MSCList - Meetings in London

Join us - the meetings in person

An archive in words, pictures and sound

Well, no pictures at the present time: scanning these pictures in requires me to finish off the film, and that seems to be taking forever. Newest: the real audio (get the player) files of August 30 with Eli, Lisa, Nic, AndrejandNicola. Play full or download part one and part two. And here's my write-up of the events of July 5.

sitting in a very visible place is a Laa-Laa backpack. That must be directly behind shimelle.
I was wondering to myself, why the blazes am I here. Here being platform 2 at Stafford station, waiting for a train that was going forward to engage reverse gear and head towards London. Within two hours, it had indeed engaged reverse gear and was arriving at Euston.
Whoosh! Down to the Underground ticket machine, and to the Northern line (City branch) (Southbound) for a train to Bank. Curses! As one pulls out before my eyes, and another doesn't arrive for five minutes. Then whoosh! along the path to Monument, and a District liner to Tower Hill.
Upstairs at Tower Hill, it's bright and sunny. And sitting in a very visible place is a Laa-Laa backpack. "That," I thought to myself, "must be directly behind shimelle." And it was. Sitting next to shimelle was a young man who could only be Mark. Mainly coz he was.
We said our helloes, and sat back to wait for Lisa and Amal. Pondering deep, meaningful questions about the meaning of life and the intrinsic power of the Teletubbies, we spotted Lisa lurking by the exit to the station. Now, lurking in the shadows is not something that should come naturally to Lisa, so we waved hard and invited her up to join us. Then, while my back was turned, Amal appeared from nowhere. And we were set...

we found a store that sold utter crap. we could tell that by the preponderance of Diana memorabilia in the window

First on the agenda was something to eat. Eating, we decided, is A Good Move. Eating near the Tower, though, is Not A Good Move, being all fast food joints and shoddy and expensive ice cream parlours. So we made the tube connections to Piccadilly Circus, posed nicely for photographs, and started finding somewhere to eat.
This process, though, was interrupted by shimelle's desire to pick up some Really Tacky Mugs (tm) for her grandparents. We hawked round a tea shop, but rejected their wares as just too staid and plain. Then we found a store that sold utter crap. We could tell that by the preponderance of Diana memorabilia in the window, and the statement that "(store X) has made a donation to the Diana Memorial Fund in respect of these items". A donation of size adjacent to one new penny, I'll be bound.
So, with two Union Jack mugs in tow (as opposed to in Laa-Laa), we set sail for a restaurant. Finally alighting on a Decently Cheap Restaurant, we all selected our favourite Chinese dish. Dead animals and rice for Lisa; dead animal and noodles for Mark and Amal; rice and vegetables for shim and myself. Go fig. And the dessert is a large plate of orange segments. The spirit of Brem is with us still.
After our repast, we decide to head for Covent Garden. It's somewhere to aim at, and Lisa's map shows the approximate way to go. Not that Lisa will ever admit to leading us: she's just the one with the map, natch. Indeed, some touristy types are looking for Oxford Street, and Lisa's map tells them the way to go. Up Charing Cross Road till you find it. Lisa's map doesn't show the Exceedingly Nice Bag Shop, though; shim spots it and dives in for an Exceedingly Nice Paper Bag.

Mark is struck by the number of cards and posters devoted to his lovely Babara Streisand. that's "S-t-r-e-i-s-a-n-d, pronounced 'Frost'".
We, however, need to go down Charing Cross Road, towards Trafalgar Square. And we stop by a film and pop culture memorabilia shop. Lisa is struck by the preponderance of "South Park" goodies.
Mark is struck by the number of cards and posters devoted to his lovely Babara Streisand. That's "S-t-r-e-i-s-a-n-d, pronounced 'Frost'". Lisa would go bananas over the amount of "Friends" goodies and knick-knacks there are floating around, but she's way too cool to go bananas over anything. Amal just watches on, amused at everything that's happening.
Between them, shim and Lisa buy a collection of postcards of Leo, Rocky Horror and sundry other cultural icons de nos jours. And shim picks up some very large (like, massive) posters for "Romeo + Juliet" and "Rent". Posters that even Mark has trouble lugging around.
Then, from one pop culture shop to another. Lisa wants to pop in "just for a moment". We spend a good half hour in there. We spot autographed pictures of various famous stars: Claire's autograph is 60 pounds, the same as Courtney Cox. Neve Campbell is ten pounds cheaper, while one of Leo, Kate Winsome and James Cameron will go for a whopping 499 pounds. Ouch!
This is a cool store. It features a full rack of postcards starring young Leo di Laine, and some "Romeo + Juliet" postcards that even movie-mistress shim hadn't seen before. As well as prints from the publicity photo-section for that movie. I bought one of those, and wonderful it will look when framed. shim spotted some fake dollar bills, bearing the head of her fiance. Very much so.

