Norn Iron Meat - January 02 Home Page photo-hot.jpg (2444 bytes) Where I waste my on-line time

AKA Gal's UK tour

Date: Friday 25th January. Place: Bristol. Time: the morning after the night before.

Nick wrote:
Last night in Bristol. Well, Gal came down, as did Jer, Del and Paul Tutts.
Gal is still fast asleep at home.
I have a hangover.
And I cannot understand how three grown men can have a curry and then within minutes of leaving the pub want a Kebab.

Jer was taller than I expected and Del was shorter than I expected.  But he does have the look of the shire about him.
;o)

Jer wrote:
A jolly good night out. Very nice, and good value curry.

Gal
Top bloke, and the instigator of this outing. Loses a point for not having a goatee like in his picture, which really confused me, even though it's only drawn on! (9 out of 10)

Tutts
Turns out he's in to all the same sports as me. Top bloke. (8.5 out of 10)

Del
Didn't stay long enough. Top bloke. (8)

Nick
Gashead scum. (1 out of 10)

PaulG wrote:
> Nick wrote about beardless Gal:
> Agreed.  The beard thing threw me.  I did suggest that he grows one
> though.  Only way I recognised him when we met in the pub was by
> calling on his mobile and seeing who answered it.

Well, it's the Miles 'Jazz beard' that I shall be scouting for in Arrivals at Aldergrove
tonight. If you want to keep your eyes similarly peeled, I'm wearing jeans,
a green sweatshirt and my purple fleece today - colour co-ordination is
very important to me ....

Malcolm's bringing his camp bed with him, too. Not, apparently, as I thought,
a bed that says 'Ooooooooo..... we're trying to get to sleep, are we ... ? and
with those nails ...'

Derek wrote:
Indeed. Top evening. I don't know how I knew which table to go to. It felt like all eyes in the room were upon me as I walked in. But the four suspicious geezers huddled round four fresh beers and four empty pint glasses looked like a good bet...and lo and behold it was the right table.

Yes, no problem retracing my steps to the car. There were some dodgy looking dudes standing around on one street corner and a woman smiling sweetly at me from the pavement. A few chaps following me too. None of this would have worried me if Tutts hadn't turned pale earlier on and grabbed Nick's arm in fear when I told him where I'd parked.

Most enjoyable. Have a good time in Belfast, guys, and I look forward to the next time.

Off to watch Gloucester paste Ebbw Vale now!!

PaulT wrote:
Curry..........Indian !!

Have to say it was a most excellent evening, I'm positive I didn't embarrass myself or slur my speech :-). An apologies to anyone who ended up suffering after my suggestion of going for a Kebab after several pints of real ale and a curry.

Del - Sorry about the blanching when you told us where you parked the car, obviously the old fart in me coming out again.

We must do it again soon, hopefully John can make it this time

Tutts - Who's idea was it to do a post match result anyway??

Date: Monday 28th January.

Noel  wrote:
Belfast Meet
Malcolm Myers wrote:
> Well I got back just after midnight after a ripping weekend in Belfast.  It was great to meet everyone and good times were had by all, even though we ended up a tad wet through after our trip to the Giant's causeway.

Think yourself lucky your flight was yesterday Malcolm. I don't envy Nick having to fly this morning in the gales we're having here. Hope he makes his plane to India alright.
 
> Thanks to Shereen (and Geoff!) for putting us up and driving us around, to Paul for his chauffering and for introducing us to Audrey and the
>
 kids, and to Noel for the comedy tickets and for having us around his house until 3 am. 

No sweat. I had been wondering how I was going to get rid of all that booze
anyway!

> I haven't done this in ages and I think it should be made a legal requirement for all groups of friends to do this as frequently as possible :)

Hear, hear.

Shereen  wrote:
Malcolm Myers wrote:
> Well I got back just after midnight after a ripping weekend in Belfast.  It was great to meet everyone and good times were had by all,

Hear, hear!

> even though we ended up a tad wet through after our trip to the Giant's causeway.

A _tad_?  This from the guy who was so keen to get the perfect photograph we thought he was going to get swept away by one of those BFO waves.

