Sans Mascara

On Wednesday I was out without Mrs Kate as she was still suffering the influences of piggin' cold. But a business meeting I had in Birmingham ran a little longer than anticipated and I ended up missing the earlier train back home; the result of this was quite a rushed exercise in throwing ones face on before dashing out to the monthly Northern Angels get-together.

This months gathering was much smaller in number than of recent; just the 6 of us with Emma W, Emma J, Tina, Mandy, Marlene and myself (Tina's t'other half joined us later); but such a small group meant we could share girly stories which is often limited with a large group. On the way over to Villagios, I was leading the way whilst talking to our new girl Marlene; as we crossed over the bridge and turned the corner into Canal St. this guy in approaching us was clearly giving some attention to one of the girls in our group. As he passed Marlene and myself he circled around behind the group focusing his attention on Emma J, who had chosen to wear a rather short skirt - or perhaps it was just a wide belt?. Sensing his attention in Emma might be unwelcome I prepared to intervene, although I didn't quite catch what he said to Emma, his intentions appeared harmless enough and fortunately he didn't follow us into the restaurant

After Villagios we went on to the Manchester Concorde at the Rem, arriving just in time for the raffle. After a quick drink and a chat with Mary and the others it was onto ... Naps - where else!.

On the way over to Naps we were greeted in the street by a couple of girls who rather drunkenly attempted to serenade us - I've no idea what they were cat-a-walling but I'm certain the X-Factor judges would have given the 'urgh-uh' quickly enough. The cat-a-walling gave way to inquisitive calls to 'can we feel your boobs - are they real?' ... I offered as long as I could do the same, but they didn't seem as obliging.

And in Naps.... perhaps it was having drunk so much coke, perhaps it was being allowed out on my own? ... but the music was reasonable for a change and I danced right through until just turned 1am when I/we all went down the basement for a cool-down, a drink, a bit of chat and so on. It was just before 2am when I left; I figured with getting to the car-park a little later than usual that might avoid being stuffed with the full £8 car park charge - wrong!

When I got home, I followed the sad ritual of returning back to 'him', but seemed to have a bit of difficulty in trying to remove the mascara; using the usual makeup remover failed to reveal the familiar black mixed with foundation when a wiped around my eyes - how could this be? ... I checked the mirror, only to realise that in my rush to get out I'd forgotten to put on any mascara.

Fed up!

Tomorrow will be the 10th day since the first signs of this cold appeared; Mrs Kate also came down with it earlier in the week. It's not flu but it might as well be since it's confined us to our bed on at least 2 consecutive days each and any physical effort results in a need to rest for a while.

I was hoping we would be well enough to meet with Emma and Mrs Emma for her first outing to the village this evening; I was so looking forward to seeing that first reaction to a visit to Naps.... well, ... I guess we'll hear all about it in due course!

Beating the stress monster

I've not got around to putting finger to keyboard for the noteworthy events since my last posting - sadly dear reader, mid-April this year has seen the stress monster resurrect itself and it's only been over the last few days I've managed to banish it back to whence it came - well.... almost. It's silly really, there are certain triggers that only occur at this time of year which create irrational feelings of panic; I thought it had gone away but this year it snook up and caught me by surprise. Bad monster!

Events since the last posting

• Met with Heather for her first ever outing in the Village - Ok you might say, helping a new girl out of her closet... well, yes and no; Heather is actually way down her 'lifeplan' but has never actually got to go out. It was good to talk to Heather about all things 'T', her approach so far and how she's still dealing with the 'Bob' side as she hasn't quite reached the point of going fulltime. It was lovely to talk to her.


• Met with Emmas other half. We spent the day, the four of us meandering around the Trafford Centre whilst talking about our 'coming out' experiences; that is to say that both Emma and I were in 'Bob mode' and Mrs Emma was able to talk to Mrs Kate about all manner of areas that any newly introduced partner to the T-world might want to ask about. Mrs Emma seems very supportive but clearly was still dealing with the overwhelming amount of information being presented to her on all sides. For Mrs Kate and I, it was really the first time we've met a partner who's just finding their way; and accordingly we've learned a few things about ourselves, such as curbing the amount of enthusiasm we might show when we spot a nice sparkly top in Dorothy Perkins!


