Werthead Posted April 28, 2008 Author Share Posted April 28, 2008 Will do more of a write-up of days 3-5 tomorrow. I am really quite staggeringly tired. Something interesting that came out of the Meet was that although I think most people had a good time, we suffered a little for lack of pre-planned activities. Whilst a great city, Galway is perhaps not the most versatile location for those wanting to do more than look at the insides of a pub. Regina & Fenryng and Niamh & Zollo had the right ideas in getting in cars and zooming off to see the surrounding countryside, as I think we pretty much exhausted entertainment options in the city itself in the first two days. The museums being closed on Sundays (and Mondays, as we discovered today) was quite a bizarre idea as well, and limited our options on those days. I was quite disappointed with Cuirt as well, which had an extremely low profile and the only events that people even seemed vaguely interested in were sold out ahead of time. We had very tentative discussions about what to do for '09 and I think a consensus emerged that we should try to hire out a house or set of apartments for the duration, which would give us a solid base to operate from and somewhere we could retreat to to play music, watch DVDs etc on our own terms without shelling out large sums of cash to spend all day every day in a pub. Kit reported this had made the Dublin Meet a few years back a major success and it certainly worked for those of us who went to Amsterdam in '06 as well. Far too early to make any kind of solid plans, but I floated the idea of Colchester, which has reinstated its Medieval Fair after an absence of several years, but now on a bigger scale with archery events, swordfighting and, hopefully in time for next year, Roman chariot racing (apparently getting insurance for that is a bitch). That would provide a solid two days of entertainment in the middle of the Meet during hopefully a period of better weather (since it would be the first weekend in June rather than April/May), although overall I think we did quite well with the weather this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anubiel Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Had a great time in Galway Had a horrible trip home, since I missed my flight and had to wander aimlessly around the airport in Paris for 8 hours. Might post more once I recover from the shock. And I'm supposed to be working right now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padraig Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Had a horrible trip home, since I missed my flight and had to wander aimlessly around the airport in Paris for 8 hours. Might post more once I recover from the shock. And I'm supposed to be working right now... Ouch. Flight delayed in Dublin? I would have thought there would be a lot of flights to Oslo from Paris also. An 8 hour wait!!! We had very tentative discussions about what to do for '09 and I think a consensus emerged that we should try to hire out a house or set of apartments for the duration, That makes sense. Certainly the Dublin place was reasonably cheap when we all stayed there. And we had a kitchen, so we had better food options. Somewhere like Colchester sounds nice. Although no idea how easy that would be to get to? One advantage of having a meet in April/May is that its not close to Worldcon, which people may be going to. Weather is more a lottery I suppose. Pod, I demand that you change your avatar to that picture of you with the bunny ears! I'm not sure i'm that big of an attention freak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peadar Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Had a great time in Galway Had a horrible trip home, since I missed my flight and had to wander aimlessly around the airport in Paris for 8 hours. Might post more once I recover from the shock. And I'm supposed to be working right now... sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you changed your name to get the spelling right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anubiel Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Ouch. Flight delayed in Dublin? No, but once we landed (on time) in Paris, the damn plane spent 40 minutes getting parked, the bus to the (wrong end) terminal took another 10 minutes and when I had finally run all the way through to my gate it had just closed. The most annoying bit was that the plane was still there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Sorry to hear about your delays, Anubiel. Glad you got home safe in the end though! That makes sense. Certainly the Dublin place was reasonably cheap when we all stayed there. And we had a kitchen, so we had better food options. Somewhere like Colchester sounds nice. Although no idea how easy that would be to get to? One advantage of having a meet in April/May is that its not close to Worldcon, which people may be going to. Weather is more a lottery I suppose. Very easy to get to. There's a direct bus link to Stansted which takes 45 minutes and then you're there It's also less than an hour from London. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padraig Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 No, but once we landed (on time) in Paris, the damn plane spent 40 minutes getting parked, the bus to the (wrong end) terminal took another 10 minutes and when I had finally run all the way through to my gate it had just closed. The most annoying bit was that the plane was still there Damn. That's even worse! The plane probably didn't leave on time either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Got back around 4 on Sunday and then slept most of the next 12 hours away. Had a very good time in Galway, though agree that 'planned activities' would be a good idea. And the house too. Cant sleep for the life of me in Hostels. Isis, I will be in London one way or the other by Septmeber - could be sooner but definetly by then. For those who had problems with 'American Ale' I can now heartily recommend 'Smithwichks'. Don't usually drink it but I think the switch to it on Saturday may have saved my life Now I think my 'Dial Up' connection is acting up so I will have to disconnect. Conor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Been uploading the Meet pics for 2 hours solid now and some way to go still. I think it will be worth it. Especially for when Pod met Noddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niamh Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Anybody seen Kit? I'm worried I might have killed him* giving him a lift back to the airport *He turned out to be allergic to horses and my car is a disgrace atm. I left him with a major sneezing fit and streaming eyes. I feel terribly guilty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zollo Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Anybody seen Kit? I'm worried I might have killed him* giving him a lift back to the airport *He turned out to be allergic to horses and my car is a disgrace atm. I left him with a major sneezing fit and streaming eyes. I feel terribly guilty. Lol. I haven't heard anything to the contrary and Fee did just get Beltane tickets for tomorrow so I am assuming that Kit is indeed still alive, unless aforementioned purchase is a means of celebrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman of the North Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 OK, pics up here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenalpia Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Had a totally fantastic time in Galway - great company, great weather and great craic! Really good to meet new faces and catch up with bwbers who I hadn't seen for far too long... as well as hang out with the usual suspects Didn't sleep too well last night - I think the house was way too quiet after four nights in the hostel so am still completely zoned and for some reason I only seem to be able to upload one photo at a time to flickr so I'll leave any linkie things til next week when I'm finally done! Highlights: Catching a fleeting glimpse of the Nork, Slick's kind eyes, Derek the pygmy goat from Brooklyn et al, the snake that ate the world, the killer sheep, Mr Pony, the plastic fish, Isis the weirdo magnet, niamh's famous car in which it is impossible to get car sick but is likely to kill you if you are allergic to horse hair (no - I haven't heard from Kit yet either...), the smoking room... I'm sure that more will come to me Wish I'd seen Prison Love and wish that Jo could have been there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 OK, pics up here... Great pics! At this rate my ones should be up and ready to view in about 24 hours To be going on with though: Peadar holding an impromptu booksigning. In a pub. Some of the gang. Some more of the gang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zollo Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 OK, pics up here... Thanks, Ice. One photo of me and I look like a fucking numpty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman of the North Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 There's actually two numpty pics of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niamh Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Don't be so fucking vain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zollo Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Don't be so fucking vain. Don't take me so fucking serious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Thanks, Ice. One photo of me and I look like a fucking numpty. Better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zollo Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Better? No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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