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Mary's Blog |
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I
would first of all, on behalf of Manchester Concord, like to thank
Bella Jay and all her behind the scenes team for putting together
another fabulous weekend. Now lets talk about Manchester Concord. What a successful weekend we had. First of all our fantastic Volleyball team who won every game they played to come out as overall winners against three other teams. Two from Repartee and one from Tranny International. It just showed what a bit of practise can achieve, but this also added to the enjoyment for the team members. Team captain Michaela with Jay, Samantha, Sarah and Tanya. Their kit was sponsored and supplied by Dee Selecta, so thanks very much Dee. |
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The winning Team |
Team Hug and Concentration |
Real effort |
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The weekend started for some of us at a small party at Transfixed, hosted by Lisa and Zara, where they were offering free nail treatments etc as part of the fun. Thank you very much Lisa and Zara it was very much appreciated and great fun to get us in the mood. Elaine and I then spent Friday morning rushing around transporting all the clothes etc, donated by club members and the staff of the Rembrandt, up to Taurus where Linda's sale was being held on the Saturday afternoon. This sale raised over £430 for Macmillan Nurses so was well worth the effort by all concerned. Elaine spent most of Saturday morning and afternoon helping there, which was why she was unable to help in the park. On
Friday afternoon, the Sparkle introductory get together was held
in the upstairs bar of the Rembrandt. Several of our committee
members including Alison and Elaine were there along with Jenny-Anne
and her helpers with lots of leaflets etc to hand out to anyone
that came. Vida had come to my house earlier in the week to select
pictures and take master copies, for the display stands we wished
to use in the park on Saturday. She then worked these up into
two displays and rushed down to Stockport to get them made by
Staples early on Friday afternoon. She deliverd them to us in
the Rembrandt at 14:45 that afternoon so that we could fix them
up there as well, to inform the visitors about Manchester Concord.
They looked very professional and are helping to give the right
impression about us. So Thank you Vida for your fantastic effort
in getting them produced. They will now be available for any other
events we attend needing publicity. |
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The
bar filled up throughout the afternoon creating a great atmosphere,
with many new people coming in and enquiring about our club. I spoke
to one newcomer, who was out for the first time, wondering what
he was going to do as he needed somewhere to change, but could only
stay for the rest of the friday because he had other committments.
I suggested that he booked in to the chinese meal for that evening
with Jenny-Anne and then offered the use of my Hotel room as a changing
place because it was just across the road from the ShangHai restaurant
where the meal takes place. His femme name is Melissa and she came
across with myself and Bev, to the meal and had a very enjoyable
evening. Bev and I wished to leave the meal before Melissa to go
walk about so I gave her a spare key to the room and left her to
get changed in time to catch her train home. When I got back much
later in the evening I found she had left me a lovely thank you
note and says she will see us again very soon. So Thank you Melissa
I enjoyed your company.
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Melissa |
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Our display tent |
Jay, Samantha, Mary,Vanessa, Miranda & Cheryl |
Vanessa and Claire |
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Cheryl and Claire |
Frances and Kate Park view |
Miranda |
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Next,
let us turn to the park and our display tent.It is shown in the
top left and gives a view of the two display boards produced by
Vida. The other pictures show a few of the people that helped look
after it. The Park view gives some small idea of how busy the park
got in the afternoon and Miranda, on the end, gave me many of the
photos I have included here, so thank you Miranda. Claire shown
with Cheryl was rather nervous about looking after the tent, before
the event but was persuaded to take part. Afterwards she wrote to
me and said how much she enjoyed it and could she do two hours next
year. So well done Claire. 18 people agreed to do a one hour stint
during the afternoon, in pairs and I think they all enjoyed it,
so thank you to you all. Many people came and talked to us during
the afternoon and I think we will get quite a few new members over
the next few weeks as a result.
