PG Meet-up 2011

[Soup Dragon]

A great day, really enjoyed it. Always good to catch up with people. Now i have to write up the reviews!

[trainman]

but I do remember correctly there being some dispute over Trainman’s claims of there being an old ancient beam in the front bar of the Bell Inn. And do I correctly recall, when Trainman demanded of the barmaid in the front bar to where said beam was so that we could all touch it, she denied any knowledge but proclaimed we could touch her as she was the oldest barmaid in the Bell ?

Hahaha!!! The beam surely must exist as it featured in a review from '08 (conclusive!), but if we have to go round touching barmaids instead, so be it...

Sorry for those who had transport difficulties; my train was just a few mins late into StP, meaning I missed the last connection to Tulse Hill, but that simply meant a diversion to the Euston Tap before a bus home. I vaguely recall being surprised that W.Norwood's Hope had stopped serving (thank goodness), before realising that it was 12:30 already. Yikes!

Great turnout & great company everyone.

[Oggwyn Trench]

Heads fine this morning , no doubt helped by being sobered up by the biblical deluge that greeted me as i arrived in Oakengates , bloody soaked
Only real problem is my shins and calves are a bit sore , can we go somewhere flat next year

[ROBCamra]

bloody soaked

The biblical downpour also greeted me when I got back into Manchester. Bloody soaked as well.

Train was nearly on time, but what sort of deluded numpties (this means you East Midland Trains) put a two carriage train on when it's Friday evening and the train calls at Sheffield, Manchester & Liverpool!!!

I just managed to get a seat, but there were people standing up all the way to Sheffield, after that it got really busy and the aisles were crowded all the way to Manchester.

What a way to run a railway.

[oldboots]

Another bit of my dodgy map reading left Ale & Hearty and myself struggling to find the station and consequently missed our train, the compensation being we managed a quick one in the Sheffield Tap while waiting for a Leeds bound train. Not so great was the £25 taxi fare I had to cough up as I missed the last bus as well, at least her indoors didn't blacken my eye as she had threatened if I woke her up.

All in all a great day out and looking forward to the next. If I've read my notes correctly it was 10 pints in 9 pubs for me.



PS we will sort out a Liverpool crawl one of these days.

[Soup Dragon]

PS we will sort out a Liverpool crawl one of these days.

Defo - especially as we have local guides in Fiona and her chap that simply writes down all her notes - what was his name again? I am sure he was there yesterday. Seriously Ray, i think you should change your profile name to include the fact that really 'you' are in fact a team - 'Double Raymond' should work wonders i think.

ROB - is your frequent poster award a symbol for a bag of chips?

[gillhalfpint]

We would be up for Liverpool too. Ray and Fiona would be great guides, and there are so many classic pubs worth a visit in Liverpool.

We managed about 20 on our last visit, but you really do have to be downing them quickly to get around that many. It's getting comfy v hitting the pubs and I'm afraid my poor Ray didn't get too comfy in many of the pubs before we were off and running again. Great city to run round though.

[ROBCamra]

ROB - is your frequent poster award a symbol for a bag of chips?

I'm not sure what it is. I thought it was a blueberry muffin.

[Strongers]

I'm not sure what it is. I thought it was a blueberry muffin.

If you zoom in close it looks like it says spam on the side.

[Dave M]

What a great day out, good to catch up with everyone and visit some pretty decent pubs.

By my count I made it to 9 pubs and drunk 5 and a half pints, a fair bit by my standards!

And especially a big interest to Dave M to find out if he managed to get his coach connection from somewhere in Birmingham.

Yeah I was fairly confident about it, the fact that the biblical rain had reached Birmingham at that time didn't help me a lot though. I ran to where I thought I needed to be, found there were no coach stops, got out my phone and found I'd gone too far! I did then make it back to the actual stop with about 3 minutes to spare before the coach was due. The fact that it then turned up 45 minutes late didn't impress me. Eventually got home at about 1:30.

she denied any knowledge but proclaimed we could touch her as she was the oldest barmaid in the Bell ?

I'm sure she made some suggestive remark to me and Ray, wish I could remember what though.

Now i have to write up the reviews!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts of the twigs in the Ropewalk.