The Hull Meet Report 22 - 23 Nov 2008
Created | Updated Dec 4, 2008
For once the weather forecasters were correct as it began snowing after I left home, and the blizzard got progressively worse the further north I progressed. Luckily I arrived at the Premier Inn in Hull safely; then when everyone else arrived there was the usual round of hugs and kisses and more hugs and kisses and exchange of small gifts.
One sign-upee didn't show up, and as I had got her a book, this found a good home with surprise attendee and meet virgin Wand'rin Star, who made the decision to attend when she read Gnomon's journal on the Friday prior. Luckily she got booked into the same hotel as him, Prof and ST, so was all fixed for attending the meet proper.
Table for Nine
Those seated for dinner were: Prof Animal Chaos; Gnomon; Wand'rin Star; lil and hubby Pete; Moonhogg and The Missus Gina; ST MKII and Galaxy Babe.
Lest I forget, there was another guest with us: Ivan, the inflatable kangaroo, our regular plastic attendee. He is transported to the meet by lil and Pete, and blown up by Prof. We put him on a chair (Ivan, not Prof) and dress him in a smart tie. The waitresses and fellow guests come over and remark what a handsome kangaroo he is, and ask where he came from, and so on. When we say he's a stand-in for an Aussie Researcher (Ivan) who can't make the journey for the Meet, they're often intrigued as to where other people have made the effort to come from (noticing Gnomon's accent).
Before the food arrived I got a phone call from paper attendee pailaway ringing from New Mexico; it had been planned between us beforehand but none of the other diners knew it was going to happen, so Gnomon and Lil had a surprise chat with him when I passed around my mobile phone. Wand'rin Star was positively riveting to listen to over dinner as she regaled us with the places she's lived throughout her very exciting life as an English foreign language teacher.
Dinner was the usual standard, absolutely fantastic, I've never been less than delighted with the quality and service in the Premier Inn. I had duck parcels to start and sweet & sour chicken main course. Prof and I shared our left-overs, he accepted my cucumber in exchange for his cooked tomato. I am not a fan of coffee and upon hearing ST's story of his 'coffee break' on the journey up, having been served black goo1, I'm afraid I'm put off for life.
Moonhogg's Missus (Gina) likes Irish accents, so it's a bit of a thrill for her to listen to Gnomon talking rather than her Yorkshire husband. The usual silly jokes were told and there was a lot of laughter. At ten o'clock Bel rang and spoke to Lil, complaining that hootoo was so dead that she was bored and going to bed: Gnomon and Moonhogg thought it would be good fun to take a mobile phone picture of lil while she was on the phone to Bel and then send it to Bel. Bear in mind this is on an Irish phone, taken in England, and sent to Germany. Via satellites in outer space, obviously, because it didn't arrive, so the photo of lil on the phone to Bel is probably somewhere out there in the Solar System, we just don't know where.
After we got asked to leave the dining area so the staff could begin to set up for breakfast, we moved to the rear of the pub where a travelling Welsh Male Choir were practising (or celebrating) with several renditions you just couldn't help but be captivated by; well, Moonhogg objected but that's because we had to stop talking while they were singing, I think!
The weather had worsened and as four had to travel back to their hotel and two had to go home/run a babysitter home/return home, the gathering broke up around 11.30pm. After I went to bed it was really delightful to receive a call from MMF (the final paper attendee) around midnight; he thought we'd still be partying (outside? In the snow??) so we had a nice little chat.
The journey on Sunday morning to The Deep was fun! (NOT!): crossing Hull, following Pete, who had (to help him navigate) — Hoggy's instructions, lil to read and navigate and a sat nav. I had Hoggy's instructions, which I couldn't read because I was driving in treacherous conditions, no navigator and no sat nav. And guess who arrived at The Deep first? They missed the last turn-off so I turned in and beat them. When we parked up, lil blamed Pete for talking to her and making her miss one of the instructions.
The Deep. Wow. I swear it gets better every time. Half the pleasure is sharing it with someone who's not been before and the obvious delight of Gnomon who was in his element explaining things to anyone who was listening. For example, he just wrote the article Mathematical Knots and we viewed a hagfish, an eel-like creature which cleans its skin by tying its body into a knot then moves the knot along its length, the only creature to have this capability. We finally found the octopus I remembered from last time's visit, which I had promised to show him because he also wrote that Entry for the EG.
Something new to me this time (I last visited The Deep in October half-term week!) was a 4D film of shark behaviour narrated by a green turtle. That was truly amazing; the 4D-specs were like a pair of sunglasses, and the effect was that it convinced your brain that you were actually in the water, with the occasional small fish swimming over your head. As I looked up to see where the fish went, I spotted a few other people in the audience doing the same thing. Another treat for me was identifying Moon Jellyfish before reading the inscription, as I've just been writing about those creatures in my Animal Camouflage Entry.
Wand'rin Star enjoyed her first visit to The Deep as well, and was pleased she'd made the effort to attend her first-ever meet. As we left and said, hugged and kissed our goodbyes after a few group photos outside The Deep, we all promised to meet up again soon. I offered to drop Wandrin' Star in Grimsby for the first leg of her journey home which was a bonus for both of us, I had company on my journey and it saved her one bus ride. She told me on the journey that she was thrilled to have seen a real live Lantern Fish at The Deep, because her son Duncan (also a hootooer) had come home from school one day and informed his mother, in the way that small children do, about this fish which lights its own way – and Wand'rin Star had scoffed, insisting no such creature existed. No doubt Duncan will be grateful to be vindicated at last! In her post-meet journal Wand'rin Star christened Gnomon, ST and The Prof 'the Three Musketeers' and I have yet to find out the reason why, but I won't rest until I do!
