Yorkmeet: Report

From: mp@bleurgh.net (MP)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett
Subject: [F] Yorkmeet Report
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 19:04:08 GMT
Message-ID: <3bf95786.1229021@News.CIS.DFN.DE>

Yorkmeet report

Present:
MP (organiser)
Hippo (Mark Datko - Sheffield Meet-inna-Q organiser)
Davon (Jonathan Nicoll, from Hull)
Martyn Clapham (Lancasterian rocketeer)
Mary Messall (American Durhamite)
Andrew Gray (Scottish Durhamite)
Rand (somewhere in the Southern hemisphere...)
Jennifer Gray (genuine Yorkie person)
StevieD (Minor Tigger fanatic)
Tessa (MP's girlfriend, and huge Tigger fanatic)
Hannah (MP's housemate, Steeler's fan)
Heike (MP's other housemate, German, bounces a lot[1])
Rebecca (does bridge with MP and StevieD, and tours with Tessa)
Sarah (StevieD's housemate, also does bridge)
David (Sarah's boyfriend, and MP and Tessa's SJA friend)

In spirit, or on the phone[2]:
Mary Perkins, ruthi (from Israel)

The report:
(at last...)
Right, police incident report style, methinks - it was too long and
big for anything else!

Friday evening:
The meet started about 5pm on Friday 16th November, when hippo, Davon
and Martyn arrived and interupted Tessa's washing up. She let them
into the house, and gave them hot beverages to their preferences. They
started talking, and were still talking when MP arrived home about
5:30pm.
The general chatting continued for a while, until David arrived at
about 7pm, when he produced Pringles(tm, probably), and then chat
contined. In the meantime, MP texted Andrew, then Martyn, being the
kind and lovely person that he is, went off to the station to collect
them. This resulting in a rather bizzare phone conversation, where
Martyn rang hippo, saying he couldn't find Mary and Andrew, Andrew
rang MP to say he couldn't find Martyn, and then MP and hippo tried to
sort out who was where at York station.
When the confusion was sorted and everyone got back, MP produced his
list of banned words. These included "Pudsey", "Wogan", "Tigger" and
"Quotefile". The idea was that people would say them and pay for the
privaledge, but afpers are far too clever to do that, so this only
raised about £1.20, mainly from Tessa, which will be given to Children
in Need.
This part of the meet produced the following quotes:
"Someone must have big piles", prompted by an inflatable chair being
brought into the room. Someone else pointed out that he must have
insider knowledge on this subject... :-}
"Is this some kind of norse god?", in all seriousness, from Mary,
whilst looking at the list item "Wogan"...
"Where's your ball?"/MP goes and find small sponge ball/"Where's your
other ball?"/MP:"I've only got one..."
People also went for fish and chips and so on during the course of
procedings, and the TV inexplicably got switched from Children in Need
to Channel 4, and not turned back, so So Graham Norton was watched. MP
would like to disclaim all knowledge of this program. :-}
There was also a link to IRC made at this point, and various confused
discussion occured, mainly revolving around who was actually behind
the nick "Yorkmeet".

Saturday:
People woke up about 10ish, and had breakfast. Martyn appeared from
his hotel, and told everyone that they were lazy gits. This was almost
certainly true, but in MP and Tessa's defence, they are students, and
the others had been up for a while!
The meet them moved into town, walking along the riverside path, which
is very pretty, prompting lots of photo stops. We arrived just in time
to receive phonecalls off Jennifer, David and Sarah, Stevie and
Rebecca and Rand, wanting to know where we were. We decided to be in
Borders, so went and collected the rest of the meet.
On recommendation from David and Stevie, we went to Dave's Roast Pig
Sandwich shop, and had sandwiches of various roast meats. They were
nice, but some people went to get other things instead from bakeries,
due to allegies or preference. We then found a bus going to the
cinema, and, leaving Stevie behind (because he didn't want to see the
Harry Potter film, and re-meeting Hannah and Heike (who had stayed at
the house in the morning). This took a while.
We arrived at the cinema, and joined a big queue for the film. The
time was about 1:20. The film was due to start at 2. This was silly...
Getting into the screen where we would be watching the film itself,
the cunning afpers and others managed to guard both ends of a whole
row from screaming children, harassed parents and other dangers, so we
could all sit together. This was very impressive. Really, it was!
The film was good, and the trailers that preceded it were OK too! We
want to go see Monsters Inc! And Lord of the Rings. And The Iceage.
And Harry Potter 2. And pretty much everything else, to be honest, I
suppose... :-}
We then went back home, and phoned nice Mr Ali, who made us lots of
pizza and variations on this theme, and sent a van round. In the
meantime, we lost Rebecca, David, Sarah and Jennifer, and regained
Stevie. The pizza delivery guy was rather shocked by the amount we
ordered, so arrived and simply asked "Lots of pizza?". This was very
accurate.
The pizza was nice, and we then played hippo's sound quiz. This was
comprised of lots of movie clips, played backwards, with cryptic
clues... It was very hard, but Tessa guessed a clip from Tigger movie
no problems!
We then watched Hippo's copy of Shrek, which most people had seen
before, but wanted to see again! This was good.
There were also some quotes made, but no-one wrote them down or put
them into my palmtop, so I've forgotten them. This is also a good
thing!
Tessa also surprised MP with a homemade birthday cake, which MP and
Andrew shared the blowing-out duty since it was both of their
birthdays. This was a genuine surprise, since Tessa had been very
cunning in finding hiding places. Andrew commented on the
chocolateness of the cake, pointing out that the buttercream filling
was thicker than the cake layers. This was intentional. What he didn't
realise was that it contained one and a half tubs of cocoa powder.
This is because MP is a serious chocoholic. He has now started a
counselling scheme. It involves lots of chocolate. As compensation.
For chocolate deprevation. Possibly.[7a][3]

Sunday:
Martyn arrived about 10:30, and told everyone they were lazy gits.
This was true. Again. Mary did some washing up. MP considered stopping
her, but hate's washing up just enough not to. He would like to thank
Mary for this! But he still shouldn't have let her do it!
Mary and Andrew were then shipped off to the stationt to find out
train times, and Martyn then gave everyone else a lift into town to
meet up with them. The meet then invaded Bella Pasta, and got lunch,
before returning to the station and saying goodbye to Mary and Andrew.
MP and Tessa then left to do shopping, and let the remaining stalwerts
(hippo, Davon and Martyn) spend the afternoon how they wished.

Overall:
It was a very good meet, huge by northern standards (peak afp members
of 9, peak attendance of 15)[4], and very good fun. AFAICT, everyone
involved had a good time, and I can't wait for the next one. But I'm
not sure when it'll be. Not this year, for certain!

MP

[1] No, she's not a Tigger fan. She's a trampolinist. I don't know...
:-}
[2] If anyone at the meet talked to anyone else, I'm sure you'll
follow up and mention it... <hint, hint> :-}
[3] The chocolate is for general eating. Honest.[7a]
[4] OK, London meets are rumoured to be of about 50-strong. But I
haven't ever met that many afpers, so I can't believe that... :-}
[7a] This is not actually true.

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