INSIDE THE WORLD OF MEETUP

With the corona virus starting out as a story from the other side of the world and gradually getting closer to home it was becoming clearer that life as we knew it was going to be put on hold for some time.  I lived in hope that some of the meetups I signed up for would go ahead but one by one they were cancelled. Lockdown went ahead and I lived in a world that consisted of little more than work, eat, sleep, exercise, repeat.  Meetups went into the online world, virtual quizzes, zoom meetings etc but to be honest unless I was going out I couldn't be bothered with that sort of thing. One meetup group I was a member of folded but then again it was the one where I travelled 15 miles and nobody turned up. Another at the time of writing sent an email saying the group organizer was stepping down so it was grim times indeed. Full lockdown ended but a lot of restrictions were in place, I couldn't go down the pub without pre booking a table as well as other things. I wanted a "prop...

It's one year ago today since I first signed up and at the time of writing this I have attended 17 meetups with varying degrees of "success". The following is a summery of my first years meetup experience. 1) It's made a big difference to my social life. Before joining I spent 90% of my weekend nights sitting in the same 3 or 4 village pubs, wishing that this was the night someone wanted to go out and do something different. Now I have a calendar full of events often having to choose between multiple events on the same day. 2) If you life outside a big city be prepared to travel . The nearest meetup to date from my home was around 10 miles and required a change of buses. I constantly have to use infrequent night buses where possible to get home from Leicester, Derby and Nottingham to keep the costs down. 3) You need to attend at least a dozen meetups across different groups and different types of events to get a proper feel of it. There is a big variation b...

After a terrible Christmas in which I was struck down by a horrible flu for nearly a month a good night out was long overdue. We met at the standing order for a couple before heading off to the flowerpot, nobody seemed to be doing dry January as both places were packed. Apparently it's a popular live music venue in Derby but I'd never been before. The band were great and the atmosphere was outstanding, I met a load of familiar faces with the group as well as some new ones. Had a few drinks after the band had finished, I didn't have the energy to carry on after midnight but everyone else seemed to be going anyway. Got absolutely soaked walking back to the bus station......

Bit early in the month but who cases, first meetup for a while but this one was going to be a big turnout. It was a case of bring your own food then at the end of the night they were begging people to take it because there was far too much. About half of the 60 people I had seen before including several my own age from the Leicester group. It was a bit of a quiet evening up until the final hour when the alcohol kicked for everyone. Unfortunately by the time I was enjoying the evening the night at the 102 club was over. Around half a dozen of us went into town and ended up in a club until the very early hours. I got home around 5am...…………………………….

With the night out in Leicester getting a tad repetitive I gave it a miss this weekend and opted to go Derby and from there a trip to Matlock bath . Some of us met in the Merry Widows pub just across from Derby train station and caught the train after an hour. I'd not been Matlock for over 30 years and it didn't bring any memories back when we arrived. Went in 2 nice if a little overcrowded pubs The Midland and the Fishpond with a short stop in the arcades in between. It had a very tourist town feel about the place and I'd never seen so many fish and chip shops on one street in my life. This picture was taken outside the fishpond. We then went to see the boat parade followed by the firework display, most of the group did question if it was worth paying 7 pound to see fireworks that you could have just viewed from the street for free. After it was stuff yourself with fish and chips before heading back to Derby, they were going for a drink after but my bus arr...

Back to the Queen of Bradgate pub for the third time. The official attendance for this meet was 48 but in practice it was 30 which was still a lot more than usual. It was good to meet a lot more new faces and of course catch up with a few old ones. The main issue with the night was the heavy rain, nobody wanted to move on to anywhere else. Eventually we headed to O'Neil's for a couple before heading back to the  Queen of Bradgate of all places. This was the first meetup where I wasn't going into somewhere new for the first time. Admittedly this meetup is starting to feel a bit repetitive, I don't see why we can't try different places each week as the city center has dozens of pubs.

Change of plan, walking instead of drinking this weekend. This was the closest meetup to date from my house and was still 11 miles and 2 bus rides away. About a dozen of us went which we all agreed was a good number. It was a good day to walk, clear, sunny and not too hot. We headed around Staunton Harold reservoir and had a short food stop. Then headed on to Calke abbey where it was very busy but managed to get a table for another food and drink stop. After the walk I had 50 minutes to kill before the bus home so half the group went to the Wheel Inn at Ticknall, overall it was a good half day out and I was very tired by the time I got home.

It was a choice between Nottingham and Leicester so I picked Leicester due to the smaller group size. It was the same starting place as 2 weeks ago, the Queen of Bradgate pub. A couple of faces I knew made for an ok start to the evening. It wasn't as busy as 2 weeks before which was probably a good thing as it was packed. Second stop was the Gadabout , nice place but had the atmosphere of a restaurant. In fact some of us thought it was a restaurant but we didn't see any food being eaten. Revolution was the second place of the evening that I'd never set foot in before. We walked straight into a fight that was kicking off in a corner. Strangely only one bouncer came to intervene but it was over in 10 minutes. Despite that I liked the place and would have been happy to stay there the rest of the night. I was recognised by someone I met with another meetup group 5 months earlier. Unfortunately someone made the decision to move on elsewhere, being from a village I ten...

I had 2 choices, a big night out drinking in Nottingham or a more low key pool and darts night in Derby. After a sleepless Friday I didn't have a 2am drinking session in me so I opted for the more low key pool night. We met at the Waterfall near the train station, nice building and layout (the pint of carling I had was a bit flat). There was about a dozen of us with 2 faces I recognized from previous meets. Spent nearly 2 hours having random games on the aged tables in the back room. I won 4 lost 3 which was not bad for saying I'd not been on a pool table in years. After that we went to a nearby pub called the Brunswick an old school real ale pub. We all played a big game of darts between us (I won on double 2).  Overall a steady night...………..

After fan club night I couldn't wait to get back over Leicester again, another new group to try out. Bumped into 2 people I'd met from previous meets which is always a good thing. The queen of Bradgate was our starting point for the evening with over 20 people sitting around one big table. It turned out there had been another meetup with another group taking place earlier that day. A couple of people turned up drunk from that meet and joined us to continue into the evening. After an hour or so, several of the drunk people moved on because they wanted to go to a lively place with a dancefloor. We arranged to meet them at Lloyd's after we had drank up, from this point the group fragmented.  Lloyds was a bit loud for that early in the evening especially when you are trying to have conversations with people you have only just met. We decided to move on, with our group mixed with the other group, we walked down a street when suddenly some people would go into a pub while...