Purple Dress Night

Another super evening, the number of members that are coming along to support the club is just fantastic. At one time we could hardly move for purple outfits. We were unable to go outside to get a group photo so I have included two taken inside and then lots of individual photos. I am sorry that I have missed quite a few people as I didn't manage to take everyone individually. If there are any more photos that people would like to be included here then please email them to me.

Elaine

Trixie and Jane Maybe

Pauline

Elaine H and Lisa

Michaela

Miranda and Sarah Louise

Sarah

Peta

I am sorry but I haven't got the names of the ladies in the final picture on the right except for Jayne on the far right. I am sure someone will write in and tell me.
It is obviously not possible for everyone to follow the evening theme for various reasons and as you can see not everyone managed it. I just wanted to say please dont let that stop you coming along on these evenings, it is great to also have a bit of variety.
Also I was delighted to welcome our first, after a long gap, M to F visitor Andy. It was great to see how welcome he was made to feel with several people really looking after him, so thank you all.

Five other people joined the club as well this evening so we are continuing to grow at a steady pace. Welcome to you all.
Please dont forget that next week we are having a partners evening when we are hoping that as many of you as possible will encourage your partners to come along and meet.

Soon after I posted the blog I got this letter from Georgina, so thanks Georgina and for your permission to publish the letter.

Samantha, Julia, Emily and Georgina

The picture here shows a general view of the bar where we meet. It was a very busy night but it is difficult to show the whole area because the pillars effectively hide a lot of people who are sitting in the bay window area.
In fact it was so busy that we ran out of chairs and I have now asked Lee, the manager, if he can please try to provide more chairs for our wednesday evenings to make it more comfortable. If there are insufficient chairs people will start to go elsewhere.
I was delighted to welcome back Christine, who is shown standing in the picture, who came along with Debbie and Shirley. Christine now lives in Scotland so is only able to visit us occasionally on a wednesday, whereas Shirley and Debbie are regular attenders.

Paula

I am really pleased to see Claire, shown here, coming out of her shell wearing bright colours. She is becoming a regular at the club and making new friends each time.
Incidentally the flags showing in the windows are there because the Rembrandt had just hosted a "Bears" weekend in the village and many of them had come a long way to attend in Manchester. The Bears are all big lads.
We had nothing special arranged for this evening and it started quietly but by halfway through the evening it had filled up and there was a real buzz about the place.

Karen, on the left, is the secretary of the National Trans Police Association NTPA several of whose members visited us a few weeks ago. She was unable to attend on that evening and came along tonight to introduce herself again, as we have met some years ago now. She is a delightful very enthusiastic person and I hope we see a lot more of her.
Lance on the right has been a member of Concord for many years and is one of our more unusual members. He sees himself as a Man in a skirt rather than a transvestite and is very actively engaged in trying to encourage other like minded men to wear skirts as a normal part of their attire. He has been running a clothing company called Midas for several years now and is slowly building up a good sized client base all over the world. His website is www.midasclothing.com

Lance

Lisa

Elaine H                           Milli

I may have got Amanda's name wrong as I didn't write it down so please accept my apologies if it is wrong. She is fairly new to the club and I did want to include the photo of this confident looking lady.

And finally what can I say, Jenny you look stunning.

Jenny

Tina, one of our most regular members, is now taking a more active part in running the club since the election in march. All the new committee members have started helping on the door, Alison, Pauline and Michaela, as well as Tina and Francis. Alison and Pauline were not here this week as Alison was redecorating part of Pauline's House. Pauline is not the most practical of people so it is better if Alison does it.
The pictures here of Tina show that as long as a girl dresses smartly she can look really good whatever her size. I know Tina wont mind me saying this as she has no illusions about her size.

Early in the evening a new visitor came in dressed as a man but introduced himself as Mica. This is quite a common occurance as around half of the newcomers

Peta, shown on the left, also joined tonight having come along for the first the previous week. Martine who is shown with her is an occasional visitor from the midlands area so has not joined. Finally Sarah Jane Hilary has also joined but I was unable to take a photo as, at that point of the evening, I had lost my camera. For a while I thought it had been stolen but it turned out that Michaela had mistakenly picked it up thinking it was hers.
I took J's photo early in the evening after spending some time talking to her and then rather curiously we met up again at the meal in the village on Saturday evening where I found myself sitting next to her. These extra events are very enjoyable as it gives us a better chance to get to know each other. J and myself appear to have lived in several of the same parts of england over the years but at different times.

Sarah Kerry and Jane

Both Brydie and Sarah Louise took me a little by surprise this week both looking a lot more demure than usual, whereas Jessica on the right decided to try out the PVC look for a change. They all look good so it is nice to have a change of style occasionally.

I was really pleased to welcome Paula and Dawn again. They have been on the scene for at least as long as me but many years ago started going on holiday to Benidorm where they are made most welcome in many of the bars there. They now go several times a year and really know how to enjoy themselves. Paula says she is going to start coming back to the village more often so hopefully we will see a lot more of them. Maybe they will find a few new friends who might also venture to Spain occasionally with them.
Below are a few more pictures of people that caught my eye.

Frances, our secretary and Kerry are very regular attenders at the club. Cheryl usually comes with Jessica but today was on her own, looking very elegant.
Danni came a few weeks ago after a long absence. Life is just too busy for her these days.
Julia is an independent girl but still pops in occasionally to meet her friends.

