LonDope -- the aftermath

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Just a quick halloo to say that the International LonDope 2002 was a rousing success. In what other gathering could you see a man pound a nail into his own head with a spoon, play a game of Mornington Crescent, have an argument over the lifespan of a headless chicken, conduct an informal scientific study on gender differences in chair lifting, and discuss video games, football and beer sex?

I lost count of the number of attendees but it was at least 16 or so. I’m sure that the photos of the event will prove most satisfactory for all, including lno who managed to get into more than one person’s trousers in the course of the evening…

And now I’m going to bed. Nuff said. :cool:

2

Ignore the Screenname, Its Twisty McTwist (as Annie is calling me today) TwistofFat (as Ianzin want’s to be called from now on).
Christ.

If it wasnt for a dodgy tummy hampering my drinking abilities, tonight would have been the best ever. Tonight was incredible. I had a complete Larf. Annie and Frannie are the bestest of the best in the whole wide world.

As usual, the Dopers turned in a great performance.

Ianzin, Franchesca, Anahita, Alex B, jr8, Crusoe, Obiwan, Steve Wright, Hibernicus, Tansu, Gartog, Kferr, Casdave, Mervin, Jojo, Lamia, Synnic, Rebecca, Kabbes,Fierra…

All were wonderful company and I really want to go and do it all again.

We went to a few pubs, took a walk around London.
:slight_smile: It was a good day… :slight_smile:
Twisty (funny marks on my neck… )

3

What a fucking incredible time. Thanks buckets to Francesca for hostessing us with the mostessing. I’ll write more on Monday morning.
(incidentally… she does show up in photos…)
<wicked grin>

4

Just thought I’d chime in to echo the sentiments expressed thus far. One very enjoyable day, lots of really excellent company. Thanks for a great day, all of you.

How can anyone disagree that from now on it should be Twist Of Fat?

My photos won’t be ready for a day or three, given that I used old-fashioned film instead of a zillion little pixels, but when they are ready I’ll probably stick 'em on my glorious fandabadoozy website somewhere for y’all to enjoy. If I can be bothered, that is.

Twisty… can you help me track down that Pit thread about telemarketing which you said was one of the best-written threads ever? I’m intrigued.

Kabbes, maximum respect on the Mornington Crescent front. I’m not often bested by a bifurcation trap, but that sly Arnos Grove was totally unexpected and brilliant. It’s no shame to lose to quality opposition.

Synnic I owe you a fiver! And as for that special moment of pushing Twisty off the wall at Traflagar Sq., well, Twisty’s right, it wasn’t funny. Except yeah, actually, it was very funny. And thanks for the guided tour of your tattoos?!

Francesca You are the very essence of benign leadership! I’ll expect a Pit rant about ‘dawdling’ soon. (And don’t worry, I think most of the time our facade of knowing where we were going had 'em fooled.)

Anahita, 'twas a pleasure from first to last. I’ve forgiven you for calling me an Attention Whore! Thanks for the chocolate, safe travels, come back soon, and next time don’t forget the kiddie pictures.

Fierra I still think you’re actually Sheryl Crow in disguise [sub](that’s a compliment)[/sub]. It was very nice to meet you indeed, and good luck with your horrifically intellectual OP course. May the day come when you can visit a pub without a text book on Fourier Transformations by your side.

Tansu Loved the outfit!

Hibernicus We look forward to seeing the fruits of your zillion-dollar all-singing all-dancing mega-camera. Nice to meet you!

Obi Come hang out with the magic geeks some time. Bring your cards and we’ll go over some stuff…

Matt K nice to have met Camden’s resident DopeMeister at long last! Shame you had to go… the Silver Cross sesh was excellent (as you’ve probably guessed).

I could list messages to all the rest of you too, but the night is not young, neither am I, sleep calls… so, just thanks to all of you for showing up and making it so good.

ian*“attention whore”*zin

5

Is this code? “The black dog barks at night,” that sort of thing? Dang, where’s my decoder ring. [sub]No, I gather it’s a game[/sub]

Sounds like great fun was had. Damn, I’m jealous. :slight_smile:

6

Hear, hear. I too had a thoroughly fantastic day. It was great to finally meet you guys.

Anahita, Ianzin, Francesca, Alex B, jr8, Crusoe, Steve Wright, Hibernicus, Tansu, Gartog, Kferr, Casdave, Mervin, Jojo, Lamia, Synnic, Rebecca, Kabbes and Fierra, you’re all stars.

