Manchester! Part the Second
Continued from yesterday!
Saturday was the day of the Pride parade. I had been asked to march with the youth group that I marched with last year, even though I've not done anything with them since then. I'd arranged to meet them at the top of Liverpool Road but they were rather delayed in arriving. It wasn't so bad waiting at first but then it started to drizzle. Before long it was raining pretty hard and it had got rather chilly as well so not pleasant weather to be waiting in, or for the parade either! The others finally turned up and we found our place on the road. It was about 12 by this time but as the parade was starting an hour later this year at 1pm, we still had an hour of standing around in the cold and wet. Thankfully, about 12.30, the rain eased off and the sun came out! Soon people were getting ready to set off so it was time to take commemorative photos. I think we had about 6-8 people taking photos of us, it might actually have been more. I have no idea who they all were or why they were all taking photos of us so it was a bit bizarre and made me feel rather like some kind of celebrity.
The parade seemed to start late, there was no sign of anyone moving at 1pm, but it was 1.40 by the time we filtered into the parade and set off. It was very stop and starty at the beginning, more so than usual. The crowd seemed to be rather quiet this year for some reason which was a shame, even round the Village where usually you get the biggest cheers. The truck that was with us was playing a bizarre mix of music, some decent and some not. At one point, it started playing YMCA which did get some of the crowd joining in so that was nice. The sun came out to full effect when we were about halfway round so it got really warm, not helped by our dancing about. The parade route seemed to be incredibly long and I swear it was longer than last year's, although just as I was thinking that we got to the end! It was 2.45pm then so it had only taken an hour which wasn't bad at all. I think we were close to the front because there was still a lot of parade coming after us.
The others were heading back to their minibus so they headed off while I debated whether to watch the end of the parade or not. I couldn't find anywhere to stand where I could see any of it, so I decided to head into the Village instead and have a look round the Expo before it got too busy. It was already reasonably busy when I got there! There didn't seem to be as many stalls as usual and it wasn't as good so that was disappointing. I still got some freebies although nowhere near as many as previous years. I also saw a couple of people that I knew which was nice. I even got invited to one person's wedding which was most unexpected and at another stall, I was told they're looking for two Trans volunteers and that I should get in touch! That will be nice because I've not really done any Trans support work for over a year now and I think my batteries have been recharged in that area now. By the time I'd looked round all the Expo, my feet were beginning to complain a LOT - I'd been on them since 11 so about 6 hours - so I decided to call it a day and went back to my room where I watched Doctor Who and spent the rest of the night moving as little as possible.
On Sunday, I was absolutely shattered! It didn't help that I didn't get to sleep till late because the person in the next room seemed to be having a rather noisy phone call until 1.30am. I spent the morning relaxing and then at 2.15pm, I went out for the Out In the Past heritage trail. It was quite well attended, I think there were about 20 of us so it was quite a large group. The trail went round some of the LGBT landmarks in Manchester and actually took us on quite a trek across the city centre. It took nearly 2 hours and yet we only saw 9 or 10 actual places. That was a bit disappointing as I'd hoped we'd see more but the majority of the time was spent getting from one place to the next. The tour guide kept saying that they're hoping to have a website up soon with details about various places so that will be good as there's several tiles I've seen but I have no idea what they represent. It was very interesting all the same and at least the rain held off for the most part so it wasn't too wet or cold (bonus!). The main downside was that I was already shattered with sore feet after yesterday, so the tour had only made things worse! I nipped back into the Expo on the way back to see if I'd missed anything yesterday when it got busy but I hadn't. So back to my room for the night.
Monday was a rather eventful day, more of that in Manchester! Part the Third (I can't believe there's going to be another part, I'd only expected to do two!)
Saturday was the day of the Pride parade. I had been asked to march with the youth group that I marched with last year, even though I've not done anything with them since then. I'd arranged to meet them at the top of Liverpool Road but they were rather delayed in arriving. It wasn't so bad waiting at first but then it started to drizzle. Before long it was raining pretty hard and it had got rather chilly as well so not pleasant weather to be waiting in, or for the parade either! The others finally turned up and we found our place on the road. It was about 12 by this time but as the parade was starting an hour later this year at 1pm, we still had an hour of standing around in the cold and wet. Thankfully, about 12.30, the rain eased off and the sun came out! Soon people were getting ready to set off so it was time to take commemorative photos. I think we had about 6-8 people taking photos of us, it might actually have been more. I have no idea who they all were or why they were all taking photos of us so it was a bit bizarre and made me feel rather like some kind of celebrity.
The parade seemed to start late, there was no sign of anyone moving at 1pm, but it was 1.40 by the time we filtered into the parade and set off. It was very stop and starty at the beginning, more so than usual. The crowd seemed to be rather quiet this year for some reason which was a shame, even round the Village where usually you get the biggest cheers. The truck that was with us was playing a bizarre mix of music, some decent and some not. At one point, it started playing YMCA which did get some of the crowd joining in so that was nice. The sun came out to full effect when we were about halfway round so it got really warm, not helped by our dancing about. The parade route seemed to be incredibly long and I swear it was longer than last year's, although just as I was thinking that we got to the end! It was 2.45pm then so it had only taken an hour which wasn't bad at all. I think we were close to the front because there was still a lot of parade coming after us.
The others were heading back to their minibus so they headed off while I debated whether to watch the end of the parade or not. I couldn't find anywhere to stand where I could see any of it, so I decided to head into the Village instead and have a look round the Expo before it got too busy. It was already reasonably busy when I got there! There didn't seem to be as many stalls as usual and it wasn't as good so that was disappointing. I still got some freebies although nowhere near as many as previous years. I also saw a couple of people that I knew which was nice. I even got invited to one person's wedding which was most unexpected and at another stall, I was told they're looking for two Trans volunteers and that I should get in touch! That will be nice because I've not really done any Trans support work for over a year now and I think my batteries have been recharged in that area now. By the time I'd looked round all the Expo, my feet were beginning to complain a LOT - I'd been on them since 11 so about 6 hours - so I decided to call it a day and went back to my room where I watched Doctor Who and spent the rest of the night moving as little as possible.
On Sunday, I was absolutely shattered! It didn't help that I didn't get to sleep till late because the person in the next room seemed to be having a rather noisy phone call until 1.30am. I spent the morning relaxing and then at 2.15pm, I went out for the Out In the Past heritage trail. It was quite well attended, I think there were about 20 of us so it was quite a large group. The trail went round some of the LGBT landmarks in Manchester and actually took us on quite a trek across the city centre. It took nearly 2 hours and yet we only saw 9 or 10 actual places. That was a bit disappointing as I'd hoped we'd see more but the majority of the time was spent getting from one place to the next. The tour guide kept saying that they're hoping to have a website up soon with details about various places so that will be good as there's several tiles I've seen but I have no idea what they represent. It was very interesting all the same and at least the rain held off for the most part so it wasn't too wet or cold (bonus!). The main downside was that I was already shattered with sore feet after yesterday, so the tour had only made things worse! I nipped back into the Expo on the way back to see if I'd missed anything yesterday when it got busy but I hadn't. So back to my room for the night.
Monday was a rather eventful day, more of that in Manchester! Part the Third (I can't believe there's going to be another part, I'd only expected to do two!)