Mary's Blog

   
   
Wednesday 5th October 2011
    

Chloe and Karen
This evening we had a visit from Karen Vickers from Colour Me Beautiful. She spent the first part of the evening getting to know as many people as possible and then at 9pm she gave a talk to illustrate how the colour me beautiful advice that she is able to give can be used to help each one of us pick the colours that best suit our complexion and hair colour. This then enables us to look our best. So Thank you Karen you were a fun person to have around and we enjoyed your talk and found it useful. If you wish to contact her for a consultation she is on 07956 639109
On the right we have Sarah and Samantha who were visiting us from the Midlands for the first time so welcome to you both and I hope you come again soon.

Sarah and Samantha

Layla and Milli

Layla, shown on the left with Milli, came for the first time last week and returned this week and joined. So welcome Layla, I hope you can make many friends who will help you.
Tanya, shown on the right with Krystina has not been to the club lately so it was nice to see her here again after such a long gap.
I have not included a picture but it was also great to see Steph come back to the club after a gap of a few weeks following her first time here. We look forward to seeing a lot more of her in the future.

Tanya and Krystina

Cindi and Mary

Joanne, Paula and Lisa

Paula amd Lisa

Sabrina

Emma, Marolyn, Saskia and Kate

Pauline and Sam

Paula
Sabrina, shown above on the left, also joined us this week having started working in Manchester a few months ago.
Saskia and the girls shown above are coming back on the 19th of October when we are having our PINK theme night. They will have their stall and will be running a raffle in aid of Breast Cancer so do come along then, all in pink, to support them.
Pauline on the right above with Sam, is now helping to produce the Transforum information pack and brought along the latest issue this evening. It is available to view in our book.
As you can see, Paula, on the left, won this weeks raffle and was happy to take the bottle of red wine.

Lucy

Lucy, shown on the right, came along very late in the evening, having bought the outfit she is wearing this afternoon. I failed to get a photo in the club, so here she is later on in Paddy's Goose.
This coming wednesday, the 12th of October we are holding a sale in aid of club funds, so I hope many of you will come along and support it. It will include any type of item such as clothes, shoes, wigs, handbags etc that you care to donate.

If any of you can also bring along Clothes hangers and/or clothes rails on loan then these would be very much appreciated as we are likely to be short of these items.

Then the following week we are having a PINK theme night so lets see what you can all come up with.

  
   
Wednesday 28th September 2011
    

Susanne, Tina and Gill
This evening we had Gill Springay, the makeover girl, with us again and whenever I looked in her direction she was busy. I think this means that she had a successful evening as she seemed to be working with many different people. She also had her fancy handbags with her to sell but I am not sure if many were taken. She has agreed to come again on the 2nd of October.
Genevieve is shown on the right with Beverley, who lives in Harrogate, so doesn't get the chance to get over here very often. When Vanessa and I went to the Harrogate weekend in August we went out to visit a pub near the hotel, only to find that it was Beverley's local and there she was in the bar in all her glory.

Genevieve and Beverley

Fiona

Susanne and Susie

Katie
The girls above are rarer visitors to the club these days so welcome back to you all. Katie comes more often even though she has to come furthest, all the way from Kent but it is always lovely to see you.
  

Chloe and Danni

Linda

Milli and Dannyella

Steffie

Isabelle and Tina

Paula

Sarah and Carol
It was lovely to see Sarah and Carol again as they haven't been to the club this year although they have kept in touch by email. Like quite a number of you out there, Sarah had not paid her membership for this year, so she willingly offered to pay even though it is now very late in the year. Thanks Sarah, it is never to late to pay your dues.
Micsha, shown on the right recently met Jessica on facebook and they have become friends. She duly brought Jessica along to the club for her first time and she has now joined so welcome Jessica, we hope to see a lot more of you.

Micsha and Jessica

Tracey, Sophie and Joanie

Later in the evening, Joanie brought along Tracey and Sophie. This being Sophie's first visit to the club so lets hope they all come back again soon.

Next week we have Karen Vickers coming from "Colour me Beautiful" to give us a talk. This will be her first time with us so I hope many of you will come along to encourage her to come again.

 

The following week, the 12th of October we are holding a clothes sale in aid of club funds so if you have anythings to donate can you please bring them along to the club that evening and then spend a bit of money on yourself to also help the club.

  
   
Wednesday 21st September 2011
    

Brenda and Krystyna

This week we had Krystyna with us along with her friend Brenda both shown here on the left. They brought along a large stock of wigs for people to choose from and seemed to be kept busy all evening.
Pauline shown on the right was one of her customers and is wearing the new wig she bought and was very pleased with it as it is quite different from the one she usually wears.
Krystyna has many more wigs available at the same price so has agreed to come along again in a months time on October the 26th.

