Should have used Duracell batteries

It's taken the best part of a week to recover from our outing to Leeds and Manchester... well actually a combination of Leeds, Manchester and that weird bug I came down with just into the New Year.

Friday - it must be Leeds
Much has been said by Mrs Kate on her blog, so I won't repeat that except to say we (Diana, Karen, Emma, Mrs Kate and myself) ventured over the hill to Leeds for 'First Friday' - a self-proclaimed 'award winning' event held the first Friday of every month for the girls on the easterly side of the Penines. I guess we might be a bit spoiled with having the Village nearby, but if you don't have a lot else available near you, most events will appear to be 'award winning'. But it was a good atmosphere, packed and very hot - despite the outside chill. A number of girls we recognised, some on first name terms and others we recognise from their occasional visit to Naps.

So after showing our faces there we went to try a few other bars in the area; The Viaduct, where we sampled the delights of a DJ that kept talking over the music and just one drink before crossing over the road to the Queens Court which had a club I think was called 'The Loft'. The Loft was a bit like Naps in that us (T) girls got in for free whilst Mrs Kate had to pay - each of us getting a letter stamp on the back of our hand that would later prove that only the best of makeup removers could shift!

It seems that like most establishments in the 'Pink Triangle', it catered for the Gay community but not so much for T-girls. Most folk were nice and polite but there was a subtle territorial inference, particularly from the lesbian side which it seemed The Loft was as likely their turf. Music was pretty good, drink prices weren't bad and I even got molested in a nice sort of way by a group of young lesbians on the dance floor; their MO was to check whether my falsies were indeed false or not - actually 50-50 or so I confirmed (verbally of course!). The ladies powder room was not upto the same par as the main establishment - mostly down to the number of available cubicles (only 3) of which one of them was being used for the 'how many girls can you get in and have a bust-up' competition. Mrs Kate and I ended up having to share one between us; and on leaving, to check neither of us was doing the Andrex puppy bit with loo paper stuck to the bottom of our shoes.

Saturday - it must be Manchester
Woke up to a grey and rainy Leeds which following breakfast, the unanimous decision was to get back to Manchester to do a bit of shopping - 'cos as likely it would be sunny; and so it was..... something we can often experience with differing weather systems each side of 'The Hill'. So back to Manchester we went, and a bit of shopping around the city centre.

For a change we thought we would check out Aflecks Palace, and without thinking, it was full of Goths and Punks - one of which could have easily been No.1 son since he was also in Manchester for a major Goth event of the year (I guess 'dressing up' must be hereditary!). Alsorts of outfits can be found in there - nothing that wouldn't look out of place in Naps though!

The evening started off with a meal in Velvet, followed by a tour of Spirit before moving onto Naps. But I don't recall an awful lot of the evening after Velvet as I became tired about halfway through the meal, to point of being grumpy. I think it was a combination of the past evenings events in Leeds, and coming down with a cold or something - indeed when we got back to our accommodation for the night and removed all the concealing makeup, underneath my face was a bit flushed to say the least. I don't know what time it was when we gave our excuses and left Naps, but it was certainly earlier than usual.

Sunday - recharge the (solar) batteries
Woke up Sunday morning to a bright cloudless day; it looked warm and inviting and outside our hotel room window we could see one or two people out and about, some waiting for buses and going places. Feeling a bit delicate from the major power drain the night before, we checked out our hotel and put our bags in the car before going on to find breakfast. It was as we were going through the lobby that we experienced our negative situation, similar events that the others had experienced in various ways over the last couple of days. The hotel lobby was busy, mostly young male guests just hanging around; one in a group of which decided to have a go by directing 'Oy John' at me to gain my attention. As a one does, I just ignored him - until we were outside when I gave him a hard stare through my sun glasses and a few lipped choice words.

That behind us, we went to get breakfast - Witherspoons was Ok for the simple bacon butty and a coffee; followed by a mooch around the Arndale and the shops before sitting in the sun in St. Annes square. And it was warm in the sun, but in the shade - that wind just went right through you. So we ambled back to Taurus, met up with Diana and Karen, had afternoon tea and cake ; and then headed off home for a hot bath and a snooze.

