Just a quick word about Sparkle…

I arrived a couple of hours before my appointment with Dr Spiegel so Gillian and I had a quick wander round and a look to see who was on at the main stage before heading to the MMU, where I managed to see Dr Spiegel half an hour before my allotted time. It was all over very quickly. He started by saying, "Well, you look great!" He asked me what I’d like, but I asked for his opinion before telling him too much of what I thought I needed. His opinions basically agreed with mine. I asked a few questions about the specific procedures and when we were all done his secretary gave me a quote, very reasonable too. They both seemed very nice, and I’d be happy to put myself in their care, but whether I will or not remains to be seen. One thing at a time eh…

It was only 6 o’clock by then so we decided to have a stroll into town and look in a couple of shops. I bought a satiny top from Primark and a lovely dark blue summery dress from TX Maxx (love those shops), Gillian bought a jacket for the evening, then we went in search of food. We found a great fast food rice and noodles sort of place, with the rather unimaginative name of "Rice", but it was extremely yummy!

So, refreshed and replenished we headed back to the Village. I half expected to be bumping into old friends, seeing familiar faces and meeting a few online acquaintances, but it was actually Gillian that seemed to be doing more of that. We were accosted by Nikki, who she met in Thailand, and who is a moderator of the Dr Suporn Yahoo group, so she was interested in the fact that I was soon to become another "Supornista", and was keen to offer advice. She was with several other ex-patients of Suporn, so that was a good start to the evening! Shortly after, Gillian met another Suporn patient she knew from Thailand, local Manchester girl Victoria, who was all dressed up for her entry into the Miss Sparkle contest, and looking like a model out of Vogue, quite stunning.

After watching a bit of ex X-factor contestant, Sean performing on the main stage, we went for a drink at "Via Fossa", now called just "Via", where I met up with my old mate Cerys, and where we again bumped into Nikki and friends. A couple more drinks later (coca-cola for me) we went a-wandering. Back to the main stage to watch the first part of Miss Sparkle, including to my surprise our very own Lucy Dawlish. You looked great girl, and to prove it I’ve posted your pic below, which I stole off Flicker, I hope nobody sues me. Actually I forgot to take my camera. A couple of years ago that would be top of my list of things to take on a night out, but I never even thought about it this time, which is a shame cos there were some, um, "colourful" characters there! There was someone going round taking snapshots for you to download for free though, so at least Gillian and I got a photo to remember our day by, which I’ve also posted below.

The weather wasn’t great, though while we there it was just occasional drizzle so nothing like Glastonbury standards! Nobody’s spirit seemed to be dampened too much.

It wouldn’t have been a proper trip to the village without a visit to Napoleon’s, so we had to go there, and this is the place where the Tweb girls always seem to converge. But not this time sadly. Maybe we were just early, or maybe everyone else was still watching Miss Sparkle, but there was no-one I recognised. So, I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet those of you who I’ve only met online, and sorry I didn’t bump into any of you I already know, but by 11pm I was seriously flagging, and it’s a fair drive home, so that was it for me. It’d been a very late night on Friday, the night before, as I was working with the band, and in fact I think you can see that from the state of my eyes in the pic below! But although we were only there for a few hours I’d say the event seemed to be another great success. "Pride" marches are happening everywhere these days, but specifically Transgender celebrations like this still seem to be quite rare, so it’s always nice to be a part of it, and I’m lucky it’s not that far away.

Hope all the rest of you had a good time, and sorry I didn’t get to meet you, but maybe next time eh!

xx