Out and about

Out - to my Brother !

I wrote my previous post on a Friday thinking that I probably wouldn't get up to much on the Saturday and Sunday. I was due to have a quiet drink with my brother on Saturday lunch time, and thought it might just be a few hours of chat, then back home early afternoon.

Anyway, we both got very very drunk, I tried Jägerbomb's for the first time, I have some memory loss. I remember showing him a picture on my Instagram, and then being outside the pub with him being quite nice about it all. I think the picture to the right was it, or at least one with that dress on.

I don't remember getting home, or getting into bed - this was before 7pm , but I do recall my wife coming in to give me a bottle of Lucozade and a pepperoni pizza she had ordered for me - which I ate. I think this saved me from much of the hangover I was really owed !

Due to the memory issue I wasn't 100% sure of where it all got left, so I sent him a text early in the morning, and got a nice supportive one back saying he would always be there for me and such, and we have been fine since. Mainly talking about cars, as we did before - as if nothing had changed. Which I am very pleased about.

I've added him and my dad to a WhatsApp
group, titled 'cars' , we are all quite interested in them, I don't want them thinking I am a totally different person now, I still have much the same interests, I would just rather be dressed differently while doing them :)

Not sure my dad is really checking it much, nor did they get the emergency tests, perhaps need to persuade him to get a newer phone.

About - Mum has questions !

Being open to my brother unexpectedly resulted in my mum wanting to talk about things with me more deeply, and in detail - about my plans. Apparently they had discussions that they might need to get their wills updated to be my new name ! 

She was also enquiring how far I wanted to go - the topic of genitals seemed to be highest priority for them to know about. I do find that quite amusing, as it's generally the last thing anyone actually gets done, if at all, but non-trans people seem fixated on it. 

Anyway, I think they think I have a firm plan - I have desires, I have money, I have no firm decisions. I am not likely to change my name any time soon that's for sure.

She was also saying that she has nobody else to talk to about it, so wants to talk to me more often. Which I suppose isn't a bad thing. She wanted to know if I was finding the support groups useful, if they were helping and such - which they certainly are. 

Chameleons 

It seemed like a more quiet affair compared to the previous meeting, but I think this was partly because  the wig people had come to the previous meeting, which tempted more people out - plus the two ladies themselves, so it was a packed room. 

I think there were actually 9 of us at this meeting , which was still not exactly small compared to some
of the summer ones - as I'm sure you know a high proportion of trans people are also vampires, so the summer months are challenging. 

Halloween last year
Most vamp look 
I've managed :)

Well it's either that or it's due to it being harder to sneak out of the house dressed in the light, or too hot to wear wigs, but vampirism is a much more sexy and plausible reason I'm sure you will agree.

Speaking of which it's the first of the two Whitby goth weekends at the moment - I didn't go, it was meant to rain, and my wife was less than pleased with the idea. It's a long drive for just for the afternoon, and I had no hotel booked, so probably for the best.

There was a new person there, a university student, they were very well spoken and seemed quite switched on, knowing all the current terms. Definitely officer grade material for any secret trans-army that may need forming !

Lynn had a fetching top on, with sort of mesh effect arms, looked very nice in it. 

Was also great to catch up with Ann, and Danielle was back too, sans cast on her wrist, with good news about a GIC referral. Didn't speak too much to her, but I think she will be at LFF so will do so then.

Trans-portation 

I finally got enough confidence to take the Morris Minor down the M1 to Chams. She has been christened 'Josephine'  as apparently it's illegal to own one without giving it a female name.

The journey down was pretty steady, with only a bit of light rain to contend with, I have a YouTube channel, and I have created a video of most of said journey for anyone's viewing pleasure (it's sped up in the middle, only 6 mins long) :

I tried to keep to 60mph, for the sake of the engine, and my hearing, it is very loud, there is no sound deadening at all.  I arrived really early, partly in case I had issues and had to stop and troubleshoot, and partly because I had been chomping at the bit to set off.

So I spent a bit outside with my tripod getting some pictures of us both - this was also the first time I had been out in her enfemme !

I was very pleased with these, and got some lovely comments on Insta about the car - well and my dress too :)

The return journey was horrible, the rain had got a lot worse it was hammering down, and the M1 had a lot of water on it. By the time I was on the motorway the windows had misted up, and due to my high level of meticulous planning, I had not actually got anything to wipe them with. So I used my hand for a few miles until I got to Tibshelf.

I stopped at the main part of the services with all the shops, and went in to use the loo, and see if any of the shops sold the demister pads. They didn't, so I figured the shop at the fuel part would, and attempted to drive the short distance there.  I made a school girl error of trying to start her with the choke fully out - even though she was still warm. 

