Halloween: After action report

Halloween was fun, but as ever, there's always a little bit of drama you can't avoid.

Arriving to pick up my friend on the way, I find she has been locked out of home. Her parents had gone out, she hadn't aken her keys, and they were late back. We wait for half an hour or so, before giving up, and heading to the party. I figure we can come back later to pick up her costume befre we all get dressed and head to the pub. Fortunately the reason she was out in the first place was to buy party food. So at least we had that.

Arriving at the hosts, we find the wind-down of the children's party earlier. Her two are running about excitedly, and there's a very smal child being looked after by a relative. This was mostly fun. We just sat in the other room, chatted to the host and some other friends, scoffed doritos, and chilled out while the kids tired themselves out and watched Jungle Junction (What a wierd show that is!)

My friend tries to cal her parents several times, but they aren't answering. Also we get a phone cal from the babysitters who are on the way, but are running late!

After while we decide it's time to start getting ready. Those that can start getting dressed, we pool our resources and the host's wardrobe to scrounge up a costume for my friend, and we wait for the late-comer to arrive.

This is my costume. The corset didn't look right, so I'm glad I packed the fishnet t-shirt!


Eventually we have everyone present and correct, the kids are with the sitters, and we are all ready to go. So we take the walk to the pub, and wave at the revellers, and parent taking kids home from trick-or-treating.

The band we went to see - Monkey Island - were pretty cool, and we met some fun folks there. I think I made the night of a shy girl when I asked if her outfit was a costume or just incredibly stylish. Turns out it wasn't a costume, and she seemed quite pleased (but a little embrarrased) to be complimented :)

Sadly the pub also had the ex of one of our party, so there was tension and drama. And then more tension and drama later when a different couple that was with us had a bit of a row because one of them was the ex of another member of our happy little bunch. Can't people just put things aside and have fun one night of the year? *sigh*

The evening wasn't a complte loss though, and we moved on to another pub, via the host's to change shoes (we we're all regretting wearing heels) and drop off those too tired to continue) We saw another band there - The Divide - who were cool, but a bit heavy for my mood on the night.

We also chatted to a lonely looking Alice Cooper look-a-like. Which was a mistake, as the guy was clearly strung out on an illegal substance. Fortunately we left before he became too twitchy.

We stayed for the last song, then went back to the hosts via the kebab shop. And then came removing the costumes, and sleep (and me finding out I am too tall to sleep comfortably on a sofa!)

In the morning, we finaly found out my friends parents had decided not to come back until much later that evening. They though she had her keys!

More pictures of the night are on my Facebook profile, but they are friends only. Sorry!

"And Now I'm Back; From Outer Space!"

I haven't blogged for absolutely ages, because nothing of interest or importance has been going on in my life. But in just seven days time it's Halloween! The tranny's favourite holiday!

Well-over a year ago I had a play at cybergoth. It was a bit half arsed, but the acrylic yarn hair-falls worked out pretty well. (photo here). I then revisited the look again for my birthday drinkies that year (photo here) , swapping out the blue yarn for some red, adding a black PVC longcoat and some bright red tights and eye-shadow. It was much more successful.

This year for Halloween I'm stepping up the look with more accessories. I've aqcuired some bright pink yarn, and re-threaded the hair-falls; I found some day-glo pink eye-shadow in Beaujangles; a friend gave me some old black and pink stripy arm-warmers, and chipped in with the girls of my gaming group to snag me a black and pink corset from the Ann Summers sale; and most important of all, I've bought some pink faux fur!

Why have I bought fur you may well ask? Good question. The answer is because all the goth/club/rave shops in the city sell furry boot covers but they are all teeny-tiny and far too expensive. Fortunately Sew Mee had a tutorial on their site (which is currently missing, presumed lost. Grrr) and I picked up some almost eye-meltingly bright pink fur during the week. Luckily I also have a Mum who is a dab hand with a sewing machine, and is looking for things to keep her busy. So today we did lots of measuring, tacking, cutting and sewing. I still need some black ribbon to tie them off at the knee, but they are mostly finished.

I can't wait to see how the yokels will react when we go out on the night! Although I am a little concerned I may have gone a bit overboard for a fancy dress party... Nah, stuff it, I haven't had a chance to be fabulous in yonks!

*Post title is from Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and is a homage to Lynn's blog YATGB

Out of the mouths of babes...

One of my best mates has a two year old daughter who is very perceptive. She's never met Pandora, and we don't discuss her (except in third person) around said daughter. However my friend was on Messenger chatting with me the other day, and her daughter asked who she was chatting with.

