Manchester in March
	My friends, Sarah Snow and Sarah T, had for some time been telling me how great the Manchester Gay village area is for a girl's night out. So when they invited me to join them for a trip up there on the 24th March 2001, I jumped at the chance. Tiffany Tuesday of Repartee magazine fame had organized a gathering of girls, so we were to meet up with 30 other trannies and partners from around the country.
	We drove up late Saturday afternoon, arriving around 7pm. We had booked into the Ibis Hotel which is just outside the village area but in comfortable walking distance. Whilst the two Sarahs went to get a quick meal, I retired to my room to start getting ready.
	This was a special night for me as it was my first time in public having done my own makeup. But I also knew I would need all the time available to get ready because of that. As I expected it took me nearly 2hrs to get the makeup in a vaguely acceptable state. Not knowing how cold or otherwise I might feel I had decided to wear my rollneck sweater (nice and warm and it also does a nice job of emphasizing the curves!) plus my short black PVC skirt as I do love to show my legs. My usual dance belt and black body were worn underneath, together with black 15 denier tights from Sock Shop. My one black pair of heels and my long black coat completed the outfit.
	The Sarahs knocked on my door when they were ready and we then went down in the lift. Exiting the lift, there were a few people about but they didn't seem to take much notice of us. We set off with Sarah Snow (in her sensible high-heeled boots) and I in the lead and Sarah T in her fetching metal stiletto heeled shoes bringing up the rear. This was my first prolonged experience of walking in heels on the street but I soon got to grips with the right way to do things. The weather was fine and mild so the walk was really quite pleasant.
	First stop was Hollywood Showbar Piano Bar where we had arranged to meet up with the girls. There was quite a large wedding party in the bar at the time but they didn't seem bothered by a huge gathering of Trannies. At first I was a little shy but soon I was chatting with lot's of girls thanks to Tiffany Tuesday who took it upon herself to get me to say hi to the girls (and some of the boys too!). I remember lengthy chats with Sue - a TV from Hull (who you can see behind Sarah T in the pic), Debbie and Sue - TV and her partner. Also with Bella Jay and Martine Rose of Roses Repartee fame. The girls were very kind about my makeup which certainly gave my confidence a boost.
	After about an hour at the showbar we all set off to find another club, eventually settling on Manhattan. The walk there was such fun and we were, literally, stopping traffic to allow such a large group of us to keep together. We were the only T-girls in Manhatten, apart from the bar staff, the DJ and the cabaret but the place seemed pretty full to me. Sarah T told me that last time they were there it was far fuller though! Here I had a chance to have a good chat with Leah, last month's Repartee cover girl- in fact given the volume of the music I guess you could say we had a good yell at each other! The only annoying thing for me was it really wasn't a practical place for pictures.
	After about an hour we moved on again, this time to what is, apparently, the favourite place for finishing the night : Napoleon's.
	The upstairs section was pretty packed - I couldn't even make it onto the dance floor though whether I would have had the nerve to dance anyway is another matter. Not too sure I liked Napoleon's as much as the other clubs - seemed to be a lot of men hanging around. A few of the girl's partners were hassled by the male clientele who wouldn't take no for an answer but as I didn't experience that first hand it want as bad as it might have been for me.
	I did get a couple of pat's on the bum myself, one from a rather yucky looking chap who blew me a kiss when I turned to see who had touched me - bbrrrr!
	We rounded off the evening around 3am with the walk back to the hotel, which included a few cat-calls from the more inebriated of the late night revellers. Somehow that seemed to add to the fun! I was also amazed how blasé the night porter was about letting us back into the hotel - I guess they've seen it all before.
	Despite the lateness of the hour I wasn't ready to change back just yet so I tried a few pics on the self-timer. As I only had my old 35mm camera at the time, it was all guess work as to how they would come out. I quite like the ones you see throughout this report, even if the lighting in the room was clearly not ideal!
	All images are copyright © Wendy Davies, 2001. All Rights Reserved. Any unauthorised copying or distribution of images from this site is strictly prohibited.
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