INSIDE THE WORLD OF MEETUP

No rain, minimal mud and a 20 person turnout. We headed out past Dishley pool and followed the river by Normanton on soar. Conversation flowed and we headed into town to the excellent and welcoming Dew drop pub.  After getting a little too comfortable we followed the main road back to Dishley.  We headed down Pear tree lane. Then through Baileys plantation, pear tree lane park and Rabbit wood before arriving back at the start point. Great walk with the added bonus of getting a lift home.

The music highlight of the year 50 bands spread out over 7 stages. Met for breakfast in the 3 crowns before collecting wristbands. Had the usual group chat to keep in touch. Jude kirk . Started proceedings, bit bland for me but ok for the time of day. Sharp Class . Much better, the kind of band I came to see. Stained glass . Too loud and heavy for my taste, not worth walking across the city to see. Static kill . Entertaining and a bit different. Davoli. Bit bland, rescue rooms was packed by this point. High speed peach . Another cross city trip to Bogoda more worth it this time. Blood wizard . Listenable but a bit bland The outcharms , Bit of an Arctic monkeys feel, top 3 bands of the day. The publics . Excellent as per last year, stole the show. Commons . Hard act to follow in the red rooms Kaliko, Average Bored marsh .  Bland would have been ok at 1pm but not later on Pet Needs . Bit loud but needed since I was fading away fast. Stayed out later than most but time to head back to...

It was the standard evening at the crafty crow. Only went due to beat the streets the following day. Venue was initially busy on arrival but gradually thinned out. A reasonable night staying out longer than planned.

  60 signed up and another 20 odd on the waitlist. This was my biggest meetup hosted to date. Experience told me to half that figure. Got 18 in the organ grinder where the bar staff panicked in anticipation of 60 people joining. The good fellow George turned out to be a great venue with separate upstairs areas. The falcon was a bit too small for the size of the group which had swelled up to around 40 at this stage. It did annoy me that several people didn't take themselves off the list. The pub has a village feel to it. The Sir John Borlase Warren was another great venue with plenty of space. I had at least 3 drinks bought for me over the afternoon so I was doing something right. Finally it was the Irish bar. I’d done well and got great reviews. 

  It was a double bill of meetups starting with the debate. The presentation went well but the subject matter was a bit open ended and went off in several directions. One woman who was a raw milk advocate clearly had her agenda. She also happened to be a hard core anti-vaxxer (big shock) thankfully others shut her down as well. I picked up 3 people for my pub crawl.

 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.