London Spring Meet Report
Created | Updated May 7, 2008
h2g2 Meets don't have clearly-defined boundaries. There's no definite start or finish. Like Tantric Sex, they build up and go on for hours or even days 
. I joined the Meet on Saturday afternoon, but some Researchers had already been hard at it since the previous day, with trips to the O2 Dome King Tut Exhibition, the Friday Fringe (hi Icy, sorry I missed you!) and the Natural History Museum Butterfly exhibition.
The British Museum
Intrepid Researcher Gnomon entered the picture at 2:45 on Saturday the 26th of April, 2008, with my arrival at the Great Court of the British Museum. If you haven't seen it, this modern masterpiece is a miracle of geodesics - the science of dividing curved surfaces into triangles. A glass roof designed by Norman Foster (creator of the London Gherkin and the interior of the Berlin Reichstag) joins the square British Museum building to the circular British Library Reading Room. Somehow you can't quite see where the pattern of triangles changes from being circular to square.
The whole place is a great meeting place and I was only there a minute before I spotted Zarquon's Singing Fish and her son, Little Fish. Then followed a confusing half an hour in which the hootoo Researchers were like the balls in a giant game of billiards, meeting 
then careering off 
to "try and find the others". We finally (almost) all met up in the Enlightenment Exhibition (how appropriate). Present and correct were Wilma, Bald Bloke, B'Elana, Vicki Virago, lil (Auntie Giggles) and her husband Pete, Zarquon's Singing Fish and Little Fish, Mazin' Mad Fiddler, h5ringer, Galaxy Babe and yours truly.
We wandered from exhibit to exhibit and saw a few interesting things - my favourite was a tusk carved into the head of a polar bear by Inuits and inscribed with pictures of caribou and a seal hunt. Little Fish found a secret door disguised as a bookshelf. A rather well-endowed statue of Greek demigod Priapus brought the hilarity level from 2: mild giggling up to about 5: hilarious laughter. But we weren't really there to ogle - the exhibition gave us all a chance to be together and to chat.
Sadly, Wilma had to leave early, so we said goodbye with hugs all round. Soon afterwards, our enlightenment was complete and we required caffeine - the Great Court cafe provided it in adequate quantities and we sat down for a good old natter over coffee, where I made the acquaintance of Dragonqueen.
... (Meanwhile, in a location not far away, beer was starting to be consumed in large quantities) ...
During our coffee break, an inflatable mascot was produced. This is intended to set a theme for the Meet - this one was long and pink. It soon became clear where lil (Auntie Giggles) got her name, and that her daughter Vicki has inherited the giggles.
The Shakespeare's Head
Now it was time to proceed to the Shakespeare's Head pub at Holborn, a short walk away. Zarquon's Singing Fish and Little Fish had to go, so we said our goodbyes and left the building. As we ambled along, Vicki explained to us about the ability of the London plane tree to extract pollution from the atmosphere. Bald Bloke showed us the subway built for the old Kingsway tram system. At the pub, we found the afore-mentioned beer drinkers had already bagsied the alcove by the door, home to the infamous Table Number 42. Here were 2legs, Roymondo and Titania. Photographs were set up of absent friends - Malabarista, Skankyrich, Jimster, Moonhogg, AnOldGreyMoonraker and Professor Animal Chaos. We drank a toast to them and all the other hootooers who couldn't make it. We then set to with the serious business of the evening - enjoying ourselves with lots of beer.
2legs was introduced to the long pink inflatable mascot... It was a lollipop! God knows what he thought it was.
As the evening progressed, other Researchers arrived - Thatprat, Greydesk, Evadne Cake, Alex Ashman, ReddyFreddy and friend. h2g2 T-shirts were passed out and Thatprat stripped off to put his one on, to great amusement from certain females who do not appear to have seen a male torso before 
.
People kept moving around so most people talked to most other people at some stage during the evening. What did we talk about? Anything and everything: plans for future Entries, reminiscences, electric guitars, accents, harriers, 2legs's liver, these are just a few of the things that I can remember.
There were no badgers present, no sudden appearances of Nighthoover, and we weren't thrown out of the pub for bad behaviour. At least, none of these occurred while I was there. It was just twenty or so people united in their common appreciation of an unusual website which gathers people up and allows them to share their experiences, their knowledge, their fun.
As I said goodbye to everyone present, I thought to myself, let's do this again.
Addendum
Just as the Meet had started with little subgroups getting together, so it ended. B'Elana and I met up again the next morning for a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where there was a very interesting exhibition of the use of maps in works of Art, including several based on the London Underground Map. Alex Ashman would have loved it.
Wandering around the V&A is an experience in itself - we saw a garden of black tulips, the William Morris-designed tea rooms, some beautiful Italian tiles depicting the months of the year and lots and lots of ornate mediæval carvings.
Eventually it was time to depart. B'Elana headed off to catch her plane and the Meet was really over.
Until next time...
There are some photos of the meet at my flickr page.
