Sparkle!

A number of girls have asked of me the question, 'What did you think of Sparkle?', usually from a perspective of whether I shared their view or not. The views I think might range from 'absolutely fabulous' to 'damn embarrassing'; but being my/our first, we can't really comment on how this one compares with past events.

In a nut-shell, I generally enjoyed it for a number of reasons that really had nothing to do with the events that took place; I was able to be myself for the longest time ever - quite literally chucking 'Bobs' clothes into a corner of the bedroom on Friday afternoon, only to pick them up again Sunday as we prepared to return home; and of course be with Mrs Kate.

There were a number of events that Kate and Mrs Kate only found about afterwards, despite having one of those handbag sized leaflets. Whilst there were a number of activities, I felt it was hard to identify with them; probably as result of how it was all organised - a lot was going on but not much co-ordination between them all.

Big disappointment was 'The Magic Theatre' what ever that might have been; it was to take place in AXM Late which translated as being the old Hollywood Showbar that Northern Concorde used to meet at (I only ever visited that once when it was the Christmas get-together). Mrs Kate and I gave up all hope of the elusive entertainment shortly after midnight; returning to our apartment for much needed rest.

But on the upside, we met many familiar and new faces; some interesting sights - some of which made me feel better for my efforts at trying to be myself!

Here's my 3 tips for attending future events :-

• Map out what you want to see before you go - there's more going on than might be apparent.


• Keep an emergency Mars bar in your handbag - waiting for girls to turnup so we can sit down and order a meal is likely to be about an hour after the agreed time.


• Expect it to be noisy, crowded and this goes on into wee-hours - so choose your hotel/apartment carefully (oh! and no thanks to the dipstick who set the fire alarm off by burning their toast in the morning).

I think the most fun we had was Sunday afternoon whilst it was raining very heavily; we decided to stay in the apartment and I tried on a few of the outfits that I had brought along but daren't wear in public (mostly the ubiquitous 'little black dress' and a couple of mini-skirts). A couple of pictures might still be on here.

Epilogue - would we go again?; not sure, possibly, well maybe, .... where else can you have the comfort of being out in public with your life-partner, have a little fun etc. without the shackles of established society?

Bye bye brolly

Well, you see, it was like this.... Mrs Kate had her second outing a couple of weeks before Sparkle. June Collins was visiting again and we agreed to meet up in Eden and have a meal. Kay joined us and afterwards, seeing as it was a Wednesday, we popped along to the Rembrandt to see the girls at Manchester Concorde.

It was on leaving the Rembrandt that it happended, most of the evening the rain had been a bit on and off, and as we left, the weather was without exception - for Manchester. But just as we rounded the corner by the Rembrandt to cross over Canal St, a strong gust of wind blew our brolly inside out and then snapped it off the handle.

That was the last we saw of brolly, making for Portland St and skittering about avoiding any passersby in case they should capture it - for one I wasn't going to go after it, not in my heels!

Mrs Kate makes her debut outing

It's always a bit awkward referring to ones other half whilst out - 'Mrs Kate' makes it easy for some of the other girls to quickly introduce themselves; of course it's also hard for Mrs Kate (or 'D' as I refer to her on here) to not call me by my birthname!

For Mrs Kate, it was a last minute decision to come out to the Northern Angels monthly get together, quite literally deciding about an hour before I planned to leave. I wanted her to come along and see what Canal St was all about before Sparkle; the May outing was as likely to be the last before the big event, to introduce her to a few T-Girls without the head-on impression that Sparkle is likely to engender.

But I needn't have worried, Mrs Kate took it all in her stride, the other girls made her feel very welcome and she said it was lovely to be out with girls that were warm and friendly. Mrs Kate has for sometime visited the Angels website and is an avid follower of some of the girls blogs; so she was quite prepared and enjoyed the evening.

The meal was held at Villagio's and attended by a number of new faces - Paula, Penny, Simon, Diana ... (er ... run that by me again 'Simon' ?) and others that have visited before; June and Lisa. 'Simon' was very entertaining - although Lisa did try to explain why 'Simon' (I guess we've gotten used to expecting girls names when we're en femme!). Afterwards we paid our usual respects to Mary and the girls at Manchester Concorde where it was 60's night; with some very 60's outfits - miniskirts were obviously mandatory for the era - although both Mrs Kate and I are a little young to remember that time - (we were both still at primary school by the end of the 60's!).

Of course for the uninitiated being taken to Naps on your first outing to Canal St is a rite of passage. We only called in to see what it was all about - so at least Mrs Kate could say she's been there, done that; then it was off home before we both turned into a pumpkin (personally I had been up and about since 5:30am!).

