Wet and Windy in Cambridge

On Monday, I managed to get out for a meal and a few drinks with my friend Liz in Cambridge.

Running a tad late due to work, the weather (cold and wet) decided my outfit. I wore my new denim leggings tucked into my knee high boots and a black and white patterned tunic on top and my red ¾ length coat over the top to keep warm. I was very pleased with the overall look.

I have recently re-discovered Revlon colourstay foundation and found that now, over a water based Kryolen to neutralise any remnant beard shadow, the Revlon foundation looks very good and neutral. Certainly Liz was quite favourable about the look.

We started at the Pickerel Inn and made ourselves comfortable next to the fire whilst enjoying a glass of wine. Deciding to go to the Rice Bucket, we made our way back to the car but on the way walked past an English Restaurant – The St John’s Chop House. Looking in through the window, the place was busy and inviting so we decided to try there.

Luckily they had a table for two available and we sat down in the midst of throngs of Christmas revellers. The menu was very good and I chose the goose with bacon flavoured mashed potatoes and associated vegetables, Liz choosing a peppered steak with mash rather than hand cut chips.

The food and the service was very good and we enjoyed the warmth and atmosphere of the restaurant, so much so that when I am out again with my wife, this coming Wednesday, we are looking to eat there again. What was good was that there were no surreptitious glances, nudges etc – I felt totally accepted. The owner chatted to us as did the waitress and no one batted an eyelid.

Moving on, we decided not to venture too far due to the weather and so returned to the Pickerel Inn, which by now was very busy and standing room only. There was a good cross section of clientele there and age groups but throughout, did not feel uncomfortable at all as we chatted away sipping our drinks. On closing, we had the crack with the bar staff as they were tidying up, before we left for Liz’s and a nightcap. We sat up for an hour talking about a wide range of topics including the “friend” that had recently caused me so much trouble. Hopefully, this is now behind us as Liz is aware of my fears for her and myself by association.

Manchester Concord Christmas Meal

Having booked myself and Jackie in for the meal on the Saturday evening and travelling on the Friday, we decided that we would go out together as husband and wife on our arrival at the New Union pub where we were staying.

The advantage of this was we could be out in less than 30 minutes from arrival and knowing we were going to be quite late getting there this would relieve me of some of the pressure of getting ready.

After a quick starter at the Union, our first port of call was Eden’s where we enjoyed a couple of quiet drinks musing over my comment that I didn’t know where any of the Gent’s toilets were in the bars we were visiting, this being the very first time out in the village as “Bob!”

Moving on, we had a couple of drinks in Trebica where we were approached by a mildly drunk guy who asking us where we were from. I answered St Helens (originally born and bred) to be met by the usual retort “woolly back!” I responded to his acknowledgement of him coming from Kirby by calling him a “Scouse Tw…t!” which went down well. We then had a bit of a laugh before we continued on our way back up to Canal Street and Taurus only to be turned away from Taurus by a big female bouncer telling us that it was only for regulars!

Not sure if I had have been wearing a dress whether we would have got in but I have as Emma spent quite a bit of money in Taurus this year and was suitably miffed.

One for the road in Eden’s and we made our way back to our hotel all of 100 yards! and got some shut eye.

The next morning, instead of rushing to get ready, we took our time, sharing the bathroom and various mirrors. Unfortunately whilst getting dressed, the zip tag on one of my boots broke and so I resorted to a pair of flats with my jeans and a blouse on top. To keep warm I wore my blue patterned denim jacket.

Walking through the City to the car at Charles Street, I felt really alive – after all we were going shopping at Trafford Centre. What girl wouldn’t be excited!

Leaving the City, we realised that we didn’t really know the way and so we had to travel back towards the M6 until we picked up the signs. On arrival at the car park we struggled to find a space despite the signs telling us that there were xx spaces available. This happened in three separate car parks before we found a spot which wasn’t being contested by another woman driver hell bent on getting to the shops!

On entering the mall, we decided to build up the stamina with a stop outside the food hall at a café where we enjoyed a bacon butty and cuppa tea before joining the hoards of shoppers – good job we are in a recession, who knows how many people there would have been otherwise.

