wasn't going to open until midday, so I did some exploring of the sculptures and the gardens of the university near the railway viaduct to the south of the gardens. They have a Vimto sculpture there which I like to get photo's next to. This time there were a group of street people drinking out of cans there, but they didn't say anything to me.

The park was still not open by this point so I headed into the tea rooms next to it "Richmond Tea Rooms"  for a drink, they do really posh cakes and food too.  

I ended up on a table next to Simone who is a regular at Nottingham Invasion which was nice. We had a bit of a chat while I had my tea, they were just finishing their breakfast so departed before me. They had mentioned a cool little indie shopping centre which sounded fab,  so I decided I would go take a look at that.

This was called "Afflecks"  https://afflecks.com  it has a load of independent vendors selling all kinds of retro, steampunk, alternative type things.  It had three floors, but not everything was open. I think I spent at least half an hour in there.  Didn't buy anything though.

After this I popped into a big junk/curio shop which had all sorts of random stuff in it - and also an adult section which I found quite funny. It was around a corner with a big warning about there being things of an adult nature beyond. Nothing too bad, but they did have physical porn mags, all in plastic covers. I guess people collect them too !

I headed back to see if the park was open , and did eventually get in there.  I met a few people I had missed the previous night.  I had told my wife I would be back early afternoon through, so I didn't spend too much time in there again. Wish I had done now, would have been ideal to get to know a few a bit better while I had them to myself.

I headed back to the car at about 1pm , and I must have been back home 2:30ish.   I popped in my Co-op while still dressed on the way back to get some food supplies, and remained dressed for the rest of the day.

In Summary

It didn't feel as good as last year, I think I met less people, and spent less time in the actual event really. 

The weather was mostly to blame for this, and you can't control that. I think I will always look back on that first one with more fond memories than any future ones anyway, it will be a hard one to beat.

But it was fab to spend more time with Gemma and Ann, and I did have a really nice time.

Manchester Sparkle 2022 - Day 2

The morning after

I had set the alarm pretty early, I think for 7:30am, as the guide for meals in the room said that between 8-9am was the ideal time if you wanted a relaxed experience. So i hadn't slept that long. Anyway got up, had a shower got the bare minimum makeup on and headed down for breakfast.

It was buffet style, had a cooked breakfast and a seeded croissant and a few coffee's. The cooked stuff was a bit luke warm, but still nice. Got a good view of one of the squares opposite the hotel.

I had a Panadol for my head, then decided to try and go look at the venue park, I hadn't had much success in finding a timetable, one of the ladies I was out with the previous night had said she thought it was 10am.  So I walked down canal street then over the bridge and spoke to two security staff at the park entrance who said it didn't open until midday, but there was a lovely tea room just down the road - and they were not on commission for it :)

I had previously done some research on things to see in Manchester, and found 'Vimto Park' which has a sculpture of a Vimto bottle, this was only a short walk, so decided to head there to take a look.

It was a nice little park, I sat on a bench for a bit, and thought it might be a good idea to get a bottle of Lucozade to assist with any remaining fuzziness. But this turned into me walking into the city centre to the Arndale centre. 

I was still slightly annoyed with myself for chickening out of the lovely dress for Friday night, and the one I had planned for Saturday was also lovely, a short khaki one with gold print flowers - but not excessively sparkly. So I did wander around looking for something a lot more out there - but found nothing - not even in Quiz !! I had hoped for sequins. I didn't see many trans people out and about, only one I think.

I then went to the Tesco express to get a sarnie and drink, as I figured with the park being in a security cordon I would be trapped in there, and at the mercy of burger van prices. 

I ate the sarnie in the hotel, then headed out of my room to the lift to go back to the park. A chap followed me into the lift and said something along the lines of  'do you mind if I tag along I think we are going to the same place'.  I was a bit confused at first, as thought he meant he was going to the same floor as me, but then realised he meant sparkle.  

Turns out he had been dressed yesterday - by a professional makeup artist, but he didn't have the skills to do it himself, and was also feeling very overwhelmed by everything. He was lovely, he gave me both names Martin/Lara - which I had to put in my phone, as remembering even one name is a challenge.

