Seeing lots of cool people in London

[liv]

Work is sending me on a course in London next month, and I've arranged things so I can have a few days in the metropolis. Would anyone like to get together between Friday 18^th November and Wednesday 23^rd? And can anyone offer me crash space for some of that time? I should mention that jack isn't going to be around for most of the weekend, so if you have a preference for seeing me sans partner, this is probably a good time to speak up.

Friday evening 18^th November: I'll probably end up getting the last train, which means I can do the service here and then travel after that. That means getting in to central London at about 10:30 pm. Would anyone be willing to put me up Friday night, on the understanding that I'll be getting in fairly late? (Coming up at a somewhat more civilized time is an option, though I'd be letting my community down mildly; coming up on Saturday morning is also very doable if nobody wants a late-arriving guest.)

Saturday 19^th November: anyone want to invite me to their shul? lethargic_man? kerrypolka? hadassah (well, I know you don't really have a regular shul, but wherever you end up on that particular weekend?) I'm rather itching for an opportunity to be a participant rather than an organizer, and I know some of you have some pretty exciting communities.

Saturday evening: any exciting parties going on? I'm equally interested in just spending the afternoon and evening hanging out with lovely people, but some people disapprove of doing that sort of low-key socializing on Saturday night. And it's fairly rare for me to be in town and have a Saturday night / Sunday pair free! Also I would appreciate crash space Saturday night, ideally with someone I'm also spending Saturday evening with, so that I don't end up just showing up in order to go straight to bed, because that's not very sociable.

Sunday 20^th: anyone want to do something cultural? Museums or exhibitions, perhaps, because I doubt it will be warm enough by then for anything very outdoorsy. I'm willing to be convinced, though!

Sunday evening: I think I'll probably park myself in the Pembury and drink tasty tasty beer. Would be lovely to see / play boardgames with any of the Pembury crowd! And this plan would be helped if I can find somewhere to stay in North-East London Sunday night.

Monday 21^st: jack may be able to join me for part of the day (but doesn't need crash space). I realize that most people are going to be working on Monday, but some of you are students / freelancers, and in any case it might be possible to grab lunch together or something. I'm thinking maybe about shopping; it's possibly close enough to Christmas that this is actually a terrible idea, but.

I'd be happy to go out to dinner Monday and or Tuesday evening, though I appreciate midweek isn't always ideal.

Can anyone offer crash space Monday and Tuesday night? The course is in Tooting again, so the best possible arrangement would be somewhere within reasonable travelling distance of there. But if that's not doable, I'd just as rather get to see people even if it means doing the dreaded London rush hour commute thing for a couple of days.

Wednesday 23^rd: I do need to catch a train home not too late, but if it works logistically, I could perhaps meet someone for an early supper somewhere fairly close to the city centre?

Comments

[khalinche]

I'll be at Buffycamp that weekend, but it would be delightful to see you for dinner on Monday. And as always, if you need crash space (albeit far from Tooting), you're welcome here.

[hairyears]

Seconded: you are always welcome in Amazonia!

Although there's no disputing that commuting to Tooting is a routing challenge from Leytonstone.

[liv]

Thank you, that's a very kind (and well-rhymed) invitation. It may or may not make sense on this occasion, but I appreciate the thought.

[liv]

OK, I'm still thinking about this as half my plans have fallen through. Are you planning to come to the Pembury Sunday evening, and if so may I come back with you and stay over at Amazonia that night? I agree it's not very sensible to get to Tooting from Leytonstone, but Monday the course won't have started yet, my only appointment is at 4 pm in Holloway.

Do tell me if this is a problem for you; it's no big deal, I may be able to stay with my brother who conveniently lives just round the corner from the Pembury. Or find some other workable plan, even if involves zooming across London after closing time.

[hairyears]

Delighted to!

[liv]

Ah, I'm not surprised you know the Buffycamp people, but I didn't realize you were actually part of that circle. Talk to jack; he's also doing Buffycamp and was thinking about driving back via north London so that we can at least briefly see eachother. So if you haven't already got transport plans in place you could reasonably get a lift with him. And yes, dinner on Monday would be delightful; I'll rely on you to suggest a place because you have much more experience than I do of eating out in London.

[kerrypolka]

Bagsy in on this! ;)

[khalinche]

:-)

[liv]

Depending on you arrangements for getting back to London, is lunch on Monday instead of dinner an option? No problem if that's inconvenient for you, I just suddenly find myself very popular and it seems like everybody wants to go out on Monday evening, to my slight astonishment. You have priority because you suggested it first, but if it's equally easy for you to do lunch, that would help me.

[khalinche]

I have interpreter school from 2pm in Hammersmith, so lunch is actually not particularly convenient unless it's more like brunch, and somewhere within easy reach of there. Sorry :/

[liv]

No problem at all, dinner it is. I'm just flailing a bit here because several people made arrangements and then realized they were double-booked and can't actually make the times they originally said. So the giant sudoku of weekend logistics isn't quite working out in my head. Getting to see you is one big plus, though, so yay dinner on Monday evening!

