The News Page 23
2016
Miss Scotland 21st/22nd October
The Miss TV Scotland event has been going for several years now, but I have never before attended. As this year’s event was close to my 50th birthday, I decided to give it a go. I got a flight well in advance at a reasonable rate, it’s a joke all these cheap flights and then having to pay a fortune to take a case. Don’t these airlines realise how many dresses and pairs of shoes us trannies need for a weekend.
I finally managed to get a reasonable deal and was flying from City Airport, which turned out to be great as from my flat to airport was only 45 minutes which was great. Everything went smoothly, but later in the day there was an incident at the airport and it was closed for rest of the day. The flight up was pretty smooth, but unfortunately I had been suffering with a heavy cold the last few weeks, so the poor person sitting next to me, had me coughing all flight. It was a short journey from the airport to the hotel, where I was sharing with Ashley, who I had not seen for a couple of years, so it was good to catch up whilst I, was unpacking.
Next it was time to check in with Jodie to find my make up slot, and as I had a bit of time a beer, sandwich and sleep were next. Friday night was a themed night with this year being Halloween. I thought everyone would be witches, so decided to go as the good witch from The Wizard of Oz. I managed to get a costume online and added some silver sparkly shoes and some other bling to it.
The evening consisted of a Buffet style meal, followed by some games and a Disco which onto fairly later, but I went to bed feeling fairly sober.
I did not sleep that well, due to the cold, I was coughing all night, felt sorry for poor Ashley who was sharing with me. I did make breakfast and after coffee and toast, I decided that a walk into town might help. It was only a 15 minute walk into town and there looked to be a couple of interesting places, especially the Carnegie Museum, but it was not open yet, and I was still feeling rough, so wandered back to the hotel, chatted to my roomie and took part in the afternoon quiz. I thought we were doing ok in the quiz, we got 9/10 in sport, but in the name the celebrity round we crashed and burnt and ended up second from last.
Saturday night was the Miss TV Scotland and despite retiring with a 1-1 record from competitions against I better judgement I entered. To enter the completion you had to fill it a form and I answered what I thought were witty responses. The competition was in two parts, a casual daywear round and an evening wear round. I wore a green dress for the first and my beautiful gold sparkly dress for the evening wear, which got lots of comments. We were interviewed after the second round, and my witty responses and non smiling thousand yard stare obviously did not go down well with the judges as I was not placed in the top three. There were quite a few pictures taken, but I am yet to see any. I had been feeling rough all day and despite my gold dress being beautiful, I was getting hot in it and went to change, unfortunately this did not help and by 11pm I was sadly in bed, whilst others partied all night.
Birthday Meal Saturday 19th November
So the big fifty had finally arrived, and for such a big birthday it was worth doing a few things. I had been putting some money aside every week for about a year, so I had enough money put aside for the Scotland Weekend and a Photo Shoot.
I had pre arranged some events with my wife and family and so the 19th, was both mine and Jodie’s first free Saturday after my birthday. I have never been a great one for loud nights out in clubs listening to music that I hate. So I had arranged with Jodie that we have a meal with my close friends. Things have moved on over the years and some of the gurls that I used to party with I rarely get to see these days and some of them don’t even bother dressing anymore.
I had a bit of a problem on the actual day, I had met a few friends from my running club the day before and unfortunately the beer I had drunk did not go down to well, and my stomach was playing up all day. A couple of doses of Imodium were tried, but I was still a bit fragile. At one point I was even considering not going. I managed to get across to Jodie’s for my make over without any accidents, but was still not feeling great, which I was going to have to stick to drinking water at the restaurant.
The meal was booked for Balans which is a nice little restaurant on Old Compton Street in Soho. It took a long time to get there in the taxi, due to usual London Saturday traffic. I think we were a little bit late, but as Jodie goes there so often the table was held. I was going to wear a fab, full length gold sequin dress for my birthday, but it was probably a bit Over the top for Balans , so I went for a short black number instead.
There were about eight of us and we had a nice little table towards the back, it was somewhat disappointing to have to stick to water, when everyone else was on cocktails or beers. I was also going to be careful with my food and had to go for a salad (great birthday meal Salad and Water), it turned out to be a huge salad and I only got through about half of it. During the meal the usual round of piss taking took place, which was great as I had missed the abuse from some of these guys. They got me a voucher from Selfridges which I will be spending shortly.
By the time we left it was pouring with rain, another good reason not to wear the long gold dress, we had to huddle under the canopy outside Balans whilst we waited for our taxi to get lost. Having drunk water I was able to drive home from Jodie’s and actually woke up bright and breezy next day.
