Not dead, honest

 

Well it's been a while !  - one of my friends even sent me a message to check i had not abandoned my blog.

So I have a lot of October to talk about, best dig into the photo's and see what i did !  

 

3rd of October - Leeds First Friday.  

We Stayed at the Hyatt.  Pints and straws was good, there was a fire alarm as we got ready for the main event though, and Charlotte was half dressed !  We were probably the last ones down - apparently someone cooking a chicken in a microwave in one of the apartments.

The evening was good, we teamed up with lovely Benni and Sally.  

After spending a bit of time at the Bridge End Social we ventured onwards to the Bridge - mainly due to likelihood of  80's music. Then Fibre - as Benni wanted free Pizza, and Blayds for the cheap gin, and fun drag DJ/music.  

I think we did the End Bar, and Behind Closed Doors after those, but only vague memories. We had too many double gins ! 

Breakfast in the morning was made memorable by a lady from Essex who was shouting about her boyfriends sausage being lukewarm and spouting about food poisoning - which we enjoyed 😂 

She didn't seem in the mood to joke, so I didn't ask to feel her boyfriends sausage.

Despite eating breakfast I was still a bit hungover in the morning but we still managed to go look around the markets. I was meant to be meeting with some ex-colleagues for a coffee at 1pm. I managed to make it to that, and spent a few hours chatting with them which was nice !   

We relocated to Hull afterwards.  Unfortunately it seems like we must have got hit with a stone on the way to Leeds as we returned to the car park to find a large crack in the windscreen. 

 

5th of October - Deacon Blue, Connexin Live Hull

Deacon Blue - one of Charlotte's favorite bands was playing in Hull and I had got us tickets for this a while ago.  

There was some issue with finding the seats, the signage was a bit confusing ! and then Charlotte started to suffer with back pain and had to go get pain killers from the st johns ambulance !  But this was all before the main act came on, and we were fine by the time they did.

They played some of their best hits, such as  Dignity and Real Gone Kid, and they sounded very much like the radio versions from yesteryear which was really good !  

I didn't know a lot of the songs, but I did really enjoy it - not as much as Charlotte, she was really getting into it 😊 

Getting home was a bit of a pain due to the queue out of the car park, but we did eventually get out. 

 

9th of October - Work trip to London

I was reassigned from a project i was quite getting into, before the fruits of my endeavors really got to be seen  - which I was quite upset about. It was meant to be because I was required to work on a more important project.

There was a face to face for this new project in London, so I had to go to that - I am not keen on trains or London, or changes to my routine. So it was a bit stressful. I managed OK though.  An LNER guy seemed to clock me and say something to a colleague while walking past on the platform at Wakefield on my outward journey.  Didn't cause me masses of upset, only mentioning for the sake of record.

Got back fine, and drove straight from Wakefield to Hull to see Charlotte - it was a Thursday so it's my only opportunity when she had the kids that weekend. So I had a late tea, and not much of an evening, but was still fab to be with her for a bit.

On Friday we walked to the park in the morning to see the goose with the injured wing, had lunch then I drove home. 

  

16th of October 

Went to Hull, we had a lovely Chilli for tea.   I worked from there during the day, in the evening Charlotte made us a fakeaway lamb kebab which was amazing ! 

On Saturday we did the park run in the morning, there were pace runners this time, which was excellent as I was able to mostly keep up with the 38 minute one and get a PB - 37 mins 52 seconds.  I went a bit quick on the first lap and was flagging by the last one, so it did take a lot out of me though.

Went to Beverly for lunch and a smooch around, I had a lovely jacket potato with orange cheese in a nice cafe.  Afterwards we looked around the shops and the market then headed over to the minster. 

In the evening we took a very fast Uber into Hull for a few drinkies - which we needed after that drive ! 

The Hop and Vine was the first place, which i really liked - did lots of ciders which I am a big fan of, and is naturally GF.

Did a few more places, but we did end up back at a fairly reasonable time, we were quite sensible for a change.

On the Sunday we went to some fab woods to do a bit of mushroom spotting - and were not disappointed, most I've seen in one place ever. 

 

 

20th of October - Work trip to London

Another trip to the big smoke, less stressful this time as I knew what to expect.  It was on a Monday too so didn't interfere with my plans too much.  Not much of note happened really.

 

 

 

 

23rd of October

Back in Hull, lovely lasagna was ready for me when I arrived !  Charlotte had to work on the Friday, so i pottered about a bit - we did go for a lunchtime walk though. 

