From: Sanity <sanityDELETETHIS@affordable-hedgehogs.co.uk> Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett Subject: [F] Report: London Meets Sanity Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 23:12:33 +0200 Message-ID: <amo751.3vv47kp.1@news.klijmij.net> Attenting, in no particular order: Sanity, your humble organizer of the meet Astrid, accompanying your humble organizer Adrian Ogden, banging things loudly and enthousiastically (without hat!) GuitarHuw, keeper of the Quotefile and not actually playing guitar Ped, accompanying Huw and being at her first real meet apparently Barry, distributor of flyers Ladylark, being the small girl with curly dark hair Kimmi, being innocent Tom, the meet newbie who behaved so well we didn't go through the ritual bloody painfull stuff (which doesn't necesarily mean he won't get it at the Green Man, mwuhahahahaha <veg>) Liz, adding some sexual innuendo and generally high-pitched laughter. Beaneater, accompanying Liz, adding hair and scottishness Hippo, adding a bit of pace to the meet during the walking bits Rhys, and girl who's name I've forgotten, adding to the welshness of the meet Eric Jarvis, being the mosh pit Nattie, adding a corset and laughter even more high-pitched than Liz Ben, accompanying Nattie and paying for her as well Ingvar, being the Afpurrer and doing other freaky things with his body. Not helping in the amount of hair. It was a light and sunny afternoon in London, when I woke up in Regent's Park and decided to go to Angel Station. This was entirely because people were assuming I was organising a meet. I, of course, wasn't really. I was merely the one who said there should be a meet, as I was in London anyway. The actual organising merely consisted of listening to people who knew what they were doing and where they were going, and repeating this in a slightly louder voice. Arriving at Angel Station a few minutes before the official Start Of The Meet, some afpers had already gathered - and they barely noticed me, even. This while I was waving my shiny afp badge around like a madman. But I'll assume my girlfriend Astrid was attracting all attention ;-) I said hello to the gathered bunch of afpers, who in return said hello to me. So this was all going pretty well. I even received a present from Hippo, which means that I will now have no more excuses to not understand rhyming slang :-) As I still had some people on my list who should still arrive, we waited till 6pm at the station. Most notably missing were Rocky Frisco and Eric Jarvis. As Eric had pointed out the restaurant, we figured he'd be able to find the place on his own. Ladylark was going to join us later, Barry disappeared to do other stuff so the 15 of us set our for Chapel Market where the restaurant was supposed to be. We were guided by Ingvar, who Knew Where He Was Going, so as the organiser I said "follow him" and my duty was done for the moment. The restaurant was an Indian vegetarian place which had some very suitable posters for afpers (at this point I'd like to mention the orgasmic cucumber, just for the sake of it). I'm sure there's a photo of it somewhere made by an afper - I know what they're like. The restaurant did a 3 pound all-you-can-eat, fairly spicy food but nevertheless tasting good. The sudden appearance of 15 people did scare them a bit, I think, but they managed to put us all pretty close together. I don't know what they put in the food but it didn't take long before it was realised a quote file was going to be necesary. Because I didn't want to pull out my geektoy all the time, Huw got together a pen and paper, and kept the Quotefile [1]. I think people enjoyed themselves, as sounds were produced by some of the afpers that are too high to be audible for the human ear...And by the stroking of certain afpers (Kimmi lost a few purity points there...) As dinner happened, an Eric Jarvis appeared, and joined us. He even gave me a book, of more than 700 pages even, so thanks in advance for the sleepless nights this will result in. Later on, Rhys and his girlfriend disappeared (people kept doing that throughout the meet - this must be a .uk thing, I think :-p). But soon there was a Ladylark, who got there through a marvelous demonstration of globalisation: she sent me an SMS (through .nl of course) asking Huw (who is Welsh) to call Barry. This did mean Huw had to take his phone apart to get his SIM card into Ped's phone (hmmm, must remember that for a horrible pick-up line: "Can I put my SIM into yours, baby *waggles eyebrows*?") because he had a flat battery. This all worked and soon a short girl with curly dark hair appeared and ate dinner. Upon my suggestion to go towards the pub (well, I was the organizer. Officially), money was thrown towards me which was enough to pay and we were able to leave. The people Who Knew Where We Were Going (Ingvar and Eric, apparently) guided us towards the pub, which turned out to be somewhat more than a short walk from the restaurant. We were slowed down a bit because Liz couldn't walk as fast due to a chest infection - or so she said. When she was walking up front (so we could adjust more easily to her pace) the only thing people could see was a white blur followed by a blur of afpers trying to keep up. In the end, I think the fastest walkers