[F] Yorkmeet Report
MP
Present:
MP (organiser)
Hippo (Mark Datko - Sheffield Meet-inna-Q organiser)
Davon (Jonathan Nicoll, from Hull)
Martyn Clapham (Lancasterian rocketeer)
Mary Messall (American Durhamite)
Andrew Gray (Scottish Durhamite)
Rand (somewhere in the Southern hemisphere...)
Jennifer Gray (genuine Yorkie person)
StevieD (Minor Tigger fanatic)
Tessa (MP's girlfriend, and huge Tigger fanatic)
Hannah (MP's housemate, Steeler's fan)
Heike (MP's other housemate, German, bounces a lot[1])
Rebecca (does bridge with MP and StevieD, and tours with Tessa)
Sarah (StevieD's housemate, also does bridge)
David (Sarah's boyfriend, and MP and Tessa's SJA friend)
In spirit, or on the phone[2]:
Mary Perkins, ruthi (from Israel)
The report:
(at last...)
Right, police incident report style, methinks - it was too long and
big for anything else!
Friday evening:
The meet started about 5pm on Friday 16th November, when hippo, Davon
and Martyn arrived and interupted Tessa's washing up. She let them
into the house, and gave them hot beverages to their preferences. They
started talking, and were still talking when MP arrived home about
5:30pm.
The general chatting continued for a while, until David arrived at
about 7pm, when he produced Pringles(tm, probably), and then chat
contined. In the meantime, MP texted Andrew, then Martyn, being the
kind and lovely person that he is, went off to the station to collect
them. This resulting in a rather bizzare phone conversation, where
Martyn rang hippo, saying he couldn't find Mary and Andrew, Andrew
rang MP to say he couldn't find Martyn, and then MP and hippo tried to
sort out who was where at York station.
When the confusion was sorted and everyone got back, MP produced his
list of banned words. These included "Pudsey", "Wogan", "Tigger" and
"Quotefile". The idea was that people would say them and pay for the
privaledge, but afpers are far too clever to do that, so this only
raised about £1.20, mainly from Tessa, which will be given to Children
in Need.
This part of the meet produced the following quotes:
"Someone must have big piles", prompted by an inflatable chair being
brought into the room. Someone else pointed out that he must have
insider knowledge on this subject... :-}
"Is this some kind of norse god?", in all seriousness, from Mary,
whilst looking at the list item "Wogan"...
"Where's your ball?"/MP goes and find small sponge ball/"Where's your
other ball?"/MP:"I've only got one..."
People also went for fish and chips and so on during the course of
procedings, and the TV inexplicably got switched from Children in Need
to Channel 4, and not turned back, so So Graham Norton was watched. MP
would like to disclaim all knowledge of this program. :-}
There was also a link to IRC made at this point, and various confused
discussion occured, mainly revolving around who was actually behind
the nick "Yorkmeet".
Saturday:
People woke up about 10ish, and had breakfast. Martyn appeared from
his hotel, and told everyone that they were lazy gits. This was almost
certainly true, but in MP and Tessa's defence, they are students, and
the others had been up for a while!
The meet them moved into town, walking along the riverside path, which
is very pretty, prompting lots of photo stops. We arrived just in time
to receive phonecalls off Jennifer, David and Sarah, Stevie and
Rebecca and Rand, wanting to know where we were. We decided to be in
Borders, so went and collected the rest of the meet.
On recommendation from David and Stevie, we went to Dave's Roast Pig
Sandwich shop, and had sandwiches of various roast meats. They were
nice, but some people went to get other things instead from bakeries,
due to allegies or preference. We then found a bus going to the
cinema, and, leaving Stevie behind (because he didn't want to see the
Harry Potter film, and re-meeting Hannah and Heike (who had stayed at
the house in the morning). This took a while.
We arrived at the cinema, and joined a big queue for the film. The
time was about 1:20. The film was due to start at 2. This was silly...
Getting into the screen where we would be watching the film itself,
the cunning afpers and others managed to guard both ends of a whole
row from screaming children, harassed parents and other dangers, so we
could all sit together. This was very impressive. Really, it was!
The film was good, and the trailers that preceded it were OK too! We
want to go see Monsters Inc! And Lord of the Rings. And The Iceage.
And Harry Potter 2. And pretty much everything else, to be honest, I
suppose... :-}
We then went back home, and phoned nice Mr Ali, who made us lots of
pizza and variations on this theme, and sent a van round. In the
meantime, we lost Rebecca, David, Sarah and Jennifer, and regained
Stevie. The pizza delivery guy was rather shocked by the amount we
ordered, so arrived and simply asked "Lots of pizza?". This was very
accurate.