Buttered lemon fish and greens for tea, and I think we watched one of the 'Escape from' films with Kurt Russell.

I was able to stay Friday night as the kids were not coming up until Saturday midday, so I got to do the Peterpan parkrun in the morning - but not with Charlotte as she went to pick up her kids.

I did another PB, but only by one second 😊 -  I was much happier with this one though, as my pace for each kilometer was more consistent.  I also said hello to the injured goose while i was there.

After getting home and having lunch I took my wife and kids to visit my parents, as we had not seen them for a while.  I accidentally charged at a Tesla charging station on the way, i didn't realize that the  'EV on the move' stations were owned by them. 

After leaving my parents I suggested we go get a pub meal, since we also hadn't spent that much time together recently too.  I had a nice steak, and my eldest went mad and dared to try a medium steak instead of well done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster's

 

September Catch-up 

 

LFF  Weekend 5th September

Not many of my friends were doing this one, I would have been the only Pints and Straw's host present, so I requested a break.  The two year anniversary is tomorrow at the time of writing this, that one will likely be a good one.

Myself and Charlotte still went into Leeds early, but instead we went to a Lego sculpture exhibition I had pre-booked.  

It was fab !! , really big and detailed sculptures.  

 

We spent a good hour in there, at the end was an area where you could build your own creation to stick to a wall !   Obviously we decided that a trans flag should be produced, however they were lacking in pink bricks, so we didn't manage a big one.

If you look carefully at the pic it's just above Charlotte's hand.

Afterwards I took on a bit of a tour of the northern area bars - we don't normally get anywhere near there on an LFF as it's the opposite end of the center.  

Soon it was time for food, I had spied a lovely looking gluten free tapas place in an arcade we walked past, we decided to give it a go. https://www.casa-leeds.com/

It was fantastic food, we both had a dish that had a bit of everything in, rather than ordering individual items.  We were both really impressed with it, and nothing was left. 

The venue appears to open the upstairs as a latin nightclub in the evenings as well, but we were too early for that.

Afterwards we made our way to the Leonardo to freshed up before LFF.

As not many people were there, I had a plan to try and get around some venues that we wouldn't normally do, partly for variety but also to see if was missing any fun anywhere. We did meet up with Alice and Rebecca at the Bridge End Social for a bit first though. 

• Bridge End Social
• Bridge - Had 80's selection going 
• Blayd's Bar - Small, busy but friendly
• Viaduct - Had some terrible cocktails
• Pride Bar (above Queens Court)  -  dead as usual, but nice music !   
• The End Bar 

Not a bad night, but by midnight was done, so I suggested we get a Kebab and head to bed 😁

Istanbul Kebab near the Kirkgate market has become a firm favorite, it's in the wrong direction to the hotel, but it's worth a bit of a walk.  Usually some funny drunk people in too.

 

I didn't sleep that well, and the next day wasn't feeling very energized. 

 

Charlotte drove us back to Hull, and we ended up going for a nice little walk near the river to blow away the cobwebs.

 

In the evening I rented 'The Black Hole (1979)' a favorite of mine, and we watched that. Don't think Charlotte enjoyed as much as me 😂 

 

On the Sunday we went to a trans social meeting in Hull, and felt rather old - it seems to be mainly youngsters that go  😀.

 

Had some lunch, then went on a walk , headed back home to Barnsley in the late afternoon. 

 

A fab weekend !

 

 

Weekend of 11th September  

 

Popped over to see Charlotte on the Thursday night, had a lovely spaghetti she had cooked for us.

 

We watched ' The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)' , which to my shame I had never seen ! It was good !  

 

I headed home on Friday. 

 

Saturday I did a park run in the morning - tried the Barnsley one, seemed very friendly, going to make that my home one I think. 

 

I took the family out for a disappointing meal at a chain pub for lunch.  Steak could have stopped bullets, but the family seemed to appreciate being out.

 

In the afternoon I worked on the Flying 9.

 

On Sunday I went to see my parents, then onward to swimming - not been in ages ! Think I manged 40 lengths though. 

 

 

Weekend of 18th September  

I had requested a Paneer cheese based dish from one of Charlotte's cook books, as we are both a fan of trying new things.  Unfortunately both the cheese and the recipe were a bit bland. But it filled a hole :)

 

Lynn had very kindly posted me a pair of Snag tucking pants to try.

I let Charlotte try too -  we were not that impressed really - just seemed like big pants. Not much improvement to the boy shorts we favor.

