INSIDE THE WORLD OF MEETUP

It was good to hear that the Christmas party was going to be different from the usual (mojos). I had an overnight stay in a hotel booked. The list went up to above 150, but dropped to below 120 on the night. In the end numbers were below 100. Spent an hour in the main bar of the whistle and flute before heading down to the basement that was reserved just for us. Great crowd and a Great crowd and a great night. The only pity was a large number of  people left before midnight.

  Good walk but major problem, the weather forecast was awful. People were rapidly dropping out to the point where I wondered if anyone was turning up at all.  Due to waterlogged ground I skipped the first fields and went down the lane. The weather held off and conversation flowed. We headed through lockington and up the hill near the airport. A half hour pit stop at the jolly sailor followed. I was a bit worried about the fields at the bottom end of Donnington but they were fine. Another good walk despite the poor turnout 

  One place I'd been planning a pub crawl for a while. In the build up I panicked when the numbers went up to 25 so put a 30 limit in place. Half of them didn't turn up, but several people not on the list did. It was a slow start for the Berliner but conversation was flowing by the time we got to the hop pole. Wetherspoons was a bit too busy but we managed to get some tables for food. The popular crown inn was a great pub but far too busy for my liking. So we moved on to the star which was another great pub. Finally it was Beeston social, another great day out. People started leaving for food at that point. Made note to include food a stop on future pub crawls. 

  4 months had passed since I'd done the test walk. It was an easy flat route and good weather so I wasn't too worried. WAMM was in progress of moving off meetup and going onto Facebook. So I could now post my walks onto 2 groups instead of 1. After a slight delay a dozen of us headed in the direction of west leake. The weather, ground and conversation were good. The pub stop was surprising busy then we headed back to the start via Sutton Bonnington. 4 of us went in the cap and stocking back at Kegworth.

  Been a while since I'd seen the Leicester group, we met at the clock tower before heading down to the park. Rain threatened to ruin the whole night but never went beyond the fine misty stuff. 6:30pm Fire performers 6.45pm Kids and noise-sensitive visitors’ Fireworks. 7pm Lighting of the bonfire 7.45pm Fire performers 8pm The main Fireworks Everyone headed to the exit at 9:30, we went Weatherspoon's where it was unusually crowded. 

 Attended a 2 hour debate where we discussed the Uk energy supply. The presentation included the big improvements that had been made in wind and solar energy. I was expecting it to descend into silly arguments about climate change but thankfully that didn't happen.   Planned a walk on the way home.

I was a lot better prepared than last year with accommodation and a band list on a spreadsheet. Colour coded to indicate yes, no or maybe. We met at Lloyds / Weatherspoon's, where we spent an hour before heading out to the 40 odd venues around the city. I had no preference for the first few hours and went with the flow. Started off in rough trade with a strange instrumental duo called Revenge of Calulon . Moving onto Brewdog to see "guts" before heading into Billy Bootleggers for Noise which were ok then another band I didn't particularly like. It was back to rough trade which was starting to get busy so I bailed out to see Luis then Whiskey stain at the Jam cafe. Less crowds and better music. Back at rough trade it was so busy you couldn't see the band plus the layout of the building doesn't help. Finished off the evening with some Myki Tuff at the metronome.

  I found a free carpark and a walking area that had only been open to the public for a couple of years. Better still it was close to home, also an experiment on how many people would turn up. The answer was about half a dozen. Weather was perfect as we set off along the lane to the outskirts of the park. It was a good mixture of open fields and woodlands. A 30 minute break was taken at the Harvester where it was warm enough to sit outside. Then into the park proper before heading back into Shepshed.

  Admittedly this was too soon after the last one with a very similar itinerary. Over 120 were on the list with 3 organizers sorting it all out, rather them than myself. Starting at the pitcher and piano is was good to catch up with people if the venue itself was over familiar. The good news as the next venue blind rabbit had big screens up for the boxing where we watched A Joshua get stuffed. Only a few dozen made it to Mojos which didn't surprise me, I lasted until around 1:30

  I'd heard about this for years and finally got the opportunity. 5 pubs and one bus for a tenner. Unfortunately, loads dropped out leaving just the 3 of us. A 30 minute delay occurred when one of the buses was cancelled but they found another. Our first stop was a beer festival at Thorpe Langton. We had an hour which sounds a lot but the queues were big. We then went to a few village pubs including Burton Overy and Kibworth Beauchamp. A great day and as the beer flowed people got more social. Unfortunately the journey home was a nightmare.