Did you make it to A Plan for World Domination or Just Another Nodermeet? Bristol, Summer 2003?
For the poor souls that didn't make it, and perhaps for the lucky ones that did - here's an aftermath.
Friday
Friday was the day of turning up, and despite this even we didn't see Andrew Aguecheek or BlueDragon until the following day. The noble wertperch arrived with barely an hour to spare before the passing of the new day due to the British train system.
With promptness even more pronounced than my usual I managed to turn up at the flat that was to be the base of operations before any of the Brisnoders had appeared. My slight glow of smugness at having made the four hour journey without a hitch temporarily faded after there was no response at the doorbell, but a quick phone call to our lovely organiser sorted that out, and noders turned up within five minutes.
From there things went rather more smoothly. While varying types of lasangne were cooked to accomodate the complicated food issues various noders suffered from (vegetarian was the non-fussy option this time) noders trickled in and made the customary rounds of greetings. After a swift half pint of a cider that cost twice as much as everything else in the pub, and tasted far too much like apple juice for me to be comfortable I was back in the flat again, ready for dinner. The most noticable arrival was that of toalight and tingo (guided by the navigationally endowed Tiefling) who had come from Norway to meet the Britnoders.
An excellent meal then followed from about 10.30, with much joviality, and more than a little red wine. As might be expected, we didn't go straigt to bed after this, and lounged around either talking in the flat, or smoking outside for some time, before at about 3am circadian rythms finally caught up, and led to nights of sleep that were non the worse for being on the floor.
Saturday
After a tea and coffee fueled wakeup Saturday led to a large division amongst the noders. While some of the Brisnoders not affected by the Sabbath went to the Ashton Court Festival most of the rest of us headed into the centre of Bristol to enjoy ourselves in other ways. wertperch initiated a session at an internet cafe which led to a brief period of contented E2 access. While wertperch rushed off to deal with a friend we settled down into a pub, for a couple of pints, and a nourishing lunch, which was my first real meal of the day.
From there, the group became even more fractured as the hardcore geeks (Tiefling, BaronWR and myself) set off to find a geek store, in which to purchase geek games. We were eventually sucessful, and ended up with an assortment of games with which to occupy ourselves for the evening, as well as a few more dice, such as a D100 for my collection. Eventually, nursing sore feet we made if back to the flat, finding several noders there waiting for us. BaronWR was fortunate enough to win the first game of Kill Doctor Lucky with a well placed runcible spoon.
Eventually everyone met up again, joined by BlueDragon (whos car was blocked in by a vindictive landlord), and Andrew Aguecheek, who despite being local had been forced to work earlier in the day. We went to a pan-asian restaurant called Budokan, which served excellent food, and cannot be highly recommended enough, both for taste, presentation and service. This was followed by a quick drink before closing time.
An evening somewhat similar to the previous followed, although this time there was the added attraction of more board and card games, although the Risk promised in the meet node never materialised, due to it being locked in the absent elem_125's room. Perhaps beginning to feel the strain of overlong waking hours pull us down a considerable quantity of caffeine and nicotine was consumed, despite asserstions as to them being suited only to the weak. Eventually, yet again, sleep took hold of us.
Sunday
A late rising and the need of most visiting noders to catch their trains in the mid-afternoon soon stopped most plans to go and listen to the music festival. By the time breakfast had been acquired and consumed it was already time for a pub lunch, or in my case, just the beer.
With time rapidly ticking on at 1s/s we went to have a quick look at the Clifton Suspension Bridge, a fine piece of architechture by the great Isambard Kingdom Brunell. Fond farewells were made from Bristolian to non-Bristolian, and all the remaining non-Britolians piled into a large cab, to go to the station, while the Brisnoders headed off to sample the live music.
More farewells, and all departed on their appropriate trains, although in a few cases there was nearly an hour of waiting around to be done beforehand. Departure ensued, and for the non-Brisnoders at least, the meet was over. Perhaps some of us will see you next weekend?
Those Involved, in order of appearance
Apologies to anyone who feels missed out or offended by my bigoted portrayal of them. Perhaps you'd like to set me straight with a counterpart writeup?
Pictures from the meet should soon be appearing at wertperch.co.uk