"Uncle Bob*," said my friend. Whereupon her daughter gave her a look to say "I love you mummy but you are very dim" and told her in no uncertain terms that she mean Auntie Bob*. Naturally she relayed this to me, and we fell about laughing for quite some time.

*=Not my actual name but you get the idea:)

Pride

So as you will have seen from the local press, Norwich finally had its first Pride event. And despite much faff, I got to attend properly.

For the months before I'd had a posse of interested folks. But as the time drew nearer things kept cropping up. Conflicting events (who organises two Pride marches on the same day? ;) ), lack of babysitters, no transport, and assorted other things meant that I very nearly gave the whole thing up as a bad job. And even until the day proper I was resigned to going in drab.

Fortunately the day itself was bright and sunny, and this both cheered me up, and boosted my confidence. After a quick call to make sure my best mate was cool with me attending en femme, I got ready. "Practical" was my goal, so denim shorts and this awesome white T-shirt from Yours were teamed with opaque tights and trainers. I even took my only large practical handbag stocked with bottled water and sunblock. With a smile on my face, and head held high I headed to my car, and then to the city.

Arriving at my mate's I was informed that she was looking after her daughter that day. And after much hoo-haa she finally turned up. Her first reaction was a polite nod and then getting on with her own stuff. Then came the open mouth and pointing. Then the "You're wearing girls clothes." This very quickly gave way to amused compliments, and lots of questions on where I got my bag, and my top, and what I used for breasts; and finally just dealing with it and chatting away as normal. Bless her ;)

The events were pretty cool. There were all sorts of stall inside The Forum with info and things to buy. Nice to see the local constabulary and unions getting involved. It was also amusing to see the emo kids that usually crowd the steps had to move a little to the left because of all the LGBT people enjoying the entertainment, and just relaxing.

We had a quick shopping and food break midday, where I managed to out myself to an old friend, and got very polite and friendly service in Burger King. We also spotted that the castle in the centre of the city was flying the rainbow flag in honour of pride.

And then it was time for the picnic. We met up with some of my mate's friends (and family) in the park, and just relaxed watching the more adventurous people's costumes. Sadly outside factors meant we couldn't stay for the march itself, but we saw everyone forming up ready. And surprisingly the Lord Mayor herself who had agreed to lead the parade to show the City supported the march.

Overall it was a fun day, helped by the good weather in a week when it had been very changeable. And for those with next year's diary already, the next Pride event will be on Saturday 31st July 2010.

Afterthought: As I arrived home I saw my new neighbour. As he was busy with something, I blanked him. I don't think he recognised me, but its hard to tell. He hasn't mentioned it anyway.

"Feed me Seymour"

So the little Venus Fly Traps are progressing slowly but surely. You can now make out the tiny, soon to be hungry, mouths. But even a midge would be too much for them at the moment!

They're still in their terrarium and original pot. They are still too tiny to transplant.

"But you cannot make her think"

The Venus Flytrap now has three, or possibly four buds. It's still in its protective terrarium, because the buds are still tiny, but I have managed to photograph them.

Behold:




If you want a larger, more detailed picture, the Flickr version is here

Today's title courtsey of Dorothy Parker. When challenged to make an epigram on the subject of "horticulture", she replied, "You can lead a whore to culture, but you cannot make her think!"

Green fingers

Two weeks ago I planted a packet of seeds for a Venus Fly Trap. They were tiny little black things smaller than the grains of fine sand they were packed with. I didn't hold out much hope though. When my brother tried to grow one, the whole packet of seeds failed to sprout.

So the pot has been sitting on my kitchen windowsill in a plastic bag, in a tray of water for a fortnight. And I've just had a look at the compost through the bag. Looks like there is some green fuzz and a single green bud! It's tiny (about a millimetre) but it's poking up above the soil. In another two to four weeks it should be ready to come out of the bag. Maybe even to re-pot, who knows.

I'm actually quite excited about it.

There will be pictures once it's out of the bag.

I can haz qualifications?

Apologies for the lolspeak, but I now have confirmation that I passed my NCFE 2* in Equality and Diversity. An actual, physical, certificate is ETA unknown, but I am now qualified to stroke my chin and declare, "I think this may be discriminatory!" :)

I've also started the coursework on my NCFE 3 (Managing Diversity). This comes with the cheering news that our E+D head honcho is pushing for us to get some (financial) recognition for our extra duties. Yay for us!

I think I'll pass on throwing my weight around on TG forums claiming to know everything about discrimination/human rights though. I've learned enough to know its a very tricky subject, and that it's always a good idea to seek further guidance before stating something as fact!

*=equivalent to a GCSE or NVQ2