Also a big thank you to Alison, Dee and the others who helped to dismantle the tent at the end and bring all the kit back to the Rem. I couldn't resist taking a photo of Sarah Louise as she had made a real effort. There were fewer people dressed to kill this year and I am sorry Bev but I failed to get a photo of your fantastic wedding outfit. |
Sarah Louise |
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Brad and Vicky |
Marianne |
Vida, Marianne and Brad |
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AnneMarie |
Now,
lets turn to the Saturday evening. Excellent food, wonderful company
and superb musical entertainment at the end. What more could we
ask for. |
Bev |
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Finally,
on Sunday I attended the meal in Villagio, which was excellent with
over 80 people there. It was another opportunity to talk with a
different set of people and was very interesting. Afterwards I spent
the rest of the day around canal street and was rather disappointed
to find so few people still out enjoying themselves. The best entertainment
was provided by "The Gay Gordons" scottish Dancing team
who performed in the street outside Taurus Bar with Polly encouraging
many of the audience to get up and dance in his usual ebullient
manner.
In the evening I went back to Taurus to eat and met up with some of the members of the National Trans Police Association and we had a meal together. Another opportunity to get to know them better. |
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This
evening turned out to be very busy indeed, with some people already
getting into the Sparkle spirit and planning to stay in Manchester
until at least Sunday. The three ladies below left, Georgina, Emily
and Julia have visited us a few times now and enjoyed each visit
so much that they have now decided to join Manchester Concord. This
brings our membership up to 256 after 15 months. As we very rarely
take memberships outside the club meetings this means that almost
all of them have visited us in that time. Jayne on the right with
Sarah has now got herself a new wig and this one really suits her
so I couldn't resist showing it.
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Georgina, Emily and Julia |
Sarah and Jayne |
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Lisa |
Lisa on the left found this new skirt the other day and was very pleased to find that it colour matched the pattern in an old blouse she had. This is part of the fun to be had while looking around for new clothes, making up new outfits from a mixture of clothes. Maybe we should ask Gok Wan to give us some help. That would be fun but too much exposure, I think. Tina on the right also enjoys getting clothes from different places and putting them together and I think she is just as successful as she always appears in a different outfit each time she comes to the club. |
Tina |
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Brydie |
Brydie
on the left also always tries to come out in something different
and manages to find most of her clothes in the various markets she
goes to around Manchester. I think the dark stockings with the white
skirt look good.
The two real girls I have my arms around in the picture on the right are friends. Lana's mother owns the Thai Gift Shop that is opposite the end of Sackville street. This shop has almost every thing a girl needs like makeup, clothes and hairdressing, but unfortunately it is going to close soon, as her mother wishes to retire. Lana had come to visit us to arrange to have a stall in the park on Saturday, which sadly she had to cancel later. But it is well worth visiting the shop as everything is now being sold off at a discount before it closes. Her friend Mei Ling teaches Yoga and is willing to teach some of us if we are interested. |
Lana, Mary & Mei |
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Carol |
This
club is all about people. It was lovely to meet Carol again. She
hasn't been for about two years as her job takes her away from home
for much of the time, but when she does come along, she cheers up
the world around her and helps to make us all feel good.
Emma, on the right, is one of our most regular members and has now been living full time for around 9 months and getting more confident every day. It is very nice to see her slowly coming out of her shell and growing into a confident woman. She has been greatly helped by Pauline offering her a home to rent where she is among friends. |
Emma |
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I
was also delighted to meet Helen again, who was brought along by
Shirley and Debbie. I last saw her at Joanne's funeral eighteen
months ago, having first met her here at the club twenty years earlier.
She has been living as Helen for many years now and is enjoying
her retirement. A photo is not appropriate.