Mrs Kate thoroughly enjoyed the evening and has been buzzing about it ever since. She's booked a hotel for Sparkle so we don't have to travel between days and between us we've bought some new outfits - she was especially excited when she found some lovely shoes in M&S, she sent the picture to me via her mobile phone exclaiming that she had found her Sparkle shoes! .... whilst on the subject of shoes, for outing to the Village I wore my new sandals which by the end of the evening were in complete disagreement with my feet .... yeaow.... !

Is this Summer?

This week the weather has been very warm and I've seen the first swifts flying overhead so it must be Summer, so 'D' and I went to our favourite shop in Southport to look for some Summer outfits each; (sigh) sadly more outfits than the budget can stretch to, but I got a lovely pink/purple skirt and top, a white/black two piece skirt and top (very shapely) and a rather slinky turquoise gown going for £1 - yes a £1! .... I think they got the sizes wrong on it 'cos it should have been enormous even on me, but it fitted nicely in all the right places!

In considering the pink/purple skirt, I wasn't certain if an 18 would be a better fit than my usual size 16; 'D' actually suggested I should them both on ('D' is the one who usually gets nervous when we're looking for outfits for 'Kate'), but I bottled out as we approached the changing cubicles as they had become quite busy where as a few minutes previous they were deserted. We opted for the size 18 without trying it, on the basis that we're now getting wise to the 'Roman' label - the sizes are actually a little on the small side of what they actually say they are; this was later proven after we got home when I tried the skirt and it comfortably fit my normally size 16 figure!

Time for tea
But I must mention the tea shop we visited; it reminded us of Jess Harts exploits at the Tea Cosy in Brighton, we found the Westminster Tea Room on Southports Lord St. to be nearly as 'unique' although a little less formal. We had seen it on a previous shopping trip and made a note to visit the next time we were in town, mostly for the variety of cream teas they were advertising outside. But once inside, it's all very proper! The girls are properly attired in waitress uniforms hailing from the 1930's (black dress with a white blouse that's buttoned right upto the collar) and the decor is all wooden paneling, crystal chandeliers, large potted plants and 30's recorded music that sounds as though it was still being played from the original wax cylinders.

We ordered a 'Regal' tea each which comprised of a large pot of tea served in china cups, a very nice fruit scone, clotted cream and a house preserve each - I had blackcurrant, 'D' had strawberry. This was presented on a very proper 3 tier silver cake stand complete with a lid covering the scones.

The whole environment although very prim, very proper, was nice and exceptionally chav-free! Although it was very prim and very proper, at least they didn't play the national anthem at 4pm! (even so, it wouldn't have seemed out of place!).

Embarassing moment No.1

I've called this post 'Embarrasing moment No.1' in recognition that reality all to often likes to throw a few 'curve balls' our way; this was my first.

Having survived the aforementioned Flu, I was just about fit enough to venture out for an impromptu outing with Lisa and new girl Karen who was visiting from Scotland.

We had a lovely meal in 'Velvet', followed by paying our respects to Mary and the girls at Manchester Concorde. Before I knew it, it was time to say my 'goodbyes' and make my way back home.

When I got to the carpark, to my horror I couldn't find my ticket; you know how it is with handbags, they contain everything except what you need - and I really needed that ticket, without which I couldn't make my exit through the automatic barrier. I turned my handbag out twice and searched my car for that darn ticket before resigning to the fact I would need to try and contact an attendent to help me - the carpark is one of those automatic sort and is unmanned after about 7pm.

But ah-ha! I spied an emergency phone.... bright yellow and a sign that said 'press any button to contact security'... ok, so it's going to be a bit embarrasing to explain I've lost my ticket and I'm dressed like a woman... do I try my best female voice? ...hmmmm... I decided that in doing the latter might just make things even more embarrasing ..... but then I found that didn't matter since the phone didn't work anyway - even after trying all the buttons.

I then decided to run up to the next floor (in heels) to see if there was another emergency phone.... and then up to the next .... and the next... and the next.... about 6 floors later and no phone. Nothing for it but to try at the hotel just a little down the street to see if they had a contact number. At this stage I was wondering if I was going to have to get room in this hotel and wait until morning .... what would 'D' say if she found I hadn't come home the night before?

Confidence is an intersting thing, so is adrenaline ... and I had just run up and down 6 flights of stairs, but it was thought of having to explain myself to 'D'..... so I strolled into the hotel reception with as much confidence that I could carry; to the amusement of about half-a-dozen guests who were sat at the bar.

The nice man behind the reception desk was very professional. After all , over the Sparkle weekend this hotel is affectionately known as 'Tranny Towers', so they should be used to seeing the odd t-girl. When I asked if he had a contact phone number for the carpark, he directed me to rather large sign at the front - which had a very clear number to contact in emergencies - fortunately I had my mobile with me... but clearly my common sense had long since left me for examining the obvious.

Back at the carpark and I called the number, and with great relief it was answered. The attendant appeared within minutes and took my details with all due professionalism; and let me out promising that the University will contact me in due course.