Photo Shoot Thursday 24th November 2016
I don’t do a photo shoot every year these days, but when you reach a significant birthday a gurl’s got to do something to remember the occasion
In my previous shoot, I had turned up on the day with my outfits, only to find that I could not get into a couple of the dresses. To avoid this happening this time I arranged to visit Jodie a few weeks before and take as much clothes as possible and then whittle it down to our outfits for the shoot.
On the day of the shoot my hair was going to be put into curlers we agreed on a 9am start, which is sometimes difficult for me as I hit the traffic going into London. After a quick cup of coffee it was time to unpack all my outfits and for Jodie to start the long process of putting my hair in curlers. Eventually after stabbing in the head a few times the curlers were complete and Jodie could then start on the makeup, which is another time consuming task, but it’s the most important.
By this time Victoria had arrived and she was going to be helping out on the shoot, and not long after Mike the photographer arrived. Over the last few years the pounds have somewhat piled on, and so we put on a waist clincher to try and achieve some shape
Click a thumbnail below to see the slideshow
It was finally time to stop smiling and take the make up off. I somehow managed to get everything back in the cae for the drive home.
For more Photos and a fully write see the Photo shoot 2016 Page on my site.
Tuesday 6th December Ru Paul Queens
Ru Paul drag race is one of the few things my wife both watch without moaning at each other, she usually gets upset with me as I end up telling her, who has one before the end. I knew that some of the contestants from the show had their own tours. However I had never seen any that were taking place close to us.
I am on many mailing list s one of which id for the Troxxy is East London, and I must have actually read this mail, rather than deleting it, which informed me that “The Queens from Ru Paul Drag Race” were doing a performance at the Troxxy. The actual venue is only 10 minutes walk, well maybe 15 in heels from The Boudoir. Jodie had seen the ad the same day as me and put the wheels in motion for a night out.
I managed to arrange a half day off work and drove across to Jodie’s, it was a surprisingly quick journey, upon arriving one other person was already getting their makeup done, so I had a quick coffee and awaited my turn. I had not really decided what to wear, but thought it was more of a casual event, so went for a jumper, short black skirt, patterned tights and knee boots. My wife managed to get out of work and met us about an hour before we were due to leave.
As mentioned it was only a short walk from Jodie’s to the Troxxy and a couple of us set off to get a place in the queue. When we got there, we could not believe the length of the queue, it must have stretched almost half a mile long., and was getting longer all the time. We managed to get someone from the second group to the front of the queue and luckily they managed to save seats for us. It was lucky we got the seats as the venue was packed and the standing was heaving.
Michelle Visage was the compere for the show and we had six of the Queens from the show, including my favourite Manila Luzon. They all came out individually and then in a group and did various routines. The routines were fun, but I did find it a bit off putting having a giant video screen behind the stage, but then again, without my glasses I probably could only just about see the performers. The performances were good and a lot of effort was put into each routine, I was a bit disappointed in only lasted just over an hour.
Getting out of the venue was much easier and within ten minutes we were back at Jodie’s and away in my car, ready to go Christmas shopping the next morning.
Saturday 17th Christmas Meal
Looking back at last few events, I appear to have been ill for quite a few, I was not ill this time, but injured. I coach athletics and Saturday morning we do a hill session, I try and keep up with my 15 year old kids, but can’t do it anymore. Hills are great, but if you have any lower leg problems, not great. I have had ongoing Achilles problems for years now, and half way through the session, I had to stop and was limping quite badly, so a night out in heels was going to be a struggle.
I managed to limp across to Jodie’s in time for my make over and found out that there was only one other person going out for the meal, which was disappointing as the Christmas Meals used to be a big end of year event. Anyway I had got myself another new dress for the occasion and at least it was a chance to go out and wear it. I had a drink or two whilst getting ready, before getting into my new dress, which looked fab, however the full length picture Jodie took of me wearing it, I look such a miserable bitch, it’s not going on here. You will have to have the head shot instead.
We got a cab up to the restaurant which was in the Spitalfields area of London, it was a nice place called Blixen and we had a little table for just the three of us. The food was very good; I started with a salad, then a lamb dish, before moving onto a Crème Brule. The other two both had steaks which they enjoyed. I think I also managed to down a glass or two of wine. After the meal Jodie decided we were going to do a live feed to the world and so we went live on face book. I can’t say I was over keen to get involved, but it seemed to produce some lively questions, including one or two from my wife.
By now the hills were taking their revenge, and I was struggling in my heels and decided I was not going to make it to the club. I ordered a taxi, the driver insisted in calling me Sir all the way home. I think I got home around Midnight.
So ends 2016