Pauline

Lisa, Genevieve and Mandy

I took the picture on the left early in the evening and we were immediately struck by the range of different height of each girl. It reminded us of the brilliant sketch about social class done by John Cleese and the two Ronnies.

Mary

Millie

Millie, shown here on the left, our very reliable door lady, is going off on a cruise round the med for the next 3 weeks so will not be available to look after the door. This means that we will need some volunteers to take her place over the next few weeks so I would be pleased if some of you would step in and take on this job along with Tina who also usually does it now until she has to leave.
It was nice to see Isabelle again this week and here she is holding the wine from the Raffle which she was lucky enough to win.

Isabelle

Cindi and Emily

Rosemary

Alison

Kate and Marolyn

Marolyn

Michaela

Paula

Andrea

Paula

As you can see from the above, we have at least two Paula's in the club. Paula on the left has been in Concord as long as I have and now often goes off to Benidorm for holidays. She is the girl who told me about the Pride event being held there in October. For details see last weeks blog. For those of you that dont know, the Paula on the right is our Restaurant critic who regularly includes a write up on our Forum. If you haven't read any of them yet then you have a treat in store. Go and have a look at the Forum to see how she gets on.

Finally dont forget that next week we have Gill Springay with us again and this time she will also be selling handbags. See some pictures on our coming events page.

  
Wednesday 14th September 2011
    

Leanne
This evening it was nice to welcome back Leanne who served on the bar again for the first time for many months. It is unfortunately only temporary as she gave it up because she has another job that works normal hours during the day and this bar work goes on till about 3 am after she finishes with us. This just makes the next day too difficult for her so we wont be seeing her again soon but wish you well Leanne and thank you.
Our faithfull door lady millie has a wonderful collection of outfits which she really enjoys showing off so here she is on one of her more exotic creations. Keep it up Millie you look fabulous.

Millie

Hayley, Molly and Lauren

This evening we had the company of Hayley and Lauren who came along to sell some of the extra clothes that Hayley has accumulated for her dressing service His2Hers. There they are on the left just before they finished, ready to go for a night out with some of the girls and on the right there is a rack of some of the clothes still available for sale.
Below are pictures of Lisa and Jenny wearing the clothes they bought this evening.

Chloe, Hayley, Molly, Lauren and Steffie

Jenny

Lisa

Jenny

Clothes for sale
On the right we have Joan and Georgina carefully studying our computer. Georgina came along for the first time for very many years last week and this week decided to join Manchester Concord but she had no email address. I asked Joan if she would create one for her which she duly did and then spent the best part of an hour showing her how to use the computer as she has not got one of her own and knew little about them. She enjoyed her tutorial so thank you Joan.

Joan and Georgina

Molly

Sam and Vida

Julia
Molly, shown above, has not been to the club for many months and the same goes for both Vida and Julia, so it was great to see them all here again at the club. Vida lost her job, here in Manchester and then had to return to the Isle of Man to look after her parents and get them settled into a new life where they are looked after. These arrangements are now all behind her so hopefully we will now be able to see more of her back here in Manchester. Welcome back Vida
 

Linda

Michelle, Kim and Milli

Pauline

Genevieve and Mandy

Andrea and Tina

Nicky and Jenny

Paula

Paula, shown here on the left, has done it again. Last wednesday afternoon she was interviewed by Matt White on a Food program on Radio Manchester to talk about her restaurant critiques on our Forum. For those of you who haven't heard the interview it is still available on BBC I player at this link
Congratulations Paula where will all this lead?

Yesterday I received a phone call from a different Paula, who I have known for many years. She has just come back from a holiday in Benidorm. She was ringing to tell me about the Benidorm Pride event taking place in Benidorm old town in October 21, 22 and 23 this year. So if any of you fancy a holiday for a few days type Benidorm Pride into google and you will be able to find out the details.
Finally, dont forget that we have Krystyna coming this wednesday the 21st to sell wigs at between £20 and £30 pounds so come along and get a bargain.

