Easy Access North-west Meet (Warrington), Sat 17th Oct. 2009

[muckypup]

Yep I'm up for that!

Anyone know of anywhere reasonable to park? I normally park in the Cockhedge (steady) but not sure thats any good for more than a few hours. Might see if I can get a train from anywhere near me without it taking literally 4 times as long...

[Lizzie_Claymore]

That's an interesting point. I normally use the rough ground car park right opposite Central Station which is very handy for the pub. Mind you, although it's certainly ok for a few hours during the day, I can't remember whether there's a 24 hour ticket available if you want to go over a few hours. (I think there may be, now that I reflect on it.) However, I might try to move the car closer to the tapas bar when we move from the pub as it's on the other side of town for getting back afterwards, although that could be a bit tricky when you don't know where you're going! (I think street parking relaxes after about 6.) We'll see.

[dan]

Well when its london I will be there!!!



Yep that is a bit of a distance! Unfortunately Iguess the London one would be the closest [/quote]

[muckypup]

That's an interesting point. I normally use the rough ground car park right opposite Central Station which is very handy for the pub. Mind you, although it's certainly ok for a few hours during the day, I can't remember whether there's a 24 hour ticket available if you want to go over a few hours. (I think there may be, now that I reflect on it.) However, I might try to move the car closer to the tapas bar when we move from the pub as it's on the other side of town for getting back afterwards, although that could be a bit tricky when you don't know where you're going! (I think street parking relaxes after about 6.) We'll see.

Found this which is vaguely useful for parking http://www.warrington.gov.uk/Transporta ... rking.aspx. The winwick road car park near the central station which was mentioned or old road which is closer to the tapas place sound the best bet.

Where's the tapas bar? Mojos? If so can someone print out the free bottle of wine offer http://www.onionring.co.uk/printoffer.asp?OID=1840

Look forward to seeing you all tomorrow. I'll be in The Blue Bell from just before 3 hopefully!

[sploshguy78]

hi im sooo sorry but will be unable to make the meet as im now in work until mid afternoon which will be to late by the time i get changed and make it to warrington

[Lizzie_Claymore]

Sorry to hear that, slush. We should be in the pub until at least 7 then on to the tapas bar (Mojo's on Cairo St) at about 7.30 so you might still be able to make it anyway. It would be good to see you if you think you can.

Pup:
Yes, it's Winwick Road that I normally use anyway. Old Road appears to be over the river and over the main roads as well. (It also appears to jump from £1.50 to £5.50 after 3+ hours but doesn't specify how long for!) I suspect I'll stick to Winwick Road as it means I can at least go back up the pedestrianised bit past the bus station afterwards. Did you sort out a train, or will you be driving too?

I've just booked a table for the evening part. I said it would probably be around half a dozen staying on for the meal. That gives us some leeway.

Latest list (showing meal status (yes/no) or unknown (?):
Head to Toe? (?)
Ghost Rider (yes)
Carmen Fantastic+1 (no)
Smiley? (?)
Bill (yes)
Cumbrian (?)
Rhoobarb+1 (no)
Stu08/DDC? (?)
DragonsGrace (?)
Serena (no)
muckypup (yes)
Claymore_wam (yes)

See you all tomorrow - don't forget to display a map if you can, for identification!

[Lizzie_Claymore]

Just got back. Well, that was brilliant! It was really nice to see so many of you there and didn’t the time fly by?! Sorry I didn’t get a chance to speak to more of you before we had to depart but it was nice to know that you all managed to find us easily enough.

I think Bill will be sharing some pictures of his visit with us in due course. The conversation flowed all afternoon and evening, with Bill doing some remarkably accurate impressions of various people (incl. Ronnie Corbett, while regaling us with ‘behind the scenes’ snippets of how one of his more famous sketches for the Two Ronnies was created). There was quite a lot of talk about trains and, as we mused over the evening meal, surprisingly little about sploshing – mainly because everyone was getting on so well that the conversation never faltered for long enough to remember why we’d all got together in the first place!

I suspect that today saw our most diverse distances travelled (so far), with Rhoobarb and her chap coming down from Scotland, en route to another event, while Bill had travelled up from the South Coast! I suppose Warrington does enable that to happen by meeting in the middle, although the idea of regional groups was that nobody would need to travel too far, unless they want to do so, of course. Rhoobarb might even be able to get a Scottish meet-up going in due course. I’m sure she’ll announce that if/when it’s sorted.

As we were leaving the restaurant, Muckypup spotted that it offered free wi-fi so, next time, it’s possible that there might be live updates on the Splosh forum while the event is actually taking place!

Anyway, I hope we’ll see you all again (and, hopefully, even more) at the next Warrington Splunch which is currently scheduled for our usual six-monthly slot of the 3rd Saturday in April (17th).

[easy_as_]

Excellent news Claymore !

Glad to hear it went well !



easy_as_

[Lizzie_Claymore]

Thanks Easy_as - yes, we all had a great time. Much hilarity ensued.

