The Gathering - Manchester

Over the weekend, we were pleased to be able to meet up with Karen, down from Scotland and our good friends, Kate, Mrs Kate, Dianne, Tina and Mandy. This time, for the first time, my wife and I had booked in for two nights at The New Union Inn right at the bottom of Canal Street.

Due to work commitments and traffic, it was past 8-30pm when we arrived in Manchester and on booking in at the hotel, I got the distinct impression from the guy that he was wondering whether we knew the area and that the pub/hotel normally had a large gay clientele!

Contacted by Kate who was out already with Di and Karen, I hurriedly got ready mistakenly advising Kate that we would be ready in 10 minutes. Well, 1 hour later! (Tranny time obviously!)

I decided on my LBD over my strapless corset, black tights and heels and made our way downstairs to the bar where we ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio and contacted the girls.



Having finished the bottle, we joined then over at Edens where we had another bottle of wine (we had a lot of catching up to do!)

It was good to be out and about with friends again in Manchester. The weather was warm enough to forgo a jacket and from there we crossed the street and had a drink upstairs on the balcony of Manto

Finishing the night at Napoleons, we had a reasonably early night after my wife was spooked by a guy whilst I was away at the toilet.

The following day, it was dressed for shopping, white jeans (M&S), white top(charity shop) and brown heels (purchased from Next in the Arndale centre over the weekend of Sparkle), and my new beige corduroy jacket (E-bay).



We picked up our car from Charles Street and drove to Cheshire Oaks where we had a late breakfast at the Brasserie Egss Benedict - we only just got in while the breakfast menu was still on!).

Being Saturday, the Oaks was packed and we did a slow circuit of the shops starting at M&S. I purchased a new jacket (3/4 length bright red! and skirt which matched my light beige corderoy jacket from M&S after trying them on in the changing rooms, and some more lipsticks from Revlon,(I have a thing about lipstick and shoes for that matter!) a new black bra from the Playtex shop, whilst my wife picked up new underwear from Playtex and La Sensa, and a beautiful new dress from Jane Norman.

I picked up a gorgeous dress in Jane Norman's only to find the front showed way too much flesh which I would be unable to do without a great deal of effort – I was gutted. I even successfully entered and left the Kurt Geiger shoe shop without buying anymore shoes! Wandering around shopping dressed with my wife in a bust=y environment was just great. I don't think I ever stopped smiling.

We finished off our trip by visiting Teela’s who was finishing off a 5* makeover session with a local girl who's name I cant remember - sorry! where we enjoyed a coffee and I picked up some bits and pieces including a halter neck backless black dress with silver sparkles! It fit really well but I will need to pick up a new bra before I wear it. My wife helped herself to a beautiful purple nylon nightdress.

Back in to Manchester, we barely made the quick change for the evening – our meal was booked for 6pm at Velvet and so being only 15 minutes late was pretty good for me! We joined Tina and Mandy, Mrs Kate and the others downstairs having descended the spiral stairs (difficult in 5" heels and a tight skirt!) after sampling a cocktail at the bar - Sour Ammaretto for my wife and a Mojito for myself.

I had chosen to wear my gold patterned dress over a tight clingy black skirt, black stockings and gold heels with peep toes (nothing too ostentatious! (trying out my outfit for PP on the 9th)

The meal was good as usual and the “low fat” desert was something to die for!

Moving on, making the most of the early start, we proceeded to visit some of the remaining bars in Canal Street that we normally don’t have time to go to, starting at Churchill’s and then moving onto Spirit.

I must say that in Spirit, other than our own group, there were not many signs of any “girls” there and most of the people we saw were mixed groups including two hen parties.

Both my wife and I enjoyed the place and we stayed there for a few hours during which we met and chatted to a bunch of girls and two couples up from Leeds. Moving on, we again ended up chatting away to another bunch of girls out on the street before making our way to New York, New York. My wife was somewhat peeved on the way as I had my bum smacked by a guy and she didn’t!!!

New York, New York was heaving and whilst I enjoyed the cheesy sort of music and the atmosphere, it didn't appear to be to the others nor my wife’s taste and so we moved on once more, ending the night in our usual haunt, Napoleon’s.

Unfortunately, whilst at Napoleon’s one of our party was subject to the unwelcome attention of a guy which took the gloss off a little. The atmosphere in Napoleon’s seemed a little strange for some reason I couldn’t put a finger on. I think that the more and more I get out in the normal world, the less comfortable I am becoming in places like Napoleon’s.

As we needed to be away early on the Sunday, and I was flagging somewhat, we retired at 3am back to our hotel having spent an enjoyable two days in Manchester with our Angel friends.

I am next out on the 5th with Mary in Cambridge which I am looking forward to. We are thinking of visiting a country pub for a meal and a few drinks this time or failing that I quite fancy going to the cinema followed by a late evening meal.

Last night, while my youngest was out I tried out a few combinations for my evening in Cambridge and packed an overnight bag.

We will be meeting up with a number of you at PPs on Friday and am looking forward to the meal beforehand in Milton Keynes. My wife has just received her gold dress and what a picture she looks - I am so proud to be married to her.

It's amazing really. Since introducing her to Emma in April, her confidence has increased and she has taken to going out in more and more prettier clothes and making more effort with her appearance. We have great fun choosing clothes together and when out shopping either as me or Emma we bounce ideas off each other and have the confidence to try clothes she would never have considered before.

Some of the day to day conversations we have are pretty surreal and on more than one occasion in company she has raised her eyebrows to me when our friends are talking about something relevant. For instance, at our friends the other evening, my mates wife and her friend were talking about high heeled shoes, comments I could really relate to and to which my wife smiled that knowing smile whilst I continued chatting to my mate about rugby.