 

I had to work on the Friday during the day,  in the evening we had a lovely beef Stroganoff, then watched  the John Carpenter film 'Dark Star' - which apparently inspired Red Dwarf. It was mildly amusing, not as funny as Red Dwarf though 😂

 

Saturday

  

The plan was a park run at PeterPan park in the morning, I managed a PB of 40:37 !! 

 

 

Event	Run Date		Overall Position	Time
Peter Pan parkrun	20/09/2025		254	40:37
Barnsley parkrun	13/09/2025		209	41:05
Nostell parkrun	16/08/2025		245	44:51
Peter Pan parkrun	09/08/2025		276	43:50

  

That was very pleasing, I was hopeful I might bet below 40 minutes at some point if I can keep up the improvements.

 

For lunch and the afternoon, we headed to Lincoln, where we decided upon the Botanist to eat. 

The food was pretty good, I had a Chicken Schnitzel. We both enjoyed our food - but the  Botanist Mule that we had to drink was awful and sort of ruined it a bit.  It was labelled as a nutritional health drink, but was really really sharp, way too much lime juice.

 

We went for a wander, White Stuff, Flying Tiger,  Waterstones, an LGBTQ+ bookshop,  and then on wards up Steep hill.  The aim was to go to place that sold posh coffee beans which is about half way up.

 

It seemed to have a lovely selection, and time was spent sniffing the jars before a selection was made.  It turned out to be quite disappointing when tasted though - possibly been in the shops jar way too long, so it went in the bin 😢

 

After this we continued, and bought some apples from a farmer on the east coast who had an orchard. They were very nice, but he miscounted and we were one apple short when we got home ! 

 

We popped into a local coffee place for a drink before we headed home it was another LGBTQ friendly place - Charlotte spotted a Robert Galbraith book on one of the shelves of books you can borrow, and did talk to friendly staff member about removing it !  

 

I am not keen on possible confrontation so went outside while she did that !  It went fine apparently, and the lady suggested it might get burned 😂

 

We headed home shortly afterwards, but popped into a farm shop on the way home.

 

 

Saturday Evening 

 

We were out on the town in Hull , got an Uber in, the plan was to start at 'The Star' but when we arrived the music was way too loud for us , and we left immediately.

 

Went to Cherry's instead,  there was some Karaoke on, but we sat quite far away so wasn't too bad.  Moved on to Zinnia's where the drag DJ gave us some free shots.  She ran out of the Sourz that she was meant to be using, so we ended up with some much more expensive Sambuca's instead !! 

 

Headed to Monroes after this, where we discovered a pool table upstairs, we were going to do a best of 3, but I think Charlotte fouled making it impossible for her to win, so we only did the 2 games.  

 

During the evening I had lamented that there was not much youth out and about these days - this is important for later ! 

 

Spiders ! 

 

I was in the mood for more dancing juice, and I had been wanting to try the Spiders goth/rock nightclub for a while, so I used my evil powers of persuasion to get us in another Uber to the nightclub.

 

It was a cash only place, but there was a nice man who would act as a human ATM for a small fee.  I was drunk enough to accept this as a sensible idea - it was only a few quid on top.

 

The place was rammed with all the youth I had previously lamented about !  they were all clad mostly in black - as we were coincidentally.  The drinks selection was a bit strange, seeming to be Hitchhikers Guide themed.  

 

I got us some Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster's , which were actually quite nice.  We spied one of Charlotte's friends from the Hull trans coffee mornings, and ended up with them for a while.   They had put some Megadeth on, so I was very happy !!  unfortunately they didn't play much.

 

I recall ordering some 'Green Monsters' next, which I think had Absinthe in - memory failure slowly occurs after this. 

 

I managed to order us an Uber back to hers, but it took us a while to find it.  We did get home OK, but then there was a bit of a kerfuffle as we couldn't find her keys anywhere. Not sure how long we were outside, but probably a while !

 

Did eventually get back in, Charlotte went upstairs and collapsed, I decided that making cheese on toast was the best idea, and did that - making a lot of mess in the process.  

 

It was a very fun night, but Absinthe based drinks are a very bad idea, and we have both mutually agreed that we should probably not go to Spiders again 😂

 

Sunday

The morning was spent regretting yesterdays consumption,  but we had a nice walk after lunch. We spied a lovely 03 plate Nissan Cube, do love the older variant.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 25th / 26th September

 

Visited Hull, Charlotte cooked us steak with potato wedges and spring greens, was lovely.

