Sad, so sad

Well I know I haven't written anything in ages and this is not an update but more in the way of reporting a death, the death of a very dear friend, one that had a huge family. Yet another venue has gone, one with a great deal of history. The Black Cap in Camden is no more, we were lucky enough to be friends with so many people there. So many 'girls' started their careers at this venue far too many to list but include the fabulous Regina Fong, Mrs Shufflewick, Lilly Savage the list really is endless. Here are pictures I took on ther last night. All I can say is it has affected me far more than I thought possible.

Hectic

So a hectic weekend in prospect. Friday sees us off to a friends 40th at the Resistance Gallery, private event of course. Saturday sees us off again, this time the Magic Theatre at the delightfully kitch Rivoli Ballroom, then Sunday lunch at the Black Cap in Camden for this. I thought retirement would be a time of rest...

At madame's behest we troop off to Boots, supposedly there is this new facecream, made by many all with the name, BB cream. Aaaanyway you apply it after cleansing and other potions and it can also be worn under makeup. Its like a face cream but with a touch of foundation. Well I purchase a couple of tubes seeing as this version was on a half price offer. Well it seems to work and I get to wear makeup everyday ;-)
Last week we paid a visit to Selfridges and had breakfast in Aubaine. Not cheap but no that expensive.....

So the undocumented purchases... These two came from Lipsy



The denim shorts from Next, roll on Las Palamas.



The skirt from Primarni



The swimsuit from M&S and the socks from Selfridges



The spotty frock from Forever 21



And nice to see these two fit even better than last year.

Joy of joys

Well it would be a shame to have wasted the nail polish so a photo session today and.......... oh wonders of wonders a particular outfit fits again if rather snugly. It must have been around 15 odd years ago when we first embarked on our fetish journey and we visited an emporium in Camden Market now long gone called F.U. Baby selling Murray and Verne and you can see madame talking to Tatiana in the shop. Amongst our purchases was a skirt and top which haven't fitted for many, many years and they do now!!

Good, bad and indifferent

Madame and I went out last night, a comedy club in Camden. It was well, mmmm, good, bad and indifferent. Ask me who they acts were, dunno, some bloke off the telly who was good, Curtis Walker and the one before him was good but the last one oh dear. I 'spose if you found his type of humour funny then he was good but far, far too 'blokey' for my taste. From Newcastle and fitted the stereotype perfectly. Although one joke was funny because it was sooo true.
He comes to London and gets on the tube and on gets a transvestite dwarf. The gist of the joke is that he is the only one that looks at the dwarf and finds it strange, everyone else winds up looking at him staring at the t-girl dwarf. Yes we have, we have all seen it before, it is not entertaining but you and your attitudes my son are.
So what is about 'mainstream' venues that is so dire? Well to me that is. It is blokeyness, the need to get 'clever' to impress the girls and of course the pissheads. Of course this is not restricted to the blokes. Oh dear me no. As my daughter, who is one of the security at the venue says, the worst of all are the 'hen nights', in her words why are they sooo objectionable and they are, to a one.
We exit the club and wander down to Camden Town Station. It is an uneventful stroll and in the main everyone is ok but to see a guy being carried by his mates as he is so out of his head is sad. Its only just gone 10 and he has, to put it in the vernacular, stuffed his mates night out as they now have to take care of him. Perhaps they dumped him in a corner later, well if they had any sense they would.
But the legs, oh the legs, all those wonderfully short frocks totally delicious, tottering along in fabulously silly shoes, definitely my highlight of the evening.
Well we are off out again today. Its the London Alternative Market, meeting up with Penny and Natacha so that's a wonderfuly short frock for me and fabulously silly shoes.

A pheonix rises

A trip to the new and as yet unopened Breathless shop yesterday. Madam and I went down by tube and met up with Dolenta and Andy in midst of decorating what appears to be a far better laid out shop. Soon madam, Andy and I have left them to it and wander into the gentrified part of Kings Cross. Gone are the gasometers and redone roads and buildings sparkle in the sunshine.



