I thought I woud cover both bases by having something on here and on the BookFace.

Current plan is to descend on Manchester for the 2/3/4 May weekend. Night 1 could be a bit of the old er lamberage ploy, involving a meal, drinking and possibly a stand-up comedy night or somesuch. Night 2 could be all-out Xboxage and more drinking and chillaxing. Plus obviously giving Pete a slap.

What say ye?

PS Apologies for those now checking here and BookFace. Cretins like Marno and Drew may check Bookface but not the Fest. Cretins like Williams and Loren are not on BookFace but may check this. Cretins.

Yes, yes, thrice yes.

Nrice.

Sounds cool.
Given it is ween perhaps check gig lists to see if there isn't anything musically cool that weekend in some bar in Manchester? Maybe a phat guitarist pimping himself?

That sounds like a sack of monkey genius Dan. Good thinking. This is going to be awesome Sam, nice work.

Pedro von Blurk is already on the case

Ok I think so far we have the following:

Yes

Ween
Me
Pedro
Jonnyboy
King
Drew
Noj
Dan

Awaiting

Loz
Williams
Mango

No

Tart
Gov

I'll start looking into some cheapo hotels in central Manc-land.

If anyone can get hold of Mango let me know.

Count me in too, i'm up for that malarky!


I like the sound of this manchester place, good work sampie.

I'm curious - why Manchester?

Manchester is the nucking futs.

There's lots going on and we can all give Pete a slap. And its cheaper than London.

Bring on the Trumpets!

Actually having said that, I now want, for the second series of Hole in the Wall, "Up Hill Down" Dale Winton to announce the its Polystyrene Redness with:

"Bring on the Wall"

"Bring on the Wall!"

"BRING ON THE WALL!"

"Hahahaha. WALL!"

Count me in.

Currently my text alert:

Right, the WeenStag posse seems to be as follows:

Ween
Me
Pedro
Jonnyboy
King
Drew
Noj
Dan
Loz
Williams
Mango

Which means I am booking 5 twins in a Manchester hotel, as Pete has his own place to crash at.

Further details to be circulated at a later date unless anyone has any further queries?

Yes: Who is my cheese?

This will be of limited use to most people, but it saves me losing the information.

Flying with flybe looks like it will cost 70 quid return and the journey takes an hour from soton + whatever it costs to get into Manc from the air port.

Train costs about 44 quid, although they don't let me book that far in advance, so its a guesstimate, and takes 4.5 hours from soton.

I'm guessing the more northern people will be driving/training and the more southern, if there are any, will fly?

Edit: Google maps' random generated time to drive is about 3.75 hours. I have no idea if that is a reasonable estimate.

I'd probably favour flying because even with checkin its quicker than training, but will do whatever suits everyone.

Travel Options

Summary: Car is likely to be the best option for most people.

The apartment building where we are staying is within a 5 minute walk from the central train station (Manchester Piccadilly). Due to maintenance work on the West Coast Main Line over the bank holiday weekend, there are no direct trains between London and Manchester (and no cheap advance tickets).


For Warren, King, Noj & Drew (from Southampton)
Train is direct but takes 4h30m and open return >£80. Booking specific trains >£65

As Noj points out, flying is quicker and about the same price. Taxi from Manchester airport to apartment building is <£20

Car journey will take 3h30m-4h. Since the 4 of you live relatively close to each other, this is probably the best option. Cheaper than flying and no hassle getting to and from airports.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d...675415&t=h&z=10

For Marno (from Cardiff)
Car and direct train both ~3h30m. Open return is £62. Advance singles from £11 - best option.


For Sam (from London)
Train is possible from St. Pancras to Manchester with a switch in Sheffield - 3h-3h30m, ~£60 open return. Alternatively, you could get involved in one of the car trips.


For Dan, Loren, Matt, Jon
Car journey from Cambridge or St. Albans takes 3h-3h30m - scope for ride sharing.
Train via London is about £60 but many changes involved (Dan: easier train from Cambridge - one switch).


This is far from a complete list, but it should get you started.

Car sharing sounds good to me. I'm willing to drive unless anyone else has a particular urge to.


I'm pretty sure you can go direct from Euston.

nice one pedro, it would appear that your san diego-vegas planning skills werent just a flash in the pan

you keep phoning me when im busy... try harder next time.

btw, im loving those apartments.

Engineering work is currently scheduled for that weekend, so there are no direct trains from Euston. The situation may improve as we get closer to the 2nd of May.

Cheers Pete; I'd pretty much come to the same conclusion: I could get the train from Blackwater (changing at Reading) for £65-odd or share a car. I reckon a car would be best.

I would be willing to drive but it might not be practical as I both have a little car and live closer to Manc than the rest of us Southerners. So instead I am offering my company in exchange for a lift. (There may be some petrol money in it as well.) Any takers?

If you can make it to Cambridge I'm happy to drive you guys if you don't mind being in the back of a small coupe for a few hours. Also happy to go with John if he has a bigger car and/or he's easier to get to for the majority.

There is probably more room in the back of my car. We could either come up to Cambridge and cut across and north from there, or meet down here. not sure which is easiest. I'll look into it.

Edit: looks like coming via Cambridge is do-able. We can take the A14 all the way to the M6.

Well I'm game for that, nice one. All good for Loren/Matt?

I will check.

Sampie? You too?

Gentle Badgers of the Nih Table

I am proud to announce that I have tested the Google Checkout wunderbox on the Hawkins Wedding site and it works wonders dont you know!

I would entreat you all to get on there before the first week of april cos I believe Thomas Cook are being right shizzlewits about when they can collect for it. So save the sexy times holiday people!

