Wow… this was one amazing day! Up early(ish) which was pretty impressive considering how much I had drunk the night before, and feeling actually very good.
After almost deciding to go drab for the first part of the day, I made the decision to go back to my original plan and do the entire day en femme. I have never done real daylight trannying before.. so this was a first. I was worried about my makeup lasting the whole day, and by the fact that I would have to wear my glasses for the daytime and it wouldn’t look right. But both these fears were unfounded. I wore a long brown skirt, white vest and brown jacket. It was nice that it wasn’t too warm which made wearing the wig bearable. I had a nice pair of flat sandals to finish off the look. I don’t think I really passed but to be honest I didn’t really care. Looking back I am so glad I didn’t wimp out and do Drab… Not sure if I am up for heading to a major shopping centre en femme yet. But the Village was a good place to start.
We headed out early to get the
Sparkle banners tied to the railings in Canal Street and to start inflating the first of the helium balloons. I think there were about 1000 Sparkle balloons in total… and we gradually got them inflated and taken to the various clubs and bars that were involved.
A huge thanks to all the people who offered their assistance during that first part of the day – in particular to Tim for his amazing balloon inflating technique and also Kelly who was an expert balloon holder. Was nice to meet both of you. There were many other girls who stood at the back of the van and collected huge bunches of balloons and carried them to the venues. Thanks all of you.
Kim had also arranged lovely Sparkle Tshirts and cowboy hats for the bar staff. The look was increadibly camp and I think the only way to make them look any more flaming would have been to set fire to the hats… The staff all loved them though, and we had to ration them in the end because many more wanted to wear them than we had available…
After luch at Via Fosse with Bella Jay, Sue, Leah, Kim, Martine Rose, Vicky Lee and a few others (with what seemed to be the slowest service known to mankind!) it was back out to inflate more balloons, give out badges, and watch the Miss Englsh Rose competition. I’m not sure if I missed the rest of it, but the bit I saw involved walking up and down with a book on your head and seeing who could do a circuit the fastest. Six inch nails to assist with the fastening were not permitted. After that was the memorial walk to the Aids memorial in Sackville to tie ribbons in memory of those girls who are no longer with us.
After that… more balloons. If I ever see another bloody helium balloon it will be too soon!!!
It was then back to the Place for a change of outfit (I put some jeans on and some boots as it was a little chilly in the sandals) and down to the Manhattan Showbar for the GWRB Fashion Show.
There I met the one and only Miss Becky Enverite, fresh from her Barcelona trip, Clarissa and Vicky Fox… The show was late starting (natch – 10 trannies all trying to get ready!) but the place was packed when it got going. Siobhan looked great in her outfits – and I didn’t realise that Kerrie Green and Broxie were also involved. So it was good to see a few angels strutting their stuff. Full marks to the students who designed the outfits, they had put in a lot of work and they were excellent.
After that…. Guess what? More bloody balloons!
Then back to the place – change outfits (again), grab some food and down to the Miss Sparkle competition. Unfortunately it was so hot in the Thompson Arms that I managed to stay inside for a total of 5 minutes before heading back out to the cooler air of the street.
This was my favourite bit of the evening though. Kim had ordered about 600 glow sticks that you could wear around your wrist, with the intention of just giving them away to anyone we saw. So Fiona, Sophie and I took 100 each and headed off down Canal Street to mingle.
This was fantastic… We got a few odd looks from people who thought we were trying to sell them but on the whole the response we got was fantastic. I lost count of the number of Hen Parties I talked to. They were great and were asking all sorts of questions about trannies and what Sparkle was all about. We kept getting our picture taken with them and that kind of thing. Everyone wanted the bracelets and we had a super time. So many people were commenting on how good the atmosphere was down the street and how it was so much different from a regular night. One girl is even going to try and arrange her mates hen night to coincide with Sparkle 2 next year (which will surely happen after the success of this one)
Oh and top marks to Bella Jay for this fantastic Sparkle outfit.
Compared to last nights overindulgence I didn’t drink that much at all… and was pretty lucid all night (well, as lucid as normal) My feet finally gave out about 2am ish and we headed back to the Place for a coffee and then bed.
To those I managed to catch up with again it was wonderful to meet you. I won’t do a roll call of names cos you know who you are. Oh, and you can see all the Photos at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sparkle05 where I am trying to get other girls to add their photos as well.
So Sparkle thoughts: It was an amazing weekend. Huge thanks to Kim Angel for all the hard work and effort she put into organising what must surely go down in the annals of trannydom as one of the best weekend gatherings. So now people know what Sparkle is and what its about, we should be able to build on that success for next year and make Sparkle 2 an even bigger success.
But we get someone else to do the balloons.