The pizza was nice, and we then played hippo's sound quiz. This was
comprised of lots of movie clips, played backwards, with cryptic
clues... It was very hard, but Tessa guessed a clip from Tigger movie
no problems!
We then watched Hippo's copy of Shrek, which most people had seen
before, but wanted to see again! This was good.
There were also some quotes made, but no-one wrote them down or put
them into my palmtop, so I've forgotten them. This is also a good
thing!
Tessa also surprised MP with a homemade birthday cake, which MP and
Andrew shared the blowing-out duty since it was both of their
birthdays. This was a genuine surprise, since Tessa had been very
cunning in finding hiding places. Andrew commented on the
chocolateness of the cake, pointing out that the buttercream filling
was thicker than the cake layers. This was intentional. What he didn't
realise was that it contained one and a half tubs of cocoa powder.
This is because MP is a serious chocoholic. He has now started a
counselling scheme. It involves lots of chocolate. As compensation.
For chocolate deprevation. Possibly.[7a][3]
Sunday:
Martyn arrived about 10:30, and told everyone they were lazy gits.
This was true. Again. Mary did some washing up. MP considered stopping
her, but hate's washing up just enough not to. He would like to thank
Mary for this! But he still shouldn't have let her do it!
Mary and Andrew were then shipped off to the stationt to find out
train times, and Martyn then gave everyone else a lift into town to
meet up with them. The meet then invaded Bella Pasta, and got lunch,
before returning to the station and saying goodbye to Mary and Andrew.
MP and Tessa then left to do shopping, and let the remaining stalwerts
(hippo, Davon and Martyn) spend the afternoon how they wished.
Overall:
It was a very good meet, huge by northern standards (peak afp members
of 9, peak attendance of 15)[4], and very good fun. AFAICT, everyone
involved had a good time, and I can't wait for the next one. But I'm
not sure when it'll be. Not this year, for certain!
MP
[1] No, she's not a Tigger fan. She's a trampolinist. I don't know...
:-}
[2] If anyone at the meet talked to anyone else, I'm sure you'll
follow up and mention it... <hint, hint> :-}
[3] The chocolate is for general eating. Honest.[7a]
[4] OK, London meets are rumoured to be of about 50-strong. But I
haven't ever met that many afpers, so I can't believe that... :-}
[7a] This is not actually true.
hippo
MP <m...@bleurgh.net> wrote in message news:3bf95786...@News.CIS.DFN.DE...
> Yorkmeet report
<snip>
> meet up with them. The meet then invaded Bella Pasta, and got lunch,
> before returning to the station and saying goodbye to Mary and Andrew.
> MP and Tessa then left to do shopping, and let the remaining stalwerts
> (hippo, Davon and Martyn) spend the afternoon how they wished.
We actually went off around the National Railway Museum
which includes some new sections (certainly since I was there last)
in particular an actual power car from the Japanese bullet train.
Martyn produced a commemorative metal label for the meet (think
early predecessor to dymo labelling), and no doubt pictures of this
unique item will appear on the web at some point ;-)
I'd like to express my warm thanks to everyone at the meet, especially
Tessa and Matthew, whose hospitality was extremely generous
and also thanks to Martyn for being the chauffeur yet again
for a meet. (this is not going unnoticed : be assured)
hippo
--
Mark Datko
afpmeet addict and now considering councilling
Christmas pages : http://www.mdatko.btinternet.co.uk/P1M01.htm
Martyn Clapham
writes
>Yorkmeet report
>
>Present:
>MP (organiser)
>Hippo (Mark Datko - Sheffield Meet-inna-Q organiser)
>Davon (Jonathan Nicoll, from Hull)
>Martyn Clapham (Lancasterian rocketeer)
That's me!
I would like to point out at this point that I certainly did not call
people lazy gits at various time over the weekend. Well, not that I
remember anyway. :-))
Now the incredible bit. I actually have a web page of meet photos up!
( Those who know me well will remember that the pics from CCDE2000 etc.
are still in limbo! )
The reason being that I got myself an early Christmas present of a
digital camera two days before the meet.
Warning. The page is temporary so may be moved and/or changed ( at
present the picture files are maybe too big and should be reduced ),
also the page is not accessible form my normal index page and does not
link back to it.
The URL is http://www.mclapham.demon.co.uk/meets/York2001/yorkmeet1.html
[ snip ]
>The meet then invaded Bella Pasta, and got lunch,
>before returning to the station and saying goodbye to Mary and Andrew.
