ANNOUNCE: AFP-Warwick 1.0 - Report
Mike Knell
getting disconcerting.. --MPK)
(Mod. note again: Due to a single use of a word which some people consider a
bit rude, this article hereby carries a "15" certificate. YHBW. --MPK)
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Subject: ANNOUNCE: Warwick 1.0 - The Report
From: Mike Knell <m...@bofh.lspace.org>
AFP-Warwick v1.0 - The Report
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After much apprehension of the "Will anyone turn up? Probably not.." genre
on my part, the AFP Warwick v1.0 meet (first out of beta..) convened at or
close to 19:30 on Saturday, 17 February 1996, in the Slug and Lettuce, a
pub in Leamington Spa. More on the pub later..
I, personally, arrived at 1931 to be berated for being late, and found Rob
Collier, the Goddess & the Bellinghman, and Simon Callan sitting around
having grabbed the last table in the place. A swift pint of Guinness was
purchased, the first of a goodly few, most of which were purchased by other
people. And very kindly, too, I thought. In rough order of appearance, the
meet was joined by the following...
Darrell Ottery, Mark Lowes, Angela Hardington, Ma...@thieves.demon.co.uk
(whose surname, embarrassingly, escapes me, even though I should know it),
Tom the Warwick mathematician, Nick Caulfield (a non-AFP and by now very
confused friend of mine) and Simon Reap.
After heaving an inward sigh of relief that I hadn't managed to organise
another afpissup with 2 people turning up, the meet itself progressed
rapidly uphill (downhill? Along the flat?). Unfortunately, my memory of the
occasion is now rather hazy, so I'll have to fall back on the notes, which
were taken on my Psion 3a -- one of many dotted around the table, except for
Simon (I think?) who was the proud owner of an Acorn Mutant. They read
something like this. Annotations have hopefully been added.
a) Evil chocolate covered things.
A couple of people came bearing bags of chocolate-covered coffee beans, as a
testament to the firm bond that exists between alt.fan.pratchett and
alt.sysadmin.recovery. These were munched and evaluated by all and agreed to
be good. Other hyperactivity tools were also discussed -- amongst them, the
new drink "Virgin Energy", which contains caffiene, ginseng and lots of
sugar, and the old fallback Jolt, with many honourable mentions for the good
old standby, strong coffee. Darrell then produced..
b) More evil chocolate covered things.
A box of the patented ice-cube-tray chocolate coffee bean creations made an
appearance, and were tried by those who were not afraid of such things. They
were discussed, variously, as "Five out of five", "Ten out of ten", and
"Fuckin' A!". I leave it as an exercise to the reader to work out who came
out with which description.
c) sex and drugs and AFP.
I don't know why this is in my notes. A random thought, presumably..
d) Stupidly loud crap music
The music was loud, crap, and seemed to be compiled from a "Best of the
worst of 1993" disc. Unmentionable. And very loud (we'd cunningly sat
underneath a speaker), leading some to have shotgun fantasies. IYSWIM.
At roughly 2200, it was decided that things were Just Too Loud For
Reasonable Conversation, so the meet formed an orderly crocodile and
meandered through the streets of Leamington to my local, the Woodland
Tavern, which was judged to be much more afpropriate. More Guinness was
drunk (as well as Kilkenny, 'cause they have it there) and assorted
vodka-related things. The conversation went rapidly uphill, mainly because
it was possible to *have* a conversation without shouting into your
neighbour's ear.
Other topics of conversation included beer, cameras, Iceland (just for
Bjorn..), the inevitable photo album, the incestuous AFP/ASR crossover,
requirements for nerdhood, and such. Lots of photos got taken (Rob is
threatening to get the scanner out..)
We finally left the Woodlands at about 2340, meandering back to the car park
where most people had parked, where we stood and waffled aimlessly whilst
slowly freezing to death outside an undertaker's. From this point the meet
dispersed back to its component vehicles, houses, hibernation pods, &c.
Some Out of Context Quotes
- --------------------------
"We have very intensive lecture-drugs..." -- Darrell
"My cousin's network manager for some soliciting company in London.." -- Rob
"He also does sperm and stuff" - Nick, on the subject of one of his lecturers.
"Bloody waterbeds, sodding awkward to sleep in, I tell you..." -- Angela
That's about it -- I've probably left a lot out because I've got a memory
like a wossname. Probably most of the interesting stuff, too. It was much
more interesting than this report suggests, I promise..
Mike K
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