  
Wednesday 7th September 2011    

Isabelle and Vanessa

This evening promised to be interesting as I had emails from two new people saying they were going to try to come along this evening and then while we were eating in Eden Susan, who had been out all day shopping, said that she had met two German girls in Transformation and they had asked her where they could go this evening. So she had suggested that they come along to Concord to meet other girls.
Sure enough, not too long after we opened Isabelle and Vanessa, shown here on the left, came in and introduced themselves. It turns out that they had actually come over to england to visit the Beaulieu motor museum but decided to come a few days early to give themselves a holiday. They had come to Manchester to see a man about vintage brake linings for an old car that Isabelle owned. What a chance encounter as they knew nothing about the tranny scene here, so it was good choice. Isn't it nice when tv's find that they also have a hobby in common and can then indulge it together but also enjoy their other spare time out.
It was great to meet you both, I hope you enjoyed your visit to Beaulieu together.

  

Lucy
Of the two people that emailed me only one made it to the club and as he had come as a man I have not taken a photo. He had brought some clothes but decided to stay as a man as he had to leave to catch a train by 9:30. Karen and I spent some time talking with him and I hope we helped him to relax and we see her back here soon.
Lucy, on the left, found our club on the internet and just came along as she is, looking very confident. She has joined straight away so I expect to see a lot more of her soon as she is a local girl.
Gillian, shown on the right, with Genevieve was helping on the Transforum stand at the Pride Expo so genevieve got to know her there and invited her along this evening, Welcome Gillian, I hope we see you again soon.

Gillian and Genevieve

Mary, Susan, Cheryl and Caroline
Cheryl, shown here on the left with myself Susan and Caroline, used to be a very regular visitor but we have not seen her since Christmas when she had a water leak in her house and she has only been able to move back in a few weeks ago after all the repairs have been done. So welcome back Cheryl I hope it is now all sorted.
Danni, on the right with Sophie, came back last week after a long gap and here she is again. I hope this is the start of many visits. Sophie is very new but is relaxing into the club very quickly.

Sophie and Danni

Danni and Helena

Paula and Lisa

Paula, Lucy amd Lisa

Millie

Tulip

Steffie and Jane

Chrissy
Towards the end of the evening this couple came in who told me that they were in the bar downstairs when the barman told them about this club that was meeting upstairs, so they came up to investigate. It was only the second time they had been out with Chrissy dressed and they had no idea that a club like ours existed. Chrissy's friend's name was Daniella and she was fascinated to find that there is a whole world of people like us that she never knew existed. They really enjoyed their experience and I am sure they will both be back for more.
Katie on the right has not been for several weeks as she has been too busy with work. As I was saying goodbye to Kay Denise she said she would not be in for a few weeks as she was going on a cruise holiday on the QE2.

Kay Denise, Krystina and Katie
She has been on it before, so is an old hand, but the main reason she was going this time was because it is a local cruise and one of the ports being visited is Liverpool and she has always wanted to arrive in Liverpool from the sea. She is going to get her wish this time so I hope she will tell us about it when she gets back.
Finally please note that next week we have Haley visiting us from His2Hers with lots of clothes for sale at under £20 so do come along and get a bargain.
  
Wednesday 31st August 2011
    

Gill Springay

This evening we had Gill Springay, The Makeover Girl, with us again and I saw her working with many people during the evening.
Isabelle, shown on the right, was one of them looking calm and confident after her makeover.
Gill is going to return again on the 28th of September and this time she will also have some, apparently, very fancy handbags for sale at reasonable prices. So, if you want something a bit more outlandish come and see what she has on offer.

Isabelle

Pauline
Earlier in the week I had several emails from Pauline, shown here on the left, who is one of the administrators of the website Transtastic.com
She was wondering if there was any way we could help each other with activities or publicity etc, so I suggested that perhaps she should come down to Concord to meet us and see what the club is like. She came down in time for our meal in Eden Bar and then stayed all evening at the club talking to many different people. One of the things we should be able to do very quickly is to ensure that our weekly meetings are included in the timetable of events on Transtastic.com to help spread the word about the club. I have also included it as a link above so that you can esaily have a look and join if you wish.

Joanne and Vicky

Rachel

Above on the right we see Joanne and Vicky. Joanne had brought Vicky out for the first time this evening and she told me before she left that she had really enjoyed it and would be back soon.
We haven't seen rachel for a few weeks so I was glad to see her here again on one 0f her trips round the country.
I was also delighted to see Donna come in all dressed up and somewhere to go. She really does know how to make an impression.
There were lots of people in this evening and I seem to have managed to take many photos so here are most of them.

