"Oh, what a night ..."

... and day!

I should first cover the sacrifices made for the day/night to be so good; my feet for a start (think those shoes needed wearing-in first!), and the screen on my N900 phone (though the camera survived me dropping the bag which I am immensely relieved about obviously!). Will have to put in an insurance claim for the phone and rest my feet!

Okay, now the good stuff: Afternoon at York races curtesy of my fabulous and stunning friend, Jane who invited me along. This was the, sometimes dreaded and infamous, girls-day-out, comprising Jane's sister, cousins and friends. I mentioned what I was doing to (male) friends at work and they immediately decided that York was not the place to be on Saturday!

But the group was just fantastic and while we were definitely loud, drunk, and sometimes pretty boisterous and maybe even verging on crude and more unruly than some of the guys, we looked gorgeous and just had soooooooo much fun! I think only Jane won anything on the horses and the ones that the group picked all failed to make it across the line first (though there were some that were close ... sadly this doesn't appear to count, oh well, live and learn lol).

I've never been to the races before and it was a wonderful experience that I completely enjoyed! Just a nice atmosphere. I took quite a few pictures (could have taken more there was so many stunning people and outfits) which I'll have to add to the pile I need to process so don't expect an update anytime soon.

One rather irritating thing was some particularly obnoxious guys who kept pestering our little group. They were just annoying, making comments, staring, pointing and being generally the mindless and laddish in every possible bad sense of those words. Really, this is not the way to impress the ladies, it just shows what an idiot your are. Thankfully after Jane had a little word with them they left us alone. Considering the guys we met later I can only conclude that these idiots were childish little boys.

So, moving onto the X factor performance - there was a stage they'd set up that became the focus of attention after the racing finished. Everyone seemed to know who the people were that sang but I've lost interest in the X Factor so I had no idea. Was pretty entertaining and we had a good dance (more photos of course), and were joined by a lovely group of guys who turned out to be quite photogenic and fun (can you have phonetic alliteration?). See above for contrast by the way!

After the dancing fun it was time to get some junk food to soak up some alcohol and then head into town on the extremely over-subscribed shuttle buses; the queues being fueled by the torrent of people streaming from the race course. Feet got a bit of a rest at this point and once we got off we all realised that, while our shoes may look fantastic, they aren't designed to cover the miles in comfort! Several shoes ended up having a little rest as feet got to feel the slightly cold (and damp - brief shower) pavement.

Found a bar (Varsity as it happens) and got more drinks. Ended up talking to a guys out on a stag night who couldn't decide if they were Fireman or bin-men or both. Either way they were lovely to chat to and we ended up following them to Reflex which is an 80s bar, where the remainder of the stag party and Jane and I danced solidly from when we got in until when we left (the guys carried on, I finally succumbed to my feet's wishes so we had to leave). Thanks guys, we had a fantastic time x

Back home by taxi, then time for bacon sandwiches before crashing into bed. Up at stupid o'clock this morning (Jane had to get away and I'm genetically cursed with waking up early irrespective of when I go to bed). Thankfully I'm not hung-over but I suspect I'm going to be very tired later on; today is therefore a 'duvet day' and I'm going to chill in front of the telly!

Now, just a note for regular reader(s): I've mentioned guys lots here so I better clarify; no, I'm not turning straight of anything like that, I have no interest in men apart from as friends. However, I do really, really appreciate guys who are polite, respectful, and charming. I would happily go on a 'date' with a nice guy who would be a total gentleman (I've even got a mental list of people who I'd pick given a choice - it mainly includes actors and the likes but there are some others on there). Guys do get a bad press (because of the f***-wits I described earlier) but really most of the men I encounter are pretty much normal, nice, fun, interesting and just wonderful human beings.

Anyway, I best get on with chilling out and having a relaxing Sunday. Final word: to Jane and the rest of the girls, THANKS LOTS you're all FABULOUS xxx

Hen Do!

Well, hen "dos" would be more appropriate as we were out on Friday night and then again on Saturday! I should state for the record that I wasn't drinking a drop of alcohol for the second outing as frankly I'd got an absolutely stinking hangover from the previously nights ridiculous excesses! No sympathy please, it was totally self-inflicted.

Thankfully I did manage to get some good photos (Rachel got some amazing ones) and I wasn't drunk enough that I lost or broke my camera either! The image above is one of quite a few that turned out beautifully clear, sharp in such vibrant colours (helped by the "wig" theme for the night). I'll update this blog post when I've uploaded all of the pictures to my website, I really do need to get the image galleries sorted ASAP.

The pictures from Saturday night weren't anywhere near as good in terms of colour and clarity which is surprising given that the lighting should have been better as we were at someone's house. I think I'll put that down to fatigue on the part of myself and Rachel!

The weekend

Well, better late than never. It's taken me a while to get round to writing about the weekend and I've also got other things queuing up in my head that I want to get written down as well so I'll make this quick!