I enjoyed the chance to meander almost invisible amongst lots of people all intent in doing their own thing and with the radar turned right down didn’t notice any strange looks or comments.

Checking out the many dress shops, we flitted in and out amongst the racks not finding anything we liked in our “price bracket” until we ended up at Debenham’s.

We spent a couple of hours checking out the clothes, shoes and cosmetics before purchasing a pair of over the knee boots for Jackie together with a new pair of skinny jeans, a new pair of evening shoes for myself, a new evening bag which as both of us have shoes that match will be shared and after some fun in the changing rooms, a pair of denim stretch leggings – ideal for my boots. In order to try some of the clothes on I had to queue up on several occasions and pass by uninterested boyfriends, husbands and children waiting for their partner / mum trying clothes on in adjacent cubicles.

Before departing, we satisfied our thirst in the café with some cold drinks and then on leaving the Centre stopped to take a picture only to be approached by one of the car park attendants who asked if we ladies would like him to take the picture. Reference to “ladies” still gives me a warm feeling throughout and probably contributed to my smile in the picture.

Getting back to Manchester, we quickly changed and had drink in the bar contacting Dianna in the process. As we were meeting for the meal at 6-30 and it was now 5-30, we repaired to our room to get ready. For once, for me, this was quite easily and quickly accomplished as I slipped into a 3/4 length silver dress, fishnet tights and tweaked my make up allowing Jackie time to get ready unencumbered by me.

Telephoning Dianne at 6-15 that we were ready there was a gasp from the phone, this was probably the very first time I was ready on time, certainly early! And I could tell Dianne was impressed!

Making our way down the corridor I almost came a cropper missing a step and only just recovering. Down in the bar, we bought a round of drinks whilst looking for Dianne. In the short time I was at the bar, Jackie managed to get picked up by a lesbian! – fast worker! until she pointed me out at the bar!

With our eyes on the clock, we finished the wine and made our way over Villagios where we met up with the rest of the girls for the Christmas meal.

As usual, the food was very good and considering there were 39 of us, the service was excellent. Not too sure what the rest of the diners thought – don’t care, we had a good chat and my thanks to Mary for the thankless task of organising the meal and getting the money off everyone – an achievement in it’s own right!

After the meal, we retired to our room to get changed. I was feeling a little sore due to the corset I had been wearing and it was great feeling to unfasten it and throw it in the corner! Bra and knickers under a tight short black skirt and a black and white tunic on top were the order of the day. Sod the mid rift bulge!

Down at the bar we met up with Di again and after a quick drink made our way up to Paddy’s Goose – a place we had not been to before. The place was busy but I enjoyed the down to earth character of the pub and we were not the only girls in the place, meeting up with Elaine and Catherine once more amongst others. My wife was most concerned that considering it was supposed to be a “gay” pub, she managed to get her arse pinched by a guy on the way to the bar. As I told her, she was still jealous of me getting my arse slapped in Canal Street when she didn’t, earlier in the year.

Di was quite popular attracting the attention of a few guys whilst Jackie and I chatted with Catherine.

Moving on from there we went to New York, New York which was wall to wall with bodies in various stages of inebriation. The music was recognisable – so it must have been old; dancing was frantic.

With no chance of holding a conversation we eventually decided it was past midnight and time for Napoleon’s. At this juncture, I walked Jackie back to the hotel as she wasn’t feeling particularly well (she had had a bad cold all week) and then returned to Napoleon’s where I met up with Kate (no sign of Di!) on the dance floor – where else!

Dianne eventually appeared and we stopped for a drink during which Di got chatting to a guy, leaving me and Kate to chat.

Back on the dance floor with Di, she managed, after slipping on some liquid and standing on my toe (open toed shoes!) to perform an intricate series of manoeuvres some of which had never been seen outside a swimming pool! ending star shaped flat on the floor. Luckily only her dignity suffered and as I swore not to tell anyone (lie mode disengaged!) she returned to her drink.

By 3am, Di had disappeared, Kate and I ended the evening downstairs having a quiet chat before leaving together, me returning to my hotel and Kate her car.

