This section of the website is created by Mary who has been organising and acting as Hostess for the wednesday evening get togethers for Northern Concord for many years. These pages are intended to show that we are just a group of people who enjoy what we do and hopefully to encourage any potential newcomers to come along on any wednesday evening and make some friends

The group that meets on wednesday evenings decided in April 2008 to run themselves as an independent members club called Manchester Concord so we are now no longer part of Northern Concord.

If anyone wishes to make any comments about these pages or has any questions about the wednesday evenings that they wish to ask then please email mary@manchesterconcord.org.uk .

Note these pages eventually get too long so I just start them again, but all the earlier pages are still available to view by clicking on this link here See old pages

This evening we had Geraldine Walters come along to give a talk about the services she provides for T girls such as electrolysis for hair removal and also tattoo removal. She was accompanied by Ruth, shown here with her, who has had many sessions of electrolysis and highly recommends her service. Ruth has also created her website at this link.
Ruth has also created a website that can be used for anyone to volunteer as guineapig model for people training to provide different beauty services such as Geraldine provides. see her link for more information link.

Jennifer Arrowsmith, from Changing Faces, also came in this evening to tryout the new nails she had agreed to make for me to see how they looked. She has made and painted these herself and as you may be able to see we have MC in gold on one finger on each hand. The idea with these nails is that they can be used many times with being damaged as they are made for a gel that is not affected by the acetone that is used to dissolve the glue at the end of an evening. I can verify that they all came off quite easily undamaged, just by dipping each finger into a small pot of actetone for about half a minute each. These could prove very successful as I think she only plans to charge £25 a set which can be used many times over and if you happen to lose a nail she can easily replace it with a similar one.

Finally next week we are having a Balck and White theme evening and the following week we are having a Ladies at the races party as our final gathering at NewYork NewYork before we move to Villaggios on March the 7th.

It was lovely to see Cate with us again, all thanks to the efforts of Joan and I have at last managed to get a photo of them together.
Cate is celebrating her first anniversay and Joan has arranged a meal out next Sunday for a group of us to join her to celebrate.
Incidentally , in case you dont know, Joan is now the main moderator of the Concord forum, so if you have any questions about it, she is the person to ask.
Zoe, shown on the right in her fantastic black and white leggings, tells me that she has now been selected by the television company that was looking for a T girl to act as a model for a trainee dressmaker. So later on this year we will see her having her outfit made.
This does mean that any of the other people whose names I put forward were unsuccessful.

Finally, I have an announcement to make about our meeting venue.

We moved from the Rembrandt to NewYork NewYork in August 2010 and are very grateful to Tracey and Peter for the way they received us, made us welcome and went out of their way to construct a changing room for us to use on wednesday evenings. We would also like to thank all the staff at NewYork NewYork for the friendly service they have given us over the last eighteen months.

But, the meeting room itself has always been a bit too large and too dark for our purposes and many of the members have been asking us to try to find somewhere smaller and better lit so that they could meet in a more comfortable area. To this end several people have been looking round in the village and have finally come up with the meeting room above Villaggio's Restaurant that is suitable and also has a room above that they are willing to allow us to use as a changing room. We have now agreed terms with the Management and have arranged to start meeting there from the 7th of March 2012.

As a way of saying thank you to Tracey for the service she has provided over the last eighteen months we propose to hold a farewell party on wednesday the 29th of February at NewYorkNewYork to try to raise as much money as possible for the Christie Hospital Cancer Charity that she supports.
I would like to urge as many of you as possible to come along that evening to support this charity.
Gill Springay will also be with us that evening so you can get some make up advice and make a donation at the same time.

 

Kim, on the right, was happy to show off this dress as she told me it was the first time she has worn anything off the shoulder. It looks good and is fun to wear so I am sure it wont be the last.

 

Next week we have Jennifer Arrowsmith from "Changing Faces" coming with a friend and they will both be willing to demonstrate makeup on willing volunteers, so do come along and enjoy a new experience.

