Summer Holiday

About a month before the school summer holidays Samaya (Suzanne's daughter) unexpectedly came to live with us. At the beginning of the 6 week holiday she unexpectedly went back to live with her father. A month on and just as unexpectedly she returned to live with us. I guess that teaches me I should expect the unexpected! J

There were 2 weeks of the summer holidays left. We decide we could all do with a break, but it was the height of season, everywhere was booked and was too expensive anyway. The Wendy bus (VW Camper) had a fresh MOT certificate, but many of her fittings had failed after 2 years of neglect. I managed to get the gas to the cooker working and figured we could manage without a heater, microwave and fridge anyway.

We were a day late in loading the Wendy bus up for the magical mystery tour of Kernow's lay-bys. We did eventually get loaded up and headed off for the last 10 days of the school holidays. Apart from one small problem when I ran into some mouthy youths in a filling station at Salisbury, the trip went without any transphobic incidences.

We spent most of our trip camped up around the Bude area, but made a few trips to other places. I had a few surf sessions at Widemouth bay. The waves were not that big but it was great to be back in the water. I surfed Widemouth last time I was in Kernow. At that time I was still androgynous most of the time, but surfed wearing a bikini under my male wetsuit. This time I had a ladies pink and black wetsuit and a very pink bikini. Heading into the water I had makeup on, but that was pretty non existent by the time I exited.

One day we ventured into Newquay and browsed the shops. My favourite Kebab shop was now a burger type grill house, so we ate in a Pie and Mash Shop. As nice as the home madesteak and ale pies were, you just can't beat a nice beef and onion pie! Fortunately I had one of each type. The guy in the Longboard House seemed a little bemused when I first wandered in, but he soon warmed when he realised I did actually surf one of their boards already and that I had my eye on the hand shaped balsa wood longboard. No, I did not buy it. It is far too pricey for me to want to ding.

We went to the Cornish Markets near St Austell one day but never really got time to wander around all of it. We just managed to get burger and chips from the burger vans outside the market before they closed. I had quite a conversation with the two ladies in the burger van, they wished me luck and asked that I pop back and see them again next time I am in Kernow.

We travelled down to Lands End one evening and I took the opportunity to show the others Sennan Cove. We ate in the local pub there. I think they were a little shock to see a transgender person there, but they were pretty chatty and offered some tips on where it was best to camp up for the night.

The following day we headed into St Ives for a wander around the shops. We had a pasty and managed to keep the seagulls at bay. It was a good test of my heel walking ability! J

The last day of our stay had come around all too quickly. We had breakfast/lunch at the burger van in the lay-by on the A39 between the 2 turn off's for Widemouth bay. We had stayed in the lay-by a few times and made friends with the guys that operate the burger van. We exchanged email addresses and said farewell, before heading into Bude to buy a mirror we had seen in "Wild Wood".

We decided to head out on the A39 and followed it through Devon. Just before "Porlock" we picked up a Hungarian girl hitchhiking from work. She was glad of the lift and we chatted for a while before setting her down a few miles later. The Wendy bus was slow climbing the steeper sections of the road, but never once gave the impression that the hill was too steep. In fact I was more concerned about the descents, keeping the engine revs down without excessive wear on the braking system.

Taking this route home did put a few hours on the journey, but it was a much nicer route to follow.

Wedding Reception

We attended a wedding reception. This was with much trepidation as most of those in attendance had never met Broxie or quite likely never met any transgendered person. Some may have heard of my existence through the grape vine, but many would probably not even know Suzanne had a new partner. The bride and groom were very welcoming and made an excellent couple. While the evening was not totally hitch free, I was glad to be in the company of some really lovely people.
I think it was about 4 am when we left the venue. The narrow roads and single tracks were encased in a thick fog! It was as much as I could do to keep Frankie the 1955 Ford Fairlane on the road. We made it home safely and tumbled into bed. Or was that flaked out?

Bishop’s Stortford Carnival

We were held up a bit, but we did eventually head off in Frankie and make it to the Bishop's Stortford Carnival. We had missed the procession but were able to gain entry to the show ground as Frankie flattered her eye lids. I spotted some kids Frankie and so I let them sit inside while there parents took some pictures of them. The skate park had a competition running and bands took to the stage nearby, so we stationed ourselves there for most of the day. Samaya was in need of cheering up so we treated her to a skateboard which Broxie could not resist playing with.

