Bollington Weekend
	In February we had the chance to join lots of other Transgender folk at the Northern Concord Big 'N' event. It's held in a country house hotel with very nice scenery throughout, pleasant rooms and good dining facilities with the choice of eating in the main dining room (with the live entertainment) or the quieter orangery where you can chat without shouting. We chose the latter on both nights. Our friends Sarah, Jen, Suze, JJ and Gina were all present so we had two very pleasant nights there. I took the chance to wear my new blue dress on the first night and my black dress on the second, both of which I'd purchased during the January Sales. You can see more pics from the evening by clicking here.
	For the Saturday itself we'd decided we didn't want to just hang around at the hotel so we set off for Ramsbottom where we knew the Alternative Footwear company had their premises. After a slightly tricky trip around Manchester (and one missed motorway exit) we finally arrived. We had hoped that this company would provide us with a replacement for the much missed HayWay shoes but I'm sad to say that wasn't the case. They did have a very large selection of footwear on display but pretty much all of it was of the incredibly high heeled nature. Nicki and I both spent around an hour trying on various shoes and boots (in the completely unheated showroom) but by the end of it we were both frozen and disappointed. The main problem for me (in addition to the height of the heels) was a lack of shoes suitable for a broader foot - even though I'm a 7/8 I just couldn't find shoes that looked right on me. Nicki did find one pair of white boots she liked but the zip broke as she was trying them on; not a good omen we thought so she left them behind. We decided to cut our losses and move on.
	Having done some Internet research we knew there was a TK Maxx in nearby Bury so we headed there where we spent another hour or so looking through the racks. Nicki picked up a few items but it seemed it just wasn't to be my day and I came away empty handed. We headed back to the hotel and Nicki kindly took a few pics of me in the hotel ground to cheer me up after which we had a pleasant cream tea in the hotel before retiring to prepare for the evening. Click here to see the pics.
	We really enjoyed what was our first event for ages and certainly plan to go again next year though we'll try shopping a bit nearer to the hotel next time to save on the travelling !
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