• Teelas Tea - which rather bizarrely (for me anyway!) some of us got to see some of the regulars as Bob as turned back to caterpillar at the end; Tina for me was the biggest surprise in that theres no way I would have recognised her as 'Bob' and is quite stereotypical in her/his daily role (no insult intended!).... but as Tina, what more validation could you have by being challenged to pay the entrance fee at Naps?! (only real girls have to pay to get into Naps).


• We got out to the Village on a few occasions; most notably the Northern Angels meal where Heather had her second outing, Emma (another Emma!) had her first visit since she returned from Spain. Interestingly this particular Emma has also had some 'coming out' revelations of her own with her family (good luck Emma).


• Last night we met up at one of Bevs Saturday get-togethers and most notable was Dianas return into circulation following her recent timeout for some 'adjustments'. Later we went .... Naps (where else!... but not before a visit to Velvet), we met up with Jane who is also looking the part now she's passed the threshold and living the dream. But today, I find that ever so slight sniffle has broken out into a full-on cold - sorry girls if you end up catching that off me (and NO! Mrs Kate! its not Swine Flu!).

Take care girls xxx

A tale of two cities

Manchester and Liverpool, and thanks to Mrs Kate for the title who actually borrowed it from a certain distinguished gentleman who published the first installment of his tale nearly 150 years ago to the day (according to Wikipedia Charles Dickens published the first installment of 'A tale of two cities' on 3oth April 1859).

My tale is actually about the intervening time spent since my last post, starting with an outing to Liverpool which in doing, we achieved a few 'firsts'.

Liverpool

We spent the day with Karen and Diana in Liverpool; we got there on the train, rubbing shoulders with racegoers and the general public. General public didn't seem bothered by us even when I knocked over a cup of discarded chocolate that general public had left behind on the table; fortunately Mrs Kate had a sufficient handful of tissues to prevent it becoming a full-out drama.

We took in a few sights with Diana acting as our native guide; passing St Georges Hall, the mouth of the Mersey Tunnel and some place called the Cavern which appeared to be quite popular with the tourists, especially a statue of some guy next to a wall made of bricks with the names of various pop groups on. We had brunch at Cafe Rouge in the Metro which gave the waiters and waitresses something to talk about; they were nice enough but it was so obvious we were the centre of their 'tongue wagging' attention.

We decided to see what 'Liverpool 1' was all about; bit of a concrete monstrosity in my opinion; it will look better once it has some greenery growing over it but until then I'm certain HRH Charles might have something to say about it. We mooched in a couple of the shops and eventually found ourselves in Debenhams; it was here that rather disappointingly we became targets of bigotry that so often we hear of other girls experiencing in some establishments - 'though rarely occurring by today's standards. Karen picked up a lovely dress, perfect for the dancing planned for the following evening; and she went to changing rooms to try it on. Before she could ask the assistant if it was ok, her path was blocked by a security guard who just point blank said she would have to try it on in the gents changing room. Clearly their training hasn't got to 'T' in the diversity manual; which was further confirmed when the security guard did his best attempt at being friendly and waving us off with 'ya right lad' (best said with scouse accent) as we left in disgust.

The security guard had no idea of what it might mean to do his thing within a diverse society, he said he was simply acting on orders from is control room; clearly they had been watching us on their CCTV system from the moment we entered the store and had been 'strategically' prepared should one of us approach the changing rooms (and it's worth noting here that the changing rooms are not marked in any gender-specific way). The episode did kind of put a damper on the mood and left us feeling that every security operative in L1 was watching us as left the area. So we went down to the Pier Head to see what all the fuss has been about with the new canal extension and all.

And Pier Head.... yet more carbuncleness; I feel they've ruined what was once a most impressive waterfront, a scene painted by the greatest of artists; a great big concrete box has been planted right in front of the majestic Royal Liver and Cunard buildings. The canal seems pretty impressive though, but even that has replaced a lovely green space by yet more concrete. Perhaps it will improve with age.

So feeling rather disappointed we headed back into town and to 'The Lisbon' for a drink. The Lisbon is a bar that appears to cater for pink and purple pound, is an old building that as likely was constructed by the city's fore-fathers at a time of affluence and is full of character - you only have to see all the wood carvings and plaster mouldings that decorate the interior to tell that it was once frequented by the well-healed but sadly is starting to 'fray at the edges'. From here we ambled back to catch the mid-afternoon train, back past St Georges Hall and to Lime St Station.