Donna

Milli and Genevieve

Mary and Cindi

Marolyn

Frances

Michelle and Paula

Mandy and Michelle

Millie

Linda and Daniella

Tina

Kate and Lisa

Michaela

Andrea

Jennifer

Louise
Later in the evening, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Krystyna come in with Joanne. Many of you will know Krystyna from her years of running a dressing service in Altrincham but she retired several years ago and I had not expected to see her again in the club. It turns out that she is thinking of moving south and is therefore ready to sell off her remaining stock of wigs and she brought a few along with her this evening. They are really good value at either £20 or £30 and she sold two almost straight away.
She has agreed to come back on the 21st of September with lots more to sell at those prices, so if you would like to meet her again please try and get here that night.
  
   
Pride weekend August 26 - 29 2011
    

For this weekend the club had decided to put an entry into the Pride parade as well as have a stand in the Expo that is designed to be open for the full 3 day weekend giving as many people as possible the chance to find out about all the organisations that are available to LBGT people in Manchester.

All the background work was done by Karen who did a fantastic job organising all the paperwork, liasing with the Pride organisation, booking the lorry for the float, getting a driver, Martin, getting all the necessary insurances, organising the two audition evenings, etc. Nothing would have happened without her enthusiasm so we all owe Karen our thanks for all the effort she put in.

For the Expo we shared a double space with Transforum but distinguished our bit with the orange and black flooring just to try to make it stand out. I only took these two pictures so that is all I have to show. We used the posters we have previously used at Sparkle and all the pictures we had on our wall this year. You can get an idea of what it looked like, from these pictures.
It was an interesting experience that did enable us to talk to many people with whom we have a common interest, so we think we will do it again next year

  

Mary Genevieve and Gillian


We had to have someone on the stall for many hours during the three days and I would like to thank all those who helped with it.
The names that come to mind are: Chloe, Genevieve, Helena, Joanne, Karen, Lisa, Miranda and Vanessa.
If I have left anyone out then I apologise but I was not there all the time myself.

 

Karen and Genevieve
For the float in the parade, the theme we had decided on was "Great British Divas" and Karen ran two audition evenings during the summer to try to find people willing to go on the float itself. These resulted in the following people being asked to take part:- Genevieve as Dusty Springfield, Karen as Kate Bush, Miranda as Sandy Shaw and Emma, Kathy, Marilyn, Sammi and Saskia as Sporty, Baby, Ginger, Scary and Posh Spice. So we had a good crew on board.
We had a number of hitches in our organisation which I wont go into here except to say that in the end it involved a number of people working very late on the Friday evening to get the lorry decorated ready to be at the parade venue by 10 am the next day.
  
These are two pictures of the lorry taken at around 11pm on Friday evening, after a group of us, but especially Saskia and Kathy had put in a real effort to get it decorated in time. They had also spent a lot of time on the thursday blowing up and tying together around 600 balloons to get this effect. So thank you to all the Spice girl team for the extra effort you put in. Fairly late in the process we had also decided to jazz up the vehicle by including Emma with her very glittery drum kit on a stage on the lorry to add to the spectacle.

Sammi had suggested it as an idea, having assured me that Emma was a first class drummer, and this did prove to be a very successful and entertaining addition to the spectacle we were trying to create.
Below I have included pictures taken by several diffent people but we do not have any taken from the crowds viewpoint once the float was under way. The ones showing the lorry were taken before we set off.

  

 

Crowd in Albert Square


All the people who took part in the parade with us thoroughly enjoyed their day including people like Joanne, Helena and Mandy who walked the whole distance and the impression we got from the crowd was that they greatly appreciated our efforts.

Finally I would like to include here a sincere word of thanks to Martin who collected the lorry with Karen on Friday, stayed with us all day and didn't leave till around 5:30, returned at 08:30 the following morning and stayed again till about 5 pm, then returned on Sunday at 10am to help me dismantle the complete float clear up all the mess we made, drove to my house and helped me unload the lorry and then took it back to the Hire place and finally left at around 1pm. All without any word of complaint and doing whatever he was asked to do. Martin you are a gem. Mary

  
   
Wednesday 24th August 2011
    
This evening we had Jackie Buckley with us showing how she makes her own jewellery and helping some of the girls to make their own. Unfortunately I was so busy with other things that I failed to take any photos before it was too late so I have nothing to show for her efforts. What I did see was that she had members sitting with her all evening enjoying seeing how it was all put together. She told me that she will happily return another time as she always enjoys her evenings at the club. So we will arrange another date very soon.
  

Jasina

We were joind this evening by Jasina who has never been out dressed before so she was made welcome by many of the girls. They then persuaded her to venture out into the village with them to help her quickly get her confidence which she did with all the girls shown on the right.
She came back later in the evening having enjoyed her venture out and told me that she would definitely be here next week.
As we have Gill Springay with us next week I hope she will be able to show Jasina how to do her make up.

