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This two part meetup was by far the most intense and exciting meetup ever haha. It involved wii’s, failed bbqs, crazy wasabi challenges and a host of other crazy antics.
I’ll keep everything in summary form since most of the day can be found on Inn’s blog (she’s pretty much summarised the events in her own account).
Anyway, this 2 day muser meetup was planned ever since Mona (muser) was coming down to London from Sweden. We have organised a small gathering which somehow snowballed into a massive muser meetup involving nando’s, ds lites and dslr cameras. Sooner or later when I bought the wii, the wii became another main attraction for the meetup. Kazzie managed to persuade her mum to hold a small party for a few of us to play wii as well as have a bbq. This wasn’t part of the meetup but something me, stu, inn kazzie (and adam later on) wanted to do. Me, inn and stu were big fans of smash brothers melee and we were excited in getting that going and having dangerous battles all night long.
Anyway, thats a bit of the history to the meetup. The main meetup itself starts now.
Plan was, 1pm meetup, eat wasabi sushi, lounge about in some coffee shop and have a nice banter (followed by our own little wii party). Thats the plan in its most innocent form, one must remember that muser meetups NEVER Go as plan, its usually filled with late comers, lost souls and over doing something to a point that timekeeping is impossible (not to mention sleep).
Everyone met up at Victoria station at 1pm. I had several errands to do, first I had to pick up my howling bells ticket at the Royal Mail delivery office, then I had to pick up my memory card from B for my camera since she gave it back to me without the memory card. This pretty much delayed my arrival at Victoria to about 2pm. In a way, it was good since nothing was done anyway, we were still waiting for people, the group didnt have a clue where to go and sit and Kazzie and Adam were going to arrive 30 minutes later. When I arrived I immediately said my usual hellos, and just fucked off to a Yo Sushi for some made to order yakisoba. People were just waiting there and seeing that it was just going to be waiting at Victoria in the cold, I’d rather pop into a Yo Sushi and get some action before I do a Wasabi meal.
More people turned up then I imagined, it didnt really look like the intimate pre meetup that I had imagined it to be, but nonetheless, we continued on.
It was fun leading people to embankment, most people were still confused as to how to take the tube, its probably the most intuitive thing ever, if you dont understand the map, just follow the pretty colours. But yeah, its all about sign reading but people lack that 
We finally got to the wasabi stu was planning on taking us, but it didnt have seating so we were considering going to picadilly circus to try out luck at the wasabi that had seating, I was pretty much leading the way again, and to do a meetup, one must be totally oblivious to preparation in order to have the perfect meetup (becauase planning sucks the fun out of adventure). Anyway, i chose the wrong direction to get to picadilly but lied to everyone and said we were going to take the bus haha. People got a bit frustrated and we ended up going to wasabi in embankment and sitting in some random park.
I managed to bag myself TWO bags of wasabi. It looked like I was going all out when in fact it was a bag for the sushi and a bag for the chicken yakisoba. The park was a bit shite, you couldnt sit on the grasss and the benches were already filled with people, we managed to find 3 benches next to each other that were empty and decided to camp there and eat.
We met some random muser who wanted to meet Stu and the rest of the gang, she was surprised to find out who we were and said how she’d never expect us to look like that etc. Anyway, we had our sushi and immediately began our wasabi challenge. I had an extra packet of wasabi so I decided to use that to smother other peoples sushi to make the challenge, challenging.
The challenge itself was pretty awesome, about 5 people participated (me, Inn, Mona, Aino and some random person). Mona was indeed the king of eating spicey stuff, just check the aminated gif and you’ll know what I mean haha
I though I was going to be able to survive it but the sensation is like a volcano erupting out of your nostrils. The sensation lasts for about 3-5 seconds but it makes you explode inside.