Manchester

The tale of Manchester is mostly about the 'Strictly Dancing' event on the Saturday evening which went as much as the previous event I posted about earlier in the year. It was held at the Shanghi Restaurant and as before it was a bit of a laugh but to be honest, I didn't particularly enjoy it as much as I perhaps should. I put that down to having to learn something through instruction which requires concentration which I get more than my fair share of when I'm at work and sadly, trying to remember dance steps is a bit like having to do work. When I go out and be sociable I don't really want to have to do any thinking and remembering.

But with regards to shopping in Manchester compared to shopping in Liverpool, both Diana and Karen couldn't have been treated so further from the experience in Debenhams Liverpool, when they went to House of Fraser in Manchester city centre. The assistants were coming to them and asking them if they needed help and encouraging them to try any number of outfits in the changing rooms.

Walking the dog

I've discovered that our spotty-dog machine has been telling me porkies; now I know why it was going cheap on the telly-shopping channel.

It seems that some technician in a far-away land got all confused between miles and kilometres when he programmed the counter on the cross-trainer. So instead of registering the industry agreed circa of 100 calories per mile, it's only registering about about 58 which coincidentally just happens to work out to be about what the average person burns off per kilometre at a brisk walking pace. Also it seems that in 2006, these cross-trainers were recalled in the States, but ours wasn't supplied with the offending parts that apparently can break off if you try breaking into a (un)healthy sprint.

So as a result, tonight's figures look like this :-

Duration: a little over an hour
Calories burned off: 440.2
Distance covered: 4.7 miles

Total distance covered since New Year: not quite enough to get to Southport and back.

Forward look
Karen is coming down again next week; it will be great to see her. Di has invited me to join her and Karen with some outline plan to go to Liverpool for the day - I don't want to risk driving there and the thought of the train is a little daunting to say the least. Decisions, decisions..... I can't make my mind up about which would be the lesser of two evils; if I go by train I should at least have the benefit of being eligible to receive the tranny-by-train merit badge!

Bizaare in the least

I got my night out (at last) - it was either that or go stir crazy; we had a nice meal and nice company in Velvet with Di who had recently escaped her temporary offline status, and from there we went on to Manchester Concorde. It was here that the 'bizaare' happened; the place was full of girls - not that there was anything really special on (no insult to Lisa and Zara from Transfixed!), but it was like many of the girls in and around Manchester all decided at the last minute to come out for the evening.

And many of the especial girls too, such as Kay, Jane, Becky and even June and Penny who on the spur of the moment, travelled all the way from Ireland. Ok so we were missing some of the other regulars, but it was indeed a really nice surprise to see so many familiar and friendly faces; it made me feel all warm inside.

Then we went to Naps.... don't ask! - except to say music was better but I can't say the same for the 'visiting' clientele who (still) persist in taking over the dance floor.... keep off the funny tasting smarties boys; sad-o's.

Please Miss, can I have some more?

I guess I'm more fortunate than some girls in that I have an understanding wife, partner and friend, and an opportunity to be out at least once every week - at least that would be the case if neither of us had been taking turns to suffer colds and other dreaded Winter nasties and of course, we can't have a downer without mentioning the financial doom and gloom. And I really miss my outings ... having the opportunity to do a bit of girlie dancing at Naps - assuming it isn't crap when we get a visit (mental note: ask Naps to get their act together for us girls).

So in the intervening time :-

• I've made the effort to get in some workout time on our 'spotty-dog' machine;
• Had a medical which told me my bad cholesterol is up a little and I'm the wrong shape for my height;
• I quickly managed to feign surprise and shock at my medical results;
• I keep hoping for an outing - amongst other things!

What's a 'spotty-dog' machine?

It's the pet name I give our cross-trainer since exercising with it makes you swing your legs like the way spotty dog walked in that ancient kids TV program 'The Wooden Tops' - spotty dog was the biggest spottiest dog you might ever see!

This evening I set a record for the spotty-dog machine, burning off the calories at a rate of 250 per hour; that's what the readout reckons, I've no idea if that's good or bad but what I do know is I worked hard to get that result.

So that should be worth an outing this week shouldn't it? - so Mrs Kate, please can I have some more (outings) ?

Note on the financial doom and gloom: the 'Sales' are not as good this year; the shops peaked too early in the run up to Christmas. Having said that tho', got a couple of bargains from my favourite, nearly famous fashion designer, Rachel Roman