Costly success

 I'm back from my two-week trip to the UK, which went well and enabled me to catch up with lots of friends. It was exhausting, though, because of all the travelling and heaving two suitcases about on trains. TGirls don't travel light!

I have just done my accounts after the trip and the cost was truly eye-watering. I did feel that this was likely to be the last such visit and I think that clinches it. Not only has train travel always been monstrously expensive in Britain but the hotels are, too. And when you are away from home, eating out adds up as well. 

But I achieved almost all I wanted to on the social front. I described my trip to Brighton in my last post. After that, I saw one of my sisters. Then I went to Manchester, mainly to see the widows of two of my lovely trans friends who have passed away, and that was a very good trip, if tinged with sadness. Canal Street was dead quiet, though - I had hoped for a worthwhile night out there. I saw Emma and family in Leicestershire and met the ever-interesting Lynn of YATGB fame. After that it was Nottingham, where I stayed with very old friends and we enjoyed a day out at the National Tramway Museum in Derbyshire. 

All to be recounted in due course, especially the bits in a frock.

I also spent time in my storage unit, swapping clothes about and picking up some fun things in the way of books, CDs, DVDs, ornaments and, of course, girl clothes and shoes I've been missing. 

I do try to run a positive blog, but I have grumbles ...

The first is the atrocious state of Britain's pavements, the holes in which have stripped the heels of my favourite ankle boots of their leather. I was due in a smart restaurant and was dismayed at the extensive damage my boots had sustained in Brighton, Bolton and Manchester. Without time to go to a cobbler or repairer, I blacked in the missing parts with kohl pencil! I think my 'running repairs' passed muster. (I don't know if my eyes did, though!)

Another is the abominable state of British and French transport. French trains have always been lousy but the UK did get its railways working comparatively well in the period 2000-2020 but this year only one of the 13 rail trips I made in the spring went to plan and only my trip to Brighton did this autumn. What with strikes, delays, breakdowns, cancellations, diversions, people hit by trains, technical problems, floods, trains shortened, and more, it's a nightmare. A trip from Nottingham to Twickenham should take 3 hours - it took 5, in overcrowded trains. My trip from London to home in Italy (partly by plane) should take 7 hours - it took 12. The Italian leg went perfectly ... others please note.

The third is that in Britain it rains. It rained all the time! Hard, drumming rain that woke me at night several times. Apart from my afternoons in Brighton and at the Tramway Museum it rained almost constantly. I finally got to Nice Airport where I picked up my sopping wet cases that had been left out in the driving rain at London's Heathrow Airport. They dried off in the balmy 22C sunshine of the riviera. It was 25C here today. This is why I moved here!

I'll leave you with one other thing that could be bad or good. Here's me relaxing in an outfit I'd planned to go out wearing in the Gay Village in Manchester. Just as I stood up to go out, my skirt fell off. I have lost enough weight this year that this number no longer fits. Yay! A pity that I had to swap this sexy item for an altogether more staid skirt with an elasticated waistband that wasn't going to fall off, but it's as well I discovered the problem whilst I was still indoors and not out in the street! 

Sue x