where Liz and Hippo, and this makes one think, doesn't it? I suggest a Sporting Afpmeet so you can all get some excercise :-p Arriving at the Hope & Anchor (after about half an hour of walking), it was already pretty busy. Upstairs turned out to be a pool room and no sign of live music. A short Toilet Meet took place before the meet went back downstairs bit by bit where Adrian (with hat) and Barry were found. The music was going to be in the basement, so this is where everyone (eventually) went, after some drinks, talk, or lacing up inna corset. Downstairs even more afpers had vanished (Liz, Beaneater - where did you go?) and there was a supporting act playing. Presumably supporting in the way that everything was going to sound well after this - it's a pity I didn't get a photo of Huw's facial expression (painfull yet amazed describes it best). The band after that was even louder, but definitely better than the first. But we were of course waiting in agony for X-Static. But this also meant Adrian was still around at the meet and his hat could be tried on by several people (which, I gathered from other meet photos, is some kind of custom). Also, at this point, salty liquorice was handed out with the promise that after the X-Static gig, there would be stroopwafels. For some reason, some of the afpers didn't seem to like this black summum of dutch edible culture. Odd. Finally they climbed the stage, 2 guitarists, a bass guitarist and a hatless drummer. They gave away a performance that was simply great. I had already prepared myself with listening to some XTC songs, but failed to recognize most anyway. Of course the gig contained both [2] hits, "Senses working overtime" and "Making plans for Nigel". It was nice to hear them without the oh so 80s sound of the original; it showed how good these (and the other) songs are, because they sounded very recent in a way. The members of X-Static must have been proud and surprised that they even had a mosh pit [3], created by our very own Eric Jarvis who, by the look of it, really liked the music and was having a good time. The rest of the meet was staying more at the back [4], enjoying the music. Unfortunately Astrid was rather tired (we'd been walking all over London since Friday afternoon) so she sat at the back a bit - but I can say that she was enjoying the gig as much as everybody else. She didn't know any of the XTC songs, though, not even the hits. After the gig had finished, the Person In Charge Of The Equipment decided that the sound produced up until that moment wasn't loud enough and put on some really, really loud music. And it wasn't even good music...We went outside, and most of the meeters left homewards or hotelwards with last or near-last buses and trains - after congratulating Adrian on the excellent performance. The die-hard afpgroupies that stayed were Kimmi & Tom (who left soon after going outside), Hippo, Eric, Ingvar, Astrid and me, later joined by Adrian who had to dismantle and put away some stuff. To celebrate, stroopwafels were handed out to the meet. They were pressed together a bit during the flight and the gig, but the small confined space that was the basement had caused them to warm up a little, which is just right for stroopwafels [5]. For those wanting more information on these: <http://www.siroopwafel.nl/> is the url mentioned on the packing. Ingvar chose this moment to show off some of the more freaky things he can do with his body. The purring wasn't too bad (I'm still practicing), but what this man can do with his fingers and thumbs is....distressing. All good things come to an end, and so did this meet. Eric kepton talking for a while with Adrian, while the rest of us walked back to catch the bus/train. Considering that I'm the organizer, Ingvar was the last person to leave the Meet [6] (missing his last train). I hope it was worth the effort and the ear damage (why do those concerts always have to be so loud?), I hope everyone had as good a time as Astrid & I did. It was nice to see & hear some of the UK afpers, I'm glad that newbie Tom and SO's Ped and Astrid enjoyed themselves. The only thing that lacked at this meet was a decent marriage proposal, really. Thanks again to all those visiting, *knuffels* for those that didn't get one Saturday and actually wanted one, and I'll hope to see you again sometime! <cue Vera Lynn "We'll meet again"> I'm doing my best to get this report, any additions and the photos up on affordable-hedgehogs asap (this Monday night is the target) Michel reply-to sanity at affordable-hedgehogs dot co dot uk valid [1] http://homepage.ntlworld.com/guitar_huw/SanityMeet/quotefile.txt [2] Apparently, they had more, but people only remember 2 [3] At least, that's the word we use in .nl for the bit before the stage where people are bouncing and pouncing, and it's English, so I'll assume you know what I'm talking about. [4] Though it was such a small basement, that that was nearly the same as at the front... [5] But this is no time to geek the proper conditions for eating stroopwafels ;-) [6] Counting Astrid would be unfair -- "Sanity shall make ye -ing fret" - 21/09/02: London meets Sanity Doing Affordable things to AFP: www.affordable-prawns.co.uk www.affordable-hedgehogs.co.uk
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