A Tale of Two Cities

Our good friend Karen visited the fair city of Manchester last week and Kate and I spent an enjoyable evening with her in a lovely Italian restaurant and suitably refuelled headed for a late night clubbing as we often do.......thinking nothing of it as it is the norm for us now...........

A couple of days later Di had offered to guide us around her home city of Liverpool as it has been a long time since we had ventured in that direction we travelled in by train blending in well amongst the racegoers headed to Aintree in their finery ( or should that be skimpery as alot of the ladies were only wearing dresses on a chilly spring day).

Things started off well and we walked past the lovely old buildings including St Georges Hall the venue for the famous April Ashley talk. We then headed to the Met Centre as Karen wanted some items from Mac and feeling peckish had a delightful coffee and brunch in the Cafe Rouge. We then ambled past the Cavern and headed for the new 'One' centre which is very heavily advertised on local tv and radio and seems to be Liverpools answer to the Trafford Centre. Both Di and Karen wanted to get a new outfit for Saturdays dancing event so we headed to the new Debenhams and came across some lovely dresses in the Star collection one of which I encouraged Karen to try on as it was just her colour and style .

Unfortunately I got side tracked by another dress and whilst I was looking for the correct size Karen came back and told us that a security guard has stopped her from using the changing room. We were all quite shocked especially given that the changing rooms were not marked as being specifically either male or female. We then realised that we must have been picked up the security cameras as entered the store as Karen had not spoken to the assistant manning the changing room at this point. To say we felt uncomfortable and upset would be accurate - Karen did challenge the guard about the stores policy toward transgendered people as he had no way of knowing if this was the case- I think he just muttered something about writing to head office. We turned tail and walked out of the store and tried not to let it bother us - but I could see that people were looking at us - we ventured into Jane Norman but our hearts were not in it then as the experience had shaken us.

We decided that shopping was cancelled so we did the tourist route down to the new canal and the hideous new buildings that some bright spark has slapped right in front of the magnificent Liver Buidings. In need of a drink we ventured into a 'Lesbian' Bar which Di knew about (dont ask) which was a cosy haven away from the madness outside.

We were glad to get on the train and head back for Manchester - Two cities a few miles apart in distance but light years apart in attitudes and enlightenment. If Liverpool wishes to progress and become the popular shopping venue it seeks to be it needs to educate its stores and staff in such issues!

The story dear reader does have a happy ending as it turns out Karen and Di did buy their outfits (or should that be ball gowns) in the House of Fraser Store in Manchester where they were treated like royalty and positively encouraged to try on the garments. They also acquired beautiful shoes and jewellery and were able to attend the Dancing event ...despite their ugly step sisters Liver and Pool trying to stop them going but their fairy godmother named Manchester waved her magic wand and made it happen and they each met a handsome prince who swept them off their feet and transported them away to a far away land of eternal sunshine and shopping. (Yes its only fiction they actually had to kiss an ugly frog in Naps first!).