[F] Cadbury World meet
Gary Webber
Just a quick note on the Cadburyworld meet. After seeing the cute
Chocolaste bean village and all the cute beans ski-ing etc, I for one will
never let a piece of chocolate touch my lips again. I'll just shovel it
down wholesale.......
Thanks Carol for organising it...Buglepants has consumed a weeks worth of
chocolate at one sitting...hyperactivity follows very shortly.
I am in the process of videocapping the few minutes of tape I took..anyone
wanting samples e-mail me.
Sorry to have had to cut and run....Bugles demanded seeing to.
Gary
The Hunter
Carol
Hmmm, how to start this meet report.... Veni Vidi Vomiti perhaps....
although I don't think any of us actually ate that much chocolate and
even Suzi only felt ill cos of the chilli in the drinking stuff.
For me the whole 'cadbury' experience started fairly early in the day
when we first filled the car with three over-excited children and set
out for Birmingham... the journey was uneventful although we were passed
by the delightful Dar-orang (Darren) who didn't even bother waving at
the time but told us he'd seen us when he finally found his way out of
Spagetti junction and into CadburyWorld.
On arrival, we quickly discovered that no-one else had been quite so
eager to get there as we had so the kids made use of the children's play
area (after battling their way through the hundreds of Brownies and Boy
Sprouts who had got there first) and we all had something to eat while
the clock ticked round to the time we'd said we would arrive.
It was at about this time that other people started arriving. Actually
working out which of the people were 'ours' was quite a challenge in
such a busy location, Angua (and her entourage) was identifed first
because she was the person wearing a Pratchett t-shirt. Although I will
admit to feeling a bit nervous about acosting her to begin with. Darren
was spotted next - and here we had the advantage that we'd met before so
the recognition bit wasn't quite so tricky.
A bit of milling around happened, during which we underwent 'The Cadbury
Experience' which turned out to be looking at some old photographs and
reading some background information and going 'wow' at some old
chocolate boxes and other normal museum-ish behaviour. This was
followed by the now traditional afpfamily meet search for coffee at
which point we commandeered the benches outside the cafe and started to
amass numbers.
Dave Le Good, Roland and Eric (I hope I've got the spelling right there)
arrived next and were unfortunate enough to recognise us from previous
experience so they added to the throng. More coffee was purchased and
then the Warwick-mobile arrived in the carpark complete with both Mr &
Mrs Warwick (Paul & Johanna) Darran & Nicky and the One True Relative
(Thomas Pratchett). I seem to remember some hugging going on at this
point, but I could be wrong. After a while a Gid was spotted which
naturally meant a Suzi was not far off - more hugging took place. Which
could well be how Gary (Hunter), Mandie and Buglepants managed to guess
that we were indeed the afp-family contigent.
We were still missing quite a few people, so I wandered over to a table
full of likely looking strangers (who fortunately turned out to be Tim
Bagot & friends) and wrested some money from their hands. People did
more drinking coffee and eating cafe type food then the Family Vom
(Hamster, Kayla, David, Katrina, Kayla's parents and Siggi) joined us in
the company of the ever-popular Unca Muppie.
This meant we were finally all gathered and could go 'do chocolate'.
The actual tour started with a very nice man handing us a bar of
curly-wurly each (I'm sure they used to be a lot bigger...), then there
was a walk-through history of chocolate which started with the Aztecs
(and their delicious spicey drink chocolatl), went on to the Cadbury
Brothers and then told you all about Cadbury's Dairy Milk.
From there it was past the nice lady giving out Fuse bars and up stairs
toward the packaging plant, then past the equally nice lady with the
bars of Dairy Milk and on into the packaging plant itself - here another
nice man played you a video and explained how to recognise the chocolate
tasters before sending us on our way to watch bars and bars of dairy
milk flow past us and dissappear into neat little boxes.
