The Third Sydney Meet
Created | Updated Feb 24, 2003
Cheesecake entered the pub with a fixed stare and a large knife concealed by her side, She scanned the patrons, looking, searching and when she had identified her quarry, she moved intently toward them.....no not another episode of a cops and robbers show but the beginning of the latest Sydney meet held at the Carlisle Castle Hotel in Newtown on Saturday 23rd November.
The quarry in question were Linus and Platypus, sitting quietly at one end of the bar waiting for the rest to show up. Linus, so concerned about not being late had been propping the bar up since about three, and Platypus had arrived just a little while before. The official start time was 5.30pm although Feisor and our overseas guest were not due to arrive until 6pm. Shrillian was again Cheesecake (aka TopHatKittyKat) and Amy the Paper Lady's chauffeur.
Feisor and a girl called Ben arrived soon after with Ben's Big Brother as chaperone, to make sure that we treated our first overseas visitor with all due respect. We were a depleted gathering, this time, Tashalls was away in the Blue Mountains, PondRat had defected to Melbourne and organised a mini meet of his own with Sir EvilRoy and His
Majesty,King Cthulhu held in the wilds of Victoria in a place called Boronia. Other Sydney researchers were unable to take part and so the seven (Sorry Amy) eight of us, having dispossessed the previous occupants of our traditional corner with general loudness, got down to the serious business of drinking and finding out why someone would fly halfway across the world for an h2g2 meet? Curious huh?
Ben insisted she had come to visit her Big Bro and to view the total eclipse of the sun, but we were not fooled. Feisor shared some 
al news with us about Amy and Tom, so we toasted the prospective parents and sent our good wishes across the sea. We also strictly monitored Amy's alcohol intake thereafter.
Several 'rumandcokes' (which apparently you can get on tap in the Carlisle) and copious amounts of 
meant that everyone was relaxed and enjoying the evening, when Linus broke up our happy group by leaving to attend a 25th birthday party.
[Topic drift] Such a nice guy Linus is 
. A young girl recently moved to Sydney from the country, mentioned she didn't have many friends in Sydney to celebrate her birthday with, so he organises a 'few' rugby mates to arrive at her party at about 7.30, but stays drinking with us until nearly nine, before heading off to check on the damage[end of Topic Drift]
We had arranged to ring the mini meet in Melbourne at about 7 - ie before Linus left - to try and connect. However, my timing was out and the mobile we rang hadn't arrived at the Melbourne meet yet, still Ben got to speak to his majesty, and he was impressed at the volume of noise coming from such a small and select group.
Feisor and Ben's Big Bro organised wedges and nachos to help absorb the alcohol, along with some cheese and cracker supplied by Feisor's mother and a mud cake supplied by Cheesecake. The conversations ranged over a number of diverse topics from belief to Buffy, the jukebox played constantly in the background and after a lot of discussion I think we finally persuaded Ben's big Bro to stop being an occasional lurker and become a fully fledged researcher.
It was terrific to have an overseas visitor with us, particularly such a prolific poster as a girl called Ben; she lent distinction to our gathering. Our only disappointment was that the rain she promised was not forthcoming and so we still have an opening for a rainmaker extraordinaire down under. Any applications gratefully considered.
The photos were all taken by Amy the Paper Lady using Ben's camera, a small technical hitch having interfered with the operation of our normal digital camera, and so will be available at some point after Ben arrives back in England and we will keep you posted1.
The meet ended at about 12 or so with the call 'Time Please' from the publican, we adjourned in the street to say farewell, good luck, travel safe and all the other goodbye things you say at the culmination of an enjoyable evening.