Of course its all rather trendy and thereby expensive. We meet up with Andy's cousin Stephanie and wander back to the shop for a chat before crossing the road into a time warp. An old fashioned pub, an Irish pub with hurling on the telly, well multiple tellies. Oh dear, I do not exactly fit in with the locals but they are friendly :-) A little drinkie and off to find something to eat. Poor Andy is starving. We wander up to the Euston Road and into yet another dive of a pub, The Rocket. Poor starving Andy, everything he chooses from the menu is... off, tee hee. Food eaten we return to the shop and take our leave. Stephanie has retired to the pub opposite so in we go to say our goodbyes and most of the lunchtime customers are still there at 6.30.

Today is T-girl Stephanie day, off to Camden. A wander round the stalls and shops in the markets then down the high street, we get to Camden Station and then its up Parkway to Pizza Express for lunch so I can more or less keep to the diet. Post lunch we return to the high street and pop into the Oxford Arms for a drink. We return to the market via the Canal and over the bridge by the Ice Wharf. Another wander and then its homeward bound.

In and out round and about

A lush couple of days. Off out and about on Sunday, Regents Park. It starts cloudy but warmish then hot and sunny. We stroll through the park and I learn that it is not a good idea to wear new shoes with bare feet so its walking barefoot through the park.
It never ceases to amaze me how I have changed. In male mode I would never dream of walking barefoot, I would not even be barefoot in sandals but in girlie mode.... Aaaanyway we decide to walk down to Camden so it is definitely shoes on. Camden is of course packed to the gills. Its summer, the sun is out and its hot therefore the place is rammed. The clement weather of course requires me to be... tattoo's out and even those don't get much of a look, quite amazing. On our way down the the High Street we pop into the Dublin Castle for a drink, never been in there before. It is one of the most famous pubs in London, famous for its live music and the many groups that have cut their performing teeth there. It is wonderfully seedy so seedy that your glass sticks to the table, but then there is a right time and place for seedy and this is it. I expected it and therefore would have been disappointed if it had a sparkly and shiny corporate look. It wouldn't have suited it and attracted the wrong customer and driven away the right ones. I do wish some chain eateries etc would recognise this but if course they won't, they haven't got a clue really.
By the time we have walked through the market we are both shattered and catch the train home and relax in the garden.

What to do yesterday? Well it promises to be really hot and it is, thoughts of going up to town fade rapidly so its off to Westfield at White City. The day does not start well. We go out and the traffic is jammed solid, is it roadworks or an accident? We get an alternative bus which leads to another and may, just may get us around the problem... it doesn't. All the buses are diverted so off we get and walk to the station and enables me to inspect a sofa in a shop that I have coveted for ages. The fact that there is no way on earth I could afford it does not turn me off nor the fact that the cats would tear it to shreds as soon as your back was turned. So we stroll on to the station. A short wait and we are on our way with the air conditioning running full blast. Of course it is lovely and comfortable until that is we arrive at Shepherds Bush station and full heat of the day hits us as we alight. Phew my dears is not the word.
I am under instructions from madame to go to M&S to find an item which of course they do not have so am thence sent forth to the Ted Baker shop for an alternative which they do not have. later I requested to return to M&S where we do find an alternative. Thankfully using technology we manage to send her a picture to get confirmation.
One of our first ports of call is Boots, I need some Clinique makeup and various other pre-holiday sundries. While I am looking around the shelves I am approached by a young woman. Excuse me she says but I normally never talk to strangers or pass opinions. Oh dear I thought, ready to put the shutters up and ready myself for a slanging match when she says......... I just have to tell you that you look absolutely amazing ! To say I am gobsmacked is putting it mildly and can only mutter thank you with the sweetest smile I can muster and of course spend the rest of the day with a smug smile. Very naughty, two visits to Byrons for a their utterly delicious and highly addictive milkshakes and their attentive and above all friendly staff. The journey home is hot and sweaty, the air conditioning has not been cranked up enough and the bus is packed and we are exhausted but as I say a fab couple of days.