Undressing and cleaning off my make up, I reflected that this would be the last time we would be in the village this year and wondered how often we could visit in 2010. It was almost a year to the day that I had first met Kate and Di at the Northern Angels Christmas meal and the first time I had stayed in the village. What a difference a year can make!

Further Adventures in Cambridge

Last week, I received from my friend Liz, an invitation to attend a lecture on Freetrade and in particular, the sugar industry centred in Malawi, organised by the Co Operative Society at The Moller Centre in Cambridge on Wednesday night.

Whilst at first glance, the topic was outside my current interest, the opportunity of attending as Emma was too much to pass by, that and the provision of a pre meeting buffet and some entertainment afterwards.

Arriving at Liz’s later than planned (work getting in the way!), I quickly got changed and ready in a record time of less than 45 minutes from scratch! It helped that I had already decided on my outfit and that I had stripped my make up down to the bare necessities and due to the increased number of times I have been going out, have developed a make up routine which is quick but effective and works for me.

For the evening, I wore a black button through dress with contrasting burgundy fishnet tights with a rose pattern superimposed on them. On my feet, still recovering from an injured knee when I stumbled after catching my heel in a crack whilst out in Manchester over Halloween, I resorted to a pair of bronze coloured kitten heeled pumps.

We drove over to the centre and joined the group attending in the ante room where we were treated to a sumptuous buffet. It was a first for me as I was mingling as a woman with what was generally a fairly older group of couples and scholarly individuals in a completely normal environment. After a few nervous moments having to sign in, I quickly settled down and with Liz, mingled, even chatting to a few of the people there.

On entering the auditorium, we took our places near the front and listened with interest to the various presentations, at the end of which we were treated to a drum and dance group from Ghana to finish the evening. When looking for volunteers to get up and dance, I managed to make my self small and hid behind an elderly couple in front of us. I guess that sort of exposure would have been just too much for me and probably the audience!

Afterwards we repaired to the ante room and took a coffee, joining in a chat with another woman about work, families etc. It felt very normal and I really forgot how I was dressed for a short while whilst talking. We even gave the woman a lift into town on leaving.

Parking the car we made our way to our local – The Pickerel Arms and on entry were warmly greeted by Claire, one of the bar staff who we knew from previous visits. Claire joined us during her break and we caught up with what had been happening. The bar was quite busy, packed with students – obviously a more popular night than our more normal Monday night.

On leaving the Pickerel Arms we went looking for some live music and walked further into the centre past numerous groups of revellers. We eventually found a live band playing at a Jazz bar / club close to the Market Square and purchasing drinks made our way upstairs to catch the last few songs of a two hour set. We got up and danced, joining 4 other girls and a bloke (not many were there which was a shame as they were very good).

On closing time, after chatting for a while with the sax player and the singer – yet another American, we made our way around the corner and found a bar which was still serving. In fact it was a bar that I had first come across when out with Mary earlier in the year. The bar which specialised in cocktails was heaving and it took a while for me to get served, standing at the bar in the midst of a rake of students all paying for their rounds with plastic!

Taking our drinks out, we sipped them outside of Karen Millens and then got chatting to two girls out for a ciggie break from the adjacent Fez nightclub. The girl I was speaking to had amazing eye make up and during our conversation I mentioned how fascinated I was and how had she achieved the effect. In return, she was intrigued by my tights, asking where I had purchased them from.

Whilst talking to the girls, it became obvious that one of the bouncers at Fez’s was somewhat upset by my presence, though to be frank (which clearly I wasn’t!) I didnt give a monkeys! Though it did colour my judgement when the two girls invited us back into the night club as we sadly declined the offer.

Given the time of night and the state of the majority of the people in and around the passage where we were, not surprisingly, one drunken guy cried out “That’s a bloke!” as I retorted No s…t Sherlock! That shut him up and the fact that I was probably half as heavy again as him probably helped silence him.

Again this comment didn’t dampen my enjoyment yet it’s only just over a year ago that a similar situation occurred whilst out late in Towcester, which severely impacted on my confidence, panicked me and left me hiding for over 30 minutes down a back alley before returning back to my car. It just shows how far I have come in the intervening year.