Genevieve, Jasina, Michelle, Pamela, Mandy and Steffie

Kate and Lisa
I was delighted to see Kate and Joan again at our meal in Eden as Kate is now having more difficulty getting about and Joan is still being a good friend and bringing her along when she can. Kate is shown here with Lisa, our local police liason officer, who you can see Kate really enjoys talking with.
I was also delighted to see Danni here with us again accompanied for the first time in about 10 years by Marie whose knee you can just see on her right. When I last saw Marie she was pregnant with their second child so it was lovely to see her again. Thank you Danni for bringing her along.

Danni

Alicia

Alicia, shown here on the left, is a visitor from Glasgow, who was down here on business, so took the opportunity to come along. Welcome Alicia, it is always nice to see visitors from so far away. I hope you get the chance again soon.
Pauline, on the right, has now settled in to her new home near Preston, having moved up from Cornwall, and is enjoying life as Pauline full time. You look very relaxed Pauline, it is good to see people happy in themselves able to live the life they always wished for.

Pauline

 

Alex and Lisa

Lesley

Andrea

Sue

Millie

I am sorry this blog entry is a bit later than usual. We have just completed the Pride weekend in Manchester and we had an entry in the Parade and a stand in the Expo in the village. This did take rather a lot of effort and did not leave me much time for this blog. I will create a blog entry for the weekend activities but it will have to wait till next week as I have run out of time. Meanwhile I would like to thank all those who took part in this very successful event, apparently even mentioned on Granada news. Thank you all very much indeed.

  
This wednesday the 31st of August we have Gill Springay coming back to give more makeup tips and in two weeks time we have Hayley from His2Hers coming along with lots of clothes from her shop which will all be under £20 each, so some bargains to be had.
  
Wednesday 17th August 2011
    

Isabella and Nicky
During this past week I have had several emails from Nicky, shown on the left with Isabella, first asking about the club and then saying how much she was looking forward to it. I unfortunately had to go to a Pride organisation meeting at 6 pm this evening so I was unable to be there when she came at 5 pm, but I had asked Genevieve to look after her as I knew the Genevieve would be there at the start. This arrangement worked well and they both went and had the Meal at Eden that we usually go to before the meeting. When I met Nicky later on she told me that she had been very nervous about going out but really enjoyed the experience when she did.

Nicky, Dawn, Genevieve and Mandy
The picture on the right shows a group of girls just before they went out round the village to show Nicky the ropes. I would like to thank Genevieve for looking after Nicky so well.
  

Milli
Milli, on the left, came all the way here by train this evening with no problem so she is getting more confident all the time. She planned to go back at around 10 pm to avoid the people coming home after being out at the pubs, to minimise the likelyhood of any trouble on the way. I hope it all went well for her.
Danyella has now volunteered to a Betty Boo song on the Pride float and here she is having a bit of a pose. She has arranged to do a quick audition next week when Saskia will be here, with all the other people who are going to take part.
We are still looking for people willing to join the float as walkers in the parade. We are allowed up to 12 people walking beside the vehicle so if you would like to do this please let us know asap.

Danyella

Michelle

Mandy

Alison

Paula

Steffie

Marilyn, Emma and Saskia

When I started to take the pictures this evening, I found that the card on my camera was locked and I had no idea why. This happened once before and Vanessa appeared to cure the problem just by removing the card and replacing it. I tried this to no effect so I finished up using Genevieve's camera to take many of these pictures. When Saskia came in I mentioned what had happened and she told me there is a switch on the card itself that can lock it, so we took out the card and she showed me the very tiny switch on the side of the card that I had no idea was there. Swapping its position cured the problem so now I understand what had happened before and I wont get stuck again, so thank you Saskia for putting me straight. I mentioned this here as it may help someone else if their switch get accidentally knocked as they are inserting the card as without the card the camera is useless.

Next week Jackie is coming in to show us how she makes her jewellery and to supply us with kits if we would like to make our own so do come in and see how it is done.

  

Lexi, Sarah and Sandra
Finally, I am sorry to have to be the bearer of bad news, but I just heard yesterday that Lexi, shown here with her friends Sarah and Sandra, took an overdose a few weeks ago. Her funeral has been arranged for next thursday the 25th of august at Altrincham crematorium. I have not see Lexi for some time as this photo was taken in March 2009 but I am sure some of you will have known her and would wish to offer our condolences to her family and friends.
If you need any more information then please email me.
  
