Originally posted by PeakiteWell, I safely got back to Heidelberg.
Just back, avoided the tapas (how did it go guys?). But suffice to say a lot of beer was drunk, a lot of chess was played, and a good time had by all. Photos were taken by myself, mosquitorespect and Russ. Expect a much bigger update in the future, but I'll be loading a select few up in a moment.
A great bunch of people, and apologies if I do take the piss out of a few in the following pictures.
First off, a huge thanks to ivangrice for paying for my flight. That was just awesome, I'm so glad I could go-I can't really express in words how thankful exactly I am. Let me know if I can ever do something for you!
Then, thanks to Shavi for watching over me the whole time 😉
Thanks to Freddie for picking me up at Heathrow.
And thanks to James for organizing it and keeping the money for me until I got there.
So now, how was it? Friggin awesome! Freddie picked me up at Heathrow and we met up with Mark (Shavi) at the youth hostel. We then went to eat something, and then we went back to the youth hostel because I'd left my underground ticket in the locker room. We then went to the pub, although we had some difficulties finding it (yeah... my fault too, as I'd also left my map in the hostel...).
It was a funny experience-I was sitting there, and people kept coming in and going "Oh, hi, you must be Angie!"... and I always just sat there thinking "and who are you????", as except for Liam I recognized nobody! Well, geeky as we were, we started playing chess. I can't quite decide which was the bigger victory for me-beating a rhp player (I forgot the nickname... help me out here, you know who you are 😛) with a rating around 1600, or beating Chrismo twice or beating Russ in 5 moves 😀 (Russ has a funny sense of humor... after I beat him, he looked a bit ashamed, and then this kid with down's syndrome walks past.... and russ points at him and goes "I want to play him!"😉
Anyway, all the people were really nice. There were only 3 females there-colette, bambee and myself. Well, unless you count that one girl... she asked mosquitorespect what he was doing, and he said "Playing chess with some people who I only know over the internet"... and he got her email address 😉
For the gals who were not there, an update on looks: The typical good-lookers would have to be murrow and knightwest (Fabien?). Well, and Liam, if you like the alternative look (I do 😉), and James himself wasn't too bad either. Well and personally, I think Matt Hortin is absolutely adorable 😀
What was with the Tapas? Well, we went there because it "has this cool underground music scene"... which turned out to be very cheesy latin american music. The highlights were "Guantanamera", "Mambo No5" and "Sway", which says just about everything. It was fun though. Matt, Mark (Shavi) and I kept Freddie, James and Mark (Royalchicken) amused with the same card trick for over half an hour because they couldn't figure it out. The quality of the conversation sort of deteriorated though, eg. Shavi (to Colette): "Do you also suffer from domestic fox shagging?" Yes, and we discovered that Shavi is, in fact, freddie's dad, as he shags freddie's mom (supposedly).
I wonder if Russ has a hangover though... actually, I'm postive he has, considering his alcohol level last night... 😛 I had a mild one too though, and riding trains, planes and busses all morning was pretty bad...
But the meetup was so cool!!!!!!!!!!!
Thinking of you all,
Angie 😀
PS: Peakite: Actually, I took that first picture (Russ and Chris and Shavi), so the quality might be my fault. Russ said he'd host all the pictures on rhp, didn't he?
PPS: Guess what Russ was wearing? An rhp t-shirt....
Originally posted by angie88Well, he seems to have recovered - even though he did try to break out of my flat last night after a failed attempt to re-orient himself and find the sofa after a 4am visit to the bathroom.
I wonder if Russ has a hangover though... actually, I'm postive he has, considering his alcohol level last night... 😛
He is currently on his way back to Newbury, after waking up to the soothing tones of Bob The Dog.
Happy news though, the taxi driver paid us a quid to take us home. After handing over 20 quid and asking for a receipt, he handed me back the 20 pound note, the one pound change, and a blank receipt.
Originally posted by Chrismothat sounds like fun-I think next time I might take up your offer of turning your flat into a cost-free hostel for me (actually, I believe it was Russ who generously offered to Mark and me to stay at your place 😛)
Well, he seems to have recovered - even though he did try to break out of my flat last night after a failed attempt to re-orient himself and find the sofa after a 4am visit to the bathroom.
He is currently on his way back to Newbury, after waking up to the soothing tones of Bob The Dog.
Happy news though, the taxi driver paid us a quid to take us home. ...[text shortened]... g for a receipt, he handed me back the 20 pound note, the one pound change, and a blank receipt.
Originally posted by Peakiteaccidentally filled it out in the quote box-ah well, glad to be of assistance 😛
http://loves.members.beeb.net/100_0415v2.JPG
And I do confess in a couple of cases this is where I get a bit lost with RHP names/putting them to faces. So please do fill in here for me.
From l-r
Marinakatomb, Bambee, Colette, Starrman, Royalchicken, The Slow Pawn, Freddie, jones2005
Originally posted by angie88I think RolandYoung might be the player you're referring to there (not many 1,600 approx players around). And I think he is the one I managed to miss off my list earlier in the thread. He beat me though.
I can't quite decide which was the bigger victory for me-beating a rhp player (I forgot the nickname... help me out here, you know who you are 😛)
PS: Peakite: Actually, I took that first picture (Russ and Chris and Shavi), so the quality might be my fault. Russ said he'd host all the pictures on rhp, didn't he?
PPS: Guess what Russ was wearing? An rhp t-shirt....
Russ has said he'd host the pictures, I should be sending them sometime this week. Got to get round to resizing them first though - takes me too long to send otherwise.
I have the pictures you took of Russ modelling the RHP t-shirt, although the front version the pawn is covered up by his Guinness.