Matt's blog probably not the best thread to use, so any suggestions?

The lan party ended up mostly being party and not so much lan, so I was thinking just a regular meet-up for no reason except to eat, drink and be merry.

My place is available - now with an extra decent bed & it's pretty easy for me & KW to get to.

Red's new digs are just begging to be christened.

or we could actually go out somewhere and do something, like a trip to an amusement park of some kind and a proper sit-down curry or something?

Date-wise, sometime in November is looking best. How about the weekend of 24th? Is that do-able?

So we're just after a theme, a location and a date. Otherwise, I think everything is sorted :lol:

Who's in? Do I hear enthusiasm?! :rock: :rock: :drunk: :egg: :yay: :pot:

I'll have to see where I stand with work but I would love to

mabey, just not Alton towers.. personsl reasons.. urm where bouts in england you thinking of?

take meeeeee

Could be anywhere, but reasonably central. Cheap accommodation is the priority if it's an over-night boozy shin-dig, which is one reason why Northampton would be good: my house is free & empty with plenty of beds & sofas.

Northampton is a bit sucky when it comes to fun things though. There's the bowling alley, which has DDR and probably bowling - although I've never been inside. Oh, and there's the shoe museum, but I hear that's cobblers.

Another option could be to all meet at my place for a boozy party on Friday or Saturday, then sleep it off and go do something fun the next day. That might work better for people without a car because they just need to get here on vaguely the right day. Also if anyone wants to just come to the "Fun Park" day out and skip the boozing with a bunch of thirty-something year old blokes, then that's an option too. I'm thinking particularly of people under 18 with parents who may frown on such shenanigans, saying no names... :P

I went to Alton Towers once, and spent all day looking at queues that were too long and never went on a single ride. It was also raining. It was a really miserable day, so I'm not too keen on going there again either.

Karting? There's circuits all over the place, so shouldn't be too hard to organise. I've always really fancied it and it should work well for us as a group... *Vroom Vroom!*

How about Lego Land? I wonder if my club membership still gets me in free :D

Blackpool Tower? Bit far up and it'll be bloody cold, but hey - we're silly. Oh - and I just checked. It shuts in November, d'oh...

Brighton? Mod suits optional...

The Eden Project? It's in Cornwall which is a fair old drive, especially from oop north but I did always want to see it.

Chessington? Lots to do, but it's £30 a head full price, £23 if you can get a discount

Thorpe Park is very similar.

http://www.lastminute.com/site/entertainme...heme-parks.html <- discount tickets

There's quite a few places that shut down in November. If we went for Fireworks weekend then that's pretty much the last show of the year. I like fireworks; so even if we don't go to a show I could get some for the garden. Drunk people, fire and rockets; yay :lol:

I've added a poll - if it works this time :unsure:

For me I think the best thing would be low cost. That in real terms would probably be most easily achieved at silly central with a slab of beer and a quiche. I suppose we also wouldn't be dependent on the weather that way either.

If that's what we go for, which suits me fine, then we can always do the day out another time. As I said, everywhere seems to shut this time of year so maybe we could do a "Family Friendly" trip next year when the weather is better. I can think of several young relatives of the silly forumites who might appreciate that.

If we do party at my house, can someone remind me to get the posh crisps and stuff out. Last time, I was eating Sweet Chilli Sensations for about 3 weeks after :$

Also, I'll try to be a little more planned with the food. I always make the same mistake - I love cooking so much that I plan something far too complicated. I can do Sushi the night before which makes a great healthy snacking meal and I can do a one-pot curry to eat with Naan breads, which is ridiculously easy. With a bit of luck I'll actually find some decent sliced bread for toast this time too <_<

Back in July I had a great time, so why change a winning formula. Surely we aren't so bored of each other that we need an activity to distract us?

Anyhoo I am open to ideas and have only been expressing my thoughts so far.

I vote silly central too. I need a wind down and a chill out with friends. :D

What 'e said. And what she said.

Thinking about it, my new place might not be big enough for too many people. I can't really remember, I've only seen it once and that was a week ago! :lol:

Looks like we're trashing your place again, JJ. ;)


:EDIT:

Although the karting thing sounds like fun.... B)

Karting is AWESOME.

I thought it was in better condition when we left last time. :lol:


Karting could be good. I know they have an outdoor tarmac one in MK if there aren't any closer but it is really something that has to be booked up asap. As it happens I'm going Karting this Thursday.

OK I think that's settled then!

