Nov 23rd 2017 - West Beers 10th Birthday

Lovely night - Incredible Pizza!

This pretty much ticked all the boxes

• long and painful slog to the Red Lion
  
• lovely evening in good company
  
• manic ride home trying to keep up with Matt
  
  

Thanks!

That was a lovely evening. Great seeing people I'd not seen for many years, and lovely conversation as always.

The raffle raised £50 for the coffers, just as soon as I can figure how out cash works again and how to get it into the PayPal :)

Congrats to @cake on winning the tools... and such a fantastic item... advent calendar socket set! How ridiculous!

Really sad I missed this due to being stuck in work late. Was going to be my first LFGSS social too and only a 5min cycle from my house :(

Great evening, massive props to @mespilus for organising.

So glad that I got talked into riding. 11 miles each way for a drink is perfectly legit. The Freddie Grubb enjoyed eating the miles and so did I!

@T4NY4 did you find a cunning route home?

CP thread to follow.

Lovely to see faces old and new.

2 Attachments

Walked to Ealing Broadway.
District line to embankment.
Train from Charing cross to catford bridge.
I think about 1h40m door to door.
Surprisingly painless actually.

Should've ridden, as I was distinctly less inebriated than I thought I would be. Never mind.

@thebrenthamtaffy
We can add you to reminder list for future Wests if you like?

@mashton
It's easy when you're standing on the shoulders of giants.
I could walk in and (politely) ask to speak to Pasquale, knowing he was unlikely to be there, and trade upon the relationships forged in the early days of the Forum, long before I knew it existed.
Glad everyone found the location, enjoyed the venue, the pizza & the company.

For those still sore at losing the raffle,
or,
looking for a practical present suggestion for a partner, or friend;

http://www.dm-tools.co.uk/mobile/product.php?sn=WERADVENT2017

Enjoyed meeting folk. Did not talk to enough people but will attend a bit more. Thanks to mespilus for organising.

@mespilus
Yes please! My wife says I need to get out more... :)

Well I enjoyed that, despite my head full of snot and raking cough making me a little less sociable than I should have been. Excellent beer and pizza (tho the first pint tasted a bit weird, seems like Butcome and Strepsils aren't a wonderful combo). Also the totally handmade raffle was a sight to behold. Cheers @mespilus for your tireless organisation.

@middleofnowhere

The 'Maker'-inspired raffle was in no way connected to me being old, slow and setting off too late to cycle to Twickenham & back, (to purchase the Wera Advent Calendar),
and leaving myself no time to pop into a £Shop to buy a book of raffle tickets, oh no,
it was always the plan.

Some of you may have noticed that the promised guest beer of Fullers Red Fox was a no-show.
The substitute, the Damson Porter, I thought was a very drinkable variation on the porter theme.
Others seem a little sniffy;
https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/fullers-damson-porter/563842/

@Velocio
Raffle actually raised £57!
tl;dr, £7 in change found in 'other' front pocket when I got home.

I tend only to wear Craghopper Kiwi zip-off trousers, (typically £20 a pair from TKMaxx if you are lucky), as they have 5 zipped pockets.
This means wallet is front left zipped pocket and keys are front right zipped pocket.
Change is front right (unzipped) pocket.
Front left (unzipped) normally unused,
but on Thursday night I used it to store the coin paid for raffle tickets,
with notes going into my grey wallet, which were passed on to you on the evening.
Cycled home, hung up trousers, went to bed.
Put trousers on Friday morning, hold on, why is there change in front left pocket?
Cue clanging bell sound, the raffle!
I'll pay it into an account and make a Paypal donation.

Glad to see you all, guys. Incredible how people remembered me still after 10 yrs, and good to meet some new faces.
Let me know if you fancy doing it again! Pizz & Love!

Frankly, I doubt the veracity of this account. Not nearly enough detail for it to be believable. :)

Curses, I knew Inspector Schick would doubt my testimony.

@metrocammell
Thank you for reserving us the 'Big' table and allowing use of the alley for bike parking.

Day 1 of the advent calendar.

Apologies for the delay...

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/314202/#comment13993791