Finishing our drinks we decided to call it a day and walked back through the centre of Cambridge chatting away as two girlfriends, groups and individuals passing us by, we stopped off for the obligatory photograph this time in front of the fountain opposite the Japanese restaurant before continuing to the car and returning to Liz’s.

Long Distance Tranny!

Due to my new job, close to Cambridge, it has proved to be too difficult to make the journey up to Teela’s for Tea at Teela’s but I didn’t want to miss the last time before Christmas to see Teela and my girlfriends. With Teela and Dave spending Christmas in Florida and not knowing whether any of my friends would be out at the Concord Christmas meal on the 5th, I decided to make the effort and leaving work at 3pm, started on the 187 mile journey.

The trip was going really well until I got caught on the A500 by an accident at Alsager which delayed me by 30 minutes. Nevertheless I rolled up outside the door at 6-30 and having met the early visitors and with a cup of tea in my hand went upstairs to get ready.

My outfit for the evening was a new short skirt in aubergine teamed with purple glittery top, black patterned tights and a pair of flats on my feet. I was still struggling with my damaged knee so heels were out for the time being. 75 minutes from start to finish was pretty good in my books as I get more proficient in getting ready; it helps having chosen what I was to wear and refining my make up.

It was great to meet up with the gang, Dianne, Mandy, Tina and Kate and the evening passed all too quickly in good company. It was the best supported evening that I had attended with lots of new (to me) girls attending.

In a moment of blood to the head, I volunteered to have a go on the catwalk of a fashion show Teela was organising for March and that she was going to take to Sparkle! In a way whilst sh….ing bricks I am quite looking forward to having a go! Just need to learn the walk sober and with a couple of bottles of wine down me!

Taking advantage of being at Teela’s I chose and purchased a new wig in a reddy brown which was a lot longer than I had been wearing. I was very pleased with the look.

Come 11pm, I reluctantly stripped away evidence of Emma and returned to the real world, bidding Dave and Teela goodnight and a great holiday, at turned 11-30pm, I climbed into the car for my trip home. 121 miles and 2 hours later I arrived, climbing the stairs to bed for 4 hours sleep before getting up to go to work later that morning.

Was it worth it? – OF COURSE IT WAS! I do miss these monthly gatherings.

Further Adventures out and about in Cambridge

The first Monday in the month at La Raza in Cambridge the resident band – The Chancellors of Vice hold an open mike night where anyone can turn up with an instrument and play or sing a few tracks.

Having discovered this venue and the band the previous month during fresher’s week, I had arranged to go out with Liz and Mary again this Monday, however, Mary was unable to join us.

Liz had previously invited me to stay at her house and to get changed there so saving me the cost of a hotel. My chief concern was how her 16 year old daughter would react. I need not have worried, as she was completely un phased by my presence, though to be fair, by the time she got home, I was dressed, wig on and part way through putting my face on.

Holding a conversation with her as I was doing my eyes was a pretty novel experience. Acceptance at any age is good but at that tender age, is something to treasure.

As the venue is pretty student orientated, I decided to wear my tight jeans tucked into knee high heeled boots and a casual top over basic underwear i.e. no major underpinning! I also reverted back to my more expensive wig for a change, which is shorter and darker in colour.

Overall, I was very pleased with the look and felt completely at ease when we made our way from the car to our first port of call The Pickerel Inn. To keep warm, I wrapped up in my new ¾ length red coat from M&S, purchased when shopping with my wife at Cheshire Oaks earlier in the year.

Whilst sipping on a wine spritzer, we chatted with the bar staff who we know quite well now and checked out a good Indian restaurant to eat at. They as always were so helpful and accepting and treated us as regulars.

Following their advice, we finished our drinks and got back to the car to drive to the restaurant. Parking was a little tight but I managed and made our way to the restaurant passing through a bunch of guys outside the door without any comment / reaction whatsoever other than good manners in letting us through.

The feeling of acceptance continued to keep me on a high as we asked for a table for two. The place was fairly quiet initially and we were put on a table in the window adjacent to one occupied by a bunch of businessmen. Shortly after taking our order, a large mixed group of well dressed students entered, the girls in pretty evening frocks / dresses and the place started to fill up.

The restaurant lived up to its reputation, the food being exemplary in both taste and quantity whilst the service was spot on. At all times we were referred quite correctly as ladies and offered every courtesy that you would expect.

