Gathering 14, The One Before The One Before Christmas

Strange.  We have a run of fairly mediocre Gatherings, then we had G12a which
was pretty decent.  And now we've got G14 which is vying with G6 for title of
the "Best Gathering Ever".  Maybe it's something to do with the imminent
arrival of Christmas, but everyone just seems more in the mood for fun.

However, it didn't look that way at first...  Get to the Tap & Spile to find
the inside looking rather shabby, no pictures or anything up on the walls,
and with about 3/4's of the beers off.  But then, when the pub is closing down
at the end of the evening for refurbishment, this is understandable, if a bit
of a problem.  Our usual table over by the window was being hogged by another
group, so we started the evening huddled over a small table in the far corner.
The first four of us all arrived pretty quickly for a change, with me, Keith,
Janet and (surprisingly) Nick gathered by about half seven.  Not long after
this, Ian arrived, causing the table-hoggers to promptly depart...  dunno what
you said to them on the way in Ian, but it worked :-)

So, comfortably arranged around OUR table, we got down to business, which took
the form of something not entirely like a B5 discussion.  In fact it was nothing
like a B5 discussion, so we were off to a good start as usual.  Anna then arrived,
having failed to be scared off by her initiation last time, and had Theresa (an
associate Gatherer) in tow.  Things are looking up, we haven't had this many people 
turn up for some time.  Keith and Janet continue their spooky examination of their 
common knowledge of people and places in Jarrow, leaving the rest of us to get our 
hands dirty talking about the highs and lows of ice hockey.


Hey look, another new initiate for the evening.  Hi Oliver, welcome to the group.

Hey look, another new initiate for the evening.  Hi Andy, welcome to the group.


No, I'm not kidding, they both arrived independently of each other, within about
5 minutes...  And to avoid confusion, when I said "Hi Andy" there, I was referring
to Andy 4, not Andy 3, 2 or 1...  Yup, you've guessed it, ANOTHER Andy :-)  Was it
just coincidence that Andy 3 wasn't here this evening?  And there we were thinking
we'd have one Gathering without an Andy present, we should have known better ;-)

So, many introducings later, thing settle down once more.  Until Oliver reveals that
he too is from Jarrow, and appears to be almost as knowledgeable about people there
as Janet and Keith...  If we keep this up for another G or two, we'll eventually
discover that all three of them are actually related to each other and to everyone
else in the area.

Talking about Teletubbies (for no good reason other than it seemed like a topical
subject for discussion), someone looking reasonably like Ian uttered the comment:

"Did you see the pink thing?"


So, this brings us to about half eight.  Which means, naturally, that it's time to
call "last orders"...

...ah, they've finally sold the last of the beer.  This would normally be cause
for concern.  But when you've got a dynamic, forward looking, intelligent group
of people, it's merely a minor bump on the otherwise smooth road of progress.  So,
after all of 5 seconds of deliberation, we decided to relocate down the road in our
old haunt, the Head of Steam!



G14 - Part 2, Head of Steam Revisited

Wow, this place has changed a bit.  The walls aren't as dark as they used to be,
the music is less intrusive, and they've installed windows (so we can expect the
pub to reboot itself in about 45 minutes :-).  But apart from these changes, it's
still the same old HoS we knew and loved from '96, complete with the top notch
selection of beers.  No Guiness/Caffreys wars tonight though, we're more refined
and mature these days.  No, we've moved onto nut wars now...  And this time, there
aren't any roving policemen to put an end to the fun.

Erk, the slightly wierd but quiet jazzy music that was playing when we arrived has 
now been replaced by something that sounded like a fusion of gangsta rap and the
music from the Budweiser advert.  Not exactly the sort of stuff to make good
background music for discussion, but at least it wasn't loud enough to drown out
the chat.  Which veered from things like Star Trek films to the manic Dianeticists
that used to wander around the city centre, thrusting their leaflets into the hands 
of anyone who came remotely into range.  Oh yes, and whether or not Andy 4 looks
like Eddie Izzard...  (make up your own mind, visit the G14 gallery :-)


Yeah, so we did spend most of the evening in the HoS, but since we also drank quite
a lot whilst there (which explains the photos...), and since my notes aren't quite
as comprehensive as they really need to be given that I'm writing this up 4 days after
the event (thanks to my PC rebuild taking a bit longer than I'd planned), I can't
actually remember much more about this part of the evening.  I do remember it being
seriously amusing though.


Oh well, that pretty much wraps it up.  Cheers to Oliver, Andy 4 and Theresa for
turning up.  Cheers also to the Tap & Spile for forcing us back to the Head of Steam.
This just leaves the question of where to hold G15...  the T & S should be reopened
in time, but after this reminder of the fun to be had in the HoS, there may be some
more relocation going on.  Maybe.



Chris

Back to the Gatherings page