Bath 1.0: Report

Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett
From: ccsjwg@bath.ac.uk (Curiosity)
Subject: Bath Afpmeet 1.0: Meet Report
Message-ID: <E51Aov.ItJ.B.ss1@bath.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 15:50:57 GMT

Good day to you, one and all. 

Let me begin by apologising for this report being a little slow in
appearing on Afp, it's just that it's a little scarey to do this for
the first time OK? Some people are bound to read it (unlike my usual
posts *smile*) and you never know what they might think.

I'm also totally lost as far as times go, because I haven't had a
watch for a while now and the time means little to me these days, I'm
just there as it passes.

At around 7pm on Saturday 25th of January, I (Curiosity) entered the
drinking establishment known as The Hobgoblin, Bath. Along with me
were a couple of friends Wendy and Tom. I hoped no-one had arrived
before me as I tried to set the meet up and I didn't want to arrive
late.

We found a fellow Bath Afper, Jon (in an It's dark in here isn't it
T-shirt), sitting near the bar and joined him. There were four of us -
the meet had begun, and it was going better than I had hoped.

A little while later we were approached (cautiously) and asked if one
of us was Jim. I answered that that was me, hoping that it was another
member of Afp from out of town, and not just someone with a grudge.
It turned out to be Alan Macrae (Dragon), who proceeded to buy
everyone at the table a drink. I immediately took a liking to him :)
I introduced him to everyone and we started talking, Afp began to crop
up in conversation and the discussion became a little more lively.

No-one else appeared for a little while until we were approached
again, this time by Helen Highwater asking for Curiosity. I replied
that I was the person in question and she brought over Tim Hunt and
Tackline, who'd been sitting at a different table for a while.
She explained that it was normally easy to pick out Afp members in a
pub, but because the customers of the goblin are mainly students it
was a little more difficult this time. With the addition of Helen, Tim
and Tackline the headcount reached 7 (Tom having left). More drinks
were bought and we were all introduced.

A little later Shevek arrived and the conversation seemed to split in
two. Ben (Shevek) and Alan talked about computers and the rest of us
talked about Afp some more. It was around this time that Claire-Louise
(sp?) arrived, and came straight over as she already knew Helen and
Tim. More drinks were bought and Alan brought out a copy of a Poem
he'd done called "Tom O'Lancre" based on a well known Scottish peom of
a similar name. We were also informed that it was Burns Night ( I
should know things like that I really should). Alan gave a reading of
the poem, whoich I thought was very good and was well received.

I had given instructions to ring the pub if anyone got lost and we
received a call from Katie Simms around about now. Unfortunatley she
was stuck in London. *sigh* Sorry you missed the meet Katie, hope you
make the next one (I can't make the Valentine's day meet but I'll try
for one after that).

Just before 10pm [1] Bryan and his sister, Liz [2], arrived. They also
knew Helen (is there anyone on Afp who doesn't ?) and came straight
over, more drinks were purchased and some people were getting a little
rowdy by now, we all decided against going on to a club so Alan and I
wandered over to the Offie and bought some more beer before returning
to the pub for last orders.

Tackline had left by this time, and Helen and Tim had to go
too. Claire-Louise was off somewhere else as well so the meet broke up
a little and we said out goodbyes. I'm glad they all came, and I'm
looking forward to the next time I see them all.

This wasn't, however, the end of the night. Bryan, Liz, Jon, Alan,
Shevek and I all wandered back to my house and chatted, drank and had
a laugh for a few more hours (until 5.30am - I have a clock in my
house). During which time Alan was quite ill, Jon fell asleep and
Shevek talked at us a lot.

Eventually Shevek left and Liz, Bryan and I went to sleep.

The next morning I awoke to find it the afternoon. Alan had gone home
to take his son to a football match and Jon had gone too. I cooked
breakfast for Liz and Bryan and wished them a good journey home.

All in all I enjoyed the meet a lot. I made a few new friends and met
some people I've read about for the last three years (I lurked here a
long time before I first posted). Hopefully everyone else enjoyed the
night as much as I, and I look forward to the next meet I can make,
and maybe another meet in Bath later this year.

Feel free to critisize this, 'cos I know my writing's not up to
scratch and my memory is shot :)

See you all soon.

Cheers, Curiosity
==
[1] I know that it was 10 'cos we had to get to the off-license before
    it shut.
[2] One of the few women ever to ask me about my makeup. I have this
    wierd, misplaced feeling that women should always know more than
    me about makeup no matter how much makeup I wear.
--
Curiosity * Bath Information & Data Services (BIDS) * Email: ccsjwg@bath.ac.uk
Phone: +44 1225 826826 ext 4658 * Web: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ccsjwg/home.html
GCS/M d- H+ s:+>: g+ p? au-- a? w++ !v c+++$ US+++ P+ L++ 3 E+++ N+++ !K W+ !M
V-- !o w !O PS+ PE Y+ !PGP t+>++ 5++ X++ R+ TV b+++ !DI !D G e*>+++ h* r+ y++

---

---

The L-Space Web is a creation of The L-Space Librarians
This mirror site is maintained by A.H.Davis