>MP and Tessa then left to do shopping, and let the remaining stalwerts
>(hippo, Davon and Martyn) spend the afternoon how they wished.
This turned out to be a visit to the National Railway Museum. Pictures
from this and the touristy stuff I did in York this morning may also
appear at some point.
Mart.
--
Almost everything you want to know about afp is at http://www.lspace.org/
My own site is at http://www.mclapham.demon.co.uk/index.htm
Afpengaged to Mary Messall, being afpadulterous with Spooky and
afpchauffeur to Hippo. Having fun on afp from 1996
Mary Messall
<snip>
> "Is this some kind of norse god?", in all seriousness, from Mary,
> whilst looking at the list item "Wogan"...
Well, I knew it *wasn't*... I just couldn't work out what it *was*, you
see.
<snip>
> The meet them moved into town, walking along the riverside path, which
> is very pretty, prompting lots of photo stops.
I was accused (again!) of being a tourist. I can't decide whether to
defend myself against this charge (I take pictures of stupid things
even at home, really) or defend tourists (if the locals are too jaded
to see the beauty and strangeness of the place they live, it's a shame;
really we should all be going through life in gawping, round eyed
wonder all the time anyway).
Anyway, just this once I'll update my website a week early, so everyone
who attended the meet can complain about how the photos turned out.
Except it's not a proper update, so instead of going to the "optical
illusions" section, you'll have to click on this URL:
http://indagabo.orcon.net.nz/meetphotos.html
<snip>
> could all sit together. This was very impressive. Really, it was!
> The film was good, and the trailers that preceded it were OK too! We
> want to go see Monsters Inc! And Lord of the Rings. And The Iceage.
> And Harry Potter 2. And pretty much everything else, to be honest, I
> suppose... :-}
We got a running commentary from some very knowledgable sprogs in front
of that, and I grinned a lot when I recognized the Durham cloisters--a
lot of the scenes take place on very familiar ground (ground which was
in fact occupied by at least four of the meet attendees at the Durham
AFP meet.)
The adverts before the trailers were a little dubious, though. Selling
Jaguars and tampons and retirements accounts and sex, which considering
it was a kids film does make you wonder about their audience
targetting.
<snip>
> Tessa also surprised MP with a homemade birthday cake, which MP and
> Andrew shared the blowing-out duty since it was both of their
> birthdays.
Very nice of them to share, don't you think? And very, very good cake.
I confess: we stole two of the cupcakes for the journey back.
<snip>
> Sunday:
> Martyn arrived about 10:30, and told everyone they were lazy gits.
> This was true. Again. Mary did some washing up. MP considered stopping
> her, but hate's washing up just enough not to. He would like to thank
> Mary for this! But he still shouldn't have let her do it!
Andrew helped. But I broke the mug all by myself. Did I say I'm sorry
yet? I'm sorry!
Anyway, you fed us cake and let us sleep on your floor and organized
tickets and put a lot of work into things, and I'm sure I ate half your
cheese and onion Pringles, so I honestly couldn't bring myself to walk
away and leave you with moutains of rubbish and dirty dishes to deal
with as well. And no one else was up. <g> Are meets always as messy as
we were?
<snip>
> It was a very good meet, huge by northern standards (peak afp members
> of 9, peak attendance of 15)[4], and very good fun. AFAICT, everyone
> involved had a good time, and I can't wait for the next one. But I'm
> not sure when it'll be. Not this year, for certain!
No, but if you let us know when you're coming to Durham, we'll try to
do something impromptu, and could probably even find you someone's
floor to sleep on in turn.
-Mary
--
{I drank at every vine. / The last was like the first. / I came upon
no wine / So wonderful as thirst.} {"Heaven bless the babe!" they said
"What queer books she must have read!"} -two by Edna St Vincent Millay
http://indagabo.orcon.net.nz --> my soapbox and grandstand and gallery
Adrian Ogden
>Anyway, just this once I'll update my website a week early, so everyone
>who attended the meet can complain about how the photos turned out.
>http://indagabo.orcon.net.nz/meetphotos.html
Martyn Clapham <mar...@mclapham.demon.co.uk> also put his photos up:
Mmmm, nice photos. WHO ARE THEY???!!!
I recognise 3 or 4 people there, but the rest? "An afper".
Names, people, we want names...
:-)
--
<< Adrian Ogden -- "Sic Biscuitus Disintegrat" -- www.rdg.ac.uk/~sssogadr/ >>
"`Love Me, Love My Bomb' is *not* going to be the motto of this household."