Lexi came in during the evening for the first time for several weeks and we were very glad to see her looking so well, because the last we had heard, she was suffering from depression and wanting to kill herself. She says it was probably caused by the combination of pills she had been prescribed and she has now changed what she takes and is feeling very much better. All transsexuals do need to be very careful about what they take, especially early on in their treatment, while their bodies get used to the real changes that take place. |
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Jay |
Jay,
on the left, is one of our volley ball team who are all going
for a practice in a park on Saturday to prepare for the competition
next weekend at Sparkle. Their uniforms are almost ready and I
think they are all getting excited about it now. The team captain
is Michaela and then we have Sarah, Jay, Samantha, Tanya and Jessica
making up the squad. Only 4 play at any one time but they can
change in to take turns at playing. |
Mary and Elaine |
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Daniella |
Janine(Petra) and Susan |
Rihanna |
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Daniella
is enjoying herself with different kinds of clothes. Janine above
has now decided she wishes to change her name to Petra and along
with the other girls shown had outfits that were very suitable
for this weather. Rihanna, perhaps took it to extremes, but it
was warm enough and she is able to carry it off with confidence.
What it is to be young. Please note:- we are not hiring room one at the Rembrandt for the weekend for use as a changing room because it is too difficult to manage it in the Hotel environment. The alternatives that are possible are to use the room at Taurus, which will be available but only has 6 lockers to keep clothes in. The use of this space and the lockers is free. OR you will need to make friends with someone who has a hotel room available that you can use. There are so many people staying locally that most people should be able to find somewhere. |
| White Dress Evening |
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Millie and Alison |
As tonight was our white dress evening I was pleased to be greeted by these two ladies Millie and Alison when I first came in the door. I couldn't then resist including this picture of Millie in her full length gown looking very elegant. Very early in the evening we met Lisah who is visiting us from California and she tells us that we may see a lot more of her this year as she is coming over every few weeks on business. She was very quickly at home with us as she is such an outgoing personality. She is shown below on the left. |
Millie |
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Lisah |
Paula and Lisa and Lisa |
Jenny |
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Milli and Mary |
As you can see we are starting to get more people with similar names with Lisa becoming very popular. I
am glad to see Milli popping in more often now. The pictures shown are all the ones I managed to get of people on their own. At about 9:15 we took all the people in white outfits out into the park across the canal and took a couple of group photos shown below. We tried get everyone to swap places from front to back between the two pictures so that every one is shown clearly. |
Elaine and Michelle |
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Nic |
Frances |
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Below are the two group photos we took out in the park. I have left them as large as possible so that people can be seen better. I would be interested to know if anyone is able to name everyone in these pictures. |
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PS the new owner "Drew" of The Village Rooms, across the road from the Rembrandt, which are now called Eazysleep at www.eazysleep.net has been in touch and is offering newly decorated en-suite rooms next week only for £30, after that they will be £35 to all our members. I received the letter below from Hazel, so am delighted to include it here along with the photos she supplied. |
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Hi
Mary. |
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Lynne, Sarah and Jayne |
Lynne,
shown on the left with Sarah and Jayne came for the first time to
Manchester as Lynne on Monday and is staying till Thursday. She
has already been out shopping and had a meal on Tuesday evening
in Taurus with Vanessa. She was staying in the Britannia and says
she was very well treated there.
Clare on the right has been once before and has now joined. |
Clare |
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Jessica |
Jessica
shown here stays over in the flat used by Julie at Frillies and
came in this evening looking really stunning. Her makeup was done
by Julie and I just wanted to show the enlarged picture here to
show how well it has been done. |
Jessica |
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Frances |
Lee and Kate |
Cheryl |
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Frances,
above, came in wearing her new top that she had bought on Saturday
from Dee Selecta where she spent a very pleasant time being shown
round and then finding some clothes she really liked. She was very
enthusiastic about the way she was treated by Dee and Mischa and
we have now put an entry on our recommendations page for Dee Selecta.