She didn't want to go, and I must have flooded it. I was sat in the dark for a while pondering my life choices, and the possibility of hotel rooms.

Then I thought I would give the 2cv hot start method a go - you  keep the accelerator peddle floored, it would splutter into life and then you backed off the throttle before the revs got high. This did result in it firing on at least 2 cylinders, but it soon died. 

So I sat for a bit longer, and thought well, maybe it doesn't need the choke - and it fired up after an excessive amount of cranking. I haven't actually driven it much so it's all a learning curve !

We got to the petrol station OK, and I filled her up with some E5 - that was another concern it's got a tiny tank and seems quite thirsty, so I wanted to make sure I didn't run out ! 

I found some demister pads in there, and got two of those, fired her up again - easily,  and headed out in the darkness. 

We spent most of the rest of the journey in the slow lane following lorries, everyone was driving slow not just me, it was quite hard to see the lane markings in some places. I think I got home sometime after 1am. 

I found some leftover pizza in the fridge and ate that, with a lingering smell of premium petrol on my fingers - it was lovely.

Drying off 

The following day I put her in the garage and used 3 bath towels to get as much water off her as possible - it really is like owning a big dog. There was puddle in the boot and on the drivers floor. I've got a dehumidifier on in there now, with all the windows down. If it's sunny again tomorrow I might push her onto the drive as that will probably work better.

Today I have purchased a new car for my wife ! She was owed one really. I can borrow it for long journeys (it's a petrol) , like Pink Punters, so I am also happy.

Trans on the Go !

 

Prologue 

Hair update

I have been very happy for the first few days of the week, I only say as it's often the case that heading back to work after a fun weekend is usually fairly depressing, but not so much this week.

We will be having a new thing on our work HR portal where it asks you how you are feeling periodically, maybe I should do one on here.

The last few days were quite busy though, although it's nice to be needed.

This pic is from a few weeks ago, I wanted to see how I looked with my real hair - I'm pretty pleased, although I'm going to stick some just for men on to get rid of some grey - It does rather age me.

Lasers

I had my last of my block of six face sessions on Thursday, and also started the 1st of six on my torso. 

So I was there a little over 40 mins, instead of my usual 15 mins. It should have actually been longer, but they have upgraded to a new machine which produced a bigger spot size, thus reducing the number of zaps required.

It went well, I shed a lot of hair on my face, it's mainly the top lip and the sort of goatee type area where I still have growth. She was also pleased with the reaction on my torso, it went bumpy very quickly which is a good sign.

I've bought another block of 6 for my face, I expect that should be more than enough - perhaps even to present makeup free ! I do sometimes feel a bit over the top at certain groups.  

I had to ask my wife to help me shave my back in preparation for it, which she relented to. She is concerned it's not working very well - but I have been really pleased with the results, and I know of many who have had a lot more sessions and still seem to have issues with shadow bleeding through.

  

Trans-Wakefield

Due to the lasers that afternoon, I was unable to wear makeup, and thus went in boy mode. I really wanted to go to see Philippa as she is out of hospital now, and I had not seen her in a while.

We ate cake, and drank coffee and did our own version of a pub quiz - they have changed the venue so that we are doing two days in the LGBT café now, instead of just the 1st of the month. We still end up at the pub afterwards most times as the café shuts at 9pm. Although this week I came straight home to do some more work - as I said it's been a bit busy.

The Weekend

My current plan is to work tomorrow morning - I need to make next week less stressful. Then I should
be going for a few drinks with my brother at lunch time.

I had been thinking of telling him about me, and I think my mum really wants me to, but well there is currently no rush from me to tell him.  I do wonder if she has dropped him some hints. I will see how it goes, watch this space !

I am plotting taking the Morris Minor on an outing, possibly to the next Chams, so I will likely be tinkering with that at some point too. I have a kit to fix the inlet valve on the carb float chamber. She does leak petrol a bit - but she's getting on a bit, and you've got to expect some incontinence at that age.

I had driven to Woodhall services down the M1 last Sunday, and it seemed to go well. The oil was a tad low on my return, but not sure how much it had in when I set off, school girl error 😊

Chat GPT to the rescue

Modernist experiance

Executive Summary 

So this weeks adventures consisted of the normal Nottingham Chameleons meeting on the Thursday evening, with an overnight stay nearby, then a day out around Milton Keynes with Ann, and evening excesses at the Pink Punters LGBT club - with another overnight stay. Then a return drive on the Saturday. I would be dressed for all of this as per normal Izzy Corp operating procedures. 