The next day we went for a bit of a walk along the riverside, then I headed home.

 

 

 

 

  

 

Exodus

WTSHTF - plans !  

Serious discussions have been had regarding an exodus from the land of our births, should a certain frog faced individual get into power.

The recent trend of painting crosses on things, and the hanging of flags has not improved our outlook on the future. 

Although not many households around here have partaken, and at least I now know easily where the local gammons live. 

I have previously looked at the rainbow map of  Europe, to try and find places that might be suitable to go to.

Rainbow Map 

Green is good, Red is bad  !

They rank based on seven categories: equality and non-discrimination; family; hate crime and hate speech; legal gender recognition; intersex bodily integrity; civil society space; and asylum.

Surprisingly Italy doesn't seem so good, even compared to the UK, I was not expecting this ! 

Spain had been the number one contender, partly as due to it being a very accepting country, but also one of us could be employed there fairly easily.

But at the weekend, in a rare moment of clarity, I did recall that Wales was meant to be more trans-friendly than the rest of the UK. 

I did more digging, and it seems they even have an action plan :

"Our plan to make Wales the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe." 

https://www.gov.wales/lgbtq-action-plan-wales-contents 

They even seem to suggest they may devolve specific laws to make them able to be more friendly than the UK as a whole !  :

"Trigger a request to devolve the Gender Recognition Act and support our Trans community."  

This plans was first published back in 2023, and although they have published progress updates since, it doesn't seem to me that they are in a big rush with anything.

But it would certainly be a lot easier to relocate there than Spain.

Unfortunately it seems Reform is also doing quite well there at the moment though :

 

The election there is due by the 7th of May 2026, so not too far off. So perhaps they will suffer the same fate as the rest of the UK, and this plan will be ripped up with gusto 😢

I guess will have to wait and see - even if they don't get it, it would be worrying if they were big enough to be the main opposition party. I would very much like them to go back to being the joke they always were.

Not sure if I previously shared this, but the one to the right is a picture that my friend Bella took when we visited Lytham St Anne's back in June through the window of their Reform branch.

You can see how important they feel about the subject, they've not even left any room to talk about immigrants !

Anyway, we shall continue as we are for the moment. Lots more research required !

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

Relationship Status

 

Relationship Status 

Well I thought I should perhaps talk about something more serious than my adventures for once. 

I have a lovely girlfriend called Charlotte (also trans) who has featured in a lot of my posts since early in the year.  

My wife of many years has not known about this until recently, she had read the blog in the past, but I don't think she has for a long time now.  So I had not been able to talk about this until she knew. 

She was understandably upset, mainly that I had not told her, and that she had to ask. I couldn't lie when she did, I was tired of having the secret, I don't like lying.  I was being pretty obvious really, as if I wanted it to come out, but didn't dare. 

It was similar to how sloppy i was getting with hiding my clothes just before I came out to her, being caught is the lazy way of doing it though.

I won't go into the details, as I don't want to overshare - but things had not been going that well with our marriage for a while even before I came out - but doing so probably put the nail in the coffin in terms of a possible re-enlivenment of it.

We were really just drifting along as friends, we do still get on and will hopefully continue to do so.   

Things as largely as they were before she knew, nothing much has changed other than she knows really.

We have not really had a discussion about long term plans, other than I didn't want to completely leave any time soon for the sake of the boys. We will need to sit down at some point and have a proper discussion. We really should talk more. 

My kids don't know, they will eventually of course, but Charlotte doesn't come here very often, and when she does it usually to leave her car while we go for adventures somewhere.  

Charlotte does read the blog - ( Hi Charlotte 👋 !! ) which is nice, she enjoys reading my reports of our adventures 😊

 I shall finish this here for now, I don't want to waffle on too much.  

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

More August Adventures

 

So August was pretty busy 😂  - there is another weekend I haven't included in this, it was just getting far too long !!  That will be for the next one.

 

11th - 15th of August - Family Holiday, Withernsea

I had booked a caravan on the east coast for a holiday away with the wife and kids. We usually do a week away at least once a year.

It was nice to spend some quality time with the kids, we managed some day trips out to a few places 

• Burton Agnes Hall - Had a pride flag flying above it !
• Bugtopia Hornsea Zoo - Nice turtles
• The Deep Aquarium  - Not been for ages, really enjoyed !