For me, I think the nail in the head will take some beating but let’s just not mention The Weakest Link machine okay? :slight_smile:

The Telemarketer Speaks. I Respond. And it is a beaut.

:smiley: WooHoo!

With the women quite significantly trouncing the men! (I’m thinking of writing a GQ thread on this very subject as we speak!)

I shall come back to post some more of my favourite moments later but for now all I want to do is thank everyone for making a newbie feel so welcome and I hope to see you all again in LonDope II: The Nail’s Revenge.

7

I’m at Gatwick now, waiting for my flight. What a fabulous weekend. You are all the best team of tour guides ever. You should sell your services. I’m going to blather on later. Just a few funny and/or thoughtful things.

  1. I got frisked and they checked the bottom of my shoes.
  2. There are no friendlier people that EuroDopers. Friendly and generous. I didn’t pay for one drink all weekend. Ta.
  3. #2 will be repaid when you visit Paris. Plans for ParisFest will commence as soon as I can formulate a coherent thought.
  4. London kicks so much ass that it’s not possible to tell about it here. Frannie is the bestest hostess and tour guide. And her boobage is very nice. I want the bra she wore last night.
  5. As much as I missed Yasmin, the company was so entertaining, I didn’t have pangs.
  6. I still want to go The Honey Pot.
  7. Obi-Wan is the most kick ass newbie ever. He is hereby advised he has made the “First Doper List.”
  8. Twisty McTwist is the best friend a girl could have.
  9. One should eat once in a while. Nuts are not meals.
  10. I am so going to the next EuroDope. No one can stop me!!!
8

Definitely one of the best fests ever! After heroically finding the right way back to Waterloo, I had a major blonde moment at the station. I found the sign for the 23:15 to Farnborough from platform 14, so first I go and stand on platform 18 for a couple minutes. Go back in, look at the sign again, look at the platform numbers, then go get on a train sitting at platform 13. I was beginning to wonder why the train was so empty when I looked across to platform 14 in time to see my train pull out. Luckily, the next (and last!) train to Farnborough was at 23:35 so after triple-checking all the numbers, I got on the right train and managed to stay awake so as not to miss my stop.

9

Most. Excellent. Fest.

At least it was once I’d found you all. After Arriving in plenty of Time at Euston Station, I misremembered where the Hotel was and ending up going around in circles. After an hour walking (Which should have taken about 10 mins) I found it and checked in.

I then via mobile phone followed ‘the trail of the dopers’ eventually meeting everyone at 2:00. Well worth the wait.

Thanks to everyone who was there at some point during the weekend.

Especially to Francesca who seemed to be in charge :wink: I also want to thank by name **Anahita, Ianzin, Francesca, Alex B, jr8, Crusoe, Steve Wright, Hibernicus, Tansu, ObiWan, Kferr, Casdave, Mervin, Jojo, Lamia, Synnic, Rebecca, Kabbes and Fierra. ** And who turned up whose name I missed. (Blame ObiWan I just copied the list from his post;))

Being able to put faces to names was great, it brings home how much more the SDMB is than just a list of messages on a website. And that posters are people not just a bunch of electrons in the void of the world wide web.

Although now some of the names and faces are a little mixed up . . .

As someone who left his camera in his hotel room all day, I wait with baited breath to see the photographs.

Did you manage to get one of the couple in Soho, Francesca?
Team zero won the Quiz :slight_smile: woot!

I believe I still owe Everyone a drink :wink:

10

hi all, thanks for a great, friendly evening (when I eventually managed to find y’all).

It was interesting putting faces to names including Frannie, the hostess with the mostest, and Annie (honest, I’m not famous - I just like to think I am).

How to top Ian’s nail trick, hmmm… next time I’m gonna pull an entire French dinner party out of my ass.

And Fierra, maybe that impromptu splits competition wasn’t such a great idea (ouch, my legs hurt).

11

Good idea. That little competition got me labelled an “honorary girl”, and I’m still not entirely sure whether that’s a good thing or not.

Don’t we all. :wink:

By the way, I forgot to say that it was an excellent choice of pub – central, not very crowded, noisy or smoky, and with entirely edible pub grub (although I most snacked on Annie’s chips…). Well done.