The next stage was past the big chair from the adverts and on into the
wonderful CADABRA where you ride a 'beanmobile' past the cute scenarios
featuring a wonderful assortment of 'bean' characters in all sorts of
situations - we particualarly liked the burglar bean and the choccie
copper although all the beans were wonderful.
Next it was in to the demonstration area where they handmake chocolates
like they used to in the 1930s - yet another very very very nice man let
us have one to sample Mmmmm! mmm! Mmmmmm!. This is also the part where
they decorate beanieplaques - inevitably one was created with the legend
"*bounce* *boing* *vom*". From here it was on to the Fantasy Factory,
passing first through the advertising bit where you could discover how
tall you were in fudge bars (I was 54), see how the coronation street in
chocolate was created and watch various adverts from the 1950s onwards.
In the fantasy factory itself you got to watch the cute little beanies
get roasted, smashed, melted, bubbled, stirred etc etc etc - this bit
had lots of buttons to press so we played for a while...
Finally, you passed through Planet Astro and out into the chocolate shop
where plenty of spending happened.
Then it was back to the play area for those who arrived later to have a
play on the Roses Slide and a scramble over the Creme Egg climbing frame
or to wander sedately round the Cadbury Experience before heading off
home or on to Gid & Suzi's Eurovision meet.
All in all, I think it went rather well. The weather was georgeous, the
kids behaved and we got to eat lots of chocolate... Mmmmmmmmm!
<insert quotes here>
Carol
--
Carol Willis http://www.afawcett.demon.co.uk/carol/
Warwick
Carol wrote in message <35561E...@wibble.org>...
>Hmmm, how to start this meet report.... Veni Vidi Vomiti perhaps....
>although I don't think any of us actually ate that much chocolate and
I am sitting next to a woman who has now got 2Kg in the fridge and that
doesn't include stuff that doesn't fit.
>For me the whole 'cadbury' experience started fairly early in the day
>when we first filled the car with three over-excited children and set
>out for Birmingham...
snap!
They were darran, nikki and the one true relative.
>the journey was uneventful although we were passed
>by the delightful Dar-orang (Darren) who didn't even bother waving at
>the time but told us he'd seen us when he finally found his way out of
>Spagetti junction and into CadburyWorld.
>
>On arrival, we quickly discovered that no-one else had been quite so
>eager to get there as we had so the kids made use of the children's play
The flesh was willing - that traffic was weak!
>
>
>
>Dave Le Good, Roland and Eric (I hope I've got the spelling right there)
>arrived next and were unfortunate enough to recognise us from previous
>experience so they added to the throng. More coffee was purchased and
>then the Warwick-mobile
not really hard to spot -doing 50Mph into the car-park
>arrived in the carpark complete with both Mr &
>Mrs Warwick (Paul & Johanna) Darran & Nicky and the One True Relative
>(Thomas Pratchett). I seem to remember some hugging going on at this
>point, but I could be wrong. After a while a Gid was spotted which
>naturally meant a Suzi was not far off - more hugging took place. Which
>could well be how Gary (Hunter), Mandie and Buglepants managed to guess
>that we were indeed the afp-family contigent.
>
>We were still missing quite a few people, so I wandered over to a table
>full of likely looking strangers (who fortunately turned out to be Tim
>Bagot & friends) and wrested some money from their hands.
That has *got* to be the first time I've seen anyone walk up to a group of
strangers and say "Are you Tim and can I Have £30" and get the answer "yes"
>People did
>more drinking coffee and eating cafe type food then the Family Vom
>(Hamster, Kayla, David, Katrina, Kayla's parents and Siggi) joined us in
>the company of the ever-popular Unca Muppie.
In a must have Dilbert t-shirt
>The next stage was past the big chair from the adverts and on into the
>wonderful CADABRA where you ride a 'beanmobile' past the cute scenarios
>featuring a wonderful assortment of 'bean' characters in all sorts of
>situations -
Which Pthomas broke for 4 minutes - I can't prove it but I'm
blaming him anyway
> we particualarly liked the burglar bean and the choccie
>copper although all the beans were wonderful.
