Thursday last week a message arrived on my mobile, 'meet at 2pm Saturday usual place' with an unfamiliar phone number... I couldn't remember any assignations so I thought wrong number and proceeded to ignore it.

Later that evening I was online browsing h2g2 and there was a thread entitled Sydney Chrimbo Picnic, and the last entry was from Linus saying he had messaged Platypus2 but haven't heard back. Aha! All became clear and I answered that evening, 'of course I would be there'.

This was a special meet as we had not one, not two but three visitors from interstate and overseas. It had the potential to be a big turnout and so Linus put the pub on standby to ensure that we didn't run out of the sparkling red again. Unfortunately, circumstances conspired to keep the numbers down, Tashalls and SMoB were never definite, Shrillian was only a maybe and Pond Rat who was an absolute cert (according to him) somehow once again lost his way between Parramatta and the Carlyle Castle in Newtown. Next time we'll send an escort to collect him.

The usual suspects were in attendance, Linus, Feisor, Platypus2, Amy the Paper Lady and Wowbagger (still dressed as a power puff girl). Amy and Wowbagger had been in the safe custody of Linus since the last meet. The visitors were;

• Ivan the Terribly Average who had travelled up from Canberra to escort Redpeckhamthegrate around Sydney for a couple of days before she heads out on a 75 day trip around Australia.
• Badzen who had travelled down from Brisbane principally to meet PondRat who is a member in good standing of Mostly Harmless MC (the H2G2 Motorcycle Club) and also to attend a performance at the Gaelic Club later that night accompanied by his wife Vanessa, mother Jill and sister-in-law...

Redpeckhamthegrate was our overseas visitor and the one the meet had been scheduled for. She arrived in town early on the Saturday and spent the morning wandering around the city with Ivan the Terribly Average in tow waiting for her room to be ready. Once it was, she crashed for a few hours while Ivan the Terribly Average negotiated his way to Newtown where Feisor and Linus were waiting. Badzen showed up a while later and Platypus2 arrived shortly after 4pm (children's sporting commitments preventing an earlier arrival). Feisor was readily identifiable, according to Badzen, due to the cheese platter sitting on the table in front of Feisor's drink.

Copious amounts of alcohol were consumed throughout the night and for those researchers who remember a discussion thread about cocktails and the best ingredients, we have some news. One of the best cocktails is one invented by Feisor with online input by Pondrat and Platypus 2 (and others too I think). It contains Fra Angelica, Vodka and Baileys - with absolutely no dilutants of any type except ice! It was very very nice, and very very morish, but gosh it packed a punch.

Topics of discussion ranged from motorcycles to psychology to music and by the time Badzen was collected by his family to get some food and attend the concert (the true reason for his trip to Sydney), we were all nicely mellow. We provided Redpeckhamthegrate with some very useful Aussie phrases¹ that should stand her in good stead as she travels through our wide brown land, phrases like:
My shout
What's your's? Mate
Rack Off

The accompanying photos were taken relatively early on in the evening before Redpeckhamthegratepeck had surfaced after her nap, however there were some later photos taken with Ivan the Terribly Average's film camera that will be posted in due course. There is also this photo of Sydney harbour taken on Badzen's sightseeing trip before reaching Newtown included 'just to make those poms jealous'.

Feisor's nephew Matthew, arrived to provide the entity a lift home, should it be required, and fitted in to the conversations about Tintin and music as if he had been drinking all night like the rest of us and, hopefully, he will find his way onto h2g2 at some point. Last drinks were called at midnight and we made our way into the cool night air. Goodbyes were said standing around outside the pub and, as we all went our separate ways, Linus carefully escorting Wowbagger and Amy home, we decided that when Redpeckhamthegrate gets back to Sydney (in 75 days time) we'll do it again, so that we can share her experiences before she flies back to the UK.

So Pond, start planning your next non-attendance, Tashalls and Shrillian watch this space for plans and anyone else who would like to come will be more than welcome when we do it all again in May sometime.

Platypus

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