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.

Ketchup post

Mainly details of adventures in Leeds at the end of last month which I neglected to do earlier !

Leeds First Last Friday

The date had to be changed for the big Leeds social as it overlapped with Sparkle in Manchester. 

I had decided to go for two days this month, to join my friend Alice, and also Rebecka who I didn't really know, but was friends with Alice and Gemma.

The Friday:

Got into Leeds before lunch, and bought some more foundation from boots straight away as it ran out

while getting ready that morning. I had to use some cheap Amazon stuff I had kicking around. I then met Alice and we shared a Pizza at Rudys.

We did some shopping, had some beverages at Flamingo's.  Then we headed to a 'Northern Guitar' which is a guitar shop on the 1st floor, and a pub on the ground floor - sells real ales, really nice atmosphere in there. They had a fab beer in Motorhead branded glassed 'Roadcrew' which was very good indeed.

Rebecka met us later for food at a curry house we have used before "Tharavadu". I had a green chicken curry which was very nice indeed, and I ate too quick.

Was feeling very fat for the rest of the evening, we went to the 'Newbie' event at the bridge, just to show our faces.  We met Mandy in there, and she joined us when we went onward to the main meeting point at the Viaduct. Danielle found us in there, and we became 5 for a few hours.

I felt a bit sick with too much curry when we did Tapped, but I managed a half in the Brewers Cat. Then we headed back over to Northern Guitar and had a few more in there.  Mandy got her bus home at 11ish, and Danielle was driving so she didn't last too much longer.  The last of us were kicked out sometime after midnight when they closed the bar.

As we were out the next day, we walked back to the hotel - the three of us were all at the Premier Inn.

Saturday:

My digestive woes continued, and although I managed breakfast, I was a bit delicate for a
lot of the day. Did have a toastie at lunch. We pottered about a bit, there was a gothic event at the markets, I bought a spiked collar which will compliment my rock chic look. 

We had a few beers before our evening meal, which seemed to help get things working again. We were eating at a posh steak place 'Gouchos' as Alice does like to treat herself.  

Unfortunately she herself feeling a bit ill when we arrived, and it put her off her food somewhat, and put a bit of a downer on the evening.

I attempted to cheer her up with another real ale pub I had located - we had bad news that our usual afternoon haunt 'Foley's had been shut by the brewery, so we were actively seeking replacements.

We also tried "The Brewery Tap" which was opposite the curry house we ate at on Friday, which was not bad.  Not sure if a cis lady was having a go at my being in the ladies loo's in there, and there was a bloke giving me funny looks though.

We met Stephanie in there, she was going down to London for bottom surgery in a weeks time, so had been excitedly counting down the hours on Facebook - and she somewhat dominated the conversation for a while. She is really nice though. We did a lot of people watching in there, it's on the main route for people to get back to the train station, and there were quite a few hen parties wobbling their way back.

We headed back to the hotel sometime after 11pm I think.

Sunday

I needed to get back home as my wife was going to church, I had breakfast with Alice and Rebecka then went straight home - then went to the Asda dressed for the first time , as per previous post.

It was a nice weekend somewhat marred by respective health issues, but still really good.

Cat Food

A short interlude from the adventure posts to talk about life progress - ok and show some outfit snaps 

Being 'Out'

Well I finally walked the very short distance to my local Asda dressed. It all was fine as I expected it would be - but it's something I have been hesitant to do until now.  

I'm a bit tired and I have much less f**ks than usual due to excessive weekend fun in Leeds. 

We were out of cat food, and he really doesn't care what I am dressed like, I had just got back home and I knew he wasn't going to leave me alone, and I intend to stay dressed for the rest of the day. 

The photo is from the hotel this morning, for Asda I had my black sandals, denim jacket and a new grey handbag I got from TK-Max yesterday. 

I am not really out to the neighbours as such, I don't avoid them, and they will have seen me in the car, but it just feels more scary being out to the neighbourhood. Distant towns and cities, it's not on my doorstep, so seems less 'real' - I have nothing to fear. I don't think I saw any of my neighbours there there though.

Anyway, feels like another small step forward.

Hormones - Micro-dose 

Finally got around to sending my wife the link to the Micro-dosing info sheet from Gender GP.  She is concerned about side effects. I will see if I can find anything more on that.  But seemed a fairly positive response. 

I hope to get the ball rolling with these this month.

Temptation to come out at work

We have a big company wide meetup next month at a theme park - we will be in a conference room for
most of the day. There are 300+ of us now, I don't interact with much more than 10% if that though in the normal course of my duties.

Anyway, I have been pondering going as me, they issue a dress code that says within reason wear what you want to be comfy. My pleated long dress is calling me....

They have to be wondering about my hair, if I were staying the night I could have done to the evening do En-femme, but neither of my two female colleagues who I normally go with are staying.