Not everyone can fit in with a colour theme, but this is no reason to exclude them from these pictures so here are some of the others who came this evening.
Lisa, shown here on the left, has been corresponding with Kay Denise on the right for around 6 years but this evening was the first time they have met in person, so this was special evening for them. It was also the first time Lisa has been to the club so welcome Lisa, I hope we see you again soon.

Finally next week is a normal club week but on the following wednesday, the 1st of Feb we will have Jennifer Arrowsmith from "Changing Faces" here to give a makeover demo and to show what services she provides. See our Coming events for more details.

Paula, shown here on the left with Lisa, is becoming a much more regular visitor to the club and it is always nice to see her. Lisa is one of our most regular members but over the christmas break she has been away quite a bit as she has a daughter who lives down south and sometimes baby sitting duties are called for.
Dannyella has just returned from two weeks in Grand Canaria looking very brown. She tells me that she had a wonderful time there as she met a boyfriend for the first time and she really enjoyed the experience.

This evening started off fairly quietly but filled up during the evening with quite a number of new people coming for the first time plus many members who only come very rarely. It is always a delight to see Aman come in as she invariably brings a generous bag of biscuits and sweets with her to give out to everyone. She doesn't wish for her Photo to appear so I cant identify her, but I would like to say thank you to her for these gifts.

Please dont forget that January is when we all renew our memberships so do come along prepared to part with your £8 for the year if you haven't already and dont forget that next wednesday the 18th we are having a PURPLE dress theme night.

   A Happy new year to all our Readers

It was great to see Millie back with us after her cruise to the Canary islands, armed with loads of photos of her plus various members of the crew including, I think, the captain. She does seem to have a ball on these cruises and I guess her mother probably gets more attention because of her which is great.
It was also good to see Pauline, her trusty helper, again as she can only get here when Millie brings her. Thank you to both of you for your loyal help on the door.

Liz, shown above, was one of the very early members of Northern Concord. She has not been out for many years but has now decided to venture out again and has joined us at Manchester Concord this evening. She mentioned that she used to know someone who I am pretty sure is Jayne who is also one of our members now, so if Jayne reads this you may like to come along sometime and meet an old friend.
Kristina, shown in the middle had been out shopping this afternoon wearing the outfit shown on the left and had bought the outfit shown on the right so she wanted to show it off. I think it was good buy Kristina, well done.
Emily, shown on the right is an occasional visitor as she comes quite a distance, but she tells me that she has already got some work booked in Manchester for the week of Sparkle, so she will get her hotel paid for, as well as being able to enjoy the event. Sounds like good organisation to me.

Georgina, our member from the north of Scotland, was down here visiting, so was able to come in this evening. It is always great to see her as she is such a positive person. She works as a builder and she told me this evening that one of her customers asked her late one afternoon, if she was a transvestite or a transsexual, completely out of the blue as she was dressed as a man at the time. She decided that she might as well be honest so she came in the next day and showed her pictures and website to the lady customer. She was completely relaxed about it and now they are very good friends, but as a result of this Gina decided that she may as well tell most of her other customers as well.
A week before Christmas she delivered Christmas cards to all her customers as Gina and this resulted in over 5000 pounds worth of business being given to her by Christmas eve. Her business is thriving and she thinks it may be because she has been honest with everyone, but the builders merchant, who she hasn't told, is now wondering how she does it, as many of the other local builders are not doing well at present. So it just shows we shouldn't be hiding ourselves away as many of us tend to.

Finally, here are four of our most regular girls all dressed up and somewhere to go. We have been having some quiet evenings recently. It is time more of you got off your backsides and got out a bit more.

On wednesday the 18th we are having a PURPLE theme night so why not make an effort to get here and let us have a sea of purple to get a good photo as well as an enjoyable evening.

