My Sparkle 2012

For UK t-girls, July means Sparkle - the 'National Transgender Celebration' in Manchester. It's on my doorstep, of course, but this year for the first time I booked into a hotel adjacent to the Village to get the full experience. For most of us, what's fantastic about Sparkle is that we get to dress en femme for 48 hours. For me that meant lots of opportunity to work on make-up techniques, try out different outfits, and so on - as well as meeting friends new and old and partying in true t-girl fashion.

A few highlights for me:

• makeover by Jodie Lynn on Saturday evening followed by photoshoot at the Sparkle ball. You can get a taster on my profile, or see the set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgirlheloise/sets/
• Irish night at the Molly House on Friday evening
• Sunday morning went to church en femme! To the famous Cross Street Unitarian chapel. I'm not a unitarian - in fact this was my first unitarian service - but I knew they'd be welcoming since they're the first place of worship in the UK to be licensed for civil partnership. The minister, Jane Barraclough, is really cool and I had a nice chat with her at the end - quite brief, since I had to dash off for the Sparkle lunch. 
• Manchester was full of cyclists that day for the 'Sky Ride' event. I'm sure one of them took a picture of me as I crossed the road and another one wolf-whistled...