Even better, my phone/PDA/sat-nav that I realised I'd lost only when I got back to the car at about 10.30 turned out to be still on the floor in the corner of the pub! It must have been lying there for about 4 hours and nobody nicked it! However, I'd missed an urgent call-out from my business but, fortunately, someone else had managed to sort out the problem by remote control - phew, on all fronts!

I was sorry that I hadn't managed to talk to all the good folk up at the far end of the tables but 'hey' (as the Americans inexplicably say!) - maybe next time!

How was your journey back on Sunday Bill? (Slower, presumably!) Did you manage to get on a Pendolino this time?

[Rhoobarb]

I chatted amiably to the folk at my end of the table. I could see you were chatting away happily on the other side of the two people between us and assumed (though I was never introduced) that the chap you were so animatedly talking to was Bill. I'm really bad at identifying people from photographs! I spoke to one man I already knew, the man sitting next to me whose name I didn't catch and who comes from Newcastle-ish - so reasonably handy for getting up to Edinburgh for when I get round to it - and a very pleasant couple from Liverpool way who introduced themselves when I told everyone our names on arrival. No idea what anyone's online names were though.

I had a look at the Yahoo groups stuff, but to be honest I haven't a clue what I signed up to them as and I use Yahoo almost not at all now. I did get an email from Yahoo today re Wam Meet Area 5 (November I think) and have had to go to your page http://uk.geocities.com/claymore_wam/wam/ukwam_home.htm to work out what area that was, might make more sense to label them with area names rather than numbers? If I do decide to get something up and running here in Scotland, (I know of quite a few interested people who might attend) I'll post it here and elsewhere and if you want you can add it to the Yahoo thing. I could re-register but I'd probably just forget what name I'd used again due to me not really using Yahoo for anything. .

[Hayley]

I'm sure Bill will write when he gets back (or wakes up). He said in a text from the train today that he had a great time, loved Warrington and mentioned to you all that I was abseiling for charity that afternoon. Well, I did and I'm still alive! I made it all the way down and raised a couple of hundred quid for Cancer Research. Of course, if there had been a big pool of custard to land in at the bottom, I might have let go! Anyway, just wanted to show off.

Hayley x

[muckypup]

Congrats Hayley!

It was an excellent meet, thanks again to claymore for organising! It was excellent to meet a load of great new people and some old acquaintances, and obviously the legend that is Bill. I think I managed to keep up with most of Bill and Claymores encyclopaedic knowledge of British transport and comedy most of the time!

I trust Rhoobarb and bohnanza enjoyed their later do, and Carmen Fantastic/DragonsGrace/DragonzGrace and Gentleman_Bastard (very pleasant couple from Liverpool way) were satisfied with the food and rope work later on!

Look forward to hearing about any Scottish spluch (the guy from Newcastle-ish is Ghost Rider btw). Hope to see you all again sometime, and hopefully some of you in 6 months or so!

[Lizzie_Claymore]

Congrats Hayley!

Yes indeed - well done Hayley. Bill did mention that.

I think I managed to keep up with most of Bill and Claymores encyclopaedic knowledge of British transport and comedy most of the time!

Yeah - sorry about that! It was all a bit 'full-on' but we were 'on a roll'!

Ah - slight misunderstanding, Rhoobarb! When I said you'd need to join area no 1, I meant 'subscribe' using whatever your e-mail address is. (You don't need to have a Yahoo account or a Yahoo e-mail address. All it does is deliver mail to your own e-mail address (and to everyone else who has subscribed to it). It just so happens that I'm using Yahoo groups to undertake that function but that's purely incidental.)

Good to see you again pup. See you at the next one in April!

[BillShipton]

Morning all

Yes, I made it back on the Pendalino this time which was non-stop to Euston and arrived 10 mins early! Unfortunately the Charing Cross to Hastings bit was rerouted through engineering work and was half an hour late! But no matter. Train bit over!

Had a very enjoyable weekend which I shall be writing up on the blog as soon as my brain is functioning. It was a pleasure to meet some genuinely interesting people and I hope the newcomers will join us on this forum or I'll be moaning at them on IC. I was aware of 'doing an Andy' and talking too much probably about irrelevant things though it would be hard to beat Claymore's lecture on postcodes for that! Ghostrider and I did talk about sploshing (and in particular a certain American lady - or is it?) when we got back to the hotel. Probably talked too much then too! The meatball-orientated tapas was enjoyable as well.

Will sort out pics here and on blog soon. And I'll try not to mention TV comedy or do Ronnie Corbett impressions.

Until then it's good night from me (and a good night from him)

Damn!

[andy250]

Me 'Twitter on about bugger all never!!!!'

Glad everybody had a good time, sorry myself and Jammed could not make it.

I am currently recovering from a show and shoot back to back!!!

Also got beaten up by Shelby for booing her during the wrestling show!!

Look forward to the pics and blog.

Well done to Claymore for getting the meet off the ground.

regards

Andy