Gathering 18, Where's my Levi's gone?

Well, after 11 gatherings at the Tap & Spile, the increasing popularity
of the place, including the Tuesday night pub quiz, meant that it was
no longer the home from home it once was.  And so, until we find ourself
a new permanent base of operations, it's back to the tried and trusted
Head of Steam...

...although technically, it wasn't the tried and trusted HoS that we've
been to before, because for some reason the upstairs bar was closed,
forcing us all to descend into the stygian depths of the downstairs bar.
Bit of a pity really, because the seats down there are damned uncomfortable!

But anyway, although myself and Andy 4 had both claimed our seats well before
7pm, it wasn't until half past before the G really started to grind slowly
into life, with Keith being closely followed by our first new recruit for 1997,
Ruth.  Welcome, wilkommen, bienvenue etc...  

Having said hi to a new face for '98, we then said hi to an old face who's
about to leave us, as Nick arrived for his last G before legging it for
some cushy gig in the land of opportunity, cheap CDs and one or two other
things that've slipped my mind - Albania!  No, wait, it starts with A, I
know that... Armenia, closer... ah yes, got it now.  America :-)
And since it was his last G for some time, he really entered into the spirit
of the thing by engaging in a "truly awful joke" contest with one of Keith's
workchums.  And although my sense of humour has been described by some as
being rather dodgy, the "jokes" these two were coming up with went far
beyond anything I could come up with without the assistance of mind-warping
chemicals...  Worry not, I won't be reproducing any of their efforts here.

Our final arrivals for the evening were Janet and Helen (sister of Janet and
another new face for the evening).  Welcome etc. etc..  And since it was now
getting on for half 8, it was time for the lights to be turned down another
notch, and the music to be turned up another 2 notches...  Regular as
clockwork, this was, every half hour.  Fortunately the licensing laws mean
the bar has to close at 11, otherwise you could end up needing night vision
gear to see, and industrial strength ear protection to avoid having your
ears well and truly fried by the noise spewing out of the speakers.  I call
it noise simply because attempting to categorise it as music leads to all
sort of arguments over what type of music it is.  Since none of us were
particularly partial to it, safer to call it noise and be done with it...

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!  Logged at 20:56, the
Babylon 5 reference for the evening ;-)  Actually, it was slightly more
than a mere reference, this time we actually got into a short debate - wooh!
What was it about?  Just the old chestnut "how can a PPG shoot through
sheet metal when it's not designed to penetrate things?".  Still, though it
may not be the most interesting topic to bring up, at least it was on-topic.
For the life of me, I can't remember how we got from PPGs to Battlestar
Galactica, but we managed it somehow.  However, since I can't remember what
it was we talked about once we'd got there, it doesn't really matter, and I
only mention it because I've made a note of it, which means it must have
had some relevance.  Or not, as the case may be.


Half an hour later, we finally decided it was time to grab some nuts...

...some crisps...

...and some more beer.  Unrelated to this sudden burst of energy and food
gathering, Janet and Helen realised it was time to leave or suffer the
consequences of something or other.  Another lowering of the lights, and 
Nick too decided it was time to head off for his new life, leaving just
the intrepid 4some of me, Ruth, Andy and Keith to prop up the table for
the next hour or so until time was called, at which point Andy and Keith
headed off for buses and trains home, leaving me and Ruth to continue
keeping the table from going anywhere for another half hour or so, before
we too eventually figured it might be a not at all bad idea to go home -
no doubt aided in our decision by the increasingly frequent requests from
the bar staff to do exactly that...


So, our return to the HoS (sort of) seemed to go quite well, even if I ended
up with the worst hangover I've ever had in my life (and I didn't even drink
that much, honest...).  Those regulars who weren't there all had perfectly
valid excuses, so no slapped wrists for them, and we collected one (possibly
two, not sure if Helen is going to make the leap into full-time Gathering)
fresh new bodies to plug into the Shadow ship behind the bar, so from an
attendance point of view, it was a perfectly average evening.


Next up, G19 - look out, it's gonna be sooner than you think...

Chris

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