Lee, who is the girl doing her thesis about transvestism in the village, came in looking very goth so I couldn't resist taking a photo. Kate only manages to get here very occasionally but enjoys herself when she can. Cheryl told me that she got this dress from ebay and it turned out not to be exactly as she expected, but she is now pleasantly surprised at how well it looks. |
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Courtannay |
The three girls on the right Melanie, Jane and Gigi all like similar kinds of music and now go out together when they can. Jane is living on her own and Melanie now shares a house with Gigi. Courtannay on the left has been coming to Concord occasionally for several years now, but finally decided to join last week. So welcome Courtannay I hope we can encourage you to get out more and make some friends. |
Melanie, Jane and Gigi |
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Zoe |
Zoe on the left always manages to look the tops. She doesn't manage to get out very often because of her work, but when she does she goes to town and makes a real effort. Brydie was looking very relaxed today having been out doing a bit of shopping and found this very up to date puffy skirt in the market for a reasonable price. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show it as well as it could have done. I should have taken it from a lower angle. |
Brydie |
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Finally, please dont forget that next week is our WHITE DRESS NIGHT and it would be fun to get a big crowd together out in the park across the canal to get a proper group photo. Lets hope the weather is better than this week was. Also, keep the clothes coming for Linda's sale at Sparkle. We can store them at the REM until that weekend. |
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Tina |
This evening was just an ordinary club night with nothing special laid on but we still managed to get over 50 people come along. These numbers do have the effect of creating a very pleasant atmosphere with quite a buzz about the place. Tina on the left is now one of our regular committee girls who help to look after the door along with Alison, Pauline, Michaela and Francis. It is good to see more people getting involved with running the club. Tina is now off for three weeks on two holidays one after the other with only a day between them. She is an inveterate traveller, who also manages to pick up new clothes and shoes when she is away. Jill on the right was passing through Manchester on her way to spend a few days in Blackpool which she does at least once a year. |
Jill |
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Two views of Lisa's outfit |
I couldn't resist showing these two views of Lisa's outfit. She has got the colour matching spot on. Lisa is now one of our most regular attenders, hardly missing a week. She has made good friends with Julie at frillies and gets changed there most weeks. Liz on the right doesn't come very often but when she does she is very noticeable. I hadn't realised till I took the photo how much taller she is than Brydie |
Liz and Brydie |
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Danielle and Miranda and Vanessa |
Paula and Samantha |
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Danielle
above is slowly coming out of her shell and Miranda and Vanessa
have been expanding their horizons going out on wednesday afternoons
into Manchester to visit places of interest such as the Manchester
Art Gallery.
Paula has been doing more of her charity work, collecting money for Breast Cancer relief. She tells me that when she was out the other day with her collecting bucket, a lady, who had been watching her, came up and said to her, you aren't just doing this for charity are you? You just look too good with everything about you just right. Paula gave her a grin and said thank you very much. So you cant hide behind the "collecting for charity" idea if you dress too well, not that Paula was bothered. Samantha on the end is one of our Volleyball team and we now have a fifth person J who has volunteered. Sharron came along for the first time this evening with her partner Karen and they both had an enjoyable time, with Sharron becoming a member before they left. |
Sharron |
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On
Saturday evening I went to the monthly meal out in the village being
run by Bev. This time there were 20 people attending the meal in
Eden Bar and a good time was had by all. There were several new
people there who dont find it easy to come along on wednesdays but
can make the weekend venues, so these meals out are usefully extending
the benefits of the club. Thank you Bev for the work you do.
On the Sunday lunchtime I met up with Dianne and some of the new people for a bite of lunch in Taurus bar before going on the see the girls Lisa and Zara at Transfixed where we spent a pleasant afternoon. |
Dianne and Mary outside Taurus |
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1. Linda is again running a clothes sale in the downstairs room at Taurus as detailed on the advertisement on the right. The Rembrandt Hotel have allocated some storage cupboards that we can use to store any clothes you bring along to the club before Sparkle. So, if you have some good condition clothes that you are willing to give to help Linda raise money for the Macmillan Nurses, then please bring them along as soon as possible. |
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2. We are running a buffet here in the Rembrandt on the saturday evening and all the details are on our Sparkle page. There are still plenty of tickets left but we need to know before much longer, how many people will be coming, so can you please buy any tickets you want as soon as possible. 3. Manchester Concord is having a stand in the park on the Sparkle Saturday from 12pm till 6 pm approx. I would like to have at least two people from the club in attendance between these hours. I am suggesting that no one should be expected to stay on the stand for more than one hour so this will require 12 people at least to fully cover it. I would now like to ask for volunteers to please email me to say when they could be available and we will work out a rota before the day. Thank you all in anticipation. |
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This
evening we had the pleasure of the company of Anne who makes her
own jewellery and her friend Michelle who came along to support
her. Anne is a long time friend of Steffie who had asked if she
could come along to sell her products. She brought along a large
variety of artefacts most of which she had made herself. Her prices
are exceedingly reasonable as she does this as a hobby and is really
only trying to break even. We have already arranged that she comes
back again on the 22nd of July so if you are interested in reasonably
priced jewellery then remember that date. I will put her email address
and phone number on the links page so if you would like to see her
before then, get in touch.
