Gathering 4, 322

Well, the 322 Gathering is over, and although it was yet another
success, there was still a bit of gloom at the thoughts of
six (?) months without any new B5 to analyse, enjoy and discuss
over a leisurely pint or three.

Never mind, the great machine is busy thinking about ways of
keeping the mob together until series 4 provides an easy excuse.
In the meantime, I should really continue describing the events,
as is customary in a post-gathering report.

I arrived at five to 7, to find Jeff, Sherrie and Andrew already
in place.  Sheesh, what's an organiser got to do to get there
first these days???  It's bad enough when one regular is there
first, but three!  Getting off to a great start, Andrew impressed
the socks off us with his Babcom photo collection.  Typical
amateur piccys they were not, and the whole set would make a
superb addition to a web site.... (not that I'm hinting at
anything here :-)  A few minutes later, Ian (Mr Starfury) arrived,
making a total of five.  A suitable number for a quick vote on
whether the Shadow methods are acceptable or not.  We can now go
over to the City Hall, where the Returning Officer is about to
announce the results...

"YES - one vote.  NO - four votes.  I therefore pronounce NO
the new answer for the group."

There you have it, not really a surprise result, and therefore
no real need to bring on Peter Snow and his Amazing Animations.
(Not that we could afford him anyway...)


A short while later Sean arrived, surprising us all who expected
him to turn up much later.  However, since we'd already broken
one Gathering tradition by not dividing into Guinness and Caffreys
camps, the early arrival of Sean only served to add to the odd
feeling of the whole evening.  The photos were passed round once
more for the benefit of Ian and Sean, and discussions began anew.
Indeed, Ian almost lost his "Mr Starfury" title when he almost
declared his undying love for the Vree Saucers, but he managed
to restrain himself.  However, we'll be keeping a close eye on
him in the next few meetings, just to make sure :-)

What-ho, there's a new face!  Yes, whilst most of the Gathering
traditions were thrown out the window this evening, the tradition
of always having at least one new person at every meeting was not.
So, out with the welcome mat for Janet, and a big hello from
the regular crowd, including Keith, who arrived shortly after.

Talk veered from dissection of 322 to philosophy, taking in
literature, life in academia and the state of the world today.
After last meetings invigorating look at the US Presidential
Elections, we spent some time examining the wonderful world of
American shipping agencies.  The fact that Jeff and Sherrie are
both Merkins has nothing at all to do with our regular looks
at American life, no sir, not at all.  

Whoa there, ANOTHER new face!!!  This really is turning into
a rather special meet.  Although Chris (Two, me's Chris One) didn't 
stay long (nothing to do with us, more a case of having important 
things to do the next day and not wanting to turn up late, hungover 
and looking like he'd spent all evening in a pub), his presence was 
noted and appreciated, especially because he took us up to the magic
number of nine.  Yes, we finally have enough people for our
very own Grey Council, so it's out with the robes for Gathering 5.

At some point, Jeff managed to explain to Janet why we kept
calling him Channel Four, which is just as well, as otherwise I
think she'd have gone home wondering why she had spent the last
few hours with a bunch of loonies.  The fact that we are a bunch
of loonies is neither here nor there.

Once again we seemed to be sharing the bar with a small group of
Trekkies (I for one can't stand the term Trekkers, sounds like
a brand of walking boot), and just like earlier meets, we poked
fun at them from a discreet distance, using the damned awful
music spewing out the loudspeakers as cover.  We really only have
two choices.  Either convert them to the true way and get them to
renounce Trek in favour of B5, or set the local contingent of the
Narn Bat Squad on them.  Anyone out there have experience of
converting a Trekkie into a B5'er, and could you loan us the
necessary equipment...

Jeff then decided to play a Joker by announcing he'd brought a
camera with him.  This naturally caused a mass exodus of bodies,
eager to avoid having their souls stolen by the evil machine.
Well, OK, so only Janet left at this point, and only because she
had to go home and water the cat.  The rest of us sat around
deciding the easiest way to get a picture of us all, without 
having to ask one of the other pub-goers to do the honours.  The
engineers among us came up with some decidedly inelegant and
totally impractical solutions, thus justifying our long and
expensive university educations :-)  Attempting to use the stairs
resulted in failure, as we quickly discovered that four people
into a three person wide stair will just not go!  Of course, if
someone had decided to chop their legs off at the knees, we could 
have put them on one of the steps in front, solving all our
problems.  Since no-one seemed eager to follow this option, we
did a bit more thinking, stopping only to add more coal to the
boiler (these steam driven brains may be powerful, but they go
through fuel like nothing else).  At last, a solution was found, but
since it was ever so slightly obscure, potentially damaging to
someones career, and rather nutty, details will be tactfully
lost somewhere between brain and keyboard.  Suffice to say, the
photos were eventually taken, though how good they are is yet to
be seen.  In any case, we at last have our first physical mementos
of a Newcastle Gathering, hangovers not being permament enough
to count.


Oops, I'm over 100 lines already, time to wrap up.  Thanks to
the regulars, thanks*3.6 to Janet and Chris Two, and a huge
Mr Equator-type thanks to Channel Four for paying for the drinks!
You see, C4 DO care about B5...


The next gathering will be held......soon.  Announcements will
be made in the usual places, and one or two unusual ones as well.

Chris

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