Even in the toilets, I exchanged comments with two beautiful young students about the hit and miss workings of the hand dryer. Not a raised eyebrow, totally laid back , what a feeling.

Finishing our meal, we drove back into town, parked and walked through the centre to La Raza. On descending the stairs into the club, the girl on the door recognised us and greeted us warmly. Again, what a feeling of total acceptance. This is not a GLBT friendly venue, it is just a normal club in Cambridge.

Grabbing a drink, we made our way to the dance floor and managed to secure seats right at the front of the band. The resident band, The Chancelors of Vice were in top form and several guest players got up and contributed to the wide range of music played. The main gendre was jazz/funk soul . the American lead singer, Ann, as well as being very pretty, has an amazing voice and her rendition of a Duffy number knocked spots off the original.

Sitting so close to the band however I seemed to attract the attention of the sax player – not sure exactly what he was thinking though!

During a toilet break, I started chatting to an Australian girl, a scientist working in Cambridge married to a Scottish banker. She was sitting adjacent to us in the main room. It turns out that she was originally from Melbourne. She was so complimentary about my appearance (what girl doesn’t like flattery!!) and we chatted about families, my dressing, my wife children etc whilst fixing my hair and face.

On our return to the main bar, we joined her husband and the two other couples they were out with to enjoy the rest of the performance, after which we continued to chat whilst finishing our drinks. During the course of the conversation, we exchanged contact details and arranged to meet before the next night that The Chancellors of Vice were schedule to perform for a meal at a local Italian Restaurant, this being Monday, November the 30th. I can’t wait.

On leaving the bar at 1230hrs we made our way back through the quiet streets, the noise of our heels echoing between the cloisters of the historic Cambridge Colleges. Wrapped up from the chill we made our way back to the car stopping for a picture to be taken next to the River Cam.

Back at Liz’s, I carefully removed all traces of Emma, re packed my bag and climbed into bed eventually at 2am. The end of an exciting yet ordinary evening in Cambridge, acceptance and tolerance everywhere we went. Can’t wait to do it again!

Halloween in the Village

Who could miss it? As expected, all the affordable hotels were fully booked up and so we resorted to our trusty back up – The Travelodge at Lymm Services.

To go out on the Saturday entailed a pretty hectic schedule starting with the difficulties of packing a case whilst our youngest was in the house, organise my rugby team, play a league rugby match (we won) in Leicester, return home, pick up the wife, drop the daughter, load the car fielding questions from the youngest as o why were we taking two suitcases and a sports bag for one night!

Finally, we managed to get on the road for 6-20pm with Jackie driving allowing me to have a shave thus saving 10 minutes at the other end. Arriving at the hotel at 8-20, Jackie left me to get ready and filled the car up with fuel and grabbed something to eat.

For the night I had chosen to push the boundaries of decency as far as possible choosing a body con LBD from New Look which admittedly, was short – short of material some would say! – but what the hell, you are only young once and I am reliving my youth. Teamed up with diamond patterned opaques (no chance with stockings!) and a pair of snakeskin effect open toed heels in dark pink, the dress fitted great (over the corset that is!) Jackie was wearing an eually tight new body con dress she picked up on our last shopping trip from Karen Millen and on her feet, my favourite thigh high stiletto heeled boots – eat your heart out!

Finally ready, we made our way downstairs past reception eliciting a smile from the receptionist, the same woman who had booked us both in some 90 minutes earlier!, and made our way across the car park to the car.

On arrival at our normal parking spot at the top of Canal Street we unsurprisingly found it to be full as were all the streets in the vicinity so it was back to plan B and leaving the car in Charles Street. Strutting along towards the village, we joined the throngs of party goers all in fancy dress. At Eden’s we met up with our good friends, Kate, Shirley, Tina and Mandy and I was pleasantly surprised to find Jenny was there as well with Marilyn. The girls all looked superb and I was particularly proud of the way my wife looked. The continued weight loss by Kate was evident – good on you.

After a couple of drinks and a chat, the girls left for Spirit accompanied by Marlene who had joined us. We followed on finishing our drinks just as Summer of 69 was blasting out! and joined them on the mezzanine floor of Spirit.

