OK then, Southern Nancy-Boy! You darned fairy you!
Besides, I have chocolate covered espresso beans 
Really? Gift from t’Mill Owner where they?
[sub]okay i’ll stop now[/sub]
Cool. I’m currently drinking tea that was handpicked by monkeys!
garius, you are a southern softlad. drinking pissy looking real ale with no head on it does not make you any harder.
the north rules.
here endeth the lesson.
insert smiley
oh christ there’s two of them.
a group of monkeys is a “tribe” isn’t it? I can’t remember… 
Too right you will, or you’ll feel the back of my hand lad! 
Oh, and watch it…
show himt hairy side
I need a full moon for that. 
Pencil me in. I was planning to come up 29/11 or 6/12 anyway, as part of Mini-Doris’s birthday treat. I’ll to have to either bribe someone to keep her company or bribe her that she really is old enough to cope by herself for the evening.
Washte, I quite liked the Travel Inn at County Hall (near Waterloo, and would be a nice walk along the river from anywhere central, eg the Silver Cross). Clean, central and decent value if there’s more than one of you since they charge by the room (breakfast not included, but they had a Hagen Daaz vending machine last time I was there, so who cares). For the last LonDope I stayed at the Bonnington near Russell Square which was ok - certainly clean, though my room was a bit noisy (I guess I was somewhere near the air conditioning). I’d happily stay there again (at the discounted rate, of course), but would take ear plugs.
Can’t go unfortunately.
I got a nice surprise last night while looking at CH4. During the 50 Greatest magic trick countdown along comes the ugly mug of ianzin to give the straight dope on a chancer magician. Good work.
Enjoy.
ick - hope it was after the watershed
I saw him too. He’s, like, famous and stuff. Woah.
Oh! That reminds me - I may be on TV soon. Well, kind of. A bit.
I was at Paddington this morning, trying to wake up with some lethally hot coffee, and a man with a TV camera was filming people. Ooh, I thought, is it time to offer insightful commentary on a topical news issue?
No.
It was to film reactions to a man dressed as a potato dancing around offering commuters free baked potatoes on behalf of the British Potato Council. (And that sentence included the word “potato” far more often that should be allowed.)
Go on, tell us you spilled the hot coffee on yourself and you and said potao entertained the commuters with a spirited rendition of the Mashed Potato at Paddington.
Then we’d know for sure you’d be on the telly!
I think the poor chap was humiliating himself enough at that point.
Dear Ladies and Gents,
How sure are y’all about the date? I know it’s a short hop on the Tube for some of you, and a bit of a train ride for others, but well, for me it’s rather more complex. I talked to my friend in Kent today, and she says I can come whenever I want, but of course it also involves plane tickets, arranging time off from work, and depending on whether I can get in touchwith the Continental contingent, ferry/hovercraft/train tickets as well. (Although she is looking forward to cooking a traditional American Thanksgiving Dinner with me…the previous Thursday is Thanksgiving, which even means that we have Thursday and Friday off of work here. Anyone for turkey and cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes and apple pie?)
So I hope that at least a critical mass of you has no major committment issues!
Eva, I appreciate that you need something more definite than a possible date. Let’s see if we can’t try to make… (gasp!) a decision.
The date I tentatively suggested (Nov 29) seems to have met with general approval, and we’ve had replies from most key players, including our noble Queen and leader, Fran, Twisty (but not Tir herself - I refuse to have a Dopefest without Tir) and Sir Doris. Thanks to everyone else who has chimed in. Let’s try to keep the thread alive!
All I’m waiting for now is a word from Fran’s sheep (can’t have a Brit-dope without at least one sheep, I mean, come on!) and our very own glorious gorgeous Tansu.
If we get the ‘thumbs up’ from Tir and Tansu and sheep (or whatever the sheep equivalent of thumbs may be), I suggest we go ahead and consider Nov 29 a definite. Oh, any word from Steve Wright?
And Gyrate, please can we have a quiz? I missed the last one but it seems like it was a roaring success.
I can have my dear friend send a sheep from lovely Middle of Nowhere, Kent, if that will move things along…they are grazing 100 meters from her house.
(After hearing my friend in Taipei kvetch about the horrendous air quality, and that he can’t get any time off work, and coming down with my 3rd case of bronchitis this year, I’m thinking a few days in the English countryside may be a wiser move.)
Errm … nasopharyngeal? Will that do?
Oh crikey – I’d better speed up my collection of trivia then. I’ll see what I can throw together for ya.
29 November is okay for me; 6 December isn’t, as I’m coordinating music for, and singing in, a wedding in Kingston that day.
Yes, thanks Steve, that’ll do nicely. Actually, it was a way of asking if you can come out to play with us on 29 Nov (mainly so that we can see if mine is still bigger than yours and whose works best *). But… good answer, good answer.
Ta for the suggestion Eva, but we’re not just talking any old sheep here. These are the sheep that live with Queen Fran. They are very special sheep, and we must have at least one of them or it can’t be a Brit- or Lon-dope. It just can’t. Don’t ask. Plus we really need Tansu’s penguin as well. Alas, still no sign of her presence… when do we send out the search-and-rescue party?
Gyrate, ta, that sounds very promising. As I missed your last brilliant quiz I don’t know what sort of questions you set, and what sort of source trivia you tend to work from. But there is someone I could possibly put you in touch with who has compiled quiz questions professionally, and might be able to render some assistance if reqd. (What were the teams last time - was it Gals v Guys? If so, it’s not too much of a crisis if you don’t get a quiz ready in time because we know the Guys would have won anyway.)
- This is a reference to digital photographic equipment, obviously. Steve’s is smaller than mine and tends to work better, but mine’s OK, although last time Fran had to help me to get it to work properly.