It was very cold this evening so I was impressed to see Milli arriving in this short dress with these tights. But she was pleased with having got a bargain and wanted to show them off as they included the sewn in black seam up the back as you can see.
She is now getting very confident and comes here on the train dressed in this way and so far assures me she has had no problems. Good for you Milli, I hope life is just as good for you in 2012.

It was lovely to see Debbie and her partner Judy come along early in the evening. I have included two pictures of Debbie as I took the first one when she was sitting at the bar, but then later when she was just about to leave I saw her standing up and couldn't resist taking another as she looked so good.
As you can see I didn't take a picture of her partner as she would be too recognisable, so if any other partners or friends wish to come along they can be assured that they will not appear in any photos unless they specifically ask to.

Rachel was with us again from her home in Kent and she had met up with Michelle, shown here with her, to bring her out in Manchester. They stayed for a good part of the evening before going off to spread their wings in the rest of the village.
Isabelle, on the right, is living with her parents at present, but is planning to move into her own flat very shortly so that she can relax and be herself. She tells me that she often gets taken as a girl even when she is dressed as a man so she cant wait till she can be a girl all of the time.

Michelle, shown here on the left, actually joined the club in 2008, but has not been for some time as her life was too complicated. Things are now settling down and she hopes she will be able to come out as Michelle much more often in the future. She has now rejoind the club so hopefully 2012 will be a good year for her.

 

Finally, this is the last blog entry for 2011, so can I again wish all our readers a happy and prosperous new year in 2012. I hope to see you all at the club sometime in the coming year, Mary

Christine, shown here on the left, is gaining in confidence all the time and is now happier to be photographed. The mirror at the back caused the extra light but we decided that it didn't detract from the photo so we kept it. Christine had been out most of the day and had also brought a new friend for the first time from the Stoke area, but she was not yet ready to be photographed so I hope we see her again soon.
Nicole, on the right breezed in later in the evening looking very confident in her christmas outfit so here she is ready for a night out on the town.

It was a quiet evening, as is to be expected just before Christmas, but as always there was still enough people to make it worthwhile, including one new entrant who had come along in male mode to see what the club is like. I spent some time talking with him and hope that I was able to encourage him to come again soon. We will have to wait and see.

Finally, can I take this opportunity to wish you all the very best in the new year and let us hope that the recession, that is currently with us, is somehow overcome and we all get our confidence and prosperity back very soon.

Mary

I met Ana here at the club last year and got to know her for the short while that she was here in Manchester working towards her Phd about Transexualism. After she left to return to her home in southern Brazil we continued to correspond and she often invited me to go and stay with her to see her country. I eventually accepted her very kind invitation and decided to visit in November this year and to stay for 5 weeks as she put no time limit on my holiday.
She lives in a small town some distance from Porto Allegre in a sub tropical climate so it was their late spring early summer which was an ideal time to be there. Ana and her husband Paulo and daughter Laura could not have made me more welcome. I lived as part of their family for most of that time meeting many of their very large family group on various occasions as well as friends and Ana's work colleagues. It was a very enjoyable experience and a wonderful way to get to know the genuine kindness of all the Brazilian people I met. So I would like to say thank you Ana and I hope to see you here again soon.

I would also like to thank Helena for carrying on producing Mary's Blog so well and the many other members of the committe and the club for keeping the regular meetings going at NewYork NewYork.
Now I guess I have to come back down to earth and carry on where I left off, so here is a very quick blog entry about the Christmas party we had at the club. We had a fantastic attendance of around 130 people and Tracey did us proud again with a wonderful Buffet helped by Leanne who used to be our Barmaid some months ago and came back this evening to do the buffet. Thank you to you both. There were so many people here that I can only include a small sample of those who attended, but for me it was a wonderful welcome back. Mary

Suzie and Rachel

Caroline

Dannyella

Krystyna sold quite a few wigs this evening and here is Dannyella showing off the blonde wig she bought which she was very happy with.
We had another new girl join us this evening called Rachel and she is shown here on the right with Marolyn. Rachel had written to me earlier in the week saying she was coming and asking if I would recommend a hotel to stay in. I suggested she try the Rembrandt and that is where she got in but she was slightly disconcerted when they told her the bar was for men only. Even so she did come out dressed for the first time and had a very enjoyable evening at the club and later on in Paddy's Goose. She also bought the wig she is wearing here from Krystyna.
So, welcome, Rachel number 2 this evening, I hope we see you again soon.

