Noders! Unmorrised Wykemhamists! Meeting! In Winchester! I know, lets take over the world.

When?
Saturday 28th June

Where?
Winchester, a very nice, very old city, in Hampshire.

The usual Suspects:
Definitely Maybe:
Myself
HamsterMan
AinSophAur
dodo37
pedrolio
Hexter
BaronWR
Tiefling
Arveragus
Omega Hunter
a scar faery
Your name here!

What?
Firstly, as the weather is lovely at the moment, a Picnic!!!-TA-DA!! 'But where?', I hear you cry, 'Winchester is a small grotty city full with townies weilding knives!'. Well firstly I'd agree with you, secondly the picnic will not be within the confines of the city itself. It will in fact be on St Catherine's Hill, which is very pretty and has a lovely view.
Now, as you know, the most important thing in a picnic is the food. I, and hopefully some of the other Wykehamists, will be providing food and drink. However, to be able to have a proper feat, it would be nice if you could bring a few bits n' bobs yourselves. Just a half dozen drinks or crisp packets would be good. Also, if you have any amazing and exciting that you think other people should try (i.e. Camel's eyes, monkey brains, etc.), then maybe you could bring some of that along.

Bada-Bing

Right, apart from the picnic, what the hell else is there to do? Well I considered doing all of the typical touristy things in Winchester, however, I then decided that this was an actually rather boring, and pants idea. So, while on the hill, and not eating (for course), I propose that we do some of the following activities:
Board/Card Games- I will bring some
Amusing Classics such as ‘Hide and SeekWell, I like it.
Hexter suggested a tree climbing competition, which I am very much in favour of, as there are lots of trees on top of the hill.
HamsterMan and I are quite keen to do some curtain pole/ Plastic Lightsabre Fighting!! Please note that curtain pole fighting is a very dangerous and stupid game and should not be attempted by anyone, ever. I know, sounds good doesn't it?!So we will probably be using plastic lightsabres instead.
Other Stuff!!!!
If anyone has any interesting games or things generally of that nature then it would be nice if you could bring them along with you.

Drink
After this, if it is still quite early, then the other wykemhamists and I could give a small tour around the town or the College (if anyone is interested). From around 6:00pm to 6:30pm ish we then all go to a pub (woo-hoo!). Unfortunately, at the time most of this meet is meant to be occurring, the wykemhamists should be quietly studying up to our houses, not getting wasted in a public house. So we can’t go to any of the pubs the dons go to. This restricts our choice somewhat. Bugger.
However, have no fear, I have had a lok around and the best one seems to be The Ship Inn, quite spacious, clean, not very bustable etc.

Where will I stay? Will I have to sleep on the street, etc.?
No, not on the street, but unfortunately just about all of us wykehamists have to be in our boarding houses by 9:15pm. Also, we can’t offer you much, if anything, in the way of accommodation. If you don’t live far away, then you may be able to get the train home on Saturday evening. If, on the other hand, you do live far away, there are several hotels and hostels in Winchester. Not many of these are cheap, in fact some are ridiculously expensive. However there are a few nice hostels and B and B’s for reasonable prices. Some of these places may require that you share a room, others not.
A good place to start would be the YHA centre, which looks very nice, situated in the old Winchester Mill. The website can be found at-
https://www.yha.org.uk/make_booking/process/109.html

But wait, how do I get to this fantastic sounding nodermeet?
There is also the question of transport. I would highly recommend getting a train in, though if, you’re not too far away, you may be able to drive down. What ever you decide to do, msg me with the details and I (or someone I vaguely trust) will meet you somewhere.

By the way, in case you don't know, Winchester is located in about the centre of Hampshire. Hampshire is a very nice county in the South of England. To find Hampshire quickly on a map of England, look directly above The Isle of Wight and you got it.