12

Awww, I didn’t bite you that hard! :smiley:

Damn…

How do you know you’ve seen them all?
Oh, and thats for the nail thing, I enjoyed that, but next time can I hammer it in? :slight_smile:

I wanna say Thank You to everyone, I had a great time - sending you all BIG HUGS!
[sub](Especially Twisty…blush)[/sub]
Now who was talking about doing it again next month? :smiley:

13

Sorry, that should have been “Thanks”…

14

Anahita ‘I have two willies’

Twist of Fat ‘No, I need a dishcloth to make a chicken’

me to Hebericus ‘Have you managed to get it up yet?’

Hibernicus ‘Yes with Fierra’s help’

15

Annie, Twisty and Alex B are all making their respective ways home now. I don’t have the energy right now to do a comprehensive post (tomorrow I will, along with photos), suffice to say I have had a fabulous weekend. Completely fabulous. It was brilliant to see the people I’ve met before again and to meet new people. I hope I didn’t make anyone too cross with my bossiness :slight_smile:

This was easily the best dopefest I’ve been to. Londopers are great.

16

Let me explain: you see fierra has these really little feet, right, so I was able to get right up close and lean over and grab… no, wait. Oh never mind.

Everybody, I had a great time, the venue was an excellent choice and the impromptu entertainment (as described above) was top-notch. What do you say we make it a two-nighter next time?

I’ll do something with the photos tonight or tomorrow.

17

Anahita said she would email me some of the photo’s she took, so I can put them up on a website…
[sub](Thats what I do…)[/sub]

If anyone else wants to send some photo’s, quotes, or comments for the Londope Site, my email addy is in my profile!

:slight_smile:

18

So much I want to say but my brain hurts, I don’t think I slept at all last night, my train was 1.5 hours late this morning. Which is not unusuall but annoying . . . .

[Falls asleep]

19

Twisty I’d like a slice of cheese. Cheese doesn’t mock me. Cheese looks out for me. Cheese doesn’t abandon me.

FranWe went to a strip club. They wouldn’t let us in because Twisty is a hippie who wears trainers.

Annie I felt Fran’s breastessess. Not now earlier.

Fran She did feel my boobs. It felt good.

P Daddy Puff (Fran - this is what Ana thinks the popular rap artist is called)

ToF: No, you need a dishcloth to make a chicken, and I haven’t got a dishcloth.

Ianzin: You know the tubes sticking out of the ground… don’t you always want to pour concrete down there?

Crusoe {Elaborate yet abandoned-early attempt at drawing in biro the interior of the Punch and Judy pub in Covent Garden}

Fran There is no lobby.

Synnic Notes how nice Twisty’s bum is

Kferr This note intentionally left blank.

Omnes Crusoe is a hottie – The Women
Irish men have nice bums.

Someone Fierra has a very nice ring

Hibernicus Macadamia are god’s own nuts

Alex Manboob

ObiWan {cartoons of doper wimmins}

Beer god.

[Goonies] I love you guys [/Goonies]

{drawing of a two men, one wielding a stick, with the caption: KILL ALL HIPPIES}

Gartog Hi. I am Gartog. Anahita wanted me and I came.

Anahita I’ve got two willies!

Steve Wright So, I came down from Oxford, with the clouds floating in the serene blue sky. Amd I looked over the green rolling fields, and the stands of trees that represent the last of England’s ancient greenwood. And, in the hedgerows, fragile flowers peeped out. And I saw all that glowing emerald foliage, and I said to myself

****ing hayfever season again

jr8 The thing to remember about London is that

  1. Everything is much closer together than you think it is
  2. Nothing is “quaint”
  3. Never buy a kebab from any place open past midnight

Someone Well, I’m impressed. I wouldn’t stick that up my nose.

Ianzin You are thinking of the Queen of Hearts**

Fran Kabbes is a stats geek. He spent half an hour explaining stats. We like him.

b]Kabbes** Hello lno, this is Kabbes. I came for the booze, the dope and the chat. I got a headache and a man with a nail up his nose. Can’t wait for next time.

Fierra Ana just offered to French kiss everyone! Look what you’ve missed!!!

Twisty {graph demonstrating the correlation between beer and stomach ache}

Phew. Need. Sleep.

20

And I missed the rest of the evening to watch Greek men in body armour sing about passwords. D’oh.