INSIDE THE WORLD OF MEETUP

 On the Bardon Hill walk I got a message from a young female beforehand requesting to join the walk but couldn’t register online. Thinking the website was playing up I told her to just turn up, no problem. At the top of the hill she mentioned something in conversation about not wanting to be photographed or being on social media. I took a short video clip at the top and panned around, she walked off but was laughing about it at the time. The day following I posted 3 sets of pictures online, 1 to the meetup page, 1 to the WAMM Facebook page and the other to my own Facebook page. Within a couple of hours she was frantically messaging me via a friend with the above message.  I obviously removed it but was completely taken back by the tone of her message. Out of curiosity I took a closer look at her meetup profile. She hadn't registered for any event in over a year, obviously taking extreme steps to avoid an online footprint.  The other strange thing was her membership in 70 ...

The time between Christmas and new year is always dead so it is a great time to schedule a walk. I was wondering how many would turn up on a cold foggy morning in Coalville and was surprised to get 22. My highest turnout ever. We headed through the estates before starting the climb. The mud was bad but not horrific. 2 issues included a woman who dropped out without telling anyone and an old man with poor eyesight. The view from the top was none existent but the mood amongst the group was excellent. Many had never been to the top before. The walk down was a lot easier, we had 30 minutes at the Rock where several left early. Then it was an easy 30 minutes back to the start point. My most successful walk to date with a bunch of 5 star reviews. Unfortunately there was an incident the following day that deserves a post of its own.

  A few afternoon drinks in a predictably packed out Weatherspoon's. Spend around 3 hours chatting to the Derby crowd many of which I hadn't seen for a while.  Headed back on the last bus. 

 I hadn't been drinking in the centre of West Bridgford before, so it was a great opportunity.  We met in the Portello lounge, an upmarket place. Conversation quickly flowed. By around 10, some of the lads got restless, and we checked out the Irish bar, which was a bit disappointing. I was going to bail out, but a large group joined us just before the bus arrived, and we sat outside (heatlamps). 4 of us went into town at a surprisingly subdued  6 Barrel Draft House, and I left soon after.

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.