Friday 12th August 2011
    
On friday the 12th of august Frances and Lesley attended the inquest on Brydie Shale. Frances has written a report and it is available at this link, Mary
  
Wednesday 10th August 2011
    

Cate and Joan
There had been riots in the streets of Manchester on Tuesday evening so I was concerned that it may not be possible or advisable to open the club this evening. But a long chat with Tracey, the proprietor of NewYork NewYork, reassured me that it was reasonably likely to be OK and not wanting to disappoint people who may make the effort to come out I decided to open the club anyway.
It was raining and there were many security guards and police in evidence so it certainly looked as though they were prepared if anything untoward was to happen.
I am really glad I did make the effort as members like Cate and Joan shown here on the left came in and they would have been very disappointed to have made the effort in vain and we also had two new people come in for the first time so we were able to welcome them into the group even though we were fewer people than usual.

 

Sophie and Alison
Sophie, shown here on the left with Alison, was the first newcomer to appear. She came in and got changed and spent the whole of the evening chatting with everyone who was there. Alison, who is shown with her, only came for the first time last week so I am glad we were able to encourage her as well.
Later in the evening Holly joined us for the first time having first of all been to see Saskia at the Manchester Dressing Service to have her make up done. We had an eye makeup demo by Saskia last week and the quality of her work was very evident as Holly looked beautifully done.
Below are some of the other people who came along this evening.

Holly

Genevieve

Paula and Lisa

Mary
Towards the end of the evening we were also joined by Steffie and Jane but I failed to take their photos. They had been out round the village and reported that it was very quiet with absolutely no rowdyism going on. I would hope that everything will be back to normal next week.
Another reminder that we have postponed the clothes sale that was planned for next week and the week after Jackie Buckley will be returning to demonstrate making her own jewellery and with all the stock that you can buy to make your own.
Also dont forget we are still in need of some more volunteers to walk with our float in the Pride parade on Saturday the 27th of August.
 
   
Wednesday 3rd August 2011
    

Emma and Saskia
This evening we had Emma and Saskia back with us selling wigs and jewellery etc from their shop. They now have clip on available for use with all their earings so there is now no excuse not to buy something exotic to wear.
It is always great to welcome new people to the club and here on the right is Alison who spent a large part of the evening talking to Vanessa and Marieanne shown with her. Alison joined this evening having been set up with a new email address as she didn't already have one.

Vanessa, Alison and Marieanne

Danyella
Danyella joined the club a few weeks ago and gave me her work email address for us to use for club emails, but when I came to use it my emails were all rejected. We made contact this evening about this problem and today danyella has managed to cure the problem and we are now in email contact.
NOTE, if any of you are not getting my emails about events then it is possible that the email address we have for you is wrong. Please let me know if you think this may be the case.
Milli, on the right, told me this evening that she had left home dressed and come to manchester on the train and was planning to go back the same way not too late in the evening. This is the first time she had travelled like this and she was amazed how easy it turned out to be. See her note on the forum for more details.

Milli

Sammi and Saskia
A bit later in the evening Saskia gave two short make up demonstrations. The first one using Sammi as a model was to show how to create a smokey eye look using two different shades of eye make up.
The second one, using Emma as a model, was to show how to outline the lips and then to make the lips look fuller by putting a very light colour in the middle of the lower lip before putting on the final lip colour.
Both these techniques seemed very effective. For more detailed videos of these processes see Saskias videos which I believe you can find from her website at this manchesterdressingservice.com link

Saskia and Emma

Genevieve

Lisa and Paula

Mandy

Marilyn

Sam, Pauline and Dawn

Mary
Finally, let me just remind you that next week is a normal club night with nothing special arranged, but the following week, the 17th of August, we are hold a clothes, wigs and shoe sale here at the club. There will be a lot of clothes that have been donated to the club and if any member wishes to donate any others then please bring them along on the night.
If you wish to sell some of your clothes and keep the money then you may bring them along but you MUST label those clothes with your name and the price you want and stay around during the evening to take the money when asked and be responsible for taking them away at the end of the evening if they are not sold. Anything left at the end will be treated as Club property and may either be kept for a later sale or given to Charity.
  
Wednesday 27th July 2011
    

Group picture
This evening was planned to be a busy night but initially started off fairly slowly. We had a Black and/or Blue theme night, plus Karen brought along her remaining stock of Avon makeup to sell off and then we were having more auditions for our Pride parade entry.
By 8 O'Clock many more people had come in and we finished up with a very busy night

Karen with her make up stall behind her
The colour theme worked very well as can be seen by the picture above except for Genevieve who we excused as she was dressed for her audition as Dusty Springfield.
Karen had decided to donate all the proceeds from her makeup sale to the club and I was very pleased to accept £90 on your behalf to go into the club funds. Thank you very much Karen that is very generous of you.
Today was also my birthday and I was delighted to be able to buy everyone who came, a drink, to help me celebrate it. Thank you all very much for your good wishes, it was a pleasure, Mary
Below are a few individual pictures illustrating the colour theme.