The place was heaving with a huge variety of weird and whacky costumes, lots of Bo Peeps for some reason and quite a few fruits! It is strange that whilst we were in costume, we were the only ones who didn’t look like we had entered into the spirit of the occasion!

Due to the numbers making it difficult to get a drink at the bar, use the toilets and the noise level making it almost impossible to hold a conversation, we decided to move on with Kate and Shirley leaving us to form the advance guard at Napoleons, we followed via a bar that Marlene knew below the pavement level surprisingly called “The Bar Below”

Having negotiated the steps into the cellar, we were treated to some good music that I recognised and quaffed a couple of drinks. The ambiance was good and it is a venue we will return to in the future. However, I did face the ultimate in contortion tricks as I needed to go to the ladies. No lock on the door and no toilet seat made for a very interesting manoeuvre whilst trying to squat one legged, knickers and tights down with the other leg against the door. I seriously pondered on why they were called conveniences at this juncture.

At least I wasn’t alone in my condemnation of the toilets as I chatted to a number of girls in front of the mirror whilst refreshing the lipstick. My wife smiled knowingly when I returned to the group and related my trials and tribulations in the ladies. “Now you know what we have to put up with all the time” she said with a Cheshire grin on her face.

Past the witching hour, we made our way to Napoleon’s but were unable to find Kate or Shirley and with the downstairs area closed off (presumably for a private party) we initially remained adjacent to the dance floor sipping our drinks and chatting.

Moving back down to the ground floor we met up with a nice Welsh couple, the guy though 'T' was in “bob” mode.

Finally after a few more drinks and with my wife visibly flagging we decided to call it a night at 4am and we picked up our jackets and made our way through the still busy streets of the village and back to the car park where we gave Tina and Mandy a lift back to Tina’s before making our way back to Lymm.

We finally made the hotel for 5am absolutely dead on our feet only to find that in our absence, the roof had developed a leak and water was dripping from the ceiling and had caused a soggy wet patch at the foot of the bed!

We couldn’t see the point of trying to get anything done at this time and so I carefully removed my make up and undressed for bed, mindful of the previous occasion when I had upset my wife by collapsing comatose into bed still fully made up, wig on and in my underwear!

The following morning – just!, we woke at 11-45am – only 2 hours later than we had planned and threw everything into our cases, departed for home where we needed to be for 1-30pm – obviously not possible now, our progress was further stymied by traffic hold ups on the M6 Southbound which resulted us in covering 23 miles in 90 minutes!

Luckily, my daughter’s rugby match was called off or we would have been too late to take her, arriving home eventually at a few minutes past three after a pretty eventful 24 hours.

BNO 9th October 2009 - Pink Punters

I had been looking forward to the weekend and a new venue since the idea blossomed some months earlier, a night out with my wife, friends old and new at Pink Punters including an early evening meal at a Thai Restaurant in Milton Keynes.

Having taken a half day off work, I drove over to Bletchley late lunchtime, whilst my wife was driving down separately from Loughborough.

Finding the hotel was a breeze and soon I was booking in behind Saffy and friend.

The receptionist was very friendly and asked if I was there for the BNO and if it was my first time. In actual fact this was my 2nd visit to PPs, my first being almost a year earlier shortly after Emma started to spread her wings and was accompanied then by Alina and Belinda.

In the room, with plenty of time I decided that I would be able to join Gayna shopping in Milton Keynes before returning to meet up with my wife and get ready for the evening.

I chose my new black top from Debenhams with a denim skirt and chequer patterned opaque’s on my legs and my trusty black shoes with 4” heels. My make up was understated for daytime, browns and beige for the eyes and a nice pink lipstick matching my nails to finish the look.

Satisfied with my appearance, I made my way downstairs and past reception into the bar where I met up with Gayna. What I had not realised was that this was to be her first venture out in daytime shopping.

Gayna chose to drive and after a few false starts we managed to navigate our way into central Milton Keynes and parked. With only an hour to spend, we made our way into the mall and meandered in and out of the shops. Unfortunately, we managed to attract the attention of a somewhat disreputable gentlemen who was finally put off when we dived into a ladies shoe shop.

