Snowplains Meet, Nottingham, 28 - 31 May, 1999

The Nottingham meet was fairly well attended, with Algol, Athanasius, Berry, Chatterbox, Dawes, DelBoy, Diesel, Eldskitten, Greywolf, Heaven, Karen, Martyn, MrFlibble, Odie, Onyx, Oracle, Phlebas, Pooh, Ruby, Rillaith, Rosseforp, Stud, TooNaughty, Vento and Wendolene all putting in appearances.

Friday evening

We all met up in the Tap and Tumbler pub in the centre of Nottingham. Same old same old - drinking, eating, nattering, tarting, and not getting thrown out.

Saturday

Most of us managed to get into town almost an hour earlier than we had originally planned. Unfortunately, the rest where either in bed (cue groans of "Go away we're not coming out, and Onyx is propped up in the shower anyway") or managed to arrive well after we'd given up on them (MrFlibble and co.)! First exciting thing of the meet - a trip to the Caves, underneath the Broadmarsh centre. Several bumped noggins later, we emerged into the heat and brightness of the shopping center, only to be dragged into the toy shop for Heaven to purchase a bouncing tigger! We managed to drag her away, and headed for McD's.

Ruby wanted to go ice skating next, but decided she'd prefer not to be the only one there, so most of us went off to the bowling alley instead... foolishly leaving Athanasius to take Heaven and Ruby to the nearest pub and get rather drunk. We arrived at the alley to be told to go away - the entire place was booked for the National Junior Championships. Unimpressed, we went to the laserquest-alike instead, where we had a very energetic hour or so, playing a 3-team game. Finally everyone wandered back to the market square about 6ish, we met up with the sluggabeds from earlier, and we all bundled ourselves off to Greywolf's local.

Before even half an hour was up, we shooed everyone out of the pub and to another one round the corner.. we didn't want to scare the other regulars that much! Between good food, pool table and jukebox, everyone seemed content, and settled in for the night.

Sunday

Everyone gathered at the bright and early hour of 10am at Greywolf's house, and despite various phone calls as people got lost, everyone was there on time! We exchanged mobile numbers, gave out rough maps, bundled everyone into cars, and set off for the American Adventure theme park. Again, we didn't lose a single car, despite having a chain of 6 to potentially lose, but by the time we arrived the rain had settled in. After such a gloriously too-hot and sunny day on the Saturday, the weather had finally turned. It didn't stop people having a good time (or from going on the water rides) .. until the cold started sinking into their bones. Vento discovered a great talent, previously unknown to him, for knocking lead-filled cans off a table with a baseball, and won a huge tiger. Greywolf followed suit, and was soon clutching an equally huge purple whale, which had Berry and TooNaughty oohing and ahhing. It wasn't a wolf though, so back we went to spend yet more money at the "Drop a ring over the bottle neck" stall, who had the wolf prizes. We'd tried playing, we'd tried bartering, we even tried bribing, but eventually we gave in and bought an entire bucketful of rings. As almost everyone around joined in, there was a sudden excited squeal - TooNaughty actually managed to win! She struck a deal with Greywolf, and the two of them walked off happy... Greywolf with his 4ft wolfie, and TooNaughty somewhere underneath the whale, which was at least as big as her!

Not long after lunch, we all went back to Greywolf's house, and goodness knows how we managed to fit everyone in. Most people flaked out for an hour or two, while others played with the Diefan, Doom, and Gizmo (complete tarts, so they fitted in well) or used a handy hairdryer to dry themselves, clothes, large stuffed animals...

When everyone was (more or less) recovered from the excitement of the day, we all went off for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in town - all you can eat for £14 (including crispy duck)! The food was fantastic.. and lots of it, too. Once everyone had eaten their full, my little plot came to fruition. Out were brought several plates of battered ice cream, and everyone sang Happy Birthday to a very surprised TooNaughty. By the time we were done, we were had to roll out the door!

Monday

Well, we had The Parents arriving that afternoon, so we took the few spods we had left into town at lunchtime and pretty much left them to their own devices until they were ready to go home.

From comments received so far, everyone had a fantastic time - I know I enjoyed it!

Pictures

There are already pictures on the FTP site. If you have any more to be added, please let us know!

~Rillaith