So we ended up as Sparkle buddies for a while, we went back to the venue, talking along the way about our circumstances etc. We had to queue to get in, and had to have my bag searched for booze. They let me in with Lucozade, it could have been half vodka for all they knew.

We did some of the stands, got some free badges and wristbands, and then we realised that one of the stalls was doing free makeup, this seemed like a golden opportunity for Lara, but she needed to go back to shave. I did see her leave, but not sure if she did come back and got her makeover, I didn't see her around the bars later - I should have got her number. I might track her down on FB.

I also got speaking with one of the admins for the Birmingham belles social group - I didn't know she was it came up in conversation, so I joined the FB group for that - another way to worm myself into the scene. She was nice, also called 'Bell' I think.

There were some nice acts on, and it was nice to be in an environment like that where everyone was happy and proud and such. 

But there were not many people I knew at the day event, or was able to strike up a conversation with, so I did lonely wandering for a while. I did say hi to a few people - Gaby was there briefly, but it was really sunny and there was nowhere in the shade for me to sit, and my feet were killing from the previous night, so I went back to the hotel pretty early. Turns out I had got sunburn, so I have a red triangle around my neck.

I had asked what time everyone I was out with on Friday was meeting up, and it was 6:30 ish near 'Bar Pop' so I ended up eating a disappointing pizza at the hotel bar, then headed to the room to refresh my makeup - shaved again, and put on more extensive eye makeup. 

I also had one of the new fangled anti-hangover pills I had ordered, meant to get rid of the alcohol in your gut before it's absorbed, reduces the symptoms somewhat.

Put on my green short dress, and some posh sandals due to feet woes, and told myself I wasn't going to chicken out again, and strode out of the hotel confidently, chin up, chest out into the totally ambivalent masses.

Managed to find everyone again, it was REALLY busy though, and I don't like crowds that much, so it did take me a while to get back in the mood. 

I don't think I really had as much as a good time as Friday, but it was still really good. 

I was accosted by a fairly drunk lady in New York bar, who said some really nice things, but was also a bit negative - I will talk more of this in a later post.

There was a bit of an incident where one of the more flirty ladies I was with ended up with a 'follower' who we then couldn't get rid of and became a pain, but he lost interest eventually.

The music wasn't as good as the night before, but we did a lot of bars, I was on the shandy still, so wasn't getting very drunk, but was still doing some dancing.

We went to the chippy sometime after midnight, and had some much welcome grease to assist with how we would feel the next morning. I had a saveloy and chips, and gave half mine to another lady who seemed to be content to pick up everyone's scraps :) 

We ended back in the New York bar, but it was rammed and I was ready for bed, so I just used the loo's in there and said bye to the leader of our merry band, and told her would likely see her at LFF.

I had a load of water when I got back. Didn't sleep too bad, but again I wanted to be up early for breakfast. No hangover at all really. Not sure if I can really say that was down to the pill, given I also had chips though.

Got up early on the sunday, had a shower, did my makeup, had breakfast, drove home. I could have stayed for more events. but i've had lots of fun, and was pretty tired.

 

Manchester Sparkle 2022 - Day 1

Had been excited to go to this event ever since I first heard of it, and I had sought permission and booked a room well in advance. The night before I realised I had booked a room with no windows in the Britannia which has terrible reviews, but had gone with a flex booking, so cancelled and got one at the Mecure opposite.  

I purposely missed my Wakefield social/support group on the Thursday night, so I had more time to pack, but I still ended up rushing around like a lunatic on the morning getting ready. I had paid for 10am check-in, as one of my Insta friends was also going early.  In the end I didn't get there until 11:30am, so was lunch time before in my room and unpacked. I had travelled over dressed, I did put some men's jeans and a t-shirt in a bag in the car, but they were really only for emergencies e.g. car breakdown, and didn't get used at all, and stayed in the car. The car park was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel.

A man sitting in his car called me over while I was walking to the hotel as he couldn't work out how to put a space into his sat nav ! - this was quite amusing, anyway managed to sort it for him, all part of the free trans tech support service.

