Don’t ask me about the thread title; I don’t know. It was decided upon by yojimbo and AlexB.
So me, Coldfire, Francesca, yojimbo and AlexB have arrived back at Fran’s house from the fun that was Londope. We still have a bottle of vodka here to work through, so this post won’t be too long
I’ve had a really wonderful time here. I’m not going to try to list everyone I met, but I’ll do that later! I like you all. Especially Fran, who has been putting me up, and who is just the cutest and funniest person ever.
Not in attendance for nearly long enough but I thoroughly enjoyed the craven gathering and the location for my second Dopefest.
Very glad to see some old friends, relieved and very pleased to finally meet some dopers who’ve been around for some time and sad I only got to meet probably half of those present.
Sorry if I seemed a little ‘absent’ – my only excuse is that it had been a long day and it was about to get longer.
I think I’ve concluded the only way to meet fellow dopers properly is to spend them with them away from ye olde home town
Beer Monsters: Coldie, Crusoe, Kferr and Yojimbo (with the jury still out on Tansu…)
Fashion Editors: **Francesca **and QueenAl
Shag Happy: **? **and ?
Best impression of an irresistible comfortable chair: Steve Wright
Very glad to have had the opportunity to meet so many of the local gang. Happy travels, Laura and friends.
Finally got home about an hour ago. This was a seriously fun fest! I think I got a chance to talk to everybody for at least a little while, and I convinced a couple American tourists at the bar to look up Straightdope.com when they get home!
Now if anybody knows of a cure for the after effects of chicken jalfrezi and spicy sausages, my arse would be forever in your debt!
That was one very enjoyable LonDope in all respects (even though I had to leave slightly earlier than I would have liked).
Points arising:
Our Glorious Leaderene, Francesca, remains unassailably the best-organised person in the world who is also actually fun to be with. She is currently 7 inches tall and shrinking, so if any readers are thinking of attending a LonDope and meeting Fran, best do it quickly before she actually achieves negative height and disappears.
Kferr, conversely, is still the world’s tallest person at 9ft 7inches and gaining at the observed and measured rate of 1 inch per hour. It will soon be impossible for him to go anywhere outside of his specially constructed house (which is a normal house turned on its side so as to be higher than it is wide), so, again, if you want to meet him you’d be advised to do so quickly while there are still buildings with sufficiently high ceilings for him to attend in public (e.g. St. Paul’s Cathedral; those towers where firefighters hang the hoses to dry).
Alex B. and I managed to elevate the art of civilised debate and discourse to elegant new heights, and demonstrated a range of stylish and intellectually satisfying ways to win arguments. Chief among these was Elevated Pointing (the higher the pointing finger, the more definitive the victory) and the NotListeningNotListeningNotListening tactic. Intellectual giants, that’s us.
ObiWan is pretty damn good at Top Trumps, which is [definitive and infallible statement mode ON] entirely dependent on skill and shrewd judgement [/ definitive and infallible statement mode OFF].
Tir Tinuvial wins the LonDope Chameleon Award for shape-shifting transformation skills, especially re hair, but is always a star regardless of her current chosen manifestation. Ten bonus Star Points for wearing silver glittery fingernail stuff. Lose five for not bringing any along so that I could try it (could look cool with card tricks)
Extra Star Points to the stylish and lovely Tansu for not only choosing an entirely different outfit than last time but also explaining the salient features of her choices, and the underlying reasoning, during an otherwise uneventful Tube ride.
We were honoured by the presence of Coldfire. Awfully nice chap and all, just a shame we couldn’t understand a blind word he was saying.
Either Twisty didn’t rant as much as one would have hoped (given that when he does, it’s an education in the higher artistic possibilities of humanly achievable freestyle ranting), or I was just in the wrong section of the pub at the wrong time, but either way he’s a LonDope Essential and no mistake.
For future reference, and in keeping with standard DopeFest rules, “A culturally elevating visit to the British Museum” may be deemed equivalent to “A culturally elevating visit to a pub in the vicinity of the British Museum”.
We can probably fit another one in before xmas. What say you all?
I’ve thought up some awards to give out after this dopefest, feel free to add categories and awardees as you see fit.
Sad gits award To ianzin and Crusoe, for playing Top Trumps (Simpsons Edition) in the Museum Tavern.
Sadder gits award To myself, Tir Tinuvial, ObiWan, and TwistofFate for watching the above mentioned Top Trumps (Simpsons Edition) match – with bonus sad points to Twisty for repeatedly exclaiming “It’s not cannon!”.
Saddest git award I award to myself for thinking “I could write a Java program that plays Top Trumps (Simpsons Edition) better than these guys”.