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anjas.jewellery@live.com |
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Her
friend Michelle is a beauty therapist who works in Manchester and
she is going to come along on the same evening in July and do a
demonstration makeover. Her details will also be on the links page.
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Danielle |
Danielle on the left has come back to the club after a long absence and I am really pleased to see her now looking so well and much less stressed. She tells me that she is coming out of her shell and we can expect to see a lot more of her. Mandy on the right,( I hope I have the name right) was on an overnight visit from York and was here for the first time, so welcome Mandy. As she left towards the end of the evening she assured me that she would be back very soon, so we must have made a good impression. |
Mandy |
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Michaela |
Michaela shown here looking very swish in two different guises has agreed to be the captain of the club's Voleyball team that will take part in the games at Sparkle. She is already hot on the trail of items to make up the outfits the team will wear. You will have to wait till then before we unveil them The team we have at present consists of Michaela, Sarah, Samantha and Tanya. We need four players to enter but I would like to have a fifth in reserve, so if anyone else is willing to volunteer we would be delighted to have them. |
Michaela |
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Sarah Kane |
Another
new visitor to the club was Sarah Kane on the left who came in wearing
this very striking outfit. She has been out in the village for some
time now but this was the first time here on a wednesday evening.
I hope we see more of her.
The two girls shown on the right are both long time members of Northern Concord who have not been to the club here for perhaps two years now. They had arranged to meet here this evening and spent most of the time talking to each other catching up with their lives. At the end of the evening they both agreed to join Manchester Concord so hopefully we will see more of them. |
Susan and Millie |
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But Susan has been working in London for the last few years on a
contract which has now finished, so at present she is free. When
she starts a new contract this may take her away again so there
may be another long gap. She was telling me that she had tried to
encourage other TV's in London to start a group similar to ours
but had no luck in persuading enough people to get involved. London
is so large that travelling becomes a problem wherever you try to
set up a base. This makes me realise just how lucky we are in Manchester.
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This
evening we had designated as a Partners night, when we had advertised
that we wished to encourage members to bring along their partners
so that they could see what our evenings are like and to meet other
partners in a sociable situation. Altogether 8 couples attended
during the evening and as a small token of our appreciation the
club gave each partner a fresh Red Rose. It was unfortunately a
rather quieter evening than usual, possibly due to the Manchester
united cup final that was being played in Italy. Even though it
was away, the city centre was still very busy with a lot of heavy
traffic.
I would be very interested to hear the reactions of any of our visitors to the evening. I did not take any photos with partners in them as we would not wish to show them on this public website, so the rest of this blog will just refer to other people who came along. |
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Brydie |
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Rachel |
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Catherine Anne |
Catherine
Anne on the left came along right at the beginning of the evening
for the very first time, having been encouraged by Elaine who met
her at a get together at Teela's near Chester. She was very excited
by the whole idea of the club with the opportunity it gives to express
herself as she wishes. She got taken out and shown round the village
quite quickly which she really enjoyed. |
Lisa |
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Fay |
Fay
on the left always manages to look really smart when she comes and
I couldn't resist taking this photo.
Next week Stffie's friend Anne is coming along to sell costume jewelry so if you are interested do come along. |
Rihanna |
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Link to previous Mary's Blog pages © copyright Manchester Concord 2009 |