h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Breakfast: coffee and 4 of the Weetabix-like biscuits from Lidl. (Unlike AR, I don't fancy porridge.) Rain is still forecast, so I wore the hiking boots.

I packed and left about 10 (early, in case of any hold-ups en route). A 159 (a Routemaster!) came only a few minutes after I arrived at the bus stop. Big Ben struck 11 just as we left Parliament Square. The full 159 route goes up Gloucester Place. This bus was for Marble Arch, but a diverted 139 took me up Gloucester Place. I reached Regent's Park bandstand about 11:40 and saw nobody looking mustardy. On the bandstand there were 2 women doing keep-fit exercises, and they soon went. I have got the muster point wrong in the past, and so, from the vantage point of the bandstand, started gazing into the middle distance for possible musters.

It seems that I exude mustardiness myself, as a woman walked straight up to me from the direction of Clarence Gate and asked if I was a Mustardlander. It was Urban Yokel. We immediately established that we had something in common: we'd each mistaken the other's gender from ML. I set out our pitch on my groundsheet.

Cookiepuss arrived, with a marvellous mustard scarf which later served as a flag to get late arrivals to notice us. To identify herself, Cookiepuss wore a badge saying =^..^=.

Annie brought her tartan rug. Apparently, tartan rugs are de rigueur for picnics, so, for a while, it was me and my stuff on the groundsheet and everybody else on the rug.

Amy and Jane hove into view from the east. (Where had they come from? The zoo?) It was 12:15. Amy pointed out that they were not late because she had specified "noon-/ish/".

When we decided to unpack, it was apparent that the others are a better class of picnicker. They'd brought wine, posh cheese, /home-made/ cakes (thank you, Jane), grapes, delicious cherries, etc. but nobody else was interested in the stuff I'd brought, so I ended up eating it myself. Sorry, others, if I appeared anti-social; that wasn't intended.

We had two unexpected visitors: Pippa G and her OH. They had an appointment in London, and kindly made time to come all the way to Regent's Park to meet us, even though they could only spare a few minutes.

Two more late arrivals were Sheena and Snatch Foster.

This was the first major outing for my new digital camera (nothing too fancy: a Pentax Optio 30), so, in between munches, I was snapping away. Cookiepuss and Sheena also took some photos, so you can see the snaps from all 3 of us in the Lockin.

Despite Snatch's confident assertion that it'd rain by 4, it didn't, but it was overcast. At about 4:30, when it was getting even windier and chillier, we packed up and made for Baker Street, whereupon the clouds parted somewhat and it got a bit warmer. Amy, Jane, Sheena, Snatch and I repaired to a coffee bar where we continued to chat over coffee (except Amy, Jane, Sheena and Snatch, who had tea. This sounds like ammo for another ML dichotomy: tea-drinkers vs coffee-drinkers). It was there that I found that it's Sheena who's to blame... er... thank for so many MLers' enthusiasm for the Ukes. BTW thank you, Snatch, who paid the bill but didn't stay for the rest to pay him back our share. The others started homewards from Baker Street tube station.

The rain held off just long enough for me to find a suitable bus stop in Oxford Street (there were none suitable on the southbound side of Baker Street), by which time both the street and it were teeming (if you see what I mean). Just as well I wore the boots. A 159; it was another Routemaster.

I must have eaten well at the picnic; I needed only a light supper before bed.

< Annie brought her tartan rug. >

Not me guv! I think it was Urban Yokel's (didn't she take it with when she left?) Also don't think anybody was avoiding your groundsheet: it was just that the majority of the food happened to be on the tartan rug and we're all so greedy that we clustered around it!

I stand corrected, Annie!