Competition!
Yes, ladies and whatnots, there will be a competiton. Which, in fact, you can start planning for right now. The competition is to come up with the best plan for Taking over the World!!, exciting huh? As you may have hoped/guessed, there will be a prize for the winner of this competition. So start thinkning. (By the way- no nukes allowed, thats not fair).

As you can see the plan is rather sketchy and vague, but flexible and open to ideas of all kinds. If you think that you might be able to come down, or have any suggestions then you can contact me in several ways: (My name is Miles, by the way).

  • msg me here on E2
  • If the message is slightly longer than a simple msg will allow, you can E-mail me at jgmw@wincoll.ac.uk.


    PLEASE NOTE: There will be NO Morris Dancing at this nodermeet under ANY circumstances.Thank- you.

  • For the first time I could remember, I was the oldest person at a nodermeet.

    Arveragus and I popped up to St Albans market before catching the train yesterday morning. Thameslink was dismal, as usual. When we got to Blackfriars, the tube ticket barrier refused Arveragus' ticket, which annoyed me, as buying the ticket from the idiots at Charing Cross earlier in the week had been stressful enough. Fortunately, we were able to get a replacement ticket that worked, for no extra charge. Thence by District Line to Embankment, and over Hungerford Bridge to Waterloo, where we picked up the South West Trains service to Winchester.

    Arriving at Winchester we were met by HamsterMan and Hexter, who escorted us into the town centre. The Hamster ran off to obtain some more refreshments, while Hex showed us the cathedral, with its Norman arches and subsided floor. Once HamsterMan returned, we also saw a statue of the diver who replaced the cathedral's wooden foundations with concrete, thus stopping the subsidence, and the grave of Jane Austen. Then off to the College.

    Winchester College is a confusing place, with a house called College and a building called School. It also has a fine chapel and a very nice chantry, two sets of cloisters (more than most abbeys), and most of all, excellent noders, several of whom are leaving this week. We had a whistle-stop tour of the site, including graffiti by Anthony Trollope, and then met up with the rest of the e2wykehamists to head up St Catherine's Hill for our meet. On the way we passed cricket pitches and a very boggy nature reserve, into which HamsterMan told us he had once led a group of cadets.

    I proved my innate wussiness by being the slowest, by far, at climbing the hill. The view from the top was splendid, though, and well worth it. On top was a stand of trees and a turf mizmaze. We ignored both and set ourselves down on the hillside overlooking the city to feast on home-made ice cream, crisps, sandwiches, french bread, and many other goodly things. The chocolate all melted, though. As the meal progressed, we also played about half a game of Munchkin, and there was duelling with plastic light sabres. We were joined at this point by a scar faery, the only female to attend, alas. Shortly after, with much bad punnage, we made our way into the shade of the trees, to avoid too much sunburn. (I still looked like a lobster afterwards, though.) More duelling, including me sprawling on my arse, ensued. Arveragus and HamsterMan showed the rest of us up by virtue of being trained fencers. Hexter proved himself to be Winchester's Strongest Noder in an impromptu log-rolling contest. A telephone call was made to darl, in India, to wish him a Happy Birthday. We also played Chrononauts, in which Hitler was assassinated several times, and the whole space-time continuum finally destroyed.

    As the sun lowered (slightly - this is 51 degrees north in mid-summer) we headed back into town in search of dinner and more beer. Avoiding the main area of the College, we went along the riverside, stopping at the Youth Hostel to allow a scar faery to deposit her stuff. Then we split the party in search of a pub called the Ship. On arrival, we found that the Ship had thumpy music and a burly bouncer, and so retreated to the beer garden of another nearby establishment whose name escapes me. There some of us thought about ordering food, but as I've seen London restaurants with cheaper prices, we decided against. One beer or so later it was time for the Albanian contingent to head home, and so we wandered back up to the station. Wishing HamsterMan luck on his impending trip to Israel, we boarded the train and went dozily home. As far as I know, no-one was busted by a Don in the course of this noder meet, and there was certainly no morris dancing.

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