INSIDE THE WORLD OF MEETUP

  Oakham falls firmly into the category of towns that made me think “why have I never been here before”. We started off near the train station at the grainstore pub that sells craft beers and went from there.  Heading around town we visited 7 venues from traditional pubs to sports bars and more upmarket venues finishing around 7PM.

  I'd not been to Castle Donnington for a long time, but since I was hosting my own event at this venue, I thought it would be a good idea to go to this meet up. The Castle Inn is a great place for live music. I was initially lukewarm on the band but they grew on me over the course of the night. The rest of the group were middle-aged women from Derby, but it was still a good night. 

  I started out 6th on the waitlist with 30 people on the walk. Mothers day combined with slight rain reduced the list drastically to 14 on the morning to only 5 people turning out for the walk. I went for the simple reason I'd never been Long Eaton before and it was convenient for the buses on Sunday. We headed along the canal north and turned west onto a footpath that went towards the M1 bridge. The walk was good so far if a little muddy but then a few problems began to occur. 1) The 3 others were too slow for the group leader and I got the not so subtle hint he was getting annoyed by this. Under normal circumstances with a bigger group slow walkers get the memo but not this time. 2) I mentioned in conversation that I started walking with this group at the end of covid lockdown. The conversation drifted towards anti vaccination and other conspiracy theories. I have a very low opinion of these people but couldn't be bothered to argue so ended up walking ahead alone for aroun...

  It was a rare (4th in a year) meet with Derby socials but I'd not been here before. Nursing a painful back injury walking was one of the few activities I could do. It didn't help when the organiser didn't put the map pin in the correct place and I was searching for the start point a couple of hundred meters down the road.  We followed the nutbrook tail for around 3 miles to the excellent coffee shop for a break. One of the group had a drone which he briefly flew to take this picture. The rest of the walk had a "make it up as you go long" feel but it was ok.

  A night out in the city centre was slightly overdue it involved 2 venues the cosy club followed by the Hockley arts club. Over 70 people were on the list but typically half that number turned up. The first venue was a nice place if not massively overpriced. I caught up with a few old faces and got talking to a few new ones. The second venue was had loud music although they kept mixing the styles often to ridiculous levels. It was a good night until I returned from the toilet to discover 90% of the group had left.  A good night overall and I managed to arrange to go to a gig with another member outside of meetup thanks to this night.