Pie and Ale and what ever comes up. You'll be thrilled to hear I've just put the Monkey-Juice on to ferment, so it should be about 17% ABV by November. Even if it isn't drinkable, it makes good screen wash :unsure:

Might even get the DDR working if Koneko comes :lol:

Just the wee matter of the date. How is Saturday 24th November, give or take a day? It's a full moon if that makes any difference to anyone? I can make any weekend in November, although Diwali is near the 10th so I wouldn't be cooking meat or fish that weekend.

*must buy fireworks* :ninja:

We'll arrange a Karting weekend or something when we recover from this :P

The 24th is definitely the best for me as I won't have a car until after the 11th and I fly out on the 30th.

Now in the short time that I'm at my parents place my best friend would like to see me. I'm sure you would all get on anyway, but as he'll be based around his dad's in thame would it be alright if I brought him along if that happens to be the only weekend when he can make it down from leeds?

The more the merrier! I used to live in Oxford, and had a mate in Thame. Is that the place you mean?

I just spoke to , and he's most probably coming too so that's a party already :D

You too?

My best friend is flying out to NZ (for good :( ) on the 30th as well.

I can see the 24th is going to be a seriously alcoholic weekend! :P :aha: :Aaarghh:

All this time, I never realised that was a fish.

For some reason, I thought it was a budgie! :lol:

My hometown is Aylesbury so of course I know Thame.


Red, is your friend female, good looking and on a Singapore Airlines flight?


Yes, it did look like a budgie at first look. :o

Yes

I refuse to answer that question on the grounds of cowardice :unsure:

Quite possibly, all I know is she's going from heathrow at about 6PM.

My only issue is getting there. I'm on sabattical at the mo...so money is non existant. depends on if i get incapactiy for being menatl and not being able to spell

I'm on the SA flight at 22:00, if I knew you had a friend on a specific earlier flight and happened to know the seat number as well then I would be more than willing to see if I could change my flight to an earlier one in the chance that I may surprise them, one benefit would be that my stopover in Singapore would be 9 hours and that my total trip time would be 35 hours.

Where will you be traveling from that weekend?

I shall try and find out for you!

I think we should go karting and then chill.

I think we should get pissed and then go karting. :lol:

Probably won't be allowed though. :whip:


Is the karting thing going to be a seperate event, or all done on the same weekend? Or at all?

As a rough guess:

Karting Sat 24th lunchtime at MK (unless there is somewhere closer).
Afterparty/LANparty at JJ's N'hampton until Sunday 25th.

I suppose that way everyone could meet up as and when they could and leave in the same way.

No arrangements final yet, but I was thinking the karting would be a separate event. It depends on if we can get in somewhere on Saturday lunchtime and I haven't even looked yet!

MK is only 20 miles from here which is pretty darned close, although I think there's an indoors one in Northampton: *google - check* http://www.gpkarting.com/

Hands up who wants to go karting and party after?

Koneko - I could give you a lift home, but I wont know what I'm doing on Friday until the day before so I can't promise to pick you up.

I just checked the prices at GP - it's a minimum of £400 for a private group or £42.50 per driver :blink:

Cheshire, Ellesmere Port to be exact.

I think those prices are for Grand Prix, not Arrive and Drive. The nearsest on to me is £20 on a weekday for 2 15 minute sessions, which goes really fast ;_; its £13 something on weekends

I'll try and figure out a way to get there :D

Around that weekend I have to work in ellesmere port so I might be able to offer you a lift
You don't mind being seen in a transit connect van do you :whistle:
Only room for 2 I'll have a server and a few hundred metres of Cat5 in the back

You'll need the Cat5 as JJ's wireless doesn't work. :lol: :P

Hah yeah that's cool paul, why the hell would anyone work in ellesmere port lol...its shite.

and for two....me and my pc lol

How exciting!

We can have cheese pie, can't we? :)

Anyone coming from up north? fancy stopping off at york at-all?

Looks like I'm the southern contingent then, unless Cirrus comes along. :lol:

Wireless does work - the problem was the clients.

1. Red's PC doesn't do WPA because the Asus card he's got doesn't support it on Windows 2000, only on XP

2. My laptop is just shit and never works any more - I've now got it working with a 11Mb USB dongle but the PC card just won't work any more

3. KW's PDA always works no problem!

4. My old K6 always works no problem!

I have no idea about your laptop <_<

Cirrus is the Fish that isn't Budgy; and is confirmed. Just too busy to get five minutes on-line to post - that's what you get for having a Job, a baby and a being in a band!

Hooray for strange men from the Internet giving lifts to young girls!

Hmm... come to think of it; it's how we met in the first plaice :P

JJ you said you would never tell :o