Mary Messall
> Mary Messall <m.k.m...@durham.ac.uk> writes:
> >Anyway, just this once I'll update my website a week early, so everyone
> >who attended the meet can complain about how the photos turned out.
> >http://indagabo.orcon.net.nz/meetphotos.html
> Martyn Clapham <mar...@mclapham.demon.co.uk> also put his photos up:
> > The URL is http://www.mclapham.demon.co.uk/meets/York2001/yorkmeet1.html
> Mmmm, nice photos. WHO ARE THEY???!!!
> I recognise 3 or 4 people there, but the rest? "An afper".
> Names, people, we want names...
> :-)
See, I'm a teeny tiny bit paranoid. I use my real name on Usenet, I
pretty much give out my location via the email address, so I try not to
make it too terribly obvious what I look like as well. I haven't
actually been doing a very good job of this, but for my parents' sake
I'm at least making a show of it. I also attempt not to identify other
people on my site, especially since I don't always manage to get
permission to use photos before I post it (mostly I do, however.)
Anyway, Martyn's gone along with this apparently to humour me. But if
any AFPer wants to email me (I won't volunteer Martyn) I'll email back
matching names with faces.
BTW, the black and whites at the top of my page aren't AFPmeet pics.
But then, you probably guessed that. <g>
Martyn Clapham
<m.k.m...@durham.ac.uk> writes
>Adrian Ogden wrote:
>> Mary Messall <m.k.m...@durham.ac.uk> writes:
>> >Anyway, just this once I'll update my website a week early, so everyone
>> >who attended the meet can complain about how the photos turned out.
>> >http://indagabo.orcon.net.nz/meetphotos.html
>> Martyn Clapham <mar...@mclapham.demon.co.uk> also put his photos up:
>> > The URL is http://www.mclapham.demon.co.uk/meets/York2001/yorkmeet1.html
>> Mmmm, nice photos. WHO ARE THEY???!!!
>> I recognise 3 or 4 people there, but the rest? "An afper".
>> Names, people, we want names...
>> :-)
>
>See, I'm a teeny tiny bit paranoid. I use my real name on Usenet, I
>pretty much give out my location via the email address, so I try not to
>make it too terribly obvious what I look like as well. I haven't
>actually been doing a very good job of this, but for my parents' sake
>I'm at least making a show of it. I also attempt not to identify other
>people on my site, especially since I don't always manage to get
>permission to use photos before I post it (mostly I do, however.)
>
>Anyway, Martyn's gone along with this apparently to humour me. But if
>any AFPer wants to email me (I won't volunteer Martyn) I'll email back
>matching names with faces.
Actually, Mary can volunteer me all she wants at present, but it wont do
any good. :-)) Demons mail system seems to be stuffed big-time! :-((
One thing I would like to explain.
I do my best on here not to reveal the gender of those who post with
gender-neutral names ( I have slipped up, usually though when I wasn't
aware of the posters preference ).
I felt I had to extend the same courtesy to Mary.
This of course has the effect of stopping me identifying _any_ person in
the pictures as missing out Mary when she was known to be there would
rather highlight which person she is.
As soon as I can get mail via Demon again I will be willing to reply to
e-mails asking who is who.
Martyn Clapham
In article <3BF9AD73...@durham.ac.uk>, Mary Messall
<m.k.m...@durham.ac.uk> writes
[ snip ]
>We got a running commentary from some very knowledgable sprogs in front
>of that, and I grinned a lot when I recognized the Durham cloisters--a
>lot of the scenes take place on very familiar ground (ground which was
>in fact occupied by at least four of the meet attendees at the Durham
>AFP meet.)
Hmm. Someone ought to let the British Tourist Authority know.
There is no mention of Durham on their 'Harry Potter Filming Locations'
pages or in the story about this on the BBC website. I haven't been in
touch with them as I thought it would be much more fun to let a bunch of
Durham students loose on them! :-)
One thing the BTA site did clear up was why Hogsmeade station looked
familiar, especially the foot-bridge. I knew I'd been there but couldn't
remember which railway it was on. Turns out it's Goathland on the North
York Moors line ( also used in Heartbeat! ).
Jacqui
> Hmm. Someone ought to let the British Tourist Authority know.
>
> There is no mention of Durham on their 'Harry Potter Filming
Locations'
> pages or in the story about this on the BBC website. I haven't been in
> touch with them as I thought it would be much more fun to let a bunch
of
> Durham students loose on them! :-)
They also seem to think the Bodleian has no website (so
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk is a figment of my imagination) and no email (I know
who's in charge of the film location stuff but I won't post her email
address), and that admission is charged for access to the Divinity
School (it's not). Hmmm. Not that you'd recognise the Divinity School
from the film anyway (it's the sickbay).
