Trips & Adventures – 29 November 2019

We attended an event “Pride in Caring – Celebrating Older LGBT+ People” from 10.00am to 2.00pm at the Elizabethan Suite in Bury Town Hall.

It was a day of celebrating older LGBT people with stalls, exhibitions, a workshop and a free lunch.

The day started with a couple of speeches from a Bury councillor and a gay man, in a relationship for 37 years, whose partner is quite frail and needs a lot of support. We then had a wander around the various stalls chatting to the staff.

There was an interesting workshop. Sadly, half of all LGBT people over 55 feel that their sexual orientation or gender identity has or will have a negative impact on getting older. As older LGBT people we have grown up in a world hostile to our identities, and the impact of discrimination is felt as we age. We may experience an increased reliance on services, isolation from family and community, and a need to renegotiate our identities within the wider LGBT communities.

We often experience specific health inequalities and care needs. Sexual orientation and age are not often discussed together, but sexual orientation is an important characteristic that is part of an individual’s identity throughout their life.

We also had a very nice buffet lunch and had time to chat in a relaxed atmosphere.

Trips & Adventures – 22 November 2018

Stoke-on-Trent is the home of the pottery industry in England and is made up of six towns: Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Longton, Stoke-upon-Trent, and Tunstall, each having its own town hall.

We were welcomed to Stoke-on-Trent by Josiah Wedgwood, whose statue stands outside the train station. He was the English potter, most associated with the neoclassic style, who established the Wedgwood pottery factory.

We decided to take a taxi to The Gladstone Pottery Museum as it was situated a few miles away in Longton.

The factory opened as a museum in 1974, the buildings having been saved from demolition in 1970 when the pottery closed (some ten years after its bottle ovens were last fired). In the 1990’s ownership passed to Stoke-on-Trent City Council. The museum has shown its commitment to industrial heritage by functioning as a working pottery, and is typical of those once common in the North Staffordshire area of England from the time of the industrial revolution in the 18th century to the mid 20th century.

The museum was fascinating and we learnt a lot about saggar making, throwing, jiggering, jolleying, casting, dipping, glost placing and firing the clay. There were demonstrations of throwing the pot and flower making.

Saggars were used to support the pottery and protect it from smoke in the kiln. Each lasted about 40 firings so the saggar maker needed to replace them continuously. Saggars were made by a team, a skilled saggar maker, a frame filler and a saggar maker’s bottom knocker.

Lots of children worked in the pottery but life expectancy at the time was only 46 as people suffered with heat from the ovens and from lead poisoning.

We visited the doctor’s house as well as the tile gallery and an exhibition “Flushed With Pride” which was the story of the toilet.

The exhibition had quite a lot of “toilet humour”. We found out that the Latin word for bee is “apis” and that it’s a myth that Thomas Crapper invented the toilet! There were toilets on display for standing, sitting and squatting as well as a Japanese toilet with a heated seat.

All in all, another fabulous day out.

 

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on 20th November that honours the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

Additionally, during the week of 12th to 19th November, people and organisations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help raise the visibility of transgender people and address the issues trans people face.

What is the Transgender Day of Remembrance?

The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honour the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester’s death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“The Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice.”
– Transgender Day of Remembrance founder, Gwendolyn Ann Smith

We are remembering the 310 people we have lost from 20 November 2017 to 19 November 2018 originating from the following countries:

Argentina (8), Bangladesh (1), Brazil (144), Bolivia (2), Chile (1), Colombia (14), Dominican Republic (1), Ecuador (1), El Salvador (6), France (2), Fiji (1), Guatemala (4), Honduras (1), India (7), Italy (3), Mexico (61), New Zealand (1), Pakistan (7), Paraguay (2), Peru (2), Philippines (1), South Africa (2), Spain (1), Trinidad and Tobago (1), Turkey (7), United Kingdom (1), United States of America (23) and Venezuela (5).

Trips & Adventures – 18 November 2018

Thanks to Unique X who offered Out In The City a VIP experience at the Manchester Evening News Arena to see Culture Club, one of the most influential groups of the 1980’s.

In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” and “Karma Chameleon”, the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983. The highlights included the encores “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie and “Get It On” by T-Rex and my personal favourite “Everything I Own”.

The support acts were Tom Bailey (from the Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle. Tom Bailey had an all female backing group and Belinda Carlisle had an all male backing group, but they were both really good. We all had a great night out.

 

Trips & Adventures – 15 November 2018

Only Stuart and I travelled from Piccadilly station to the airport but we were expecting to meet Peter there. However, he had jumped on the bus from the airport to the viewing park, which left at 10.50am. The next one was in an hour. A very nice man told us about an alternative bus, which went part way leaving a ten minute walk. He then looked at the two of us more closely and then said: “well, maybe 15 to 20 minutes.”

Peter had been busy taking lots of photos of planes taking off and landing, before we arrived. Stuart had brought a pair of binoculars but Peter got some really good shots (see here) with his long extension.

Manchester Airport is one of Europe’s busiest airports and planes were taking off or landing every couple of minutes including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Condor, Easy Jet, Fly Be, Jet 2 Holidays, Qatar Airways, Ryanair, Thomas Cook and Turkish Airlines. However, Concorde which has not flown since 2003 was spotted in a hangar. Concorde was a British-French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner that was operated from 1976 until 2003. It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound.

We walked back towards the bus stop, stopping at a pub called The Romper which offers great food. The scampi and the gammon, accompanied by triple cooked chips and mushy peas, were good but the gooseberry crumble with custard or ice cream was really superb. No mumbles or grumbles here.

The Romper has stood for over 400 years – the characterful, low-ceilinged section of the building may once have been the local smithy. What is known for sure is that The Romper was once named The Red Lion, though at some point in its existence, a local village wag bequeathed it the nickname, “The Rompin’ Kittlin”. One story goes that a local painter had repainted the lion on the pub’s sign one day, but when he presented his efforts to the drinkers at the bar he was met with derision. They sneeringly declared it bore more resemblance to a romping kitten than a rampant lion.

It was a great day out and congratulations are due to Peter who has already completed his target of walking 1,000 miles this year.