there's one chap playing something that looks like a set of bedsprings of different lengths
Sated by all this Hollywood art, we finally complete the journey to Covent Garden. It's taken us the better part of two hours to walk the mile or so.
Amal is somewhat taken by the crowd of artisans in the area. There's one chap playing something that looks like a set of bedsprings of different lengths (well, more musical than my singing...) and another chap going through his yoga exercises while painted pink with yellow splodges. Mark is of the opinion that this is just a waste of time. I call up Sky Sports to offer rights to the pay-per-view boxing his comment causes.
shim heads into the Doc Martens store, looking for - well, what was shim looking for in there? Something glittery and boot-tastic, no doubt. She sees that band's boots, as well as ones from Aerosmith. And on the CD player conveniently placed on the second floor, it's a Kenickie CD! Two of them, in fact! The two singles for "Punka" from last year. This, my friends, is how to make Laa-Laa dance in the middle of the store.
I'm getting rather thirsty by this point, so we head towards the nearest cafe. En route, we pass by the Channel 5 / Major League Baseball exhibition. Showing brief highlights of last weekend's games between the Mets and the Yankees, and featuring batting and pitching exhibits. Passing up on this showcase - there's not a Royals cap in sight - we head to the Transport Museum cafe, where cappuchini are the order of the day. We pass around a postcard to one of the people who couldn't be with us today, and discuss reasons why Carol Vorderman will be a great choice for President of the UK.

discuss reasons why Carol Vorderman will be a great choice for President of the UK.
And then, the end is near. We meander back to Covent Garden tube station, and board a train headed West. Lisa's staying on to Hammersmith, Mark and shim leave at Green Park, but I go just 350 yards down the line to Leicester Square.
It was a great day, spending time with the uber-cool Lisa, the enigmatic enigma that is Amal, and the oddball couple that is Mark and shim. Kudos to you all.

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This page updated September 6, 1998

