June 24 2012 at Surrey Swans

There were about a dozen girls at the Surrey Swans meeting on June 24th.

As always it was really nice to chat and catch up on news.

The alternative t Surrey Swans on the day, was the England football match against Italy in the European championships. Early in the evening Sophie quipped she was glad to be be able to get along to the Swans as a good excuse not to suffer the agony of watching England play. How right she was … it was painful enough to hear what was happening during the penalty shoot out via mobile phones.

Here are a few pictures of people that were there.

First is Rozz, who has the extremely important role of taking orders for drinks and food. She’s served at the bar for quite a few months now. Her actual name begins with a U, but she says it’s really hard to pronounce. The necklace was a prize included in the raffle that we’d held earlier.

The raffle took a surprisingly long time … people kept winning second, even a third, prize and re-donating the prize for a re-draw. It went on and on …

Here’s Adrianne:

And Chelle and Linda:

And Christina who was visiting the Swans for the first time:

My dad is a transvestite …

The condensed version of the Listening Project interview that I mentioned here was broadcast on BBC Radio Berkshire (the Andrew Peach show) and BBC Radio Oxford (the Phil Gayle show) at about 7:50 am on Friday June 15th 2012. The whole thing is a little over four minutes long. The Radio Berkshire version of it is below if you’d like to listen. It provides some insight on how I told my daughter Katie about my being a transvestite and how she felt and feels about it. 

Katie talks with Andrea

A girlie kind of weekend

My wife, Sally, was away for the weekend, and so was Tina’s wife so we Tina and I planned a girlie weekend.

Arrived at home at about 6:15 pm on Friday to begin preparations before getting prepared. Washing dishes, feeding cats, printing out a driving route.

Phone plays its tune. Katie, my daughter, asks what I’m doing over the weekend. I mention Candygirls. She asks about Sunday and the possibility of visiting her on Fathers day. She’s busy, busy, busy revising for exams at the moment and Hammersmith isn’t far away. We plan a visit.

Phone plays again. Tina is setting off and will be here in half an hour.

Now the real preparations.

Almost 8:00 pm. Makeup is finished and I’m ready. Foundation. Silver and bronze shadow, black liner and mascara, red lips, pink rouge. Long polka dot dress.

Food. A trip to yell.com for a phone number. The man at The Blossoms of Windsor answers.

Sweet and sour chicken, chilli shredded beef, egg fried rice and prawn crackers.

Five minutes later we drive to The Blossoms to collect the food.

Soon after 9:00 pm I change … a shorter black dress. I pick up a bottle of wine and we’re on the road to Candygirls.

About 30 minutes later we’re there. Reception is deserted. Everyone’s watching football (England .v. Sweden).

We pay and head upstairs. Depositing the wine at the bar we have a small glass each. Quoting the number 33 later will provide us with refills.

The bar area is sparsely populated at first, but fills up once the football match is over.

Of course, we’re unable to avoid the lure of the dungeon. It took an amazingly long time to work out how the buckles on those wristbands worked. I checked the area for the absence of whips and paddles and hung around long enough for Tina to take the picture and unbind me.

 

Time flies.

2:00 am and it’s time for home.

Saturday is a trip to Pink Punters. Tina has volunteered to drive there and back … the Campanile hotel rooms are double the normal cost for some reason and Tina needs to head for the South coast early on Sunday. 

Tina arrives at about 6:00 pm. We get made up and changed and head out for a meal at Cafe Rouge in Windsor. Parking at the local library is free for local residents in the evening. As I collect a ticket from the pay and display machine the man behind me expresses his amazement that the machine is actually working. As ever, the staff at Cafe Rouge are charming. We order Saumon à la Niçoise and Boeuf Bourguignon, a glass of Merlot and a bottle of Hoegaarden. And I only just now discovered, that to visit the Hoegaarden web site you must be of legal drinking age … so i guess you had better not click the link if you’re not.

Then Coupe Rouge and Crème Brûlée.

A little before 9:00 pm it’s back home to change into another of those little black dresses and we head for Pink Punters.

A308, A332, M4, M25, M1, A5, a little over 50 miles and we’re there.

A lot has changed since last time we were there. The entrance has moved and there are walls and doors were there used to be no walls and doors.

It’s a quiet kind of evening … well, except for the music

Upstairs there are new facilities, including a unisex toilet area. The sign makes me smile.

We smile at a tgirl dressed in not a lot more than tape with the words ‘crime scene do not enter’.

Talk a while with a tgirl from Wellingborough.

Dance bit.

A girl almost trips over a step close to where we’re sitting and has a little conversation with us both. Admiring dresses and expressing frustration about steps.

A party of people head down the stairs towards the dance floor. A girl smiles and waves. I smile and wave back. It’s her birthday she says, pointing ahead at someone who is part way down the stairs. I smile. Come for a dance she says and blows a kiss.

And it’s 2:00 am.

At the exit a girl tells me that I have great legs and makes me smile.

A kinda quiet, but very pleasant evening.

Surrey Swans next Sunday and Sparkle is only a few weeks away.