The tickets for the Sparkle buffet, we are running here at the Rem, are now available. Please see the Sparkle page on this website for details of how to pay.
Linda is again running a clothing sale on the Sparkle Saturday and we have agreed to help collect the clothes for it. The management of the Rembrandt have set up two cupboards in their basement which we can use for storage of any clothes that people bring to donate to the sale. So we are now able to start accepting these clothes, but please make sure they are clean before you bring them. Any money raised will be donated to Charity.
Finally, I have set up a thread on the Forum asking for volunteers who would be willing to enter the "Volleyball" competition that is going to be run on the Saturday of the Sparkle weekend in an area in the park across the road. We would like to set up at least one team of four people to represent Manchester Concord. So far at least 26 people have read the thread but no-one has yet volunteered to play. I hope we can do better than that.

Easter bonnet contestants

Susie is one of our stalwarts who comes along most weeks and takes part in everything. Millie is fairly new to the club but is also someone who enjoys taking part. Before joining the club she went to many other social events where she was the only TV and found that she was accepted very well and was able to take a full part in the events. She is a good role model for many of us.
This evening started off quietly but we then built up throughout the evening, finishing up very busy.

I was pleased to see Rachael again. She visited us from Kent three weeks ago and now she has come back on a holiday visit to the area and was happy to come again this week. I was also delighted to meet Rachael Hamond again who came in with a TV friend in male mode who used to come many years ago. He was another person who had been wondering why the NC meetings had stopped and had been disappointed at not knowing where to go. Rachael is a very successful TS and is happy to offer image consultancy advice to other TS's or TV's. I have her number if anyone is interested.
Four more people joined the club this evening, Heather, Vanessa, Debbie and Nicola so welcome to them.

Last week there was "Ladies" day at Aintree and our adventurous member Paula went along for the full experience with her partner and a friend for company. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves as can be seen in the following photos and Paula tells me that she even appeared fleetingly on the six o'clock News that evening.

Pauline and Alison shown on the left are now settling in to their new role as members of the committee, sharing the job of looking after the door with Tina who is always here by 7 pm but has to go around 9 pm. They do the job between them most evenings now.

Lisa on the right, who is one of our most regular members is sitting comfortably before she goes out around the village with Paula and others.

Lisa

Sarah and Jeanette just happened to meet at the bar this evening but they make a very attractive pair. They are both very good looking. Jeanette has now been living and working as a girl for quite a long time.

Dee and Misha on the right, who run the TV shop "Dee Selecta" in Bolton had brought along Maria with them after she had spent several pleasurable hours in the shop having her make up done and trying on a selection of clothes. She highly recommends the experience.

Maria, Dee and Misha

Michaela on the right is one of our new committee members. She tells me that she bought this very elegant suit as one of a pair where the deal was buy one get one free. As the other suit also looked great I think she did alright.

Finally next week we are having out "Easter Bonnet" competition and I hope some of you are working on taking part as I have been disappointed by the small number of free hats we had to give away that were taken. I just hope that some of you have already got your own hats. I am looking forward to being pleasantly surprised.

Michela

Wednesday 1st April 2009

Team from the National Trans Police Association

We had a visit today from the members of the National Trans Police Association, NTPA, who were up in Manchester for a conference and were interested in meeting members of the Trans community like ourselves.
The photo on the left shows, from left to right Bernie, our local police contact for all trans related problems, Dru, Steph, Martha and Alison. They are from all over the country, including Scotland, here to collectively discuss the processes the police need to use to enable them to properly deal with all trans people when they come in contact with the police. This includes members of the public and people who are being questioned, etc.

I was able to have a long conversation with Steph who is herself a trans person and has been involved with the police, first as a civilian employee and later as an officer for several years now. She has been very encouraged by the attitude of the senior people at the Met who have enabled her to get involved with helping to devise and specify the rules and training needed for the police, to ensure that they handle trans people properly, as the law now demands. Groups, such as the one visiting us today, are an extension of the work she has been doing in London where they are trying to ensure that all police forces round the country work to the same standards. We wish them all every success. Thank you Bernie for bringing them along.

Brydie, on the far right, was pleased to tell me that she has now been selected to do jury service in Manchester.

Brydie

Jayne, on the left, is one of the original members of Northern Concord, way back 23 years ago, who left the club soon after it started and has now decided to come back on the scene after all this time. We are delighted to see her and there has been a lot of reminiscing going on especially between her and Bev who does the Ladies who lunch on Saturdays in the village.

Kirsty, on the right, is now back working again, fully recovered, after her surgery in Thailand. As you can see she is looking superb and is very happy with the outcome. It is great to see such confidence after going through so much to get to where she is now.

Kirsty

I would like to welcome both Sarah, on the left and Kelly, on the right, who joined us for the first time tonight and have signed up to be members straight away. Thank you both.
Kelly was encouraged to come along by Dee who had talked to her quite a lot on TVchix beforehand.
Dee takes great pleasure in trying to encourage new people to come along and enjoy themselves.

Finally can I remind you that we are having an Easter Bonnet competition in two weeks time on April 15. Please see the coming events page for details.

Kelly

Alison

Pauline

Jessica and Cindy

Rachael is a visitor from Kent who joined us for the first time this evening. She has been venturing out now for about 18 months and is really enjoying herself.
Millie on the right joined us a few weeks ago now and has quickly got into a visiting routine. She is a very adventurous girl attending lots of events all dressed up as the only TV there and being accepted wherever she goes. I was very impressed when she showed me all her photos.

Sarah Louise & Karen

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