I ,like so many others ,hope you all had a great time .

Those of you who bought me drinks. There were so many of you.

So very many.

*hic*

hope you all had as good as night as me (midlake. fantastic) . Going to bed now

A belated 1:57am thank you for getting as many of us as possible together in the same room. I'm sorry that I neglected to say it to you in person.

Sounds like a splendid time was had by all. Wish I could have made it!

Thanks Hannah and everyone else involved in organising tonight. I've done almost no posting, but I'm glad I went along tonight. Everyone was great, the vibe was just what you'd expect from the blog, and the pub didn't chuck us out at 11.10! All around, a great night!

I've hesitated about posting for the practical reason that I stood at the wrong busstop for nearly an hour and for the more lofty reason that I had the most wonderful evening and don't quite know how to express why...I suppose the key word is 'community'. Never have I seen such a disparate group of strangers talk to eachother unprompted as often only friends can. Seeing real friendships develop in 'Meatworld' must surely be the proof, if any were needed, that The Word is a true little community of good people who love what they love, wanna share it with others and have that most endearing of British national characteristics: a sense of fair play and good manners. ( I say this as an Irishman)I can't even begin to thank all the regular bloggers who turned up and turned out, every man jack and lady jane of them, to be as funny, interesting and well-informed as their postings had always suggested. I wish I could thank you all individually but I shan't for fear of leaving anyone out.
Finally, a huge shout to David and Fraser for turning up and being so genuinely friendly, frank and generous with their time. Word is still, unfortunately, a cottage industry; it prospers but deserves to thrive a bit more. I hope at some point it grows to rival its more well-distributed contemporaries and in the meantime I don't really care whether it's bound by staples, glue or squirrel phlegm> One of the things that was made clear to me tonight is that it's what's inside that counts...

Thank you all, thank you Hannah for making it happen.....the whole thing was the opposite of a disappointment.

I wonder if there is a large enough Northern branch of the Word Massive to warrant a similar event north of the Watford Gap?

Vorgongod says it all - I add my thanks and appreciation to everyone. It was a splendid evening which worked really well and it was good to meet so many nice people.

What a splendid bunch you all are. I was delighted to meet dlusher, specs_beard, Dr Pill, Lunaman, Retro Man, Hannah, The Underpant, David, Fraser, backward7, Twang, the mvps and, oh... absolutely everyone else.

What a team.

Thanks to Hannah whose organisational skills are better than mine. I left the pub and got lost immediately. You don't know where I've been, maaaan...

Also, I think I ought to change my username to Bargepole because you see, wait for it, I was the third person to arrive.

Here. Week. Veal.

Great night all round.

I think I was expecting a room full of Tommy Saxondales - not from postings necessarily, but from past (other) website forum hook-ups.

Anyway, it was lots of fun, great to put faces to (nick) names, get to see the strange things Fraser photographs at 11.30pm in his kitchen, rabbit on about everything under the sun and feel vaguely rock and roll when we got told to stop disturbing the neighbours.

Thanks Hannah and all for organising and turning up.

Can't believe I'm up at this hour, today of all days it's an early kick-off for the FA Cup...could do with another few hours in bed to de-fuzz my head!

Anyway, great night - time flew so quickly - shame I had to retreat to my provincial hole so early as I'm sure I didn't get to meet everybody - the impressive turn-out was probably another reason.

I'm definitely up for another one - be great to meet up again.

Oh, I hope the choice of The Lamb was a reasonable one.

It was great to meet so many of the Massive and be able to put faces to a few more names. There were a few of you that I didn't get around to speak to so hopefully next time.
On the subject of next one, I spoke to Hannah as she was leaving and for reasons that are no longer clear to me, we thought the first Friday after the Spring Solstice, which I see from the calendar would make it March 26th.
If we can get general ageement on that, mark it in your diary.
One more thing, well done to Twang for bringing along the Word flag that marked our territory.

Yes a splendid night was had - great to meet everyone and get down and nerdy about Pigsix 4 etc. I finally learned how DH got to shake hands with Lowell George, and put Azeem straight on Gary Moore ;-)

Can't wait for the next one.

I've nothing new to add and would just like to echo what's already been said. Thanks to Hannah for organisation, and thanks to everyone who attended for a thoroughly enjoyable night.

No thanks to anyone who bought me a drink though. My head feels as if there are two bears wrestling inside it.