[wildeabandon]

What she said, except that Mondays are bad for me, but dinner on Tuesday would be grand - either here or out somewhere.

[liv]

Thanks very much for the offer. At some time I would love to go out for a meal with you, but I'm afraid I've already promised lethargic_man dinner on Tuesday evening. I hope you have a brilliant time at Buffycamp, anyway.

[lethargic_man]

I'm actually chez aviva_m that weekend, but happy to see you Tuesday evening (or Monday, at a pinch).

[liv]

Yay, sounds excellent! Let's do Tuesday evening. I think I finish at five but I'll be somewhere rather out of the way at that time. Does it make sense to meet somewhere central, do you think?

[lethargic_man]

Left to my own devices, I'd cycle that way, but it makes no sense to drag you from Tooting to Golders Green, so meeting somewhere central is probably best.

[purplecthulhu]

I probably won't be around at the weekend, but will be on the weekdays. Would b egret to see you then, and I do have a spare room if Bethnal Green is an adequate location.

I have to be up pretty early on the Tuesday morning so I can get to IC to teach, so be warned...

[liv]

Hmm, I assumed everybody would be fighting over the weekend slots and hardly anyone would be free during the week! I'd really like to see you but at this rate it's looking surprisingly tricky. How does Monday afternoon / early evening look for you? Are you likely to finish work at a normal time, and would you like to go out for a drink (either coffee-ish or beer-ish)?

Staying over at yours might work, and thank you very much for the offer. I'm more likely to take you up on that if it works out as a way of spending time with you, rather than just turning up in order to go to sleep. Early morning on Tuesday is fine as I'll have to be at St George's for a 9 o'clock start myself.

[purplecthulhu]

Rats - have just realised I have something else on on Monday - A is coming down for a thing at the HoP on tuesday and we have plans, though I forgot them in an aberration this morning.

What were you doing Tuesday????

Happy to meet other people you know as I'm mostly house trained :-)

[liv]

Don't worry, it happens. I'm pretty committed on Tuesday I think - the actual course all day, then early dinner with lethargic_man. How about Wednesday evening - I'm planning to go out for a meal with kake and she likewise said she'd be interested to meet more of my friends. Since I have to catch a train home, we'll most likely eat near Euston, which I think would be fairly reasonable for you to get to from Imperial?

If it doesn't work out, no problems, I'm sure we'll manage to get together at another point. Thanks again for inviting me even if it turned out the timing isn't quite right.

[purplecthulhu]

Only just got thuds today, Thursday. Very odd!

Hope your trip went well!

[liv]

No, wait, we have a miscommunication here. I'm not talking about this weekend that's just gone or the beginning of this week, I'm talking about 18^th through 23^rd November. Sorry for the confusion!

[purplecthulhu]

Oh!

Am clearly having an absent minded academic moment, possibly understandable since this week is my heaviest teaching week of the year, it seems...

Anyway, that changes the perspective as I *think* I'll be around the monday and tuesday evenings at the very least. So offers of spare room and meeting up restored!

The wednesday evening is a BSFA meeting with Steven Baxter and Paul Cornell, if you're about and interested.

[liv]

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you on this; the logistics got really really complicated suddenly and I retreated from it all for a week or so. I'd really like to stay over on Monday night, if that's ok with you. Can you PM me an email address so we can finalize timings etc?

Wednesday evening I have to catch a train back to Stoke, so I think trying to attend a meeting as well would be too stressful. But thanks very much for asking me.

I hope the heaviest teaching week bodes well for things getting easier for the rest of the year, anyway.

[purplecthulhu]

Will and personal message once I have worked out how to :-)

[purplecthulhu]

I think I managed to get the personal message send, so if you've not received it, let me know and I can try again!

[You can tell I've not down much with DW can't you?]

[kake]

I can put you up on the Monday and/or Tuesday evenings if you like. I live very near West Croydon station, which is quite handy for Tooting, and I'm off work that week so am available for fun too (though I hate shopping so will skip that part).

[liv]

Oh yay, thank you! I'd really like to meet you in person, after running into you on lots of different social sites. I don't really like shopping either, to be honest, I just had this vague thought that I could perhaps have a look at some quirky / vintage shops to get more ideas for wedding stuff. But realistically I'd rather be sociable than shop.

I think what might work is if I take up your very kind offer and stay over on Tuesday evening? I'm going out to dinner with lethargic_man but he's not a late night person so I expect to get back in reasonable time. That way I could easily get to the second day of my course on Wednesday, and we could meet up for lunch or supper on Wednesday, if that suits you?

[kake]

Yes, that sounds like a good plan! Could potentially even do lunch and supper on the Wednesday, since there are quite a few Indian cafes in Tooting I've been meaning to try out. But I will put supper in my diary as definite and lunch as tentative — I should know closer to the time what my plans are for the day.

Let me know your email address (I'm kake@earth.li), and I'll send you my home address etc.