Epilogue
Leeds was Ok, cobbled streets were hard work for the heels (thank you flatties!), Travelodge was warm and comfortable. Di was foxy in her leopard print figure hugging dress, Karen was elegant in her newly acquired red dress. First-Friday was Ok but too crowded and too hot, the lesbians in The Loft were a scream and I had fun dancing with my flatties which have made friends with me since I promised not to subject them to the shoe stretcher again. Saturday; I think was going downhill from mid-evening onwards and struggled to keep up with the conversation all-round (and felt I missed out on something as a result). Ibis hotel was cold and some of the clientele disrespectful - won't be staying there again if I/we can avoid it. Thanks go to Emma for being chauffeur and ferrying us to Leeds and back; sorry I was tired and grumpy on Saturday night!

Confessions of a party animal

You know when you're a party animal when the real die-hard party girls want to exchange mobile phone numbers with you just in case there's an opportunity for when you're next out (any excuse for a party eh?).

I think I've pretty much been out to the Village every Wednesday and Saturday since the snow melted (roughly speaking, since just about the end of January). Although I must confess to only one occasion I had no excuse except that I just needed to be out; the others had varied in range from needing to book the Angels meals to supporting best friends (Ok - rather tenuous excuses for some!). Only on two occasions I have to confess to being alone for the evening - well.... I mean not planning to meet up with any of my friends and literally just enjoying my own company. On one such occasion I bumped into Jane who seemed a little surprised to see me out alone - or rather dancing about at Naps on my own.

Naps eh? - where would we be without it?.... and on that particular night that Jane was out was a quiet night in Naps; I even had to encourage the only four other girls to have a dance by being the first to break the ice and get on the dance floor. It was one of those nights where there were more admirers than girls; in the past and probably still on occasions, I might feel uncomfortable with them, but this was the particular night I just had to be out and was determined in having a dance. I was dressed reasonably casual - black skinny jeans and my recently acquired 'Rock Star' t-shirt; a regular rock-chick look!

Unlike last Saturday when I just had to do 'tart' - animal and snake print leggings, black top with silver sparkly bits and fur coat. I tempered this look by only wearing my shoe-boots rather than 6 inch heels (I'll save that look for when we go to 'do' Leeds!). And rather unsurprisingly (so some might say) it attracted some unwelcome attention from at least one guy in Naps; I wasn't sure if he was Polish or just p****d, probably was very likely both. As he was giving his unwelcome 'attentions' to a number of girls, big-glass-collector-dude had to persuade him to leave.

Towards the end of last week Mrs Kate found her mojo again, she probably lost it in the first place as a result of watching too much day-time telly whilst being in the depths of Winter (day-time telly will rot your brain!). As a result of this she tempted me with yet another excuse to be out - one of our late decisions that we sometimes have, made shortly after supper on a Saturday evening and we're in the Village by 11pm (well... it takes time for a girl to get ready doesn't it!).

We used think this was a bit strange, going out at a time when most sensible folk were coming back home. Not peculiar-strange, but being a bit from the 'being naughty' aspect. But it slowly creeps up on you to accept this as being normal.... well.... normal except from an aspect that by the time you arrive in the Village, most of the other party animals are already well into the party spirit or being taken home in one of those taxis with blue flashing lights. Mrs Kate put the latter circumstance to it being a full moon last night and this was supported by big-glass-collector-dude having to literally pickup and carry some of the more argumentative sort to eject them from Naps.

So yes... we got out again, last night... and bumped into one of the die-hard party girls we know and love (well... you just have to love them don't you?!) and as she was asking for our mobile number might mean I indeed need to reset the threshold of what's normal (again!)

Then again.... anyone want to dance?

From one Avatar to another

What a brilliant film! - well actually, Mrs Kate and I went to the T-Centre for a spot of lunch and a little shopping.

It was whilst we were taking a break from window shopping this Springs collections when Mrs Kate mused that we should perhaps go and see the current box office sensation.

.... and in doing that, achieve another 'first'.

We managed to catch the late afternoon showing which had no more than a dozen others in the cinema. Late afternoon is 'tween' time at the T-Centre, people have either gone home, or haven't yet arrived for the evening. So there we were with shopping bags around us, watching this ab-fab movie with the best seats in the house .... and whats this yarn all about?... I'm not going to spoil it for you! - go and see it for yourself!

New Avatar

I thought it was time I ought to update my Yahoo avatar since I no longer resemble the 'plus-size' figure I had in place upto now. Come to think of it, that little postage stamp picture of me on my blog profile could do with a bit of updating too... I can't believe I was that overweight; and I daren't look at any pics I have of myself from 2 or 3 years ago. At the time of posting my profile picture I considered myself as being 'thin' in comparison to those.