Met up with Ann outside my hotel, and she unfortunately had to tell me she that she had just had a call from her wife who had just received some bad news, and would have to abandon the weekend and go home. But she was going to stay for lunch and a drink then go back later. 

It was a bit of a subdued lunch, but it was still nice, and we had a good chat. We did some photo's outside the New Union, they have some angel wings on the wall - I love angel wing photo opportunities.

We had a drink outside there, but then it was time for her to get on the road, so we walked back up to the Hilton end of Canal street and said our goodbyes. 

I was feeling a bit sad at that point, as I had envisaged that a lot of the day time adventures would have been with her. But after a brief visit back to the room to plan what to do, I decided to head out and find the art gallery. 

I did so, and spend a pleasant hour or so wandering around, they had some lovely Lowry's , and some nice sculptures - I didn't find any peacocks to torment my friend with though.

After this I had a bit of a wander, and stumbled across the library, so though I would go and have a look around that for a bit. I was nice, big circular reading room with a glass dome at the top. Didn't get a photo though. Walked back via china town, and headed to the hotel to research where best to eat. I'm not actually that fussed about Chinese food, I just liked the arch. 

I settled on a Lebanese place that looked really nice online, and was back towards canal street, so not too far away. It wasn't that great really, I had a shish kebab with some olives to start. I think it was meant to come with bread but it didn't. The salad with the kebab was pretty poor. Portion size wasn't great, I didn't bother staying for a desert.

What I should
have worn

Headed back to the hotel as was intending to change my outfit and head out for a few quiet drinks that night.  The hotel I had chosen is not far from canal street, but you did have to cross a busy road with lots of people walking up and down, and walk down a few streets to get there. I did have a nice purple sort of satin-ish dress to wear and got as far as putting it on, but my confidence failed me and I didn't want to walk out amongst the dressed down masses like that.  

So instead I put on another Seasalt one that I had worn to the sculpture park - I did change to the platinum blue fade wig though, and put on my block heels, so it looked a little bit more dressy I suppose.

Anyway it was OK and it got me out of the hotel, and got to canal street again, and started to walk down, looking out for a friendly face. I had hoped to inflict myself on someone I vaguely knew. The plan sort of worked in that I bumped into Gaby one of the shining stars of the social scene, who is always dressed to kill, and also knew where everyone would be meeting up. I hadn't been in touch we these girls really.

Gaby, social butterfly
extrovert extraordinaire

Anyway one drink led to another, and I ended up on the dance floor at one pub, and continued to boogie for much of the night.

My lack of self confidence, and skill with dancing had led to me being sat on a corner guarding the bags on previous occasions, and I don't think it really enabled me to try and properly integrate with the group, and made it seem like I wasn't having fun.

So it sort of meant to great deal to me to finally get the courage to do it - although (as with far too many things of late), social lubricant was required - although I was on shandy's to ensure I got to the end of the night with a functional memory.

I did dancing on a stage (with others), danced with a number of random lovely CIS females. A gay guy - who will feature in a future post (nothing saucy).

It was a really good night, fantastic Madonna tribute act in Via, who to me sounded as good as the original, and her dancing was off the chart. We did a lot of bars on canal street, and New York New York which is a few streets back.

One of the girls in Via late in the night did tell me to not be so shy, we did some sort of Irish dancing with her with the spinning and arm linking thing which was fun.

My feet were killing by that point, the block heels that I got were really cheap, and bought more for the look. I had previous hurt my feet in them at several events - I will get some lower ones, or at least some with more padding on the ball of the foot.

I decided to call it a night, but it was before midnight and one of the CIS wife's of one of the girls told me I wasn't allowed, so we did some more dancing, and it got to 12:30 ish and I did manage to get permission to go to bed :)

I did drink some water before going to bed, but was still a bit hungover in the morning. Just headachy, and a delicate, but not really nauseous. 

All in all, a really good night, and the participation in the dancing was a real achievement for me. 

I didn't do any of the event in the park though, apparently there were things on - but having fun was the aim, and much fun was had.