We did spend some time in Withernsea as well, it's not a huge place but OK for a short break.  Weather was OK , not too hot thankfully - it was a heatwave in many parts of the UK that week.  

Didn't manage to go to Spurn, partly as nobody else was bothered - which was a shame, but I had done earlier in the year at least. 

Everyone seemed to have a fun time, the park and caravan were a bit more tired than we were used to, but it was still a nice break.  

 

 

16th of August - Nostell park run 

Wanting to continue with my exercise regime I decided to go to one of my local park runs. I am sort of in the middle of three of them, but this venue meant more to me - it was the first place i went out en-femme all those moons ago !

I never would have imagined I would be back here with hundreds of people dressed, and running ! 

It didn't feel as friendly as my 1st, but I didn't have someone with me who knew people there, so I guess was to be expected.  I didn't end up as fast as the previous either, this one is a bit more hilly and I was running slower as a result. 

I hope to attend again this weekend, weather permitting.  

 

21st August Peterborough Beer Festival 

The Womens Drivers Club had a 3 day event near Great Yarmouth, which overlapped slightly with the Peterborough beer festival,  I do like that beer festival, and it is attended by a number of my friends.  So thought it was a good idea to have a day at that, to break up the journey to Norfolk.

I was going with Charlotte in the Morris, she came to mine first then we drove down to Peterborough on the Thursday morning. The drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived by 11:30.  I had pre-booked parking for her, but spaces are at a premium so an early arrival was prudent.  I managed to bag a space next to a lamppost, so I could chain her up - Josephine not Charlotte 😀

 We were both hungry, which did end up causing us to not spend a lot of time looking for somewhere nice to eat.  The place we ended up at wasn't the best, but we did at least manage to find a gluten free pizza for me. Sally spotted us while walking past to meet the others somewhere and popped in to say hi, which was nice.

After this we had a quick look inside the Cathedral, and then popped into a micropub for the first drink of the day.  We couldn't check-in till 3pm, so was no point rushing back.

We got into our room, and had a cup of tea before heading to the beer festival a short walk over the road.

The others were already in there, and we managed to locate them.  The day progressed as usual, lots of gluten free drinks for me, mainly proper still ciders.  We grabbed some food -  i think i had a curry and rice.  I got some nice turtle earrings from a stall in the entertainment tent. More drinking, I went a bit mad and started trying gin, mead and some others.  Charlotte got a kebab a bit later on.

I think we left about 10pm, but I persuaded Charlotte we should visit a pub inside a barge near the hotel for a nightcap.  Our friends ended up following us there, which was awkward as we had said were off to bed 😁 

We were back in the hotel for 11 ish, and I did try and drink a lot of water.  

 

22nd - 25th of August Women's Drivers Social Club  - Camping near Great Yarmouth

It should be no surprise to anyone that I wasn't feeling my best in the morning - but didn't feel tipsy at least. So we packed back up and headed east ! 

It was a warm drive, but the traffic was not bad, I had hoped to stop off at an air museum on the way for lunch, but it turned out they only did cold food. So Charlotte found us a nice little place to stop in and grab lunch called Swaffham.  I just about managed to eat the middle of a jacket potato - tummy still delicate, but it did help.  

We went in a friendly florist/greengrocers to grab some bananas for Charlottes breakfast the next day, and some emergency apples, then set back off.   We made good time, and even managed to detour to a holiday let that Charlotte had been in earlier in the month to retrieve a cushion she had left !  - we also bought some lovely eggs from there too.

I believe we arrived at the campsite about 4pm. The group pitching was already in progress when we arrived and we got allocated a spot next to Katie and her white VW Sirocco. 

After setting the tent up it was nearly tea time, and Charlotte was getting a bit hangry so I put the camping stove on and made us some pasta pesto and sausage which was very quick to do. I always bring emergency Mattessons smoked sausage as it's vacumn packed and doesn't need to be refrigerated till open.  

We got our chairs out and sat around with the rest of the girls later on, but didn't stay up late as we were both fairly tired.

23rd   - We were meant to be going to a transport museum but while googling how to get their the previous night I had discovered it was closed, and I had suggested we all go to the City of Norwich Air Museum instead, which everyone seemed to think was a good idea.

We all gathered after breakfast and drove to the museum in convoy which was fun.  The museum was really good, lots of exhibits and plenty of aircraft outside to look at - you could pay to go in them, but you had to book slots etc so didn't bother.

