London Spring Meet Report
Created | Updated May 7, 2008
Friday 25 April
I set off Friday morning and had an uneventful train journey then made
my way to the O2 Dome where I had tickets to see the Tutankhamun
exhibition with Titania. It was fabulous and the souvenir goody shop
afterwards was where my spending money got spent! Titania had been
told about an animated ankh and she actually found it on one of the
displays! Outside the Dome was a huge statue of the Egyptian god
Anubis, which (of course) we took photos of (as that was
allowed)1.
Friday Fringe
We got to the Friday Fringe eventually - although someone screaming my
name across a busy road helped find the pub! How wonderful to meet
Vicki Virago and Icy North (two more added to my "Researchers I have
met" list) VV is her mother's daughter all right and Icy and MMF both
had gifts for me. I gave out some butterfly initial postcards and we
all toasted absent friends. Those in attendance: dragonqueen; lil and
Pete; Vicki Virago; B'Elana; Icy North; Titania; Alex Ashman; MMF and
GB.
My night in the hostel is best glossed over - too much noise = not enough sleep.
Saturday 26 April
Saturday morning, half-dead, propped up my eyelids with cocktail
sticks and dragged my poor tired body to the Natural History Museum
for a meet-up with MM-lookalike Wilma - we swapped gifts and hugs and
smooches then went round the butterfly exhibition which was worth the
queue and then some more. We should have taken the till girl's advice
and skipped the maze because we ended up using the emergency exit as
we couldn't find the exhibition, but once in the enclosure all the
butterflies were flying free, and some even landed on us and posed for
photos! The exotic plants had Wilma drooling too. If you go be aware
(it's running until August) that it's jungle temperature inside the
enclosure and the floor was muddy, so maybe not the open-toed flat
sandals on the day?
Saturday Afternoon - MMF's Meet
We then got a taxi to the British Museum for the afternoon meet proper
and met up with Pete (Lil's hubby) who was searching for other
hootooers while we sunbathed outside.
A couple of texts and phone calls later and we met up with several
Researchers: those in attendance were Wilma, Gnomon, h5ringer, Bald
Bloke, dragonqueen, B'Elana, MMF, lil, Pete, VV and me. Gnomon had
brought me a gift but left it at the hotel so he apologised and
promised to post it. h5ringer gave me a hashing t-shirt from his local club so I'm now
an honorary member - even though I've never been there, or done that,
I've got the t-shirt!
We just started our tour then were joined by late-signupees Zarquon's
Singing Fish and her son Little Fish whom I enjoyed meeting very much,
what a lovely young man (plus I even got a hug and kiss when they left to
be home in time for Doctor Who). We enjoyed the Egyptian exhibits,
especially the argument over the sarcophagus/bath with holes drilled
in the base (I said it was a decorated bath), so when we read it and
it had been a sarcophagus that someone else turned into ceremonial
bath, there was much laughter and jokes.
The Greek exhibits and the library were supposed to be quiet,
oops. We were lucky not to be thrown out, I think!
Little Fish impressed us all by pointing out that a huge stack of
books was actually a door and on closer inspection it was! What a
clever young man!
h5ringer took a much better photo of the Rosetta Stone than I did
(he's taller) and that's also been sent in and applied to the Entry I
wrote last year: The Rosetta Stone.
Dragonqueen treated herself to a cat goddess (Bastet) statue but it
was too big to carry so she paid megabucks to have it delivered to her
home. Wilma did her Marilyn Monroe impersonation and I got
photographic evidence but I'm still awaiting permission to display
that one! We took lots of photos and then retired for refreshments in
one of the many cafes while Gnomon went shopping. VV blew up the
perfunctory blow-up toy for interesting photo opportunities and we
said goodbye to Wilma.
Saturday Night - 2legs' Meet
After ZSF and Little Fish left, we made our way to the Shakespeare's
Head, where we are becoming quite the regulars...along with
non-hootooers in attendance I thought I'd spotted an Elvis
Impersonator in a long blue sparkly sequined coat and when I looked
closely on my way to the ladies he had make-up to match! However when
I went back to our table number 42 to grab my camera to take a snap
for pailaway, I was told he wasn't an Elvis Impersonator, he was just
*dressed up* for a night out.
That closet heterosexual Roymondo complained the loudest about my
cleavage - at least I think that was what he said? I forget the exact
words...anyway I do apologise for my few wardrobe malfunctions,
suffice to say the blow-up lollipop didn't get much of a look-in as
regards to photo opportunities! Yet again no-one showed up with a quiz
so I just gave away all the hootoo t-shirts and badges to those who
hadn't got one already; Thatprat was so impressed to be handed an h2g2
t-shirt at his first meet-up that he stripped off right there, put it
on and modelled it for us. Didn't hear Roymondo complaining about that
chest exposure?!?
Those attending: 2legs; Roymondo; Titania; ReddyFreddy and
Remarkable Firefly; VV, lil and Pete; MMF; Bald Bloke; Alex Ashman;
dragonqueen; Gnomon; GreyDesk; Evadne Cake; Thatprat; h5ringer and me.
There were some paper attendees: Moonhogg; Skankyrich and Jimster; The
Prof; Anoldgreymoonraker; Ivan and Aqua; and Malabarista.
The pub meal was tasty and reasonably-priced...good food, good
company, what more can you ask? Just an injection of energy, I was
flagging fast from lack of sleep, all the walking and all those
stairs, which I'm not used to, I think I was first to leave, sorry
all. Thank you to everyone who travelled so far to be with us and
special mention to B'Elana, Titania, dragonqueen and Gnomon who flew
in from their respective countries to attend. I also learned, thanks
to Gnomon, that one of my entries had been put on the Front Page for
the whole weekend so that was wonderful news! Thank you to MMF and
2legs for organising the meets as usual. I had an absolutely wonderful
time, thanks to all in attendance; and those who missed it, *sigh*
well do try and make the next one, you missed a whole lot of fun.
author Giford - and I quote: 'a genuine photo of a god (in his
lesser-known aspect as deity of the Millennium Dome, I
see)'.
