A Second Chance for a Last Dance

This was an event organised by the 'Friends Of Marian' which is a play on the 'Friends of Dorothy' but with the Marian robin hood character instead. 

It's aim is to allow queer people who who for a variety of reasons were not able to go to a 'prom' in their youth. We didn't really have proms anyway at our school, so I guess prom just means 'being glamorous'.

For example if you grew up under section 28 , or you just didn't come out until later life.

It's the first year they have done this, and it sold out. Seemed likely it will be happening again next year. It was held at 'The New Forester's' in Nottingham, which is the main LGBTQ+ pub in city. 

One of my Insta friends who I spent an afternoon with at Manchester pride a few months ago had let me know about it (Romile), and I had initially decided to go just to meet up with them really. There was another insta friend who lived in Nottingham who also decided to go too. I had also mentioned it to my friend Danielle, and she also turned up.

I drove down, and charged at Tibshelf on the way - I had got a new phone and I had a sudden panic I wouldn't be able to use the chargers in Nottingham if I couldn't get the app to work. 

I was nearly there and then discovered that the locals were having a Goose Fair, which made a total mess of traffic, and I spent 30 mins attempting a diversion I could see might work on my sat nav.

I was a bit flustered when I eventually arrived and parked. I walked briskly to the pub, which was a lot harder with the restrictions of the dress. 

When I arrived it just seemed like a normal night, but I was in a much fancier dress than everyone else, but it turned out the event was in some marquee's out the back of the pub, so I needed to go out the back door and down some steps. 

Was very happy to see lots of dresses, mostly more extravagant than mine, but mine was still on theme. 

I was glad I had taken my cheap gold jacket to give me some additional insulation, as it wasn't that warm. The dress itself was also really quite thick, a very odd stretchy material. It was one that I bought with LFF in mind.

I met up with one of my friends, and we got chatting with someone who had come all the way from the south coast. This was one of their first socials, they were very friendly and chatty. Danielle and Romile turned up a bit later, and we had a catch up. Romile had also seemed to have a friend with her, an older lady who was also on her first social outing.

Then we got ushered into the big marquee for some entertainment, a drag show and some burlesque. It was probably really good, but I am a bit of a dwarf, the stage wasn't very high, and I was at the back so I didn't see much. 

The 2nd half of the entertainment was similar - there was a raffle drawn at the end, with an amusing double act running it.  I didn't win anything. But it did seem like a lot of the winners were known to the organisers - I don't mean that it was rigged, more that it was evident that it was a community of people who knew each other. 

I am somewhat of an outsider to the LGBTQ+ community in Nottingham really, only ever really mingling with the T-Folk, so it was good to witness this, and feel a part of it. I do have a little bit of this with Wakefield, having done pride, and with their group being in the local LGBTQ+ bar.

We ended the night chatting in one of the marquee's - the music had to stop at 11pm due to noise restrictions, and we had all had enough. Did some hugging and said our goodbyes outside the pub towards 11:30.  I set off home, avoiding the Goose fair this time, and got home for about 1am.

I hadn't eaten much before I left, so I had cheese on toast before bed while feeling very overdressed for food preparation :)

All in all a nice night, and I didn't drink so no hangover to contend with ! Would definitely consider going back again,

 

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.

 

Izzy does Doncaster

 

 Just a play on the old porn film title "Debbie does Dallas", don't worry no bits on display.

As soon as my work had brought up the idea of the 9 day fortnight, meaning we get every other Friday off, my heart leapt at the thought I would have two adventure days a month, where I could get out and spend the whole day as 'me'.

I had done Leeds the previous one, I had been to Doncaster many many moons ago, possibly pre-kids, and thought it seemed like a good idea. It has a big shopping centre, and there was an LGBT bar that I had found when googling for local venues. 

I do love wearing dresses, but I thought that perhaps I should attempt to 'blend' more this time, as lets be honest, non many women wear them these days. So I chose jeans, boots and my 'Ghost' (the band) t-shirt, with the brown smart-ish jacket.  I do need another jacket choice.

I probably still stood out a little perhaps, I should get some more less gothic tops too.

I parked in the multi-storey at the shopping centre which was quite a cool car park , massive long steep ramp up.

