Mud-Meet

Yates Wine Lodge, Oldham Mumps. 21 April 2001.

I just made it to the train station in time to get a return ticket to Oldham Mumps (what a lovely name!) and get over to the furthest platform. Hmmm, a local train, not the comfortable big trains (with tables and buffet car or even toilets) that I normally use to get to a MudMeet when further away - this one was more like a bus.

Great.

Just outside Manchester Victoria station, the train seemed to be arriving on time (with 6 minutes to spare before the connection to Oldham) but then train stopped at a red light for 5 minutes. The upshot was that the Oldham train pulled out as I was coming down the platform steps. Next train, "40" ehh? "40. At 40." said the Neanderthal who waved off the train, this I took to mean at 12:40. The TV screen confirmed that, so a 20 minute wait on the cold bare platform.

So here I was in Oldham Mumps. The train station outlet / subway seemed to be in a B&Q car park - nice if I had wanted some DIY stuff.

Walking up and down the roads following (badly) Marlight's map I eventually found I was one street away from the main Victoria Road. What a lot of Indian etc. restaurants and takeaways there were, strangely not a newsagent for lottery tickets etc. in sight.

A call of nature meant I had to (of course!) make a purchase in order to use the facilities, so a pint of real ale was bought, wow nice price, £1.30 a pint for good quality ale ... although mentioning "lager" nearly got me hung drawn and quartered! That's the nice thing about "up North" the prices are more agreeable.

A half an hour of wandering the streets and I found Yates' - and noticed a confused looking guy walking out and looking around. I wondered if that was one of the Mudders? (It was - Pippin was very early and had gone for a look around as no one else had arrived yet!). I went in and looked upstairs - no one I recognised and only 2 pairs up there anyway!

I bought a pint and ordered some lunch, and chatted to the barman - they didn't know anything about a group meeting having been arranged for the upstairs rooms (although they thought a few strange people had gone up ...!!)

A spiky-haired youth with a blonde-haired young lady entered Yates and proceeded upstairs - they looked familiar. When he came back down to the bar we exchanged glances - I nipped over and inquired if he/they were here for the meet - yes they were - he thought he recognised me hence the staring over! Welcome Syl and Jesstar to the meet! He went back upstairs and I waited for my food to arrive (damn those table numbers on the orders ... I didn't want to lose it if I moved!).

Next to arrive (before my food!) was Marlight followed by Poledra, Jincks, and Foz and Fruitbat. The good Dr. Bartle (all bow .. !! he'll FOD me for that !!) ordered beer or soft drinks and grabbed a food menu.

We noticed that the pub had a "Happy Hour" from 2 pm to 8 pm - I guessed we would take advantage of the even cheaper ale.

My grub arrived so we adjourned upstairs, taking over a corner of the room - the "booked" layout for the meet had somehow been overlooked by the pub management but as the upstairs room was almost empty we had pick of the place and rearranged it a little to suit ourselves.

DJGod joined us about then.

Journey arrangements and sleep over / home journey arrangements were discussed amongst the assembled, including terrible assertions that MUD2 players don't eat bacon sandwiches for breakfast!!! No one asked me if I wanted one, but then I was 50 miles away at the time so I suppose that was to be expected!

Richard got out the camera - whoops that one died after a pic or two (what do you DO to cameras Jincks? <gg>) so out came the super-duper, all-singing-and-dancing, Boots disposable camera in stylish "metalastic" finish, which did the job of capturing many, many mug shots.

The current home / proposition of MUD2 was discussed a bit along with future visions for MUD / MUD3 / Graphical MUD etc. (although a persistent undercurrent for the meet was "EQ, EQ, Everquest , EQ etc. etc." Hmmm maybe I should try it one day and kill Foz on a Raid.. hehe!)

Foddy and Karya arrived shortly after 15:30 (I think - the times from here on in will be vague as the afternoon flew by!) and more chatting about the new home of MUD2 in the UK occurred - the good and bad bits, number of players / drop in player numbers, costs etc. More photos as Richard wanted to catch up on the newcomers and Foddy went wild with his digital camera .

More discussion, and people circulated to renew old acquaintances (there not being many / any newcomers to the meet ) and by now (or possibly earlier, but he was quiet!) DCLXVI / vv / fff arrived looking suave in a black polo neck sweater. DCL was looking around for those who had promised to beat him up (erm Joey and others if I recall) but they never showed up - still, the afternoon was going OK anyway without this extra entertainment!

Sometime after 5pm, Cloud and Zordell arrived with much hugging and back patting, the proceedings getting a bit louder (whether it was because we were already into a few beers or because these two arrived I am not sure!).

More chat, more beer - we found out that the Blue WKD stuff that Foz drank the bar dry of (!) was blueberry flavoured alcohol ... not sure what was in the orangey/yellow ones (we did have suggestions!) - hmm what's up with a pint Foz?

I think Richard Bartle had gone by now for a long drive home.

DJGod was very giggly by now, DCL was getting "sleepy" too!

Sometime later - maybe 6pm ish (??) Antman and Boggy arrived, fresh from their trek from "Da Midlands". The bar profits continued to increase - even though the upstairs bar had now closed again!

The food service was about to end so 6:40 pm saw a mad rush for food.

Most of the visitors were taking over Marlight/Poledra's abode for the night, Pol and Fruity taking their leave early.

By 7pm the pub was filling up with regulars in "clubbing gear" and an hour later our group was moved along so the locals could shake their funky stuff or buy tickets, what ever that meant! (Bingo?)

By 8:30 pm we were squashed in the booths above our old spot, with suggestions of what we should do next. I was gonna go for the 9pm train from Oldham but Boggy went to the bar so I delayed. Hey Boggy, you forgot mine - ohh well, I'll get my own. I got the 10pm train at Oldham, 11pm train at Manchester, got off the train at midnight and was home by half past midnight.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Hope you all enjoyed it too, and more can make the next one!