Bar view

Millie and Pauline

Michaela and Lisa

Pauline, Millie and Tina

Mandy, Michelle and Danielle

Millie and Mary

Gwen, Linda and Frances
Now lets move on to the auditions, we were unsure how this would go, but it proved to be a very entertaining highlight of the evening, with everyone who took part doing a fantastic enthusiastic job SO VERY WELL DONE TO YOU ALL.
The still pictures do not do justice to the performers so you will have to come along to the parade to see their final efforts, but I will include them here as a record of the evening.
  

Karen as Kate Bush
First we had Karen as Kate Bush. I am sorry about the picture on the right which was taken as she was performing but it was not with my camera and the light at the back made it difficult to photograph.
Next we had Miranda as Sandie Shaw, complete with the bare feet, then we had Genevieve as Dusty Springfield complete with Beehive wig and finally we had five girls as the Spice girls who did a complete routine choreographed by Saskia which was fantastic. She has now agreed to direct all the girls to try to put together a complete choreographed show on our vehicle in the parade.

Karen as Kate bush

Miranda as Sandie Shaw

Genevieve as Dusty Springfield

Genevieve as Dusty Springfield

The Spice girls



The Spice girls from the left at the back, we have
Kate as Baby Spice, Marilyn as Ginger Spice, Sammi as Scary Spice and Saskia as Posh Spice, with Emma at the front as Sporty Spice.
I also have four of the girls individually and I am sorry but I failed to get one of Kate as Baby Spice.
Below we have a series of pictures showing their routine but I wish I had taken it as a video as it would have been even better.

Saskia as Posh Spice

Emma as Sporty Spice

Sammi as Scary Spice

Marilyn as Ginger Spice

Emma and Karen

Finally, here is a picture of Karen relaxed at the end of the evening with her friend Emma, and Genevieve as she was at the start of the evening.

Next week we are having the Manchester Dressing service shop back with all their goodies plus Saskia is going to do a makeup demonstration. For further details see the Coming Events page on this website.

Finally, the theme of our Pride parade entry is Best of British female singers and we are also looking for 10 more people to walk either side of the float collecting money. We would like each of them to also dress as a well known british female singer so put your thinking caps on and volunteer if you can please.

Genevieve
   
Wednesday 20th July 2011
    

A party was held in NyNy on sunday the 17th and I am told they raised around £6000 for donation to Stepping Hill Hospital which was fantastic, but I was rather disconcerted, when I came in on the following wednesday to find the changing room looking like this.
We would appreciate it if the furniture was put back afterwards so that we didn't have to clear up the mess in order to have a useable room.

Wayne in party mood

Bar view

Pauline and Isabelle

Jemma

This week we had intended to hold the next auditions for the Pride parade but decided to postpone it for a week to give people more time to get their costumes ready. We therefore had nothing special arranged.
We had one newcomer join us this week, Isabelle, shown above on the right with Pauline. She tells me that she had walked through the village past NyNy a number of times, having already seen our website, wishing she had the opportunity to come in and join us. That opportunity has finally come about and here she is looking fantastic, with her own hair as well. She became a member straight away and we expect to see a lot more of her in the future, so welcome Isabelle, we are glad you made it,

Simone

Mandy and Genevieve
Jemma, above has come to us via Dee Selecta, so we continue to owe Dee our gratitude for encouraging new members to come. Dee is also providing a storage service so some members keep their clothes there rather than at home.
Simone, above on the right, has now become a regular, having joined us fairly recently and it is good to watch her blossom as she experiments with different outfits.
Mandy and Genevieve are now also regulars. Here almost every week, always looking for new outfits as they know they have the opportunity to show them off.
Steffie, on the right, is the joker in our pack, as well as a great football fan.