Next visit, I'm going to staple that ticket to my head.

Cough, sniff ahhhh.....choooooo!

'Coughs and sneezes spread diseases'. I put it down to some jobsworth who was on the train a week or so back; why can't some folk stay at home when they're sick?

Both 'D' and I came down with a very nasty flu bug the likes of which we've not experienced in about 20 years. Forget paracetamol, this nasty sucker only waved the white flag after it was treated to about half a bottle of Scotlands finest!

Daylight!

For some the 'trannie season' is over; with the clocks going forward an hour and the welcome approach of summer, the evenings are becoming lighter. Which means that Aprils outings are in daylight - at least for getting there!

Teelas monthly get together seemed a little slow at first but by the peak of the evening there was quite a reasonable turn out. Kay brought along new girl Diana which their journey had proven to be quite memorable for her. Apparently Diana had changed at Kays before they both started the journey fully dressed. On the way they got stuck in rush-hour traffic, and as what often happens in these situations, drivers start looking at the other cars and drivers around them as the lanes of vehicles crawl past each other at different speeds. By all accounts it seems the occupants of one vehicle took great interest in the girls and tried to maintain a parallel position alongside them as their lanes moved forward at independent speeds. Fortunately it was the other road users behind these rude folk that forced them to move with the traffic and stop harassing the girls.

Despite this rather 'baptism by fire' for Diana, she appeared confident and comfortable - once she had her first cuppa at Teelas!

As for my journey to Trans-Pose? - it was not as eventful as Kay and Dianas, but I was a little selfconscious given that the journey was made in bright sunshine and full-on into the approaching sunset. I looked at myself in the rear-view mirror a few times; despite a reasonably close-shave and liberal application of foundation, I could still see some of the 5 o'clock shadow. I tried hiding behind my sunglasses but that only made matters worse - they're not girly enough ..... mental note: must get some sunglasses!.

Still following the thread of last months somewhat rushed outing to the Village, I've decided I really need to allow more time to apply the makeup; this month was no exception, I spent a little more time putting the makeup on which meant I was left a bit later than I intended in order to meet Lisa and the girls in time. But I didn't need to rush, which was fortunate too; just after I joined the M62 at Birchwood a police patrol car joined the motorway at the Glazebrook service exit. This resulted in the traffic slowing and hanging behind the patrol vehicle.

The patrol vehicle continued into Manchester and just beyond the end of the motorway the driver pulled the vehicle over as though to let all the traffic pass him; as I was the last car to pass, he pulled out behind me. After this, all the cars in front where carefully watching their rear view mirror to see what the police might do next (me included). Despite it being a40 mph zone, the driver in the car in the next lane to my right and ahead of me decided she was in a 30 mph area and tried to precisely maintain that speed. Which meant that as she slowed and occasionally dipped below 30 mph, I was at the risk of passing her on the inside and that would have been a reason enough for the police to pull me over ... and I could do without that!. Fortunately, I was able to shadow this car from a little further back and at the next set of traffic lights I was able to legitimately pass on the inside.

But this didn't offer any comfort, after passing the slower car it moved into the same lane and behind me - fortunately they were more preoccupied in watching the police car behind them and being nervous.... especially shortly after this as the police car pulled into the vacated lane and overtook the both of us, only to come to stop alongside me at the next traffic lights. I didn't dare look in the drivers direction, the police vehicle towered above me and I'm certain he was looking at me (ok, so I'm a little paranoid - but give me some slack here, it's only my second outing in daylight!). But as the traffic lights turned to green, it became clear he had no interest in any of the vehicles nearby as an approaching police vehicle with lights and sirens did a u-turn in front of us and the pair then proceeded away at speed to respond to some emergency which later proved to be a minor accident on the raised section of the mancunian way.

But if the thought of the police following me wasn't enough, as I approached the turning for the carpark, I noticed a few youths unloading instruments from a transit van by the pub on the corner. I just knew I would have to walk past them and as likely run the gauntlet of some quips and comments. So after I parked my car and checked that my hair was on straight at least a dozen times, I gritted my teeth and made the best approach I could without tottering around too much in my heels on the cobbles. As I passed the group, I just focused on as near-perfect stroll in heels one can get and walked past and around the corner. And was there any wise-cracks? - not one.... which was either down to that they never noticed (yeah, right! - blend in yes, passable no!) or they were polite enough to not to pass some derogatory comment out loud; what a relief! ..... which really goes to show that most of the angst we have is in our own mind and 'incidents' though they might arise from time to time are rare.

The meal at the Eden restaurant was nice; at first it seemed that due to other commitments there might only be 3 of us; Lisa, myself and June Collins who was visiting from her home in Ireland, but Jaime managed to join us just in time for orders. After this we paid a visit to Northern Concorde which it seems is no longer (politics!) and only that evening had they announced the new group of 'Manchester Concorde'.