[liv]

Indian cafés in Tooting sounds like just the thing. I had temporarily forgotten that you're the expert on interesting places to eat in London. I will email you so we can exchange contact details not right here in the middle of the internet.

[kake]

No rush on this, but just to let you know that I haven't received any email from you, so if you sent one it has gone astray.

[liv]

Thanks for the reminder. I got distracted from writing emails because of arrangements with several other people falling apart, sorry. But I'm about on top of things again, so you should have the email from me with meatspace contact details.

[kerrypolka]

Argh, I'm at Buffycamp that weekend, but it is my shul's fun musical service so you should totally go anyway (that said, it is even more fun when I am there, so maybe you should wait until December 17 instead).

I would love to see you Monday evening for dinner, or Tuesday after work (I have a Jewish theology discussion group that runs 8pm-9:30pm in Finchley that Tuesday, which you are more than welcome to attend!).

[liv]

Hm, it's starting to sound like this London weekend isn't going to go as well as I hoped. Am I well enough known at Alyth to get in without you to host me? Yeah, probably, I know the rabbis at least and have a good few names I can drop. I think whether I do that depends on whether I can find someone who wants to put me up on Friday night, or if all my friends are out of town on the relevant weekend!

As I said to khalinche, maybe you want to coordinate with jack about a lift back from Buffycamp on Monday? Or are you working Monday and therefore leaving camp a bit early?

I've said I'd have dinner with khalinche on Monday and lethargic_man on Tuesday. A theology discussion group sounds like my idea of heaven, but I don't think the timing is going to quite work out. Hm. Do you have the sort of job where you can get out of the office for lunch?

[kerrypolka]

Also Alyth is a super nice and friendly community so even if you don't have names to drop it will probably be all right! ;) I am indeed working Monday afternoon but am happy to either crash your dinner with Emma or do a 45-minute quickie lunch somewhere near my office on Tuesday or Wednesday (I'm by St Paul's, and we could grab some sandwiches and hang out with the protesters if nothing else!).

[liv]

Oh yes of course, you're a City person, aren't you? I now have unexpected guests coming up on Friday night, so I think I'm not going to make it to Alyth this time round. But at some point I'd really like to daven there.

I think I'm going to set aside Monday night just for seeing Emma; it doesn't always work but I do try to give my friends full attention when I'm seeing them, instead of trying to be "efficient" by socializing with lots of people at once. I also don't think lunch while I'm at the course is quite going to work; if we both only have 45 minutes lunchbreak, there's not time to get to the same place in order to eat. Curses, I've really picked the wrong weekend to come up to town. I hope we can make something work another time, especially if I manage to visit a weekend when you're around.

[kerrypolka]

Curses, I've really picked the wrong weekend to come up to town.

I think it's probably just the other side of the There Are Only 30 People On The Internet effect - "ooh, I didn't realise so many of my friends know each other!" isn't so great when we all run off on holiday together.

[liv]

OK, new plan: would you like to join me and kake for early dinner on Wednesday evening (23rd), probably somewhere central? Early because I have to catch a 9 pm train, but hopefully convenient for afterwork. It's a long shot, especially since I've left it a bit late, but it would be nice if you could make it!

[kerrypolka]

Ooh, that sounds brilliant actually! Ewan is at a talk that evening so I don't even have to ditch him. :D

[(Anonymous)]

Hello! fluffymark here, but I've never managed to get OpenID to work, so am posting like this.

I will be in London that weekend (grumble grumble not invited to buffycamp grr) so maybe can do something, maybe with doseybat, who should be back from exotic places by then? Pembury sounds possible on Sunday (I warn you I've not been there in months, so it'll be a nice change for me too) and I can offer crashspace in the spare room at my place in Leytonstone should you need it.

Probably best to email/text me rather than reply here, as I may forget to check back here for any reply.

[liv]

Cool, yay. I'll reply here just so that I have all the arrangements in one place, but also email you. I'd like to take up your offer of crash space on Sunday night after the Pembury, if that works for you?

just to keep all the logistical juggling up to date

[liv]

OK, looks like this isn't going to work. Back to the drawing board!

[nanaya]

You're welcome to crash here whenever you want, would love to see you whether or not that works out.

[liv]

Oh, yay, thank you! I was just going to email you in case you hadn't seen this. How about coming to yours for Saturday night and spending Sunday with you, and then heading to the Pembury in the evening (obviously you're welcome to join me or not for that part)? At this rate it's looking as if it's not really going to make sense for me to come up on Friday night, but we'll see if I get any further responses.

Depending how you're feeling, we could go out or stay in Saturday evening. If you want to meet up in town that's great, if you'd rather I come to you then I'm entirely happy to do that. Similarly with Sunday, we could do something cultural or go to an event, or just hang out and chat, the main thing is that it works out as an opportunity to spend time with you!

[verazea]

Have emailed this to doseybat who will be back from Madagascar by then. Will probably be a while before she sees it though.