With being a little off colour (and the amount of snow!) over the last few weeks, I haven't been able to get the bike out as much. As a result, the weight loss plan has gone a bit off the boil. I haven't reached the 12 stone mark, but I'm at least thankful that it remains a little around 4lbs above this target; but I did have scary moment earlier in the week when a whole extra inch appeared on my waistline!!!! .... biking to work and back through this week has sorted that out!

I've not been out since New Year and I'm starting to get really fed-up; my finger, symptomatic of something much bigger is just starting to improve. It no longer feels numb and today, it started hurting ... just for the novelty of it all! (the Doc said it was a trapped nerve... yeah right!, in my wrist, my elbow, my arm, and my shoulder too.... but what does he know?!).

Trying to put a brave face on things, but with my employers actually progressing to remove 30% of the staff from the directorate by April is not exactly moral-boosting even if you are 'all right Jill' ... all-right that is for at least the time being..... but I suppose it could be worse, I could be 'normal'.

PATT and Sunlight

Managed to find on Amazon the dance mix that Mrs Kate has recently taken a liking to; the full 10+ minute version as provided in Naps! I've 'pressed' it onto a CD and presented it to her along with the strictest of instructions to only play in extreme emergencies. With Groundhog day persisting and more snow forecast for tonight, she's gonna need it!.

I've taken bit of shine to this dance track which is available in as you might imagine, a variety of different mixes; this version with the video is actually the 'album version' from DJ Sammys 'Heaven' album - if you follow the link on Youtube to buy it from iTunes, you'll end up with the slightly longer and much more dance-worthy 'Euphoric' version from the 'Breakdown 2009' compilation.... hmmm..... I bought all 3 versions from Amazon; each has it's merits but all remind me of Summer and warmer times to come.

Narnia

Narnia has come to our little part of the world; this picture I actually took just before Christmas, the difference between then and now is that fresh snow fell yesterday taking it to around 7 - 8 inches deep. For some of you out there you might think this is relatively little compared to where you might be, but we measure weather as a comparison like this: if it's bad here, it is really really bad else where around us. This is because our little part of the world has a micro-climate, being in the Mersey basin we rarely get snow to this extent, it usually falls as rain.

It also means not many folk have gone to work for the last couple of days and yesterday, they shut the Trafford Centre at 4pm - not that we could get there anyway....

On the other hand, I can watch it all from the warmth and comfort of my boudoir, but mostly because I have a really stinking cold which bizarrely has made my right index finger go numb and tingly (or was that due to the ice in my drink during New Years celebrations?!). I hate being ill, it makes me really grumpy... especially if it stops me going out to play!

Merry catch-up!

Negative bit off my chest first: Recently, I've kind of been putting off any posting to the internet owing to one or two who have really p****d me off over the Angels xmas meal - not from anyone who came and joined what turned out to be a really lovely occasion with special friends, but those that seek to satisfy their own agenda by criticising the organisation of it; it was held on a Wednesday rather than a Saturday for a number of reasons - mostly to satisfy a number of 'Others' and to be a break from the common, same old, re-occurring theme. People were given adequate notice of the arrangements, if they wanted to come - or not as was the case, that's their choice. Please note that no further comment will be made on this subject! - end of whinge!.

Now to the best bit: This Christmas, I think Santa was much more comfortable with me in that for the first time, he brought me some girlie things - my favourite being some nice PJ's and a camera/camcorder that will fit in my handbag.

Betwixt Christmas and New Year (and before the snow arrived - again!) Mrs Kate and I did a bit of browsing the sales around the local 'mall'. Of all the frequented establishments, it seems that Peacocks are offering the best of deals with 50% off most items. And since Peacocks is not seen as being as trendy as some of the other establishments, they have quite a number of really nice items left on the shelves; in particular a nice pair of red ankle boots which should keep the Imelda syndrome down for a bit .... tho' come to think of it, I could do with a decent pair of flat ankle boots! (you just can't find a decent pair can you!). And another pair of PJ's - pink satin. Watchout for the silver mini-skirt which I'll be modelling at one of our more frequented mad-dancing-establishments in the not too distant future.

We're now looking forward to an opportunity to get to that local Palace dedicated to to all things in girlie shopping - the Trafford Centre, unfortunately the weather conditions have put pay that for the time being... see my next post!

As for getting out and about - see Mrs Kates posts .... I can't possibly improve on that 'cept to say thanks go to her for letting me out on New Years to be our 'Ambassador'!

A belated all-the-best, wealth, health and happiness to all my friends and readers alike!
xxx