The News Page 13
May to December 2009
10th July 2009 Wedding Pictures
It’s just over a year now since Meredith and I got married, and one thing I always wanted to do was do some pictures or have a party where I got the chance to wear the big dress all day. After telling Nas of my plans, she suggested that we did the pictures outside to make it look more real life. Our initial idea was to do it in her garden, but then she come up with the idea of doing the pictures on a piece of grassland which has a pond in the middle and also a church nearby.
We had talked about the Wedding shoot for some time and I therefore already had my dress, shoes, underwear, stockings and most of my jewellery and we therefore only needed a few final items.
On the day of the shoot I booked an early appointment to get my hair done and then go off to Nas’s, who as usual was running late, by more than an hour. So my nails were painted very quickly before jumping in the car.
As we arrived late at Clarke’s it was dump the dress and sit down for makeup. Once this was done it was time to try and get dressed, which I must admit was a bit of a struggle, trying to get bra hooks attached, together with stockings and suspenders, whilst you have slightly wet nails. I managed to get most things done and get my shoes on without any damage to the nails. I then had to get into the dress and try and do up the corset type back, which was definitely a two girl job. I called out to Nas and Meredith and they managed to do up the dress and help me on with the jewellery, we grabbed my flowers and at last were ready to go.
We got to the Church and parked up, then and walked to the first point, with a big heavy dress on my heels really sank into the grass. Once I had dug myself out Clarke arranged me in position to do the first few pictures, I was my usual unsmiling, inflexible self and Nas and Clarke were doing their best to make me smile and get into natural poses.
We then moved around to the Church which is facing the busy side of the green with lots of cars driving by and giving us an occasional beep, next it was up to the pond and we took some pictures both standing and sitting with the pond in the background, located around the pond were three benches and Clarke had his eye on the using the one which had a weeping willow tree nearby, we made our way towards this, but before getting there we took some pictures in front of the pond but from the other side so we had the church in the background. We then moved over to the bench and had a few pictures taken within the branches of the willows.
It was then time to drive back to Clarke’s do that he could go and pick up his kids, and we could pack our bags and get changed, after packing my bags I thought what the heck, I’m not going to be a bride ever again, let’s keep my dress on until I get back to Nas’s place. Upon getting back we went into the garden and took a few more pictures with my little camera
For more pictures of the wedding shoot please click here
July 14th/15th Sparkle Manchester
It had been at least three years since I had last attended the Sparkle weekend and as some of my friends had booked, Meredith and I decided that we should give it a go. We still had some vouchers from our wedding and managed to get ourselves a good hotel rate, although we were not in the same hotel as my friends.
Rebecca who lives quite close to us was also attending and had volunteered to drive from Essex to Manchester, we drove to hers fairly early on Friday morning, loaded up and headed up North. Meredith did her usual trick of occupying the back seat and then falling asleep within 5 minutes of leaving Rebecca’s house.
The journey was pretty uneventful and we made good time, Meredith and I had to then go and find out hotel, we only had vague instructions and we ended up walking in completely the wrong direction for about 45 minutes, before finally getting the correct directions from someone and checking into our hotel. As you know trannies don’t travel light, so my arms were very heavy from carrying the bags across Manchester, so I think we both fell on the bed and slept for an hour before unpacking.
We had agreed to meet everyone for lunch, so armed with a hotel map, we made our way back into the centre, to catch up with everyone and make plans for the evening, whilst talking to the gurls about our extended walk, Sara produced her own map and showed us, that our hotel was in fact only a 10 minute walk from where everyone else was staying.
Before going back to the hotel Meredith and I took in a little shopping, and she managed to sniff out a record shop to purchase more Duran Duran vinyl, we then headed back to the hotel to have another sleep prior to the evenings events. A welcome party was arranged back at the other hotel and we intended to all meet up there before going to have something to eat and then partying.
After waking up it was time to make that all important decision of what to wear, for a change I went for a black top, with white ¾ length trousers. The problem with a white a black combination is a white bra showing through a black top or black knickers showing through white trousers, so I have to admit I went out in unmatching underwear. As we now knew the quick way to get to the hotel it was only a 1short walk even in heels. We were due to meet everyone in the hotel reception before going to the welcome party, but as usual when we got there nobody was there and after a few phone calls I found out they were all running slightly late.
Meredith and I therefore went straight to the reception where we met Davina and Jackie who we had not seen for several years, we spent sometime chatting away until in ones and twos all our friends had arrived and then in threes and fours we went off to the bar. After one or two drinks, we eventually agreed on a plan for the night which involved one or two more drinks before finding a restaurant. As there are quite a few people in attendance for the sparkle weekend we were quite lucky to get two tables in an Italian restaurant, without to long a wait. I really can’t remember much about the food, but the wine and the piss taking flowed and a good time was had.
The good thing about sparkle is most of the events take place along canal street so we were able to leave the restaurant and head straight into a bar, and then another and another. Again my memory fails me as to how many bars we went into, but I do know we ended up in one where the DJ was playing non dance music and was taking requests. So those of us with non dance music tastes bombarded him with more a more bizarre selection the drunker we got. Around 2.30am the bar closed and we all decided to call it a fairly early night.
My head was not too bad the next morning, and both Meredith and I managed to make it downstairs in time for breakfast (which I doubt there were many takers for in the other hotel). Due to inability of my friends to get out of bed, no arrangements had been made to meet up until about midday, so after a leisurely breakfast and tidying the room, Meredith and I set off to explore what a morning in Manchester had to offer.