It was great to meet everyone and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

It was a lovely evening. Only disappointment? There were no Bearded Rick Parfitt lookalikes in faded Fairport Convention -t-shirts. Honestly.

Full marks to Hannah for organising and the rest of you for being, well, interesting. I had a ball and couldn't believe that my 3 hours passed so quickly. I learned many things and enjoyed myself immensely. To Backwards and Azeem - well done on the origami - I was seriously impressed.

And doesn't Alan Davies look like David Rothon?

...although my other half was rather bemused when I got home to tell her that Fraser's patented black pudding and foie gras burger (with caramelised apple) would be "just the thing" for a 1 am snack but sadly we didn't have any truffle oil in.
On a serious note, for once, the work that Development Hell do to take on the EMAPs of this world to produce the mag and everything else was illustrated by the amount of people who turned up. I hope that gives you guys a well-deserved boost
The whole evening was perfectly bound and I predict will soon become a staple event.

Or were there a series of introductions along the lines of "Hello, I'm ..... , but you can call me ....."?

... yes, definately.

for us poor isolated Northern folks who missed out? We could at least have the vicarious fun of looking at photos of the pissed up peeps.

for all your lovely comments.

I had a completely marvellous evening, and you are all thoroughly splendid. Haven't laughed so much in ages. We'll definitely do it again!

.. of above posts.

Had a really enjoyable evening - thanks Hannah for putting the effort in to make it happen.

Special mention to Retro Man who was the first to say hello when I arrived and immediately banished any apprehensions I had beforehand

As an aside for those who couldn't make it - I'm sorry to ruin any preconceptions, but there was a startling lack of beards on show !

Roll on the next one...

There can't be that many situations where you can walk into a room of 'strangers' and yet feel so welcome, and discover that you do, in fact, sort of know them.

Loved it. Hope there are many more. I still need to say hello to half the folk that were there!

the 10 x 8s with the circles and the arrows?

Backwards7 definitely wins the origami prize, as (1) he used a tiny piece of paper and managed to make a beautiful bird out of it and (2) unlike me, he didn't get stuck halfway through and have to rack his brains for ten minutes trying to remember the next bit.

As I was cycling, I took very few ales - Ganglesprocket was understandably unimpressed by this cowardly abstemiousness - then again he is a Glaswegian... I enjoyed his tale of the planeload of Glaswegians heading all the way down to Bournemouth (Bournemouth?) to witness a dire concert by Sly and The Family Stone.

Thanks Hannah for organising it. I'll get you to do the live randomiser next time. And I can't remember who it was who said "I would do the randomiser, but I've only got four songs on my ipod" - that's still making me chuckle.

And it was good to discover that both Carl Parker and I hold a Rock 'n' Roll A-level - although I should disclose that in my case it was a third re-sit!

Bit late to be doing this with my one good eye. Might have to resize...

a great night was had by all! Would loved to have made it, hopefully I can get over for the next one. I'll start saving for the flights and accommodation now!

… thanks to Hannah (again) for organising t'meet up. Nice (and not at all scary) to put some faces and real names to the assumed ones. I was sorry to duck out early but sounds like the rest of the evening went without too much mishap (discounting Capt Underpants' misadventures…)

a room

At the behest of the Word admin I changed my user name to well, my name .

How boring it would have been to say I'm tony hunter but you can call me tony hunter.

That was one bad idea.

This gathering sounds like a good idea- any chance of convening in Melbourne next time?

...from my interactions with other Word readers:

- The logistics of coaching an under-11s football team.

- The Captain Beefheart song: Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles contains more heart and genuine emotion than the whole of his critically lauded, but hard to love, album - Trout Mask Replica.

- Even while stone cold sober I lack the technical nous to competently operate a digital camera.

- People who like Gary Moore are able to occupy the same room as people who do not like Gary Moore, without blood being spilled.

- The music of singing cellist, Caroline Lavelle, will inevitably draw adjectives such as “ethereal,” and lazy comparisons to Enya, but is still worthy of a listen.

surely us Jocks (famed for our drinking) can organise something.

never had a thread go over 100 before....one more push!

Yorkshire Grey is fine by me...

*lifts metaphorical man hole lid*

100!

Cue polite applause from the pavilion and a diffidently raised bat.

only another 1000 and we beat Patrick's fantasy bands thread!

*No, don't

excellent, if we are to kick on to 1000, we need more pictures.

leave it on a nelson