I will likely chicken out - it's probably not the professional thing to do, should tell my boss first. 

 

Birthday Beers

Yet another adventure post .... 

I had booked the day off for my Birthday some time ago, with plans for a normal solo adventure day - probably to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, as the exhibits were due to change.

But my friend Gemma said they were doing Stockport Beer and Cider festival on the day. I really wanted to get to know her a bit better, and it's much nicer to be doing something with friends than on my own, so I jumped at the chance to go. There would be three of us, as another who I don't know that well was also going,

For the day I decided to wear the Shein halter neck dress from the previous try on session, but with the halter neck bra. 

I got ready fairly quickly, but the lashes took a lot longer to get on, so I was running a bit late by the time I set off.  Traffic was also pretty poor - I went the A road route. I had intended to get there for 10ish, but it was nearly midday by the time I was in the hotel.

I left my bags in my friends room as they had none free for early check-in, and we headed straight to the venue which was a Masonic Hall.  

Afternoon antics : 

My friend is gender fluid, and has two modes of operation fab drab, and full glam En-femme. They would be in fab drab for the first part of the day, then we would go back to change to glam for the evening in mid afternoon. So they had to treat me like a lady for the first part 😊

We started off with a cider each, and went to explore all the rooms, it was a fairly big building and there were bars in quite a few areas, so a bit odd compared to the norm. 

Had a nice chat and caught up, and then we headed outside as was really warm. There we found a stone baked pizza stand - was cool the oven was the back half of a van that had been chopped to be made into a trailer. The pizza was lovely - I was most glad as in all the rush to get ready in the morning I had skipped breakfast.

One of the Camra ladies was stalking non-members, and collared me - I figured why not, so I ended up on the membership stand.  So at some point I will get my first piece of ID with 'Isobel' on it ! I wonder if the fact it's Camra membership says a bit too much about me 😂

We had a few more ciders, then headed back to the hotel. Gemma requires at least and hour and a half to go full glam - I had originally planned on going into Stockport for an explore, but ended up taking some nice photo's and video in the room for Insta, and chatting on social media a bit.

Evening : 

We had decided to go full on dressed to impress with sequins - Gemma also likes to wear LED belts and
a brilliant handbag too, so we were fairly hard to miss in the end.

We took some photo's in the hotel, and did a video in the corridor that would later be slowed down to music for dramatic effect. I did swap into different heels after we took the pictures as my feet were already hurting just walking from my room to hers !

Then we headed back to the festival - walking a bit slower as we were both now in heels. I went back on beer, but we both ended up with a drink, and went up to one of the upper rooms where there was a Ska band playing. We had missed an hour of their set, but did catch a few songs. They were fantastic.

We met up with Trisha in there, and then headed back outside for more food. I shared a pizza with
Gemma. We spent the rest of the evening drinking, I was on fairly low strength session bitters, with the odd glass of water between. 

There were quite a lot of interactions, all positive, everyone loves Gemma's handbag so we got lots of people coming up and asking about that. Got a few nice comments out outfits too.  It was all really friendly and welcoming. 

Last orders was 11pm, but we left a bit before then, and headed back to the hotel. There was another nice meeting with some random girls as we passed a wine bar near the hotel - again they were enticed by the handbag 😂

Saturday Morning

We agreed to meet up for breakfast fairly early, as there was an air raid tunnel museum that Gemma
fancied going to which opened at 10am.  I didn't bother with full on makeup, just 'it will do' level.

The breakfast was not bad, no black pudding, and the eggs were scrambled, but it was all you can eat and included in the room price. (Holiday Inn Express).

Got some looks from a woman in a wheelchair, no idea what her problem was, but didn't spoil my mood.

We were actually running ahead of schedule, so ended up back in her room where she showed me her VR headset. It was amazing, did loads of different simulations, and some
great tours of New York too. I am now very tempted to get a headset.

We then headed out to the museum which was about a 10 minute walk. It was a muggy day, and I was very glad we had gone, it was a lovely temperature down there. I believe the tunnels had already existed pre-WW2 but had been expanded to be made into a very large air raid shelter.

There was a lot to look at, even some fab moss growing on the ceiling got our attention, and my macro lense in operation. I think we were down there at least an hour - seemingly on our own, not a particularly popular tourist destination it seems. I would recommend it though  

After this, we headed to find a filming location for the 'Ashes to Ashes' police station, and I got a
picture there too, then we went to an art gallery as it was nearly on the way back to the hotel. Didn't spend too much time in there, there was somebody posing for a group of artists which took up one gallery. 

It was getting towards midday by this point, and Gemma was doing another day at the beer festival, and wanted to freshen up before heading back. So we walked back to the hotel and said our goodbyes. 