Then got the lift down to the shopping levels, nearly barrelled into some old dears who were attempting to enter the lift as I was coming out.

I wandered around there for a bit, found the Waterstones (I had googled for it before going out) and got another Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea: The First Four Books). I signed up for a loyalty card in there - under Isobel , not had the email through for it though. Hopefully will come through next week.

They had a Quiz there too, with some very lovely going out dresses, which I really really do not need any more of (lies) but I left pretty quickly when I saw the prices.

I walked past 'Wowburger' which had a colour scheme designed to startle , all red and bright yellow - but definitely going to have to take the kids one day. 

Then I went into the town, and found where the bar was, it was still a bit early, and I wasn't sure it was actually an eaty place, so I figured would pop in for a drink later.

Did four charity shops, got three nice dresses - all three with no arms, which I didn't' have any of. Also a spotty top.  The 3rd shop had some lovely wedding dresses - of course I do not need one, and highly unlikely I ever will, but I did have a quick rifle through them.

Looked in a few pound shops, then decided was time to eat. I found a Cafe which looked to have a load of space free, it went back a fair way. It wasn't the cheapest, but everything was really good.

Marvel at the jacket potato with bolognaise.

It was so good I stuffed it into my mouth with little regard as to my lipstick and foundation, and probably didn't look very dainty in the process.

Also took selfie to check this, and my hair.

Once complete, I headed outside to check on Skype as there was no reception in there. Then I went to the bar.

There were a few people in, I got a 0% beer as they had run out of milk, so couldn't do coffee.

The books in the 'library' were mostly on the wallpaper - which was amusing, but they did have some real ones on top of a piano. It seemed like a really nice place, decent pool table.

Definitely want to go back again.

There was another bar downstairs which only opens at night, and also the loos - they had more wings !!!

Once I had finished in there, it seemed like a good idea to come home - there was a museum and other things I could have done, but no reason to do it all in that one day.

I couldn't resist going into Deichman and getting another pair of walking shoes though.... 

All in all, a very pleasant day - no problems with anyone, funny looks, comments, mis-gendering.

As with the previous outing, I didn't revert when coming home - I did change into the dresses for some Insta snaps, but remained dressed for the rest of the day ! Which was nice.

Human powered flight

 I got my wings !!

An actual laugh ! Marvel at the sight of teeth

I had cancelled the Hotel for LFF on Thursday while I was feeling quite down - it was £120+  , I really didn't want to waste that if I wasn't in the mood. Anyway I saw a few people posting Instagram updates of their LFF preparations, and by Friday afternoon I was in the mood to go out again. 

So I made the decision to get ready and go out, even if it turned out to be just for a few hours.  I ended up out until 1am.  I met some nice people, I didn't speak to that many. I sat with one that I had met the previous time (Debbie)  and she introduced me to her friends Mandy and Becky, we talked for a bit, then I went for a wander and spotted Danielle who I had met at the Nottingham invasion twice.  She was partly responsible for my earring decision having had hers done the month before.

I spoke to Fiona briefly, she seemed to be on a mission, Stella was there but didn't get chance to speak. I was hoping to meet a deaf girl, I had learnt to sign her name, as on FB she seemed to be getting down that nobody was speaking with her - not much but thought would cheer her up a bit. She was there apparently but our paths didn't cross.

We did a few places :

• Fibre - made a poor bar girl go to the bottom floor for alcohol free gin
• Viaduct show bar - was a preview night for their new acts, I think we saw 4 
• Smokestack - Jazz, soul, really nice, wish I could have danced to some of it

One of the ladies who I sat with initially in the Marriott checked up on me in Smokestack, as I appeared to be stood on my own not having a good time. I was tired and attempting to sway to the music - Danielle was across for me - anyway it was nice that she made that effort to check I was OK. 

I left after 1am  , I was getting tired and didn't want to risk driving poorly.

In the multi-storey before going home

I got home and ate some pizza my youngest had made at school, was about 2am before had my makeup off. I still woke up at 7:30am, so was pretty dead the next day. Still managed to go out for run/walk though, managed some decent 1 km times for my running stints.

Finished 'The left hand of Darkness' in the bath later on - really good read, I wonder what else I have missed reading.