Steffie

Karen
Karen, on the left, is now on our committee, and is like a breath of fresh air, willing to do anything required and able to get on with things without any fuss. If you want something done ask Karen.
Linda, on the right, now comes along every two weeks and is slowly getting more outfits to wear. This is a really good photo of her as I have managed to catch her smiling and looking relaxed.
Next week we are having a Black and/or Blue dress theme night as well as holding the second auditions for the Pride parade. On top of that Karen is bringing along her Avon stock of makeup to have a sale at discount prices, so do make it if you can

Linda
   
Wednesday 13th July 2011
    

Jackie with her jewellery & Aloe Vera products
This evening we welcomed Jackie to the club who was selling a whole range of Aloe Vera products as well as some of her home made jewellery. She is a very cheerful lady who spoke to many people during the evening and did make some sales.
She has offered to come back on the 24th of August with all her jewellery making bits and pieces to show us how it is done.
Tracey, on the right, came back in after a very long gap. She is now living in a religious house in Chorlton and is really enjoying the quiet life. Welcome back Tracey.

Tracey

Lisa

Michelle

Micsha

 
I decided to experiment with taking photos of people seated instead of standing so here are a few examples. I think they are quite successful as they show people looking more relaxed. Micsha, on the right has now managed to get here twice in the last few weeks and is really enjoying coming out so I hope she can manage more often in the future.
  

Paula

Millie and Michaela

Mandy

Marilyn

Cindi, Tina, Marilyn, Saskia and Emma

Zoe

Karen, Diana and Cate
And here are some more beautiful people, standing this time. We put the tall girls together in the middle picture and it works very well. I managed to get a longer chat with Emma, in the picture above, this evening and she told me that she only returned early this year from two years living out in Thailand. Since then she has met Saskia and they have gone into business together with the Manchester Dressing service which is doing very well.
We had planned to hold the second auditions for our parade entry on wednesday but have decided to postpone it for a week to give people more time to organise their costumes. So next week will be a normal club evening.

Karen and Sammi
Sparkle 8 -10th July 2011

This section can only be a Mary's eye view of Sparkle as that is all I have. If anyone else would like to contribute to this then it would perhaps make it a more complete picture. We could add in another section if anyone is interested and has their own pictures.
These first two pictures were taken in the upstairs bar of the Rem at the welcome get together. As you can see it was well attended.

Marilyn, Kate and Emma
Following the do in the Rembrandt I went back to the flat at the Place and then later went for a meal in Taurus with Abby.
After our meal we went down to AXM late to go to the Sparkle welcome party. This was in the old Hollywood that we used to meet in over three years ago now and I haven't been back in there since it has been refurbished. We were fairly early but it was starting to fill up in the main bar and we circulated round and found ourselves in the quieter bar at the front in what used to be the toilet area which has now been changed into a very smart seating area where we took these photographs. I couldn't not take Marilyn in her fabulous wig

Julie and Mary

 

 

At around 10 pm we went across to NewYorkNewYork to see how the Manchester Concord entertainment was going and were just in time to catch the large lady stripper with her accompanying singer putting on a really good show. I was not able to take any pictures as it was too busy and there is not a lot of room, but I was impressed with the enthusiasm that was shown by the crowd for the show.

There is a separate article describing this Friday evening event at this link

We left for a fairly early night as we knew we were going to have a long day on the saturday.
There was a whole raft of activities taking place at the LGF but I was only able to attend there late in the afternoon where I saw Abby's talk which she was only asked to do when we had a very late cancellation on the friday evening and she agreed to stand in at the last minute.

The following pictures were all taken in the park during the afternoon, They are people that caught my eye. Some are anonymous as I dont know their names but some are named.

Sophie and Rachael

Amanda, Alison, Rachel and Lottie

Sarah Louise

Beverley and Genevieve

Milli

Lisa and Anna

 

Sarah, Leslie, Zoe and Mary

Enjoying themselves
 

Bella and Mary
I didn't get to see much of the activity on the stage but I enjoyed the singer shown in the middle picture above. I was pleased to bump into Bella in the park and was fascinated by the picture on the right which appears to have a broad white arrow pointing at both our heads?

I guess I should have gone round at the ball taking a few more photos but as I didn't here is the only one on my camera showing myself and Abby.
On the sunday evening a group of us had arranged to go to see the ladyboys and below are a few of the photos from then.

Mary and Ruby

Lisa, Ruby, Chloe, Mary and Tanya

Tanya and Joanne

The whole group after the event

Enjoying ourselves in NewYork NewYork afterwards

Chloe and Mary with the Ladyboys
We all gathered in Paddy's Goose before going on to the Ladyboys venue. Some in my car and some in a Taxi. We had arranged to have a Thai meal in the tent before the show which was very tasty but not enough for some of us. The show was excellent as usual and it is fun to get a picture with some of the girls as a souvenir of the show.
Afterwards we all went and spent an hour or two in the bar at NewYork NewYork to finish off our evening.
  
   
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