In conclusion

It was a really fantastic weekend, and I had a great time, and was really lovely to spend time with Gemma to get to know her better.  We had been in the same group of friends at LFF, but had not really spent much time talking.

She was influential in getting Alice to the beer festivals too, she should have a warning label on her 😂 

 

 

 

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.  

Steaks in Scunthorpe

The last post was very much just about the social events, didn't really mention the other things going on in my life, so figured best try and do this first on todays:

Parents

Called my parents on the Sunday after the ball, spoke with my mum - the revelation I had been to the ball seemed to upset her. She sounded quite shocked and disappointed, especially going with a friend !  

I had forgotten to tell her it was the newsreader hosting it , so I messaged her about that after the call, some of her reply included "I just struggle with how <wife's name> and the boys feel and how it will progress, but we have to respect your choices".

It seemed to me she was trying to project her distain through others, in order to influence me. That left me feeling pretty down, and I've not bothered to ring her this weekend. 

My dad was watching the F1 so I didn't ask to speak with him. He's left an answerphone message for me to ring him last night. So will have to call them today.

Gender GP

My wife has been busy with exams, so I've left this for the moment, I am keen to progress though, I hope to chat at the weekend.

Mood / Work

The pink fog has been back a lot recently, and I've been slacking, and so far been able to get away with it. It will come back to bite me I'm sure. 

Post event comedown, and these other things have left me feeling pretty down as well. 

I've been buying a lot of summer dresses. Spending far too much time on social media too. 

Other things

I'm back down to under 72kgs , really going to make an effort for the rest of the month to lose a bit more.

I am trying to keep busy fixing my car on the evenings, making progress on this does seem to cheer me up a bit. I have bought supplies to enable me to paint the grille in trans flag colours 😊

Laser - had my 8th face session and 2nd torso session last Thursday, it was a new woman : Kirsty - she seemed really nice, and a bit more switched on than the last woman who I assume has moved on to pastures new. She was telling me she had a pride outfit sorted for Leeds - she is an ally. 

Chameleons

I went to Chams last Thursday, I wasn't able to dress because of the laser, I had thought of doing so
anyway just with no foundation, but Ann was going to the midlands outlet beforehand, and figured would dress boyish so I could go round there for a bit with her beforehand.

So I ended up in a female fall out 4 t-shirt, men's black jeans and my female blue suede boots. 

I was on the lookout for Kurt Geiger rainbow sandals, but they had none. We looked in a few more shops then had a costa and some cake and a chat before we headed down the M1 to Chams.

Chams was nice, I got speaking with Jill a lot who knew a lot about nuclear reactors ! I think I may have sold her on the idea of attending LFF too 😊

It didn't feel massively out of place which was nice, although still felt I had to explain my appearance to a few. 

School Friends - Saturday

Was meeting up with 3 of my school friends on the Saturday afternoon at a pub about 30 mins away. I had come out to one of them in person, and the other two on Facebook a while ago, so I had the option of dressing - but my laser being on the Thursday meant I really shouldn't shave until the Sunday so I didn't bother.

I over indulged in cider, and was in a bit of a state by the end. I think some of it was due to feeling quite emotional over the previous week.

Also my wife stated our upcoming wedding anniversary may well be the last one we have - she may well be right.

Scunthorpe - Sunday 

I was quite hungover, not so much with a headache but my tummy was not happy about eating. It was a really hot day too, and I was feeling this.  I was due to go celebrate a birthday of a friend at a Miller and Carter in Scunthorpe at 6pm, so I did my best to try and feel better throughout the day - I did a bit on the car as well.

I was feeling just about OK to go in the end, I really didn't want to miss this as I had sort of got myself invited to it, and didn't want to upset Lexi  (the birthday girl) either. I took my wife's to make it easier on myself. 

I also decided to go with my natural hair, for better heat management.

I had seen Cindy post a picture of the restaurant on FB when I pulled up, so assumed she was inside, but after talking to the lady on the desk it seemed not, so headed out to the carpark and found she was still in her car taking advantage of the aircon - so I hopped in and joined her until Lexi and Alice arrived.

It was quite hot inside, and the flight mechanism was bordering on triggering, but a pint of Pepsi started to make me feel a bit better.  I ordered a chicken dish in case I couldn't eat much - it was actually nearly 1/2 a chicken, so I still didn't manage it. But I did eat at least, and it was really nice, and I felt better for doing so.

Everyone else was on the expensive steaks, which did look fantastic. I skipped desert in favour of more Pepsi. 

Initial health matters aside it was a really nice night, we all had a great chat, it was very pleasant indeed. I hope to get invited back, I think they have been meeting up once a month or so. 

I think we finished by 8:30pm ish. We got some photo's in the car park, and said our goodbyes. I was home before 10pm.

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 😂