Mersea Motor Show

Today we took Frankie to Mersea Motor show. We took a wrong turn and ended up having to turn around in a narrow side street, down by the harbour. This was made all the more difficult as some cars had parked up on opposite sides of the narrow road, leaving very little room to slalom Frankie between them. Once we had arrived at the car show we hooked up with Suzanne's family. We had been sat by Frankie chatting for a while, when a lady wandered up and congratulated me on my driving! At first I thought she was being funny and I wondered what I could have done to annoy her. It turned out though that she was the driver of one of the tightly parked cars in the road I had manoeuvred around by the harbour and she was genuinely impressed at how easy I had made it look. As is customary at motor shows Broxie took lots of photographs which can be seen in the gallery.

Ace Cafe

Straight from the Enfield Pagent Motor Show we headed to the Ace Cafe for a Rock'n'Roll event. We exchanged a few friendly words with the female ocupants of a Pink Limo, traveling the same stretch of the A406. We arrived at the Ace Cafe and as we parked the battery cut out. It does not charge well from the dynamo, so I carry a spare battery charged and ready for use now. Unfortunately it was raining quite heavily and my electric window was now stuck half open. I opted to change it before the light faded. As I did so a young biker lad offered his assistance, which was nice of him. It turned out he is a mechanic by trade.

Once the battery was fitted and the window was closed, Suzanne and I headed inside for a coffee and a burger. Suitably refreshed, we decided to change into fresh clothes for the evening's event. I grabbed the bag we had packed from the car and then went off to change. I entered a cubical and changed out of the orange combats and see through mohair jumper that I had been wearing. Then I slipped on a blue dress. I had also been wearing a matching orange bra and knickers set. I kept the bra on, but I was not sure thong knickers would hold me secure when I started dancing. I figured better safe than sorry and swapped then for a pair of peachy coloured panties. The dress was not so short that anyone was likely to see that they did not match anyway.

I exited the cubical and commenced touching up my makeup. As I did so a lady entered clutching a change of clothes. It bought a smile to my face to see that Suzanne and I were not the only ones that bought a change of clothes with us.

I returned to the table Suzanne was keeping for us and then she headed off to change into her fresh outfit. Suzanne was pretty quick and returned before the lady that had gone it to change as I applied my makeup.

I dropped some flyers that I had from the B52's diner on the information stand.

The DJ was playing mostly Rockabilly tracks, some of which I knew in other forms by other artists. After a while the band started doing their set. As is usually the way, I danced pretty much all evening from that point on.

At one point as I danced some guy off to my right shot me a very odd look. Nothing new about that, but he kept then staring at Suzanne. She had earlier smiled back at him apparently, but now was taking no notice. He kept this up to the point it really started to bug me and I started staring back at him.

The band finished their set and began to load the equipment in the van. I stepped outside to cool off and take a few photographs of it. Again it was something I had never seen before, a custom painted Ford Falcon. I spoke to the owner who informed me it was a straight 6 engine under the hood and that it was already custom painted when he obtained it. The van will be at Billing Aquadrome next weekend.

I returned inside and danced to most of the tracks that DJ played until it was time to head home. As I started the car the guy giving the looks all-night happened to be admiring our wheels! J

Enfield Motor Pageant

This morning Suzanne and I went to the Enfield Motor Pageant. We went in Frankie, but we did not enter her in the show. Instead we parked in the normal parking area. We wandered around the stalls and bumped into Suzanne's dad, brother and a friend of her brother that we recently bought our little runabout off of. I was in makeup, so it was nice that they spent some time with us and did not distance themselves. We returned to her brothers' car to exchange some presents we had for Suzanne's family. As we stood chatting, some idiot, raced along the grass in his little black hatchback. Then over cooked the slide he put himself into and slammed his car into the tow ball of a recovery truck! He hopped out of the car looked at the damage then, jumped back in the car and disappeared out of the show ground.

Fortunately there was nothing parked in front of the recovery truck that he hit with enough force to move it forward. It was all over too quickly to take the drivers number. He sure made a mess of the side of his car though! I don't suppose his passenger was too amused to have recovery truck sitting on his lap. The recovery truck seemed okay, the only visible damage being a broken tail light lens.

Suzanne and I said goodbye to her family and went for a wander around the show cars, most had cleared out as it was getting late in the day and it was beginning to rain. We came across a car that I had not seen before and spoke to the proud owner. He informed me that the doors were open and insisted I take a seat inside. It was a Borgward.

After wandering around the remaining cars we headed back to Frankie. Some thieving twat had nicked all the dust covers from her wheels.

Rock'n'Roll Night

Suzanne and I went to a Rock'n'Roll night at the Ace Cafe. As is customary we went to the event in Frankie. In true Broxie style I spent most of the evening on the dance floor. Suzanne spent most of the evening laughing at me trying to fend off the attentions of a dancing cowboy.