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

The W/E commencing Friday 25th Aug.2006.
10.30am. set off from home for Yorkshire and the Profs. house. Arrive at around 2pm. The greeting was, as expected, warm, friendly and genuine. The Prof. is, as he states in his PS and various journals a man who despite all and any odds, will always laugh in the face of adversity and see's a positive in everything. He has an open house policy for friends, I was told, in no uncertain terms, that his home was my home for the duration, to help myself to anything I wanted in terms of drink and food, no need to ask, just get on with it. As one would expect, we then chatted about ourselves, life in general and hootoo especially and the friends we have made via hootoo. We were both honoured and humbled by the invite to VV's wedding reception, what we did'nt know until the Friday was that not only were we going to the reception we were going to be at the wedding ceremony as well!! I stayed overnight at the Profs. and we were then going to travel over the Pennines and onto the venue on Saturday. I met Profs. son and daughter, a delightful pair, the sort that restores faith in the youth of today. The Prof. can be justifiably proud of the way he has brought up his two kids.

Sat.26th Aug. 2006
This was the day we were to travel over to our hotel and also suss out the venue. It is also where I discover that my auto-route is somewhat out of date plus I had printed the route to the actual venue but, like an idiot, had'nt printed off the route to the hotel which in turn made the route for the venue somewhat redundant as that was from Profs. house!!. When we arrive in the vicinity so to speak it was a case of pick up the phone and we both yelled...LIL, HELP!!! We're lost!!! After Lil finished wiping the tears from her eyes and stopped laughing long enough, she sent hubby out on a rescue mission. Twenty or so minutes later a broadly smiling hubby arrives and leads us lost sheep back to the hotel where we book in. Arrangements were then made for us to go to VC's home in the evening for a few hours for a 'social' gathering. At the hotel, we were introduced to pheloxi, yet again another smashing, genuine guy, we got on really well. We met up for a drink prior to going to VC's. Lil and hubby then arrive and we follow them to VC's where on arrival, I meet VC for the first time and boy, was that a pleasure and a half! What a lovely lass. On entering her home we were then introduced to TB Falsename, yet another hootoo'er we did'nt know but again, we were soon all in general chit chat, finding out about each other, meeting VC's cats, dogs etc. Later in the evening we meet VC's other half, who also partakes in the general chat. A very pleasant evening all round really, so much so it was very late when we left, me, the Prof. and pheloxi went back to the hotel, Lil and hubby headed home. Back at the hotel the Prof said that the w/e was turning out better than we could ever have imagined. He had met 2 new hootoo friends, I had met 3, as the Prof. had met VC before.

Sun.27th Aug.2006
The big day has arrived. Me and the Prof were up at 7am. Showered, shaved and dressed, we met pheloxi for breakfast at 9.30, after which we waited for Lil and hubby to arrive and drop off TB who was to travel with us to the venue. He had brought with him an inflatable kangaroo!! At this point I was'nt aware of the significance of this development and was left wondering what we were doing taking an inflatable kangaroo to a wedding!! Added to which, who had enough breath to blow up said kangaroo!!. On arrival at the venue we met the bridegroom and his family along with relatives of Lil's including her father, a real gentleman. I started taking piccy's as promised, it transpires that the kangaroo had been taken along to represent a hootoo'er from Australia, a friend of Lil's who could'nt be at the wedding but Lil decided that this was a way of him being there in spirit at least. Ivan was the name so the kangaroo became Ivan!. The ceremony was due to take place at 12.30, and sure enough, not long after in came the bride, looking absolutely gorgeous. Pics were taken of her arrival in the wedding car then Lil's hubby did his duty and walked the happy bride down the aisle. Cameras and video cams were going 10 to the dozen. After the ceremony more pics taken of the happy couple signing the book then it was off for the traditional wedding breakfast/meal. This was the family only part of the occassion so myself, TB, the Prof and pheloxi went back to our hotel for a chat and to prepare for the evening reception. They were going to inflate the kangaroo at this point but I suggested it would be a good idea to do it when we got back to the venue as having a rather large inflatable marsupial in the car was perhaps not a good idea. At around 7pm we set off for the reception. Boy oh boy, this is where the fun really cracked off.