Isabelle

Louise

Cate and Marolyn

It is always lovely to see Cate and Marolyn come in as they look spectacular. A few of the members wanted to know where Marolyn gets her wigs from as Krystyna had nothing quite this big. As far as I know she was keeping it secret.
Michaela spotted this outfit in a car boot sale not long ago and was very pleased when she found they only wanted 50p for it. I think it has gone to a very good home.

In case you dont know yet, Manchester Council has now in their wisdom changed the free parking time in the centre from 6pm to 8pm. On top of this they have also changed the minimum time you can pay for from 15 to 30 minutes, so the cheapest anount you can pay is now £1.35 . This is very aggravating for those of us who like to get here early.

What I decided to do, is to quickly drop my bag off at the club, without paying any fee and then to put the car in the Charles Street car park. When I parked it I thought it said that the fee would be £3.00 for three hours which is a lot less than the £2.70 per hour on the meters. So I planned to go and fetch the car just before 8 pm and move it to a free meter space, but I forgot all about it and had to go and retrieve the car at around 11.30 pm. I was then very pleasantly surprised to find that I was only charged £2.00 for the whole time I was there, so I can only suggest that many more of you use this car park. It is a bit further to walk but at least you are not being ripped off and the Council loses out by being so mean.

Finally, next week we have Gill Springay with us again to help people with their make up. So it is a good opportunity for any new members to get some help.

Perhaps I should also now mention that I will be going on holiday for 5 weeks next friday so during my absence Helena has offered to do this Blog. I hope you will all help her with posing for Photos etc and making sure she knows your names. I am sure she will manage it well and enjoy the experience. Mary

Frances will be organising the Christmas meal at Villagios on the 3rd of December and Millie has asked me to remind people that all members will be asked to pay the normal entry fee for our Christmas party Buffet evening on the 14th of December and all visitors will be asked to contribute £3.00 for the evening.

This week we had a PINK theme night but we also has Sakia come along with her stall selling jewellery and wigs.
Saskia also brought along Sophia, shown on the right along with her partner. They were running a raffle in aid of Breast cancer research and during the evening they raised over £100 which they were delighted with. So thank you to all those who bought tickets or donated, it was a worthwhile effort.
Sophia had found Saskia on the internet and had been round and had her make up done before coming with her to see the club and organise the raffle. I am sure this will not be her only visit.
We had quite a variety of Pink outfits this evening and as I failed to get a group picture of them all here are most of them individually.

Genevieve and Pauline

So, the last group of pictures are a few of the people who came this evening without any PINK in their outfits. Please dont let the fact that you are unable to follow a suggested theme stop you from coming to the club. These theme colours are only a suggestion to encourage members to perhaps wear something that they would not normally choose. But do keep coming anyway even if you dont fit the theme.

Next week the 26th of Oct we will have Krystyna with us again selling her wigs at ridiculously low prices so do come along and find a bargain.

Helena and Danni

Dawn and Rebecca

 

Tina

Joanne and Tanya

Genevieve, Isabelle and Mandy

Isabelle and Jade

Zoe came in towards the end of the evening followed not long after by Jade, so this resulted in the pictures that are shown here. As you can see Jade was being here usual extrovert self and really enjoying it.

Next week, the 19th of October, we are having a PINK theme night so I hope we manage to get a good selection of PINK outfits.
Plus Emma and Saskia are setting up their stall again and also running a raffle in aid of Breast Cancer so do come along and support them.