I know you are all dying to know how it went....well......
Dave Jackson and I arrived together in record time up the M6. It took just over an hour. I hadn't realised Birmingham was so close to Manchester when the roads are so empty.
We pulled in at the carpark half an hour early and decided to sit in the car for a bit. We watched a woman in a cowboy hat wandering around and slowly it dawned on us that this could actually be 'Sue here..' When a 'Zetmeet' poster was put on the wall, we got out and followed her round to the next wall and introduced ourselves. We were then approached by a bearded gentlemen who introduced himself as Geoffrey Goodman. I vaguely remember a thread about Cadbury's I had
had with him a long time ago, and remembered his wife was called Karen too.
Upstairs and into the lounge we were soon joined by Elaine Jones who breezed with a portfolio of Steam engines, and she and Dave 'Frodsham' put on their anoraks. Jason Rutter and girlfriend Alicia Grace arrived with Greg Smith and went to the bar. We were shortly told that the lounge was closing and we had to retire to the public bar, in which Sue wasn't happy about because she had phoned and assured it would stay open.
The Public bar was a real spit and sawdust place with rough looking blokes enjoying their Saturday afternoon drinking session. David Cock, John Greetham, Trev Hartley, Jim and Helen Williams joined us and eventually after half an hour of smoke and beer and squashed in a corner we got out into the fresh air. Sue invited us all back to her flat for coffee, which I thought was very brave of her. Although it was standing room only, we all managed to find somewhere to sit, be it floor, arms of chairs or the lucky ones pegged the three piece suite.
There was just one problem, although we'd left the pub in convoy, Trev was missing. Sue put the kettle on and realised there was no milk, but did have coffee mate! Elaine produced her steam engines again, John Greetham produced his portraits and landscapes and a discussion on quality ensued. Sue was fretting about Trev and we pondered what we could do.
TV's Beauty and the Beast was Sue's passion and she had wonderful albums and framed original paintings on the wall and being a big B&B fan, I took great pleasure in perusing them.
Meanwhile Sue had phoned Trevor's home number and left a message because we weren't sure
whether he had her number because he hadn't phoned and she even phoned the restaurant we were going to later to no avail. Eventually the phone did ring and I heard her say, 'Well, drive to the next street and when you get there phone me back and tell me what it is called.' He did, she went to collect him and there was a big cheer when he finally arrived.
At 7.00 we set off for the restaurant and Sue suggested that we like to share cars instead of taking them all. I immediately voluteered John Greetham to drive us and 'baggsied' the front seat. I had never been in a Jag XJ6 and it was a real thrill.
The meal was smashing, company excellent and poor Trev got ribbed when he went to the toilet in case he couldn't find his way back!
None of us really knew who Jim and Helen Williams were, but they were a very nice couple, who were, I felt, new to us, so perhaps they were lurkers:)
Anyway, this zetnutter had a great time. I would like to thank Sue for organising it superbly and for letting us all go back to her flat. I'd like to thank Dave Jackson for the lift and his company, and finally I would like to thank you all for making all of this possible for me <bg>
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| Dave "Frodsham" Jackson and Karen Mossman | Jim and Helen Williams from East Sussex |
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| Greg Smith and David Cock | Sue Haley and Trev Hartley |
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| Half of Geoffrey Goodman Jason Rutter and John Greetham |
Dave and Karen |
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| Alicia Grace, Helen Williams, Jim Williams | Greg Smith, Geoffrey Goodman, David Cock, John Greetham |
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| Trev Hartley | Sue at the sink |
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