Not being put off, we continued our window shopping, chatting away and enjoying the feeling. Gayna was superb and lapped up the moment. Even being spotted by a group of teenage girls didn’t detract from the experience. Again, no alarm bells rang, everyone was out doing there own thing and we fitted in on a Saturday afternoon in Milton Keynes.

All too soon, it was time to make our way back to the hotel and get ready for the evening.

By now, my wife had arrived and after having a quick drink with Dianne who had also arrived, we went to our room to get ready. I chose my golden mini dress worn as a top over the new animal print skirt I purchased earlier in the week in Cambridge. Refreshing my make up, I darkened everything and chose a doublewear lipstick in raspberry to finish off the look with a slick of lip gloss.

We made the bar just in time for the first mini bus and were dropped off at the restaurant.

Entering, we were cordially greeted by a turbaned doorman resplendid in gold finery and we took the opportunity for some photographs upstairs on the balcony with a magnificent chandelier as a backdrop.

Sitting down in the lounge area whilst waiting for the rest of the party, we enjoyed a glass of chilled white wine taking in the surrounding opulence. After a short wait whilst getting to know some of the other girls (outside our immediate circle of Northern friends) the remaining girls arrived and we were shown into the main dining area having decided on a set menu.

I am not sure what the other diners thought as 16 of us made our way to our table, gold being a theme for the evening.

The food was very good though the quantity was perhaps on the low side – or is it that I am a pig! The company was great, a feeling of belonging being prevalent and of course being out and about dressed in a mainstream environment contributing to the sense of well being.

Toilets! – well, who couldn’t comment on the state of the toilets. Clean, spotless, huge and amazingly finished, the décor matching the overall top class decorations of the restaurant as a whole. My wife and I are already planning a return next month. – No not to the toilets!!!

At the end of the meal, the mini buses were there waiting for us and we returned to the Camponile prior to walking across to PPs. Transport to and from the restaurant was well planned and worked a treat.

Whilst waiting to go across, I took the opportunity to change into my dress for PPs, a short little number I picked up from New Look covered in black sequins and a dark gold jagged lightening flash down the front. Teamed up with my gold peep toed shoes and wearing my rabbit fur jacket, I re-joined my wife downstairs and made our way carefully across the road to PPs. Pretentious! Moi!!

Having paid the entrance fee and handing over our jackets, we climbed the stairs to the lounge area at the top of the building and sat down with our drinks. The place was busy with a lot of girls and once again we soaked up the atmosphere chatting having temporarily lost our friends.

Deciding on finding the others, we were on our way down to one of the dance floors when we bumped into Dianne and together we finally came across the rest of the “dancing queens!” on the dance floor strutting their stuff.

Finally after being out with my wife on a few previous occasions, we ended up dancing together – well dancing as far as I was concerned, the less charitable amongst us may beg to differ!

I guess at this time, I kicked off my shoes and danced in stocking feet braving everyone else’s heels! Taking advantage of not having to drive, I tucked in with gusto to the beer and wine and in no time I was somewhat the worse for wear born out by my inability to take any photos without them being blurred! – they seemed fine to me at the time – honest!

By 3am, my wife (for wife, read me!) was just about done in and we decided to retire to our room. Picking up our jackets we staggered across the car park – up the slope in 5” heels and 3/4” platforms – somewhat of a feat (scuse the pun!) given my state and then we had the bright idea of taking a short cut up a grassy embankment instead of walking around on the road. The brightest amongst you will straight away see the folly of this given the shoes we were both wearing, however several bottles of Budweiser had somewhat affected my thought process! And as a result I made it up the bank only to hold out my hand to my wife and then lose my footing and shoe/s in the process. Luckily I managed to avoid any injuries and damage to my clothes though the soles of my stockings ended up wet and muddy!

Back in the room, I then committed the cardinal sin and fell asleep still partially clothed and with my make up still on. My wife was not a happy bunny the following morning as I had to dash to the bathroom to finish changing!

Packing the next day, we both made our way to our cars for the quick sprint North – I was scheduled to play rugby that afternoon and I still had 75 miles to go when we left at noon, such are the anomalies of being a t-girl!