I don't think I'll be trusting the BTA much for anything, given some of
the other things on the site. "Both the Duke Humfrey's Library and the
Divinity School" or "Christ Church and it's Great Hall is used as a
double for Hogwarts School, Oxford's largest college, re-founded by
Henry VIII in 1546, is the only college in the World with a cathedral
within its walls." ?? Dearie me. They need a good proofreader.
Jac
Stevie D
> I also attempt not to identify other people on my site, especially
> since I don't always manage to get permission to use photos
> before I post it (mostly I do, however.)
For the record, I am quite happy to be identified on any unadulterated
AFPmeet photos.
If at any future meet, someone takes a photo of me that I would rather
not be identified on, I will let them know. Probably by ripping the
camera out of their hands and shredding the film into the goldfish
bowl.
--
Stevie D
\\\\\ ///// Bringing dating agencies to the
\\\\\\\__X__/////// common hedgehog since 2001 - "HedgeHugs"
___\\\\\\\'/ \'///////_____________________________________________
Stevie D
> Anyway, just this once I'll update my website a week early, so everyone
> who attended the meet can complain about how the photos turned out.
> Except it's not a proper update, so instead of going to the "optical
> illusions" section, you'll have to click on this URL:
> http://indagabo.orcon.net.nz/meetphotos.html
All very artistic, but I can barely read the links because they are
dark on a dark background, and once I hover the cursor over them they
disappear completely!
Nice pictures, though :)
Mary Messall
> All very artistic, but I can barely read the links because they are
> dark on a dark background, and once I hover the cursor over them they
> disappear completely!
Hmm... I did forget about that hover effect, as I never use IE and
can't see it... Toying around with css at some point, didn't ever
officially decide to keep it. Perhaps I should get around to fixing
that, along with the alt text.
But what colour do you see the links? Do they, for instance, match the
background arc? Ought to be a fairly pale blue--I chose that shade
precisely to be visible against both light and dark backgrounds.
David Jensen
Mary Messall <m.k.m...@durham.ac.uk> wrote in
<3BFAFD07...@durham.ac.uk>:
>Stevie D wrote:
>> All very artistic, but I can barely read the links because they are
>> dark on a dark background, and once I hover the cursor over them they
>> disappear completely!
>
>Hmm... I did forget about that hover effect, as I never use IE and
>can't see it... Toying around with css at some point, didn't ever
>officially decide to keep it. Perhaps I should get around to fixing
>that, along with the alt text.
>
>But what colour do you see the links? Do they, for instance, match the
>background arc? Ought to be a fairly pale blue--I chose that shade
>precisely to be visible against both light and dark backgrounds.
>
>-Mary
But it shows up as a very lightweight and small font, so the contrast is
less than optimal (paper equivalent: light grey print, san-serif, 5-6
pt.)
I do enjoy the pictures, thanks.
Stevie D
> Hmm... I did forget about that hover effect, as I never use IE and
> can't see it... Toying around with css at some point, didn't ever
> officially decide to keep it. Perhaps I should get around to fixing
> that, along with the alt text.
I've only started using IE recently, seeing as that's the one Agent
invokes when I want to launch a URL from an email or news message. It
appears that on your site, it is taking the "Active Link" colour and
also using it as the "Hover Link" colour - which it doesn't do by
default, AFAICT.
> But what colour do you see the links? Do they, for instance, match the
> background arc? Ought to be a fairly pale blue--I chose that shade
> precisely to be visible against both light and dark backgrounds.
I see a mid blue (I have my monitor brightness turned right down, so
the standard 8 dark colours are virtually indistinguishable from
black. The main links are just about legible, but the minuscule text
below is not. If I turn the brightness up to about 50% (which I
normally only do for playing certain games, when the sun is shining
directly onto the screen or for looking at badly scanned photos), I
can read the main links fine, and the minuscule text is just about
legible, if I really strain to look at it.
Hovering at any brightness turns the text invisible. The "Visitied
Link" grey is much easier to read than the original blue. Which, yes,
is pretty much the same shade as most of the arc at the top.
MP
<stevieiny...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
<snip>
>If at any future meet, someone takes a photo of me that I would rather
>not be identified on, I will let them know. Probably by ripping the
>camera out of their hands and shredding the film into the goldfish
>bowl.
But, Stevie, all the cameras at York were digital ones... :-}
MP (AFOLF, BIS, ICRI!)