We decided to wander into the city centre and just look at a few shops, Meredith has a mission in life to visit every record store in the land so we visited two HMV’s and returned the shop that we had visited yesterday. After the record stores we went into a few department stores where we noticed many of the early risers of the tranny community hanging around the make up counters trying to get there freebies. As I intended to wear and orange dress in the evening, I had to find my way to the Mac make up counter to get myself a lip pencil, I think Mac is probably the Mecca for trannies as I had to fight my way through to the counter.
Eventually the window shopping got too much for us and we went off to meet everyone for lunch, there were a few sore heads, but I think everyone got there, but it was noticeable that only soft drinks and coffee were being drunk. After lunch the group split into those going back for make over’s, those going to sleep and those going to watch the entertainment, we were in the latter. Again the entertainment was taking place near Canal Street, so it was fairly close to our hotel. As well as a few people singing there were some stalls promoting there merchandise and I managed to drop some business cards off for Nas. Most of my friends had gone back to the hotel, but there were a few of us hanging around and the brave ones amongst us even managed a beer or two.
After our fill of beer and entertainment we wandered back to the hotel, to have a siesta prior to the evening’s activities. A couple of hours lying down and we were ready for the night, as mentioned above I decided to wear and orange dress for the night. Rather than go all the way back to the hotel to meet my friends, meeting at the restaurant was suggested. We got there on time only to be told that, the time had been changed as we were now a bigger group and so we went off to the bar to wait an extra 45 minutes for everyone to arrive, which obviously we were not happy about. When eventually everyone did arrive we had to wait for an extra table, and by this time we were getting very annoyed and hungry. We finally got to sit down and eat and catch up with what everyone else had been up to during the day. By the time we had finished the meal it was absolutely pouring with rain outside. Suddenly the bar we were in became very popular as everyone who was out in the street was trying to take shelter from the rain. So more rounds of drinks were purchased to hope that the rain would ease off, but alas it kept pouring down and eventually we just decided to make a run for it to the next bar. The next bar was equally busy with wet people not wanting to move on, we had one drink there before moving on again, this time walking past a few bars to a bigger and less busy place. By this time we were all getting pretty tired and were fed up with the weather, so I think it was agreed on one last drink before heading home.
Unfortunately we did not have an umbrella with us, I would have normally run home in conditions like this, but in a dress and heels it’s not practical so we just ploughed on through the rain. By the time we got back to the hotel my hair was soaked, my make up was running, the rain had gone through my dress and drenched my underwear, so it was a case of hanging the wet clothes grabbing a hot shower and to bed.
Next morning it was a case of packing all the wet things in a separate bag, before heading over to meet Rebecca and driving home.
December 12th Milton Keynes
After sparkle it was very quiet, and I hardly heard from anyone, maybe they were all having time away from dresses and stuff, but come Christmas everyone is eager to put on their best dress and get out again. Rather than go to London, we arranged to go to Pink Punters in Milton Keynes. The good thing about Pink Punters is the hotel is only 100yards from the club and as in previous years there was a cheap hotel rate available. I had even managed to make an appointment at nearby hairdressers.
Meredith was coming with me and we set off allowing the usual amount of time to get there, during the week it had snowed quite a bit, but the motorway was clear although the fields were covered in snow. As we come off the motorway, still with about 20 miles to go we hit a solid wall of traffic, and we just crawled along for the next 1 and a half hours. It got to the point where I had to ring the hairdressers and ask for a later appointment, however as it was the middle of the party season they could not do a later one, so it looked like it was the hair straightners for me. About 5 miles before the hotel the traffic suddenly cleared and I was able to get out of second gear, and fly along to the hotel. Upon getting into the car park, I gave Meredith the reservation details and ran up the road to my appointment. I’ve only ever had my usual salon do my hair so was a bit wary, but this place did a pretty good job.
Back at the hotel, Meredith had checked in, and after finding her and chatting to a few friends we had a quick sleep before starting to get ready. Sparkly was very in this year and I had gotten myself a silver and black dress from Next for the night. After getting ready it was meet in the bar as usual before heading up the road to the restaurant, during the afternoon a light flurry of snow had come down and now the pavements were extremely slippery, it would have been bad enough in normal shoes, but in heels it was terrible. I just hoped that if I fell, someone would arrange me in a ladylike manner until the ambulance arrived. We managed to make it to the restaurant without any fallers and I also survived the scramble for the tables. It had been a while since I had been to the restaurant and the food used to be really good, although it had changed hands it was still ok, especially as they were catering for so many. Again the wine flowed and as the snow began to fall heavier we had thoughts about getting snowed in for the weekend, the main concerns of which was there enough wine in the restaurant and did we have enough dresses with us.
Around midnight we the snow still falling it was time to move onto the club, I think it was more hazardous this time as we were walking downhill, and then had to join a queue before gaining entry, after getting in it was a quick run to the highest level of the club to stand by the fire for 10 minutes. Once warmed up it was time to hit the bar, discover what was happening on the other floors of the club and talk to people who were not on my table at dinner. About 2am Meredith was escorted back to the hotel with some of the gurls who had, had enough for the night, I decided to stay for another hour before heading back.
After leaving the club there is a road to cross to get to the hotel, before the car park is a dry ditch which saves walking 200 yards up the road. The ditch is quite step, but every time we try and climb it, being on my own I thought I would need a run up, so I hitched up my dress to an indecent height and went for it. The initial forward motion was good, but as the feels dug into the snow, I went down and lay there in the snow, with another pair of tights laddered, I did manage to finally get out and make my way back to the room.
Next morning we were up before everyone else and had a much easier drive home.