Be Excellent To Each Other

So I kinda figured I sounded a bit like the dude in the trash can from Sessame St the other day.

So, any one fancy a southern fairy meet?

Nah.

Oh go on. I need someone to polish my crown.

The South? Pah.

Fuck me this is going so well !

I hope I'm not shy meeting so many people all at once !

Well, to be fair, you managed to start this thread on the night you know almost no one will be one, as they are driving to Manchester!
FWIW, a summer meet sounds good to me.

If I have stable employment I'll come to it.
Since I can't afford to go to manchester.

I'm not going to my own town to drink shandy and meet poofs. I can do that at work and be paid for the privilege.

Oxford's centrally located.
We could even hire a punt or two and drink Pimms.

Oxford best place for summer meet. Not July though, I'm completly booked up all that month.

I suggest Chutneys for a curry and then beers in town. First weekend in August? Lovely. I'll book the table for 8 pm Saturday.

We have a few options. We can meet somewhere nice and central, like Southampton.

What I would like to do is meet at Goodwood's FOV (Festival of speed) as it's just an amazing time. However, I do know that it might not be enjoyed by all and it's pretty expensive (£65 a ticket...)

Anywhere within a 1.5 hour train journey is acceptable to me. Sadly I'm about 5 hours from Manchester and £150 in travel fees which is just too high. I would have had to stay there the night at least (or visit friends, I have many up there used to go there all the time) and atm the weather is too inclement for such malarkies.

Mal. I can do Oxford. It's about 2+ hours by train from here but I have done that'un before and it's doable. Plus if Zaphod still lives in Southampton I could travel with him as I have to change there to board the Manc train that stops at Oxford.

My birthday is on the 5th, so the saturday is fine by me.

I second (third?) oxford as a location for a summer meet. I will expect a patch of floor at MaliTowers for o'ernight repose.

The second or third weekends are better for me.

But, hey, six months away! Not long to-BANG!

OK Oxford is sounding nice. I like the place, esp Witney.

Mal, you need to find us 'strangers' some decent b&b or a hotel or something. I don't fancy doing 5 hours worth of trains in the same day.

Also, not that it matters but I don't drink. But hey, I don't mind being around drunk people. No night clubs though they make my nerves bad.

For an alternative to the more usual B&Bs:
http://www.oxfordrooms.co.uk/

Brilliant. Have bookmarked.

I stayed in Witney a few years ago at lovely BnB when Mrs K and I went to Fairford airshow.


Ooooooooooooooh........



Nerds.


Ale.


Multi-million pound flying pieces of tech.

I'll claim a 6ft x 6ft square of MaliTowers also. And practice drinking lemonade

Fuck off you said you weren't coming. You can sleep in the garden with his dogs or something....

It's a bit 'David Cameron' but it's a nice quaint little town I thought. Old JC likes boring old quiet places.

me too i will sleep with you

I would consider coming along. Have enjoyed London meets, was seriously starting to consider the manc meet but had already committed this weekend.

Been to goodwood before, it's fun but not sure I'd fancy it again.

Will check The MaliTowers Official Calendar as there's another wedding i've been invited to.

Also, I do live a 45 minute noisy drunken bus ride from Oxford City Center.

Jolly Sailor, Bursledon, or fuck off.

Aww. Don't be like that. You're a Hampshire hog, you can travel with me. Wow eh? getting to spend 2 hours on a train with JC. Fucking irresistable

If it helps and he wants to go Zaphod would be on the same train. He can keep you from throttling me

Kern & I have located a pub for hire.

For the evening or for you guys to run?

I would suggest:
1) we all do our best to make a weekend of it. Saturday ended too soon. Not everyone can, of course.
2) we try and stay as close together as possible. At the Twitter meet in SF, someone found a decently cheap hotel, then organised a group discount to make it even cheaper. Because most people were staying there, it became a central point to gather, and meant you could easily, say, find a few people to have lunch with, or do tourism things, or go shopping.
3) organise a pub for the Saturday night, if only to fix the dates.

[mental image]

London would obv. be quite good for me, as I secretly own it, but summer + tube = no sinister agent. I've been meaning to have a word with them about the ventilation problems down there for ages now, but whenever I come round they're all "oh your lordship sah, pleasre to see you sah, welcome back master", and it's all so tiresome I just end up leaving and delegating to some lackey or other.

I'm thinking of selling up, to be honest, but whenever I find a buyer, they always back out at the last minute.

From the first week of July onwards, OxfordRooms shows a few hundred rooms available, from £30 per night. That seems to be by far the cheapest way to stay in Oxford, particularly if we're careful and choose a central college. Dunno how long it'll take before they are all gone though. Might be best we fix a date for this sooner rather than later.

It's six months away - are you insane?

For me, everything but the first and last weekends in August are good.

Plenty of stuff to do during the daytime up here: you all have to meet the shrunken heads in the Pitt Rivers. If it's nice we could get a flotilla of punts too.

Hmm. Should we merge this idea with the "stay in a big house" one?

I would suggest a poll, with Big House, Oxford, and other suggestions as the options.

There's not reason "big house" can't be in Oxford, of course, and it doesn't have to be a big house.

Stay in the big house, what are we going to do to get in there then?

I would like to nominate bank robbery.

As long as we can come and go. I will only be staying the one night. Preferably on a night where we can chat without being drunken louts as I don't drink

That sounds good. Meh, I suppose I could actually turn it into some kind of holiday of sorts. Well, a couple of days instead of one.

Must renew my network railcard. It pretty much paid for itself when I went to Oxford last !

My advice as a veteran meet-organiser:

1. Make sure you have enough time to plan. I think six months was just about long enough for the Manchester meet, but I'd probably go for 9-12 months just to be on the safe side. Think about how many in-jokes you'll be able to cram in between now and then!

2. You must reserve a table at the pub you are attending or there won't be enough room and you'll end up disappointed. I'm surprised we managed to squeeze everyone in, especially when we arrived.

3. Ensure there are beds so the snoozers can have a powernap in peace without being poked, prodded and generally abused. Also for neck support.

4. Don't ask where your fucking burger is.

Shame you only picked an area big enough for the people that had already arrived, and not the other 15 or so that were still to turn up. Still with only 6 months, you weren't likely to know how many people were coming.

The Sailsbury is usually busier than that on a Saturday anyway (discounting the beex posse). Perhaps we scared away the crowds?

I think we would've struggled to seat 30+ people all together in many pubs, to be fair.

I'm busy all through July, currently unsure about August.

That sounds good, and is already tempting me to come. Six months away is a decent amount of time, and enough to start saving. This Manchester one, even trying to do it on the cheap, managed to cost me just shy of £300

SIGGED.

Oh fa frig's sake ya friggin dugnut.

This was you? Where and when was this?