Woo-hoo !!!!

Well I decided to do both. Pictures and go out and.... well of the five frocks that didn't used to fit.. four now do and the fifth fits but a little more weight needs to go so it looks right.
So 200 odd pictures done and me out the door by 10.30 not bad. Glorious weather so its down to Camden and a stroll round. By the time I have parked the car and walked down Chalk Farm Road I am ready to divest myself of the white cardigan and its tattoos out in my halter neck flowery frock.

It is just not possible to convey the feeling of being out en femme. Its not exciting, its not and never has been a turn on. The only way i can describe it is liberating that it feels natural to be who I wish I was and should have been.
Aaaaanyway I digress, much to my disappointment the gothic lolita japanese frocks are all still too small and always will be but it doesn't stop me looking. I did however find a nice little shop with two divine frocks. Both my favourite halter neck,one short and one more modest. It was the pattern that attracted me. Both with a white backgound and what i can only describe as very 80's type facial representations, very angular, quite delightful but a waste of time as is any purchase in the middle of a diet. Its no good buying that bit small as you never know where the weight is going to disappear from. Ah well.
I'm not sure which got more looks me or the tattoos LOL. Had a nice wander round CyberDog. Not been in there for ages, Stephanie and I never seem to venture in there mores the pity. I do wish shops that play music would put up a sign of what is playing. I'd love to have bought what was playing in CyberDog.
All too soon its homeward bound as lunch is beckoning and Camden has nothing for the diet concious. After lunch madame and I decide its sitting in the garden time so off with the frock and stockings and on with the pink swimming costume. My afternoon nana nap eludes me but no matter as the sun has got his bestest hat on and a nice breeze blows.

It's a beautiful day.........

A lovely day in prospect and a days rest from decorating and a girlie day. Nails done, eyebrows plucked so its off out or is it? Not decided, in for photo's or out and about, hmmm, decisions, decisions. Of course with such a lovely day it does seem a shame to waste it and it would mean a pretty summer frock, if I can get into it but then again which one?. Have I lost enough weight? Only time will tell.

Now I know I do not have a lot of patience with whinging trannies, well whingers of any sort really but I must take issue with the BBC and their report on yesterday's Pride march. Well not so much the report but the byline on one of the pictures. Two drag queens with the byline "MPs are currently considering the Equal Marriage Bill". What is it with people who assume all T-whatevers are gay? True all the 'drag' performers of my acquaintance are, but these aside I personally know they stretch across the complete sexual spectrum. I have no problem with being perceived, because I wear a frock, or even when in drab as gay it is just that the statement, if that is what it is, is not true. To me being perceived as gay has more upsides than down. Women, my only preference, are more friendly in the main and straight men tend to shun me which again suits me perfectly. Gay men on the whole never pester me one way or the other, after all it takes one to know one if you get my drift.

Excellent but disappointing

So a trip to Camden today, all togged up and off I went if a little dubious of the weather. Lovely as it was Camden, like everything else, has changed. It is sooo tourist orientated from the weekend only charges for the loo's to the things to buy. It really is just tat, well alright 95% tat.



The little shop selling Hell Bunny frocks has gone from next to Black Rose, The Collectif has nothing to tickle the fancy, perhaps I should try their Spitalfields branch, I would imagine their Covent Garden branch might, just might, seeing as its a little off the tourist map, have something new and mildly exciting.
The other shop with Hell Bunny frocks has not only shrunk in size, has changed their stock to a more tourist friendly collection. Oh its all so unexciting. Camden used to be exciting, interesting, amusing, now its just an alternative high street. Don't get me wrong its a nice enough for a wander of course, somewhere to while away a couple or three hours.

I got hardly a glance, its is quite amazing, people just pass you by. I don't know if that is good or bad. Do I want to be spotted or ignored, ignored is preferable I 'spose.