The ski-er coming down above our heads with a look of complete terror
was much admired in our cart.
>"*bounce* *boing* *vom*". From here it was on to the Fantasy Factory,
By he who was mugged by small children
>passing first through the advertising bit where you could discover how
>tall you were in fudge bars (I was 54),
I broke it! - well I was bigger than it anyway
>In the fantasy factory itself you got to watch the cute little beanies
>get roasted, smashed, melted, bubbled, stirred etc etc etc - this bit
I am *never* eating chocolate again
>had lots of buttons to press so we played for a while...
YM chocolate Geekland
>Finally, you passed through Planet Astro
As above
>and out into the chocolate shop
>where plenty of spending happened.
The parrot will be attending all future meets, and will be named soon
any suggestions?
Quotes: when I 'member them
Thank you for a great day Carol
Warwick &Johanna
Michael Ricketts
: >the journey was uneventful although we were passed
: >by the delightful Dar-orang (Darren) who didn't even bother waving at
: >the time but told us he'd seen us when he finally found his way out of
: >Spagetti junction and into CadburyWorld.
: >
: >On arrival, we quickly discovered that no-one else had been quite so
: >eager to get there as we had so the kids made use of the children's play
: The flesh was willing - that traffic was weak!
Getting there was OK. Getting back took 2hours more than it should have done
due to "points problems" and "staffing problems". What fun.
: >We were still missing quite a few people, so I wandered over to a table
: >full of likely looking strangers (who fortunately turned out to be Tim
: >Bagot & friends) and wrested some money from their hands.
: That has *got* to be the first time I've seen anyone walk up to a group of
: strangers and say "Are you Tim and can I Have £30" and get the answer "yes"
How did we get identified? Was it the general sillyness? The eccentricity?
The cup? (if you didn't see it then you probably don't want to know...)
: > we particualarly liked the burglar bean and the choccie
: >copper although all the beans were wonderful.
: The ski-er coming down above our heads with a look of complete terror
: was much admired in our cart.
Nah.... the cows were the best.
--
Mike (friend of Tim)
Carol
Michael Ricketts wrote in response to Warwick, who was replying to
something I had typed earlier:
> : >We were still missing quite a few people, so I wandered over to a
> : >table full of likely looking strangers (who fortunately turned out
> : >to be Tim Bagot & friends) and wrested some money from their hands.
> : That has *got* to be the first time I've seen anyone walk up to a
> : group of strangers and say "Are you Tim and can I Have £30" and get
> : the answer "yes"
> How did we get identified? Was it the general sillyness? The
> eccentricity? The cup? (if you didn't see it then you probably don't
> want to know...)
Um, I think it was more a case of your being a group of the right number
of people and having that confused look of your faces as if you were
waiting for things to happen.... I hope I wasn't too 'brash' when I
accosted you but I was slipping into panic mode cos I hadn't collected
all the people I needed... I'm normally much nicer, honest
> : > we particualarly liked the burglar bean and the choccie
> : >copper although all the beans were wonderful.
> : The ski-er coming down above our heads with a look of complete
> : terror was much admired in our cart.
>
> Nah.... the cows were the best.
Oh yes! How could I have forgotten to mention the cows, they had the
most wonderful expressions on their faces... *grin*
flabbergast
On Sun, 10 May 1998 22:38:09 +0100, Carol <ca...@wibble.org> wrote:
<much snipping have been done>
>All in all, I think it went rather well. The weather was georgeous, the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
*grin* Oh! Carol now I have to mark you as yet an other AFPer
corrupted.
Muhahahahahahahahaaa
Even if I could not attend in person, I can see that the spirit (if
that is the right word to use when /me is involved.?.) of george was
with you.
Ummm.. of course it was, choccie was involved *grin*
*peals of giggles* and *huugs* as appropriate...
okbye