Had lunch there, and then we stopped off at a farm shop / shopping outlet on the way back.  Was a nice place, all sorts there from jewellery to clothes, fairly mature tree's and food.   There was a cafe as well.  We spotted a horse in a field so went to go look at that too.

After we got back to the campsite, I cooked another meal - might have been rice this time, i forget. Then we took a walk into Hembsy to try and find the girls who had gone earlier. We saw some of them coming back, but continued on.  There were plenty of arcades, the usual tat shops and chippy / ice cream shops.   

I do like two player driving games, so I had a go with Charlotte on a Daytona one -  we were not too badly matched !  Made our way back along the dunes to the campsite after a while, and then sat out with the girls again.  Was a very pleasant evening.

24th 

The group had organized for us to show our vehicles at an American themed dinner on the Great Yarmouth sea front, it was going to be really busy as there was a very large truck display and convoy coming through in the early evening.  We needed to get in position before the roads were closed off for the day, and would be there until after the convoy went through town in the early evening.

It was only a short drive to the location, and we were in the right place fairly quickly, but needed to do a bit of maneuvering to get us all in a nice display formation.

Charlotte had unfortunately got an issue with her face, a bug bite or ingrown hair or something. This had made one side of her cheek swell up. So our first port of call after parking was a pharmacy to get advice. They were helpful but not able to suggest anything other than pain relief and antihistamines. We did replenish stocks , and thankfully the swelling did subside slowly over the day.

We ended up back at the dinner where some of the girls were having brunch, and joined them for a drink. They seemed to specialise in doing snails on the coffees in chocolate powder, so Charlotte got one - looked more like a rabbit to me 🤣

After this we went for a wander, looked at a few other cars from a different group and walked along the seafront.  We found a cafe in the leisure centre that did more healthy food so ate there and used the loos. 

Went to the southern most pier, played pool, did some bowling and played some of the arcade machines.  

We ended up doing some retro old money arcade games somewhere else, and found a partially functional Sega rally 2 , but was too bad to have a fair game.

We stumbled across a few of the other girls wandering around too. Later on after a tea at the Hippodrome, we eventually found a working Sega rally version one !!!!

The truck convey was at 6, so we decided to have some fish and chips before that came through, it was very busy everywhere so we got as takeaway and ate back at the car.

Convoy was really good, must have been over 100 trucks, everyone of them polished very well, and the drivers were all in shirts and ties. Lady truckers got cheers from the assembled Womens Drivers Club - I didn't get any photo's though, I was taking video and haven't got around to uploading it yet.

After the convoy, we did the North most pier - the highlight for me was the shooting game which I did really well at !   

We were in lower level room with 2p machines , trying to get a soft toy, and water stared pouring on the machines from above. We did manage to get the soft toy before ours started to get wet ! 

Drove back to the campsite about 7ish, stopping for fuel on the way, coincidentally pulled up to one of the other girls who had the same idea 😊 - Sat out with the rest of the group for a bit when they all returned, it was quite a long day as had been on our feet for a lot of it. 

25th 

This was the last day of the adventure, the plan was to go to a big car museum in the morning, then everyone could head home later on.

It was only a short drive to the Caister Castle Car Collection , we formed up in the car park for a group shot.

 The car collection was very large, it had a bit of everything really, from early steam cars all the way to 80's and 90's stuff.  The was obviously a Morris Minor, and I did find a Standard but it was a lot newer than mine.   Charlotte liked some of the Mazda's. 

We spent a good while looking around, I got lots of photo's of course.

 

It was nearing lunch time, so we headed to the cafe on site and met back up with everyone as they all had the same idea.  We had brought some emergency tuna meals to have, which was good as there wasn't much there we liked.

After eating, we decided to say our goodbyes, as it would be a long trip back home, then Charlotte would need to drive back to Hull from mine when I got us back to Barnsley.

The drive back was pretty uneventful, it was a warm day so had the windows down, traffic wasn't too bad and we made good time.  We stopped once for fuel and a loo break.

Was pretty tired by time we got back to mine. 

All in all a very nice weekend - I do really look forward to these events, and it didn't disappoint at all !  - fab to share it with Charlotte too, much more fun with company. 

I Ran (So Far Away)

 

Events / Adventures  

 

1st of August -  LFF

I had stayed over in Hull the previous night, Charlotte had cooked lovely Bolognese with GF twirls.  She wasn't feeling that great in the morning unfortunately, so I suggested driving her over to Leeds and back rather than taking two cars.