> Thanks [snip everyone]

You're welcome.  Looking back I'm sure we could have squeezed a couple more guests in if they'd brought sleeping bags.  Maybe next time.

> I haven't done this in ages and I think it should be made a legal requirement for all groups of friends to do this as frequently as possible :)

Maybe we should write it into the Haven charter :)

PaulG wrote:
> Noel McNulty wrote:
> > Malcolm Myers wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks to Shereen (and Geoff!) for putting us up and driving us around,
> > > to Paul for his chauffering and for introducing us to Audrey and the kids,
> > > and to Noel for the comedy tickets and for having us around his house
> > > until 3 am. 
> >
> > No sweat. I had been wondering how I was going to get rid of all that booze
> > anyway!
>
> I'm still astounded by the sheer WHITENESS of your house, Noel. I feared that
> I would suffer snow-blindness as a result. All very Frank-Lloyd Wright, as you say [1]
>
> All the best with the interviews, by the way ...
>
> Paul
 

Nick  wrote:
WHITENESS is correct.  I still reckon that you should put up a nice flowery border to break up the blinding walls a bit though.  ;o)
Cheers for feeding a constant stream of beer though.  Just a shame that *ahem* ONE of our members fell asleep at the table.  ;o)  The pub before hand was great as well.  I was really impressed with that place.  Hopefully Roisin (sp?) was not too scared by us all.

Thanks go to Geoff and Shereen as well for being so hospitable and also for giving us a lift to the airport this morning.  And of course to Paul for being a chauffeur all weekend and to Audrey for letting him.  ;o)

Cheers Guys!  Top weekend.  Can't wait for the pics.

Gal wrote:
Shed Report from Carrickfergus - FAO Tex
FAO Tex Bennett, Haven Uber Shed Meister (USM)

Visited Shereen 'Two Sheds' Beckett in Carrickfergus over the weekend. Small blue shed is promised to a friend and was not included in report.

Larger shed - pleasing on the eye to look at. Large volume for storage inside. Ran my hand under the benches and was most disappointed to find no jam jars screwed to underside. However, la Beckett promised they will be installed at the weekend.

Spiders per square inch - pass, easily meets EU standard.

Hidden porn and booze stash - again a pass. So well hidden I struggled to find them in the time allowed for inspection.

Shed also doubles up as part-time accommodation for two cats, Dawson and Midge.

Overall, sir, I'd reckon the Carrickfergus inspection be marked as a 'strong pass' and that Ms Beckett's shed be granted Full Shed Status with immediate effect.

Signing off,

Shedless Gal
 

PaulG wrote:
My pictures from the weekend ...

Finally got round to downloading the few pictures I took over the weekend from my el-cheapo snapshot digital camera.

Check out the 'fuck me, but it's cold' expressions at :

http://www.heynonny.freeserve.co.uk/weekend.htm

David wrote: I haven't seen faces like that since the last Crimewatch re-enactment.
James McG wrote: Nice.  Who's idea was it to go there in winter?
PaulG wrote: Gal. He wanted to see nature in all its raw majesty.
Shereen wrote: I believe it was Gal's faul^H^H^H^H idea. At least it's given him an incentive to organise another one for the summer time.
Paulo wrote: I'm glad I didn't go now. I don't have the cold weather gear.
Shereen wrote: You'd have been fine Paulo - if the beer didn't warm you up the open fires in the quaint pubs would have.
Gal wrote: It was a *fantastic* weekend. From the first coffee in Bristol airport to the last can of Stella in Carrickfergus it was a very good weekend.

Malcolm wrote:
You are cordially invited to the grand opening of http://www.photovalve.freeserve.co.uk, my firstest ever website.  Some teething troubles still exist, but sod it, I wanted to show you my photos from last weekend

Gal wrote: My, but there's a right collection of ruffians and rogues on those pages. Good work, Malcolm. I'm just surprised you  didn't include the photo when you fell off the Giant's Causeway into the sea ;-)

PaulG wrote: I'm no expert, but that bloke in the purple fleece looks quite the stallion to me ...
 

This page was last updated on 18-May-2003.