Three in a waterbed: noders come to Bristol

I've just had a weekend with noders! It was so good.

On Friday night I was having a second housewarming party. My household had had the first party just after we moved in a couple of months ago, and enjoyed it so much we decided we wanted another. The London Noder Meet last weekend had shown me how noders like to partay, so, in a moment of inspired madness on Wednesday, I blurted an invite into the catbox for my favourite noders to come down Bristol way and join the fun. Bring a sleeping bag! And your stash!

Considering the short notice, my hopes weren't too high, but I'd underestimated the pulling power of party.

• wertperch used his famous charm, which seems to even work when directed at moving vehicles, to hitch down from Nottingham.
• (darsi) left the evil empire without her service for the afternoon and came down.
• BlueDragon didn't have to travel far, so wasn't getting out of this one.
• call was bullied by everyone else, and agreed to come on down after work.

A catalogue of disaster conspired to prevent call making it to Bristol on Friday night. His epic journey was followed avidly by the partygoers. SMSs detailed the nightmares he was undergoing as his ETA was pushed further and further back. Finally, the news of a suicide on the train line pushed his estimated arrival time beyond midnight, and he chose to cut his losses and miss the party. Shame.

The party was pretty low key, but this was fine. (darsi) was high as a kite on codeine, due to me cracking her rib at the London Meet. My guilt knows no bounds! Just remember: beware ascorbic's Death Grip Hugglez™. (my guilt is unending)

There was no way this party was going to end with bed at 4 am, so (darsi) and wertperch agreed to make a weekend of it and stay Saturday night as well. BlueDragon was poorly, and couldn't make the second day. Not alcohol related! We were joined by call, who, against all odds, managed to beat the system and came down us in the morning. Meeting him off the ferry from the station we headed of to the pub. This was to become a recurring theme.

Exploring the shops of Bristol, wertperch spotted the back care shop, and we were soon inside, lying on the waterbeds. Mmmmmmmmm...nice. Waterbeds rock my world! We were in agreement: we must have one. At £950 they are a little pricy, but we decided we'd work out a time share system and share one between us.

Books and CDs were bought, coffee and green tea were drunk (what! No oolong?), and we made the grand ascent of Cabot Tower. This has views over the whole city, and I'm on a mission to get noders to move to Bristol. It was dark by now, and the parkie wanted us out, so it was time for another pub.

Back at the house we were entertained by (darsi) teasing people in the catbox, and also by the arrival of a fuck off bag of skunk. call coveted my TiVO. We all missed the other member of our circle.

Next morn, wertperch had to make an early start for his grand journey oop north. My flatmate walks in:

"Matt, are these more geeks?"

(darsi) protests loudly. (darsi) is not a geek! Despite the fact she was arguing the finer points of motherboard design at this point.

Afetr Sunday papers were consumed, me, the gorgeous (darsi) and the newly huggable call headed into town for lunch and more caffeine. The Watershed is a "media centre", but has good food, good coffee, good beer and... free internet access on a 10 foot screen. After scaring the kid looking at Harry Potter sites, the three of us were noding cinema-style. Catbox silliness, and admiring SharQ's pyromania lifesize. We now want a 10 foot screen and projector to go with our waterbed. Non-geek (darsi) informed us the projector cost £8000 ("But it's a Mitsubishi. They're easy!").

All in all, this was a weekend to remember. These noders make great houseguests. I'd recommend them to anyone. Even if wertperch did scare some of the party guests.