The Reception!!
We arrive at the venue for the reception. It's now that the inflatable Kangaroo has to be blown up and a suitable tie affixed. Picture the scene, 4 guys stood at the rear of the car, in a car park, covered by cctv, one holding the kangaroo, [the valve to blow up said kangaroo is in it's tail], so there is the Prof., mouth on tail blowing up said roo!! The pics show how this could be, err, lets say, mis-interpreted somewhat.
TB puts on the tie and off we go into the reception. We are met by a somewhat squiffy VC, operating on the basis of waste not want not, VC had been round the wedding breakfast table collecting up the half bottles of wine left over from the meal and between herself and Lil had seen off the remmanents!
When certain rock music records were played it was cue for some serious dancing including by the Prof!! Again, captured on film.
VV and hubby then did the customary dance to there record and this was to be followed up with VV doing a dance with the kangaroo, basically the stand in for Ivan, Lil's friend from Australia, sadly I missed this bit as i was actually outside on the phone to another special little friend at the time. I am told however that there are pics of this available form others at some stage.
An excellent buffet had been laid on, everyone was having a good time, think it's fair to say a lot of new friends were made and old aquaintences renewed during the night. All in all, a very enjoyable occassion.
TB managed to avoid several attempts made by certain ladies to get a view of what was under his kilt. His use and positioning of the roo caused some merriment, the mind boggles!!

Mon.28th Aug.2006

Having had such a good night we had a bit of a lie in the next morning, ie, for me a couple hours anyway then we went down for breakfast with pheloxi. At this time we now knew we were to meet Littlemightyblue2 at lunchtime so we packed our kit, as we had to be out of the hotel by midday anyway. Lil and hubby arrive and we set off to the railway station to meet little Bluey. On arrival we saw her with her parents, we introduced ourselves then we set off to have lunch alongside the Mersey. It was an absolute delight to meet Bluey at long last. I've known and chatted to her for best part 12 months, back before we arrived on hootoo so for me, it was the crowning glory of the w/e, as it was for the Prof. I kept my promise, buying her lunch and me and Prof went halves on a rather large bottle of her fave tipple. I can only say she was an absolute delight to meet and chat to, she enjoyed the afternoon too from what I've heard and now at least as well as hootoo, e-mail, and phone, she and her parents at least know who she has been chatting too and that she is in safe hands.
All in all, this 5 day weekend has turned out to be beyond my wildest expectations, I went through a lot of grief on the medical stuff prior to this, starting back in May, I made this w/e extravaganza my personal goal, to be able to attend and take part plus enjoy the whole occassion and that I certainly did.
Only leaves me to thank Lil, her hubby, VC and hubby, VV and new hubby for the invite, also to pheloxi, TB, The Prof., Little Bluey for being true friends and making me feel so welcome over the 5 days.

One final post script, I took 177 pics and 40minutes of video, therefore it will be a day or two before I sort them out and get them posted with a suitable link.

wow! That is very long and detailed! Thanks Sounds like ya'all had fun! And I hope that I was mentioned

Ooops, after all that forgot Tuesday. Basically that entailed staying overnight at the Profs from the Monday and then travelling back home Tuesday afternoon. Needless to say we chatted on about the w/e and how much we had enjoyed the whole thing and the making of new friends.

I eventually arrive home at 5pm.

I don't think during the course of the w/e there were'nt many hootoo'res discussed or mentioned at some stage.

good good. As long as I got some attention in there I'm happy

Sounds like you had lots of fun!

Thanks for sharing that, ST. Sounds truly truly special. At some point, though, you're going to have to share he hootoo conversations, y'know! Who said what where and with whom

I feel like I was there.

Traveller in Time reading backlog
" It is just like a real event you are writing here

Thanks for letting us share "

Yep, definitely want to know if zendevils crept into convos at any point (probably at a smutty bit!)

It all sounds like great fun, wish i could have been there. Who adopted Ivan the Roo at the end of it all?

zdt

and you didn't get arrested in charge of an inflatable giraffe.... how did you manage that? thanks for sharing ST. sounds like a good time was had by all

Brilliant ST made me giggle in places too.

Giraffe? They had an inflatable giraffe too? Ye gods, i thought it was a kangaroo. Was there an entire zoo of inflatable animals, one to represent every hootoo fiend they know?

zdt

giraffe?? Nah, just a kangaroo, honest, it got in places among and under TB's kilt that don't bear thinking about!!

Oh tsk tsk! Tie me kangaroo down, sport.

(Oops, watch it, we will have 2legs round here any minute now....)

zdt

I've already posted a version of that in Lil's thread!!

meeting for real, to shake a friends hand or give a cuddle to a lady, is worth more than a mountain of gold!!



and BOY! am I rich!!!

post script!

ST and LIL(including her family)might not have a key to my home, but! my door will never be locked to them

Ah, but that's 'cos the entire family have genetically mutated from so they enter via your chimney. It's Christmas every week when Lil & co come to call.

zdt

What a wonderful report of your extraordinary weekend, I can *see* it all
I'm glad such a good time was had by all

I agree lil me and daughters and their partners were fantastic. it was like we were hanging around in real life for years!

to my other "newly met in real life" hootoo friends it was great finaly meet to get some more proof that hootoo friends are real friends!

I think we were only one short of an Official Mini Meet!!