Saturday 7th July was a day that had been long in the planning. Around 70 researchers descended upon London for the h2g2 Real Time Summer Meetup.

At 2:14 I was jogging up the left hand side of the escalators at Oxford
Circus, frantically rushing past the tourists, trying to reach 'All Souls
Church' on time. Dashing down Regents Street in the drizzling rain, I could
see a small crowd gathered on the steps ahead. As I stepped out of the rain
to shelter under the spire with the other researchers, I was initially a bit
overwhelmed. I thought to myself;
'is this really a good idea, meeting up with a load of mad people from the internet that I have never seen before in my life?'

The crowd was chatting merrily though, and everyone was very friendly. Abi gave me my sticky name label, and I made myself known to a few people. One researcher, Galaxy Babe, seemed to be walking around with no shoes on, but aside from that everything was fairly normal. I also met up with Shea, a recent interviewee, which was nice. After a few more minutes we made our way over to the BBC Experience. We somehow managed to get a bit lost wandering
down the stairs, almost wandering through the whole exhibition backwards, but eventually found the way in.

Walking around the BBC Experience, I began to have a bit of a chat with people. Everyone was in a lighthearted mood, and nobody was too sure about what we were supposed to be doing so we were all in the same boat together. I sat nervously at the back during the 'making a radio play' session, watching the volunteers play out their parts in the play. We moved on through to a dark room where we sat down and listened to a bunch of sounds from various eras of radio.

The last section was a bit more open and had different things to do. I had a good go at the 'editing Eastenders' feature. It was a simple set up, mixing video from 3 cameras into a single channel. The scene was one of these drumbeat scenes from the end of the programme, with one of the youngsters breaking into tears. To make it look anywhere near what you would see on tv, I figured you had to switch from the cameras at the right points, at breaks in the dialogue or after some movement. In the end I think I managed to get it about right, so that you watch the young girl (I don't know her name) walk out of the room in a wide shot, then cut to a close up of Joe, the guy, breaking into tears just before the drum beat cut in.

Of the other features, one of the highlights was watching Peregin
presenting the weather in a typically zany way (if only real weather
forecasts were so entertaining). Another of the exhibits was about miniature cameras, in cricket stumps and on bob-sleigh runs and so forth. There was a miniature train set set-up, and a television set ostensibly showing footage from a camera in one of the trains. It took us a good five minutes to figure out that the video was pre-recorded and the trains weren't running. What a con!

Wandering round the shop at the end, I got talking to Insane Endeavour and Hopelessly Paranoid, who seemed to know each other quite well. They both looked a bit older so I was suprised when they turned out to be my age. Remembering the rain, Insane got her towel out in preparation (mostly to show off, I think). We were all very impressed to see that the h2g2 logo was printed proudly onto the towel.

Abi gave out map, carefully drawn (with a copyright notice) to show people where the party venue would be. In the end it turned out that most of us went there together as a group, travelling a couple of stops down on the tube and arriving at the pub an hour early. They did let us in though, and so we had an hour of sharing the pub with (eek) the general public. Curiously, the pub was split in half, not by a wall, but by a whole street going through the middle. On the half of the pub on the other side of the road there was some kind of theatrical party, with lots of people dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls.

Finding a cash machine, and thus being able to buy a first drink, I settled down in the very plesant pub, the Ship and Shovell. After standing up for about half an hour, lurking with those dark eyes in the background, I eventually managed to nick someone's stool. Sitting ominously near were the ever-present Thingite Clan (and clan, I think, is the appropiate word). Shea (pronounced not how you think it is) was every bit the charming, if sarcastic, researcher I thought she would be, and was a great presence. Also pleasing to meet were the happy couple Bob and Elly, who were very friendly
and very beautiful (and Elly has a fantastic accent). Jim, the technical guy, was also there, with his lovely wife and daughters.

After some food, which seemed to come in dribs and drabs, but was
nevertheless very nice (and free too!), the h2g2 quiz got under way. My team was formed from the people already sitting at our table, me, Hopeless Endeavour, Comrade Rubble, A Girl Called Jack, and another 'straight edge' guy with spikey hair whose name I have forgotten. Our team name, suggested
by Jack, was taken from one of the Hitchhiker books and had something to do with thighs. We failed miserably at most of the questions, which were fiendishly difficult and were mostly answered with guesswork. Swapping with
the Thingite Clan to mark the answers, we depressingly noted that they had
done far better than us. Adding insult to injury, they spilt drink all over
our answer paper. I tried to capitilise on this by writin '15 + spilt drink'
on the paper in the hope that it would get us extra points, but Mark Moxon
managed to misread my handwriting (which, admittedly, is terrible) and read
out that our team name was 'stiff drink'. Still, we didn't come last, so it
wasn't all bad.

Later on, I played a minor part in the plot to kidknap Mark Moxon, as
part of the Thingite cause (I'm not a Thingite, but it sounded like fun).
The kidnapping was very gentlemanly. When asked if he would mind being
kidnapped, Mark very graciously asked if he could just finish his drink, and
then he wouldn't mind at all. Mark was pushed gently into the soft chair in
the corner to have his mugshot taken (in all three of the usual poses). The
Thingites then had a good chat with him before getting bored and wandering
off. When I came back ten minutes later the Thingites were nowhere to be
seen, though Mark was goodnaturedly still in his chair, chatting away to A
Girl Named Jack about the future of the Guide. Mark seemed to be
enthusiastic about developing the guide and making new features, though
stressed that they would 'take some time to implement'. The next
improvement, he told us, would be to overhaul Peer Review, so that it could
be more automatic and ordered according to different criteria. There were
plenty of other ideas too, but I'll keep them a secret so Mark can maintain
the suprise when they arrive!

Abi had scaringly told me that she wanted to discuss my interviews with
The Post. It was nothing bad, however, and we had a good chat. Abi also interviews researchers, 'to improve her
knowledge of the Community', so we might
collaborate in future so that our 'hit lists' don't clash. On a tip-off from
Shazz, we also figured out that Abi hasn't been interviewed as an Italic
before, so she will definitely be part of a Frankie Roberto Interview
sometime soon.

As the evening wore on, Uncle Heavy started looking a little worse for
wear, getting steadily more drunk. Going to a boarding school in Winchester,
Uncle Heavy (who, incidentally, isn't heavy and isn't an Uncle) needed to
catch a train home. As the time when the last train to Winchester was due to
depart passed, he started to search for someone to put him up for the night.
Whilst in this drunken state he also managed to pinch a drinks towel from
the bar and aroused suspicions and alarm from the bar staff. Luckily,
Hopelessly Paranoid offered a bed (or floor) for the night and so everything
ended well. In fact, Uncle Heavy was good humoured and articulate for the
whole night, and is a very nice guy.

After having to wait a quarter of an hour or so for a tube, and then about
the same again for a train at Liverpool Street, I got home within about an
hour having had a good evening out. A quick check online to see if anything
had happened (I couldn't resist) revealed that only Insane had managed to
post anything about the meet since getting back (she left early), and then
it was off to bed.

It was great fun to meet up with everybody, and I hope we do it again
soon!

Frankie Roberto

12.07.01. Front Page

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