The News Page 10
May to August 2008
Last October I got engaged to my now wife Meredith, so a good deal of the middle third of 2008 has been taken up planning our wedding and getting her a visa so she could live in the Uk, so there has not been a great deal of Nicola time.
However I still managed to get out for a couple of events both of which were great nights.
Sat 7th June Hen Night
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As the wedding was fast approaching the gurls decided that I should have a hen night, and whilst I looked forward to a night out, I did not really want a drunken night out that involved wearing silly costumes and strippers.
We came to a compromise in that we agreed to go for a meal and then on to the Way Out Club. After a bit of searching we eventually found a restaurant that looked good and then sent an email to my friends, unfortunately a few of them were away or were unable to make the chosen date. However I did manage to find about 10 gurls who fancied going out.
On the day I managed to get an appointment with my hairdresser, as I stepped out of my flat there was a guy there hired by the managing agents painting the interior walls. I had seen him earlier in the week so we said hello. Once I got to the hairdressers I decided to try something different to the usual curly look that I tend to go for on my nights out. Amanda and I chose a straighter style which had a few flicks in it. I then returned to flat, but as I arrived back there the painter was still there and he gave me a very strange look as I walked past him back into my flat.
The next thing for me to decide was what to wear and as I was trying not to spend to much money, so I wore a next dress that I worn on several previous occasions, but luckily nobody commented that they seen it before. As it was quite a big night out for me I asked Nas to do my make up, so once I had packed my bag it was back out again (no painter this time) to Nas’s house. Nas was also doing the make up for a few of the other gurls, and I believe for the first time in history we actually ran to schedule and even made it to the restaurant in time for our booking
The restaurant was called the Wapping Project and as the name suggests it is in Wapping, it’s an old pump station and there are still working parts inside. The table that was reserved for us was slap bang in the middle on a raised platform so all eyes were on us as we walked in. I made sure I sat down in a ladylike fashion with my knees together.
Prior to ordering our food we all started off with a cocktail which were very nice, as its been a while I cant remember exactly what I ordered, but remember we passed our cocktails round. The food menu was very extensive but again a few beers have been drunk since the event and the memory aint what it used to be, so I can’t tell you what I had to eat. I think it may have been duck, but I remember the food was very good and the waitress was very attentative, at the end of the meal I was given a cake to celebrate my special occasion.
After dinner we decided to move on to the Way Out Club, which is only a few miles from the restaurant, and luckily we all managed to fit in one big taxi. Inside the club we met up with some other old faces that I had not seen for sometime, and so the next few hours were spent drinking, talking and dancing away until 4am. It was then time to go home, I shared a taxi with Rebecca, it’s always great in a taxi with Rebecca as she knows all the back doubles and short cuts, and she was soon directing the cabbie home.
I believe I got home around 5am and after removing my make up I hit the sack and woke up about 10.30. I had been doing a bit of running at this time, so decided to run over to Nas’s house to pick up my car this is about an 8.5 mile run, with a lot of the run being uphill. I didn’t feel brilliant on the run, but was pleased to finish, however when I got there I realised I had forgotten the key for my car steering lock, so I was going nowhere. Nas had gone out for the day, I eventually managed to find a taxi to take me home and then back again with my keys. However it does not end there, because when I got back and into the car the battery was flat and the car would not start so I had to call out the breakdown service to get my car started and I eventually got home around 3pm and went back to bed.
Sat 19th July British Airways Ball
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My good friend Nas is an employee of British Airways and told us all about the summer ball and asked if we were interested in going, well asking a tranny if she wants to buy a posh dress and go to a ball, you are only ever going to get one answer.
The ball was going to take place at one of the hotels close to Heathrow Airport and there was a good deal in getting overnight accommodation, so I decided to book a room so that I would not have to worry about driving home. Nas managed to get about eight gurls interested in going so she was in for a busy day with make up and getting everyone ready.
I arranged to have my hair styled at my usual salon before going to the hotel, which meant I was driving around the M25 with a lovely head of curls, getting strange looks from everyone that drove past me. I got even stranger looks well I checked into the hotel, but hey a gurls gotta do these things and after getting more room keys, I unpacked and went to see how the Nas production line was progressing. She was going along quite well with the make up and had a friend of hers helping out with the hair. However my allotted time was not for another hour so I went back to my room, propped my self up with the pillows so not mess my hair and went to sleep for an hour.
An hour later it was my allotted time and I sat in the chair whilst Nas did my make up and then her friends mum helped me to put a bit more life back into my hair. Once this was over it was time to go back into my room and get dressed. I had a new dress to wear which I had recently purchased, it was black so all my accessories, shoes, bag, stockings etc were also black. I must have been one of the last to get ready because about 30 minutes after I was finally ready the gurls were knocking on my door and dragging me off to the Champagne reception. It was the usual thing all day the lifts were free in the hotel, but as soon as a tranny steps in a lift it stops on every floor and everyone that gets in ends up starring at you. Hey I’m only a guy in a dress I don’t have two heads do I.!!!. We headed for a place away from most other people got ourselves a drink and chatted and made bitchy comments about some of the dresses worn by the real girls, not half as good as ours.
Eventually a few people did come over and chat to us, but only very briefly before making a hasty retreat, after a second drink all of our group including Nas were now all at the Champagne reception and ready to go into dinner. I suppose the only good thing about the reception, when Nas had arrived she knew someone collecting the tickets and had asked them where her gurls were. The person collecting the tickets admitted to not seeing a group of trannies enter. So we must have convinced someone.
We then moved into the dining area where because of the size of our group we had two almost complete tables, considering how many they were catering for I thought the food was pretty good, and as we were very close to the kitchen we were the first to be served with each course. However unlike most balls we have been on no wine was provided which meant we had to keep the waitress busy with trips back to the bar to get us more bottles.
Throughout the time we were eating the meal there were various entertainment routines and a couple of films shown to support the charity, but unfortunately where we positioned it made it very difficult to see both the big screen or the dance floor where the entertainment took place. However as most of the entertainment was singers we survived by just listening to them. After the meal was over there was an auction followed by more entertainment and by this time we were up and moving about and some people and even come over and complimented us on our dresses and the like.
Outside the main ball room there was a casino area with a bar and I spent a bit of time out there with Tess and Michaela putting the world to rights, before we returned to the main ball room where by this time the dancing had started. After a few more drinks nearly all of us were up on the dance floor and even with the pain of the heels we were all intent on dancing the night away, with the occasional stop for a glass more of wine.
Unfortunately by about two in the morning the wine was beginning to catch up with us and slowly at first we began to slip off into the night. By about 2.45 I was out on my heels and went off to bed, after taking off my make up I gingerly went to bed, but the room was not spinning too much and I even managed to get up around 10am next morning to meet everyone for breakfast before driving home.