To continue our culinary indulgence from the previous month, i suggested we try an Italian restaurant for lunch - LIVIN'Italy.  

We arrived a bit later than I expected - I had parked at the docks to charge the car, which meant we were a bit of a walk away from the restaurant. There was also the faff around downloading the app for the charger too 😑

This meant we had to walk quite quickly -  I was wearing my knee high Doc Martens, which I thought i had broken in as they were fine at Scarborough, but it seems not - managed to blister both heels 😞

We did at least manage to check in to the Leonardo very early on the way past, which was nice ! 

Got to the restaurant by the booking time, and we were shown to our table - a bit of an odd layout you seem to walk through the food prep area, then go upstairs to the seating. 

Food was lovely, I had Swordfish steak with charred cabbage, Charlotte had crab meat with fat Spaghetti with a side of cabbage.  They were both lovely, but I would order a side too if I went again.  I decided to have a desert to fill me up a bit more, and I am soooo glad i did, best brownie ever !!!!   Also had some really good 'Franklin & Sons Soda' too. 

We departed the restaurant and headed to the first bar 'Tapped' for  the Pints and Straws afternoon bar crawl, popping into a convenience shop for paracetamol for Charlotte and blister
plasters for me 😬 

Ann was already there, along with some of the Crossdresser Heaven girls who had come en masse this month. I had not heard of the site until recently but it seems like a number of the Chams ladies were members of this too, and would coming along.

There was also a lady from Bradford who had decided to finally give LFF a go, she had got the train in and put a wig on in the loo's, which was very brave i thought ! She had never met another 'dresser' (as she called us) in person before. 

Some of the Chams girls turned up shortly after we arrived which was nice to see.  

Benni arrived after a bit, she had been for a makeover so was running a bit behind - she looked incredibly glamorous for the surroundings !  but you gotta get booked in early with the makeup artists to get a later slot. 

We moved onwards to 'The Head of Steam' where we sat with one of the american ladies who had come along. Then to the 'North Taproom', and finally 'The Tetley'.

Got to chat to the Chams girls for a bit in the Tetley, but we were not staying too long in there as I wanted to get off for food. 

It was a very successful afternoon, and I believe it was our most successful yet in terms of numbers. Thankfully we had chosen venues more suited to larger numbers ! 

Myself and Charlotte headed back to Tapped to get a Pizza for tea. Unfortunately I ordered a vegan one, instead of just a gluten free one - the 'cheese' was awful 😭

Charlotte liked hers though - after we finished we went back to the room to chill a bit before the evening do, and also to change outfits.

We were ready by about 8pm, due to the blisters I had to swap to my Vans for the evening which was a shame - although still looked good. We got a number of photos in the room that I demanded, then headed to the Bridge End Social.   

Met up with Ann and Jessica in there, Sally sat with us for a bit too - I failed to get a picture with her though ! 

After a drink in there  we decided to head off and explore some less traveled venues.  Jess had not done Behind Closed Doors before and we though she might like that, and I had not been to a bar next to Wappentake - 'The Doghouse' either - which was on the way.

The Doghouse had a nice cider on so I was happy, the seating downstairs was not the best so we went upstairs after a short while.

We moved to Behind Closed Doors after a while - some friends were meant to meet us in there but it didn't seem to pan out.  I had drunk too much fluid throughout the day, so was on the gin in there.  It was getting on for  11pm when we were thinking of moving on from there. Charlotte wasn't feeling too great though, she had been on pills for a fever all day, and it was starting to catch up with her.

So I suggested we get a kebab and have an early night - we had been out since 12:30 after all.  So we went to 'Istanbul Kebab' which is a few doors down and ordered some food.  I had cheesy chips and Charlotte had a donner wrap. 

Both were very good, and not just because we had been drinking all day 😂 

We hadn't booked breakfast so ended up setting off fairly early.  There was a bit of stress in the car park, I paid for parking but on return to the car I was unable to release the charging cable.  It is the same make of charger that did the same to me at the church at Chams.  Luckily a phone call to the number on it got me through to a human within 4 minutes or so, and he was able to command it to let go for me. 

I drove Charlotte back to Hull, and she kindly made me lunch before I headed back home.

All in all a very nice day, was a shame didn't get to see as many friends, but some just work out that way. It's hard to get everyone to agree on where to go and meet.

  

3rd of August - Welding 

I was giving the old girl a visual inspection before her adventures later this month and found a hole in the chassis rail near the rear spring hanger on the drivers side. 