I had been preparing for all this earlier in the week, and had shaved my legs, done my nails and packed my bags so I could get down to Nottingham without a lot of stress.

Chameleons

The wig people were in ! - this is good, not only because there is the chance to possibly pick up a new wig - but I also love how it changes the group dynamic. People nipping to the room of change to try on new ones, coming back in for opinions - it gives more opportunity to mingle and move around a bit. The fuddle we have at Xmas also has this effect.

Not that I don't like other times where we don't have distractions - but it is nice to mix it up every now and then. No one meeting is ever totally the same.

There were some new people, two quite young, but they left fairly early on. Some old faces back too, they had been absent due to their partners health issues. Danielle returned, still with her cast on, but hopefully it will be off by the next one.

Spirals are fun

Lynn had a lovely top on - I don't think I mentioned it at the time.

I needed to check into the hotel, so we left a bit more rapidly than normal, but it was still getting on for 11pm I think.

Ann got there a bit before me, and I met her in reception just as she was ordering a refreshing beverage, so I got one too. Chucked my bags in my room, and we sat and chatted for a bit over the beer. It was a nice end to the evening. They had a spiral staircase which looked quite funky so I got some pics on that. I do love an interesting backdrop.

It was a Days Inn hotel, it was pretty good, all through my window seals were a bit perished and it let a lot of road noise in - but didn't sleep too badly.

Journey down 

We needed breakfast, and Ann knew of a biker café nearby, so we had agreed to get ready for 8:30am and head to that first. It was only about 10 miles away - "FactoryHeads café " near Donington Park.

We had a nice cooked breakfast in there, then we headed to the services at Donington Park so I could charge my car. I got it up to 80%, then we agreed to meet up at Northampton services, where I would need a final charge to get me within range of the hotel. 

We had a coffee some cake and a loo stop in there while we waited for the electrons to flow.

It absolutely chucked it down shortly after we got back on the motorway, but thankfully it only lasted a short while, as we were down to 50 mph with not much visibility. 

Managed to follow my sat nav mostly correctly, and after what seemed like 100 roundabouts we ended up at the hotel we were staying at - just over the road from the Pink Punters club. It was only 12:30pm. so we then abandoned my car and headed into the centre of Milton Keynes in Ann's car. 

National Film And Sci-Fi Museum

I had suggested a visit here as I had seen they had a Dalek, so it had to be good 😊 , although upon entering I wasn't 100% we were going to get value for money. 

But I was pleasantly surprised - it had a lot more exhibits than I expected. You were not allowed to take photo's of a lot of it, they made that very clear when you bought the tickets, and there were signs everywhere. But there were a few 'selfie stations' where you could.  I assume this is for copyright reasons.

There were props and models from all sorts of classic shows, costumes from some big films, some of them signed. We spent about an hour looking around, not sure you could spend much more, but it totally seemed worth the price. 

After this we did a bit of a mooch around the shopping centre, then onwards to the "MK Gallery" :

MK Gallery

This was a short walk out of the back of the shopping centre, it was very pleasant inside, and there was a friendly lady there to rob us blind 😊 - it was a bit more than we were expecting, but still thought was worth a punt.

We headed in, and spent about 30 mins perusing the sculpture, some of it was very involved and I really liked. There were a few bits that I don't really consider to be art to be honest. But they did at least provoke discussion, and we got some amusing bemused look selfies out of it.  

We wandered out of there , and decided that we should probably get some food next. The gallery was coincidentally right next to the chain restaurant section of the city - it was quite well organised !

Bella Italia seemed like a nice place, so we headed in there. The male server seemed a bit off, but he was probably off with everyone. The food was nice, I had a Chicken, Ham and Mushroom pizza, Ann had Ham Hock & Scamorza Carbonara.

After this we did a bit more shopping, not buying anything, and headed back to the hotel to check in.

Hotel Campanile

We chose to stay here, as it's literally over the road from Pink Punters, and as such the hotel bar is used as the meeting point for everyone to get together before the club opens at 10pm.

Bar outfit 1

It does have a bit of a reputation for being a "90's hotel experience" , with some friends describing it as a bit like university halls of residence. Certainly the carpet in my room appeared to have soaked up a large number of stains over the years.

But aside from that one thing, it was really nice, the staff were super friendly, the bar was nice, beds and bathroom clean. Everything you would expect in a cheap hotel really.

Once we had checked in, we headed to our rooms to change, and decided to meet up in the bar and have a few before the evening got going. There were a few other people in there, and several seemed to be trans people in male mode (from overheard conversations).  Someone who Ann had talked to at LFF arrived and we got chatting with her.