DO IT DO IT DO IT NOW

May the juice be with you.

Govi*

PS - Ween has told me that he has already told you what I just told you above. But I cannot be arsed to delete this post. lalalalalalalalala

If I can get a lift with someone, that would be great. I'm now living near Finsbury Park so I can reasonably easily train it out to meet you countryside-dwelling folk.

Matt, Dan, Loren, Sam:

My proposal is as follows: Sammyboy and Matt get up to Hatfield on t'train where I will pick you up. We will then drive over to Hertford to grab Loz. Following that we will chip up the A10 to Cambridge for Dannyboy.

Then the roadtrip proper begins. This should work out as a hell of a lot cheaper than people getting the train all the way up to Mancland.

The only thing that we need to think about then is parking when we get there.

Bosh.

Sounds like a gran.

Southerners how are we to travel? I still reckon a car share is best: if you fancy squeezing in my Ka then I'll drive.

Sam/Pete: When do we get the apartments; time and dates? Is there parking?

Parking is mentioned in the facilities section of the website for the apartments. Does anyone have the energy to make the call to find out how much it costs?

You will be ecstatic to hear that there is no onsite parking at 'The Atrium.' When they say parking is available, they mean that there is an NCP car park down the road.

shouldnt be a problem...

one point of concern -

TV's
i've had a problem with my big 40" lcd, so its dead - and i've had to move my 26" into the lounge, and then my 20" monitor into the bedroom, so i doubt i'll have a spare TV to bring up to manchester.

also, are we wanting the guitar hero drums/guitar rig? only that it'll take up some boot space.

even in my car... fitting in guitar hero, 360 + shizzle, tv, 4 people and 4 bags of clothes and stuff will probably be impossible.

I can bring my 360, 2 controllers and street fighter joystick (if people want some old school gaming). I'm also TV-less because Suzie is staying over to feed the cats and will murder me if she doesn't have any TV to watch.

Sounds like we are going to need a two car strategy from the south though.

Edit: I would love some rock band action.

I have a similar issue with bringing a TV to Noj. I'll do my best but the chances are slim to be honest. I do have an xbox and one controller at everyone's disposal.

Can't really help on the transport front - I have a full complement of 5 persons already.

Are we going for all-out Xbox-age, or is there room for some Wii as well?

I have a 360 controller to bring also (I guess I needn't bother with the machine itself). I have Tart's Wii as well though only Sports and Super Smash Bros Brawl are working as the chip seems to have thrown a wobbly. And 2 sets of controllers if needed.

I haven't yet joined the massed ranks of flat-screens so can't really help there.

Are we booked in Sat 14:00 to Mon 11:00?

Who does have a tv/360 controllers that they can bring?

Between me and Ween we have 4 controllers and 2 360s, so Ideally we will want 2 TVs and 4 more controllers for some 4 on 4 action. We could go for more, but I have a feeling we'll struggle getting enough TVs.

Well Jon has another controller and I have 2 (one's wired) so that's another 3 controllers that are available.

I definitely can't bring a TV.

I will bring a 360 with 4 controllers.

I also have a 20" screen available.

There should be an existing TV in each apartment.

In a completely unrelated request, does anyone have the newest Brookmyre? Could you bring it up to Manchester? Our library here is sadly lacking... Obviously, you can borrow any of my books in trade (or...just if you want to borrow a book...)

I am just as unable to bring the latest Brookmyre as I am to bring a television. My ability to borrow books is is still operating at full strength however.

I can bring a couple of wii controllers if people want to wii.
No TV, although Pete seems to have that sorted.
Could even move one tv from one apt to the other so we have three together.

I can bring 2 wii controllers too if that's helpful.

Okay, Williams, Sampie, Loren (as if he's reading this) and Dannyboy:

If any of you want to bundle over to mine on the Friday night and stay then you are more than welcome. That way we can then chip up to Madchester at our leisure. If not, the plan is for Williams and Sam to get yourselves to Hatfield, then for us to grab Loz from Hertford and then up to Cambridge for Sums.


Everyone else:

Food, drink? What's the ploy? I propose that we just go on a supermarket mission to buy copious amounts of alcohol as soon as we arrive in Manchester. Thoughts?

The same goes for me; if anyone wants a bit of a head start you are wlecome to crash at mine Friday night.

As for food Tart's Stagbadger went well enough on the above model. Though I suggest that if anyone wants anything special they should bring it (celiac ceral, Plymouth Gin, etc.).

on the tv front, i know sometimes these kinda places have a 'travelinn' style setup with a butcherd TV setup, they're all locked down, and the scart sockets are disabled etc. i dunno if thats the case, but i'd prefer to have some HD LCD action going if poss

i might try and see if i can acquire a projector for some big screen gaming
no promises though...

did we establish if the flats would be on the same floor, or above/below each other? we could always adopt a long cat5 cable to arrange a room vs room setup.

depending on room sizes, will we able to comfortably sit 10 people + tvs + shizzle in one apartment?


on another side note. did we confirm that the booking is for saturday and sunday nights? what time can we arrive on the Saturday?

pedro/sammyboy - shall we find a restaurant to book in advance?

JP - depending on the route you intend to take to Manc, if Cambridge isn't going to be too far out the way, it would save me travelling 1 hour in virtually the opposite direction to where we're heading. You going A1 or M1?

However, might chip down to yours on Friday anyway to extend the fun and extra night. =)

Dan

Dannyboy: Either of those scenarios is fine with me and I agree it doesn't really make sense for you to drive all the way down to mine.. Assuming I come up to Cambridge then we will get the A14 from there direct across to the M6.

Bosh.