So instead of an afternoon walk, i did some windy welding on the drive. Wasn't my best effort in the end, but should do for a while. 
 

 

 

6th of August - Work in Josephine

A higher-up was meant to be going into the office that day, and I fancied a trip out in her as needed a test drive, so I went to the office in her.  

There were no issues, other than an absolutely mental driver on the way that was doing 60+ in a 30 into oncoming traffic. 

Higher-up failed to attend, so I bailed at lunch as I had a cider delivery coming I had forgotten about 😂

  

9th of August - Hull Parkrun 

I can't remember which one of us suggested it, but the idea of me doing a parkrun with Charlotte had been raised. She kindly registered me on their site and I printed off the barcode membership number that they use to identify you when you finish.

We were going to run in the 'Peter Pan' parkrun which is only a short walk (or run) from Charlotte's.  Had to be up a bit earlier than normal for a Saturday, I wasn't going to run without makeup so still had all that to do - although I am pretty quick with it these days !!

Had a bit of gf jackflap for breakfast, got changed into running gear and we headed out fairly early to the park.  There were already quite a few people there, it seemed very friendly.  We did one slow lap of the course so I could warm up a bit, and then we listened to the newcomer induction chat.  

Charlotte is way faster than me, so she started near the head of the pack in the start huddle, whereas I was nearly at the back just so i didn't get trampled to death.  

I started off pretty slow, and found someone who seemed to be doing a pace I was comfortable to follow - I do the same on motorways when driving 😂 

My main aim was to keep my heart rate below 180 (my watch gets upset if I exceed) -  so I wouldn't have to stop and walk. 

There was one small lap, then three longer laps to do.  I managed to keep a very even pace and despite being really thirsty managed to keep running fine.  Charlotte finished way before me, and joined me on my last lap for moral support - which was lovely of her. 

I didn't bother with a sprint for the finish, as just finishing was the goal and my heart rate was nearing max safe.  I got my finishing token, and we got scanned together. 

Thankfully we had brought fizzy drinks in a cool bag that we had left near the start, so I could get a much needed drink.

My time was 43:50 which I was very pleased with, Charlotte's was 25:35 !! 

On our return I had a nice long shower, and then we got ready to go back out for lunch - i was quite hungry  !

Charlotte had suggested 'Blondes' a vegan place in Cottingham.  We had a wait a short while for a table, but the food was excellent. I had a fake chicken and bacon sandwich, Charlotte had cheesy chips and some kind of blue cheese thing i think ! 

I had a 'big' tea , which was actually huge - a rarity these days, it's normally the other way around.  

We had a bit of a potter about the village, looked in a very old church, and a few shops then headed back to hers for an afternoon nap 😊 

 

9th of August - 'Beat the Clock' disco 

After our nap, and a lovely meal cooked by Charlotte it was soon ready to get into the third outfit of the day 😂 

I think it was handmade burgers she did, but I failed to take a photo !

We were going to a retro disco in Hull, which i think was my third visit - it's really fun they do everything off original vinyl but with modern visuals on a projector.  It's above a nice bar too which is good for pre-event drinkies. 

I chose my wizard dress, which had very big sleeves and an esoteric print. Was very hot during the taxi ride to the general location of the bar and thought I had made a mistake, but I think it was just that car was very hot inside.

We did a few bars before the one below the disco, a new one to us was the 'Atom Bar' which had a few nice beers on, we had a couple in there. Then we moved to 'Crafted' which looked like it would have a lot of nice beers, but they didn't so ended up on G&T.

The G&T theme continued when we headed to  HOi which is the bar below the disco - they normally have a proper cider on, but it had run out so I did G&T again ! 

My feet didn't feel too bad after the days events which was nice, so when we moved upstairs to do some dancing I was able to join in as normal.  They do play more obscure retro music, so we do end up going up for one or two songs, then sitting back down again. But there were enough ones I knew to make it fun.

One of the staff in the upstairs bar really didn't seem to know how to do G&T's and we ended up with some really watery ones, so after a while we decided to call it quits and get a taxi back.

We had some cheesy chips and I had another G&T when we got back, and we did do some more dancing in the living room  too 😁 

It was a lovely night.

The next morning my right foot and ankle were not in a good way, but they did seem to get better as i pottered about.  

There was a fund raising event at the local lifeboat station so we decided to go to that for a bit.  Ended up walking a few KM while there was it was next to a big nature reserve.

I had lunch then headed home, all in all a very good weekend, with fabulous company.