One of the popular makeover artists and her partner arrived and were very chatty. There was also an older trans woman called Gloria who had not been out in years, she was really nice.

As it got towards 8pm, we decided to head back to our rooms and put on our evening outfits, and both of us switched to blonde wigs too - just to confuse everyone we had met so far 😊

There was a old gentleman with white hair and a bushy beard who Ann identified as a likely chaser, but I put down as a confused local - I nicknamed him captain Birdseye.

A karaoke / disco guy started up, and put on some 80's tunes that I was quite enjoying. It was quite loud, but it was still OK to chat at the far end where we sat.  I met a few people who I had talked to online before, Judy and Katie.

It was soon getting towards 10pm, and we decided to head over the road to the club - it was raining but Ann had a brolly, and we both had jackets on.  

Pink Punters

When we got across the road we chanced upon Rebecca, who we know well as she is at a lot of the events, and she offered to show us around. So we headed down to the security gate with her. 

They are very keen on ensuring the safety of everyone, so they generally want to take a copy of some photo ID, and then also take a picture of you. He was obviously unphased by having my male drivers license and my female pic, as at least they could then hunt me down if I did anything bad !

There were lots of different areas once inside, a long outdoor area with a bar and fire pits. An upper area with a coal fire, a Karaoke bar, Cocktail bar with selfie room, main dancefloor (with it's own bar), and a dinner selling burger and chips and such - last order for which was 5:30am !!

After a loo stop, we headed to the cocktail bar, and I had a White Russian, Ann had a Mojito.  We met a few other LFF's in there, did some chatting. I think we did the Selfie room next, this is a very famous backdrop and many trans Insta people post pics of themselves in here. 

We tried some of the other areas, ending up in the Karaoke bar to hear our friends Dee and Gabby do something famous which I'm sure they sang at LFF last week, but I can't remember the name of.

Ended up back in the cocktail bar and had some beer with tequila in it, which tasted weird. Met up with Judy and I got some more photo's with her in the selfie room.

Some dancing was done at some point too, I forget the order of events. Then by about 2am I was getting tired and suggested we get some food and call it a night. We were both keen on not getting too tipsy, due to the long drive back in the morning.

We had a burger each and some cheesy chips to share. While i was waiting for it to be cooked, I nipped to the loo and a really lovely cis girl awarded me with a flower garland for having nice hair 😊

I do recall that the wall of the dinner was vibrating very badly with the bass from the dance floor as we ate.

We headed back after we had finished, and agreed to meet up for breakfast at about 9am. 

All in all a very pleasant and successful evening !

Breakfast and Return Home

I had a shower, got dressed and met Ann in the bar for breakfast - had another chat with Gloria too.

Then did a bit of packing, then headed over the road as I wanted some pictures with the Pink Punters route master bus which is in their car park. 

I think it was about 10:30 am by the time the car was packed and I was on my way home.

I needed to charge at Northampton or Watford Gap, tried both - no available charging points. Went to a holiday Inn one junction up from Watford Gap - that was in use, I had about 18 miles left by this point and was getting a bit annoyed. Looked on Zap Map and located one at Rugby golf club 7 miles away. 

When I got there it was thankfully unoccupied, and functional, and I didn't need an app to use it !! yay.

I was however down to less than 10%, so it did mean sitting in the car for nearly 40 mins. This was still not enough to get me home, so I figured I would try Trowel next - this has two Gridserv machines, each with dual charge ability.

When I got there they were all occupied, so I parked opposite and waited for a bit. 

I needed to use the left machine as it had CHAdeMO, the right machine was dual CSS, so no good to me.  Fortunately all three cars seemed to end at the same time, and after some kerfuffle where the BMW driver blocking the bay I needed was unable to disconnect, I was finally able to pull forward and charge.

I popped into the services for a tinkle and to get a takeaway Costa, and in hardly any time I was back up to 80% and I could do the last stint home. 

It was about 3:15pm when I got home, so a pretty long trek - but totally worth it, it was a really really good weekend.

  

Excessive fun

The Work Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Leeds Daytime 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leeds First Friday - 15th Year Anniversary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Morning After

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

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

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

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

Sunday

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

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

A fairly visible week

 

Blue Monday

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

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

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

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

Anyway I was a lot happier on Tuesday morning.

Wednesday 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday - Trans Wakefield

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

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

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

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

It was a very pleasant night. 

Friday - Trans Day of Visibility - Doncaster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday - Trans Day of Visibility - Wakefield

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

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

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

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

This is the painting :

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

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

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

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

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