The weekend was FAB!

That covers it I guess ... okay, maybe a bit more detail:

I drove down to Lucy's on Friday evening, got stuck in lots of traffic but had a great time singing along to the selection of music I'd copied onto CD (I never have any decent things to listen to in the car so made an effort this time). Did get a few funny looks but frankly I prefer to be happily singing/wiggling along to music that sitting stony-faced and seething about the queue!

Had tea at Lucy's (was so nice that her Mum thought of feeding us - always made to feel welcome there) and then into Brum and the usual getting ready to go out routine which I'm actually not that slow at now!

The start of the evening was in one of the apartments that you can rent - think someone said for £70/night - and they are fantastic; two bedrooms, bathroom, lounge/dining room, basically the same as my flat! Anyway, one of Lucy's friends had put on a huge amount of food and drink for everyone which was pretty impressive when you consider that at least 25 people turned up!

[ As an aside, it just goes to show you how many trans people there are if that many turn up for one persons party ]

It was around midnight when we finally moved out of the apartment and onto a bar somewhere. I think by that point I was nicely merry and chatty and really haven't got much of a clue where I was going (not having been out in Brum - well the gay village bit - before). Think we went to the Loft and then on somewhere else.

I talked to lots of people and had a fantastic time. I even recall talking to a girl who was stood, looking rather depressed, waiting for her friend to finish some in-depth heart-to-heart with what seemed to be his current or maybe former partner. Anyway the poor girl looked so down-hearted that I bought her a drink. Turns out her boyfriend didn't want to come out so she was stranded waiting for her friend. I'm sure there are ways to 'pull' a girl in this situation but I have no idea what they are and I'm too nice anyway (this is not necassarily a good thing from my point of view!).

Also got dragged onto the dance floor by a person who shall remain nameless (but thanks anyway, I would never have got up there otherwise) and I don't think I fell over too much (though did feel a little wobbly) but probably still looked like a complete idiot.

Sadly the evening (well morning really, 4am!) did draw to a close and people wandered off and I found myself in bed (still always vaguely unsure of how exactly I get there but still not had any cause to suspect I had a good time in the process unfortunately!). I had a great time and talked to lots of fab people whose names, and maybe even faces I've forgotten (if you were one of them: sorry and thanks for chatting).

Saturday was spent recovering and shuffling round Brum - tried the slightly grungy, trainers-wearing look and really didn't like it at all! Live and learn. Sunday I was more awake and Lucy and I did some shopping - I bought a few watches and suspect I'm going to go mad for collecting these now as I got some really different looking designs and think they are fab!

Anyway lots of other stuff I could bore everyone with but I'll leave it at that. I was so sorry the weekend had to end because it was so much fun ... oh well, not long to the next one!

Company Summer Party

I'm a bit behind with the blog posts so I'll try and catch up a bit and then keep on top of things next week ... erm, well hopefully anyway.

In the interests of brevity (word of the day) and avoiding any rambling here are the highlights of the night:

• Only too me two hours to get ready! Okay, sounds bad but that's shower, dry/straighten hair, make-up, get dressed all interspersed with worry and stress about how I was going to look! No pictures of me (well there are some but they have other work colleagues in them so no appropriate for public disemination) but the outfit was pretty simply; red satin top and black jeans (both from Dorothy Perkins), the multi-coloured shoes from Evans (see post from ages ago) and black & silver necklace and earrings from M&S.
• Food was at one of those Tepenyaki places - plenty to eat and drink and all very entertaining even when they fling food at you which is impossible to catch!
• Next was cocktails at Cloud 23 which is the bar on top of the Hilton Hotel on Deansgate in Manchester - amazing views across the city - I've always loved the sight of a city/town at night from a distance, the lights just look magical (cue Bette Midler singing "From a distance").
• Then taxi ride to Tiger Tiger where we were in the VIP area and able to drink vast amounts ... I don't think I was *that* bad but I seem to have managed to get nice and drunk anyway.
• Chatted to some really nice girls who had been quizzing one of my work colleagues about me. I was probably rambling at that point but it was fun nonetheless.
• Actually talked to a lovely girl outside Tiger Tiger who was handing out flyers and she was so nice and fun that I seriously regret not getting her number or something - not for any reason than just to talk to her again.
• Everyone was very drunk on leaving the club and heading back to the hotel and a few hurtful comments were said but we'll forget about that I think.

Woke up at 7am because B was trying to get hold of me to arrange me seeing my son this weekend. Couldn't get back to sleep so go up (slowly) and had a wander round Manchester, buying some more make-up and similar things. Also had a look at dresses in Monsoon in preparation for the Chirstmas Party shopping!

Didn't really have the heart (or money) to shop much so drove home, got a few things from Tesco's and then had a bit of a sleep before my son came over.

This pic is me AFTER having a sleep, hence the slightly dishevelled look!



Honest I looked alot better on the night out and MUCH better before having a sleep!