	sitting in a very visible place is a Laa-Laa backpack. That must be directly behind shimelle.	I was wondering to myself, why the blazes am I here. Here being platform 2 at Stafford station, waiting for a train that was going forward to engage reverse gear and head towards London. Within two hours, it had indeed engaged reverse gear and was arriving at Euston. Whoosh! Down to the Underground ticket machine, and to the Northern line (City branch) (Southbound) for a train to Bank. Curses! As one pulls out before my eyes, and another doesn't arrive for five minutes. Then whoosh! along the path to Monument, and a District liner to Tower Hill. Upstairs at Tower Hill, it's bright and sunny. And sitting in a very visible place is a Laa-Laa backpack. "That," I thought to myself, "must be directly behind shimelle." And it was. Sitting next to shimelle was a young man who could only be Mark. Mainly coz he was. We said our helloes, and sat back to wait for Lisa and Amal. Pondering deep, meaningful questions about the meaning of life and the intrinsic power of the Teletubbies, we spotted Lisa lurking by the exit to the station. Now, lurking in the shadows is not something that should come naturally to Lisa, so we waved hard and invited her up to join us. Then, while my back was turned, Amal appeared from nowhere. And we were set...
	we found a store that sold utter crap. we could tell that by the preponderance of Diana memorabilia in the window	First on the agenda was something to eat. Eating, we decided, is A Good Move. Eating near the Tower, though, is Not A Good Move, being all fast food joints and shoddy and expensive ice cream parlours. So we made the tube connections to Piccadilly Circus, posed nicely for photographs, and started finding somewhere to eat. This process, though, was interrupted by shimelle's desire to pick up some Really Tacky Mugs (tm) for her grandparents. We hawked round a tea shop, but rejected their wares as just too staid and plain. Then we found a store that sold utter crap. We could tell that by the preponderance of Diana memorabilia in the window, and the statement that "(store X) has made a donation to the Diana Memorial Fund in respect of these items". A donation of size adjacent to one new penny, I'll be bound. So, with two Union Jack mugs in tow (as opposed to in Laa-Laa), we set sail for a restaurant. Finally alighting on a Decently Cheap Restaurant, we all selected our favourite Chinese dish. Dead animals and rice for Lisa; dead animal and noodles for Mark and Amal; rice and vegetables for shim and myself. Go fig. And the dessert is a large plate of orange segments. The spirit of Brem is with us still. After our repast, we decide to head for Covent Garden. It's somewhere to aim at, and Lisa's map shows the approximate way to go. Not that Lisa will ever admit to leading us: she's just the one with the map, natch. Indeed, some touristy types are looking for Oxford Street, and Lisa's map tells them the way to go. Up Charing Cross Road till you find it. Lisa's map doesn't show the Exceedingly Nice Bag Shop, though; shim spots it and dives in for an Exceedingly Nice Paper Bag.
	Mark is struck by the number of cards and posters devoted to his lovely Babara Streisand. that's "S-t-r-e-i-s-a-n-d, pronounced 'Frost'".	We, however, need to go down Charing Cross Road, towards Trafalgar Square. And we stop by a film and pop culture memorabilia shop. Lisa is struck by the preponderance of "South Park" goodies. Mark is struck by the number of cards and posters devoted to his lovely Babara Streisand. That's "S-t-r-e-i-s-a-n-d, pronounced 'Frost'". Lisa would go bananas over the amount of "Friends" goodies and knick-knacks there are floating around, but she's way too cool to go bananas over anything. Amal just watches on, amused at everything that's happening. Between them, shim and Lisa buy a collection of postcards of Leo, Rocky Horror and sundry other cultural icons de nos jours. And shim picks up some very large (like, massive) posters for "Romeo + Juliet" and "Rent". Posters that even Mark has trouble lugging around. Then, from one pop culture shop to another. Lisa wants to pop in "just for a moment". We spend a good half hour in there. We spot autographed pictures of various famous stars: Claire's autograph is 60 pounds, the same as Courtney Cox. Neve Campbell is ten pounds cheaper, while one of Leo, Kate Winsome and James Cameron will go for a whopping 499 pounds. Ouch! This is a cool store. It features a full rack of postcards starring young Leo di Laine, and some "Romeo + Juliet" postcards that even movie-mistress shim hadn't seen before. As well as prints from the publicity photo-section for that movie. I bought one of those, and wonderful it will look when framed. shim spotted some fake dollar bills, bearing the head of her fiance. Very much so.
	there's one chap playing something that looks like a set of bedsprings of different lengths	Sated by all this Hollywood art, we finally complete the journey to Covent Garden. It's taken us the better part of two hours to walk the mile or so. Amal is somewhat taken by the crowd of artisans in the area. There's one chap playing something that looks like a set of bedsprings of different lengths (well, more musical than my singing...) and another chap going through his yoga exercises while painted pink with yellow splodges. Mark is of the opinion that this is just a waste of time. I call up Sky Sports to offer rights to the pay-per-view boxing his comment causes. shim heads into the Doc Martens store, looking for - well, what was shim looking for in there? Something glittery and boot-tastic, no doubt. She sees that band's boots, as well as ones from Aerosmith. And on the CD player conveniently placed on the second floor, it's a Kenickie CD! Two of them, in fact! The two singles for "Punka" from last year. This, my friends, is how to make Laa-Laa dance in the middle of the store. I'm getting rather thirsty by this point, so we head towards the nearest cafe. En route, we pass by the Channel 5 / Major League Baseball exhibition. Showing brief highlights of last weekend's games between the Mets and the Yankees, and featuring batting and pitching exhibits. Passing up on this showcase - there's not a Royals cap in sight - we head to the Transport Museum cafe, where cappuchini are the order of the day. We pass around a postcard to one of the people who couldn't be with us today, and discuss reasons why Carol Vorderman will be a great choice for President of the UK.
	discuss reasons why Carol Vorderman will be a great choice for President of the UK.	And then, the end is near. We meander back to Covent Garden tube station, and board a train headed West. Lisa's staying on to Hammersmith, Mark and shim leave at Green Park, but I go just 350 yards down the line to Leicester Square. It was a great day, spending time with the uber-cool Lisa, the enigmatic enigma that is Amal, and the oddball couple that is Mark and shim. Kudos to you all.