Award for Largest number of facts in one head To Steve Wright for knowing more about low budget British Sci-fi than anyone should be allowed to.
Insane commuter award To casdave and Melvin for travelling from Leeds to London (and back!) in a Reliant Renalto
Most tops award To QueenAl for changing at least three times during the evening.
That’s all I can think of for now, what else can we come up with?
As I have been called a ‘Sad Git’ by Kferr, may I just point out that someone around here (naming no names) states his ‘Location’ by giving latitude and longitude map co-ordinates!!
That’s ok, lno, Tansu & I are going to open a pub in London in your honour & become multi-millionaires…who wouldn’t go to the CleavageBeer[sup]TM[/sup] pub?
I sadly missed the British sci-fi discussion…and didn’t get to talk to Coldy much either.
I can declare myself nearly as sad as ianzin & Crusoe for playing Connect 4 against Tir (Only mentioning this because I won! Ha-hah!!!). Crappest drawing award goes to the TV Trivia game the pub had.
I can say that Coldy & Yojimbo spent most of the evening in a beer huddle at the far table…I’m sure more of us would have talked to them, but we couldn’t get past the beer glasses to within hearing range!
And I spent a happy 2 & 1/2 hours in the British musuem, as did I think the international contingent - I kept seeing at least one of them in there in variosu rooms, rather than already vanished off to the pub!
And I’ll join the general “I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk to more people more” comments - I think this was the largest LonDope so far, but I could have circulated a bit more - I wasn’t glued to that chair at that table, despit Tir’s pshycho-kinetic efforts with the pint of coca cola! (I blame it on being a sore loser ;)).
Yes, I did have a rationale behind my fingernail decoration. I remain as joyfully shallow as ever.
We are going to coin it in royally with CleavageBeer.
I too had a smashing time in the British Museum. This time I saw Islamic art, Mesopotamian grave goods (hair ribbons of solid gold), Ancient Persian gold work (little teeny tiny chariot and horses made of solid gold, Prints and drawings and a small selection of ancient British bits and bobs (big bronze buckles, bronze handle off a wooden beer mug from ancient Devon). I bought books on Islamic art, Hindu art and architecture and also Agatha Christie’s archaeological memoirs.
We ought to have some kind of Great North Dope/ Dope Up North. Beer’s cheaper here.
A very enjoyable time indeed. Bit wrecked as on return to Ireland I was dragged kicking and screaming to a birthday party by jjimm and micilin and am still up at 5:30am.
A huge thank you to the wonderful Francesca and AlexB. The girl can wipe up a fry-up like you wouldn’t believe.
As wit all of the Fest’s I’ve attended it was great meeting the people behind the text.
Unlike certain eggs that were talked about I need bed rather than pie.
Lots of people seem to agree with that - particularly the bloke in the seat next to me on the bus back to Oxford. “Sorry, pal,” I muttered as I dislodged his intrusive head for the fifth time, “if you want to fall asleep with your nose in my armpit, you’re at least going to have to buy me dinner first.”
kferr - low budget British sci-fi??? Some episodes of Blake’s 7 cost almost £4.50, you know.
(Francesca proclaimed me the world’s biggest geek. I’m so proud.)
These things are truly varied gatherings, aren’t they? Just consider all the different motives for visiting the BM, ranging from LaurAnge’s “I want to try and translate the Egyptian symbols” to … well, we’d best not go into Twisty’s motives, let’s just say a lot of Japanese tourists are going to be very confused when they develop their holiday snaps.
Definitely my idea of a good time. And thanks, as ever, to Francesca’s awesome organisational skills.
You’re all a bunch of bastards anyway. Who wants to go to some sad “Dopefest”? And what kind of sad loser would bring Top Trumps (Simpsons Edition) to such a thing?!
Just to clarify: the cry ‘Sheep’s Arse!’ (must be spelt the British way) is another intellectual tool in the arsenal of the great rhetoricians and debaters, as explained by ianzin.
Nice to spend a weekend with yojimbo, Coldie, LaurAnge and Scott (note: non-Dopers are not entitled to have their name bolded, although here’s a € to help Scott in the Eurozone).
yojimbo is a cute little leprechaun of a fellow, bookish and reserved. He enjoys sweet sherry and the company of hookers.
Coldfire, by contrast, is a foul-tempered bureacrat, crippled by self doubt, weeping into his beers and grieving for the loss of his greatest love, whom he refers to only as ‘Big Boy’.
LaurAnge and Scott, hell-bent on conquest of mainland Europe, travel in the company of six bodyguards who need no sleep.
Unfortunately there was no time to search their luggage.