Stuff you experience are runny nose, tears in your eyes, nice puffy red face and of course the dying need to go ARRGH! Afterwards its all good haha. Mona continued to tempt fate by eating wasabi raw. Though there was much left so yeah. Its only good with sushi to be honest. The challenge was so fun that we HAD to do it again the next day haha.
After some banter, we decided to head off to a coffee shop. We noticed some protesting going on so we decided to go and check that out. It was a “No war on Iran” protest held in trafaulgar square. We decided to advance into the area, I managed to find some signs people used to protest (probably left there by people leaving the area) I began getting one for myself and started protesting, soon the group all joined in with the protest, it was a nice feeling, though we were probably taking the piss haha, were we? Who knows.
After a nice protest, Aino and Max decided to go do some babysitting whilst the rest of the crew went to a starbucks to lounge about. We did a quick walk to leceister square and I managed to find a starbucks that we could drink in before it starting raining.
Twas a friendly lounge about, inn had trouble finding chairs and then she had to order the drinks for everyone haha. Once things settled in we just had a nice banter. I think I tried using internet and all. But yeah, this was as relaxed and chilled as the day goes. Afterwards it was time for us to all say goodbye. Mona needed to get back to Oxford Circus so I led them all to that general direction and along the way, go into Soundcontrol for some instrument abuse.
I managed to demonstrate a few songs but that was about it, I really need to learn some new songs haha. Everyone was tired after that. Inn in particular. So we decided it was time to go back to Kazzie’s place.
The train journey was pretty painful. We had to get to Watford and then Kazzie would drive us to her place. Most people had some beef on the idea that we had to get Zone A passes just because of this, and that it would have been easier if Kazzie parked her car at Brent Cross and did the driving there. The journey was just painful. We had to take buses, taxi’s and did a bit of walking to get to her place. Inn’s account is probably alot more detailed so its best to read her post haha.
Right, lets skip to the fun bit, at Kazzies house. Her mum was very kind to buy loads of stuff we requested, including my rice cakes, beer, and gay malibu. We managed to nip to tescos to buy some food for BBQ’ing, but lacked the special ingredient for BBQs… firelighters. I was guranteed by inn and stu that they could get a bbq going so I went along with it. I had to pay £5 to buy the damn charcoal and all.
Anyway, while inn and stu did the hard labour stuff (ie set up the bbq). I did the stuff that people got paid highly to do. Set up stuff haha. Though when you think about it, I dont think anyone knew how to set up a wii, and more importantly, I wouldnt allow people to touch my wii haha.
Twas a bit annoying Kazzie’s TV, she said there component but i found out that there wasnt. Was lucky to have brought my composite cable otherwise there would be no wii! So yeah, that waas pretty much set up, and I wanted to get her wifi sorted too but they were all too busy surfing on the board, or making bbqs. The BBQ itself failed misrably, I did touch it at all but it seems that they couldnt keep a constant fire going. I’ve seen people fail with the liquid stuff so i wasnt surprised that bits of card and candles didnt do. I myself use about 12 cubes of firelighters to get a PROPER bbq going haha.
After all the bantering, we finally got into some wii action. This was what the whole night was all about. Battling it out, me and stu had a quick game of smash brothers to see who was full of it. Turns out stu was haha. I whooped him silly!!! Not your average silly, silly silly. The kind of silly you see in the bible when David tries battling a giant, only to find that his weapons were pawned for booze money and that he was drunk during the fight.
Inn made her pancakes during the fight, I didnt get to try some, but wasnt keen on the idea of pancakes in the evening. I’m not a fan of sweet things either. Something wrong about that. Dunno what.
I decided that we shouldnt waste the burgers and sausages so whilst people were doing random stuff (ie surf the web) I cooked the sausages and burgers. It was nice that we onions, otherwise the burgers and sausages were just plain lame.
People were a bit intimidated by smash brothers, when I refer to people I pretty much mean kazzie and adam, they both suck at it and did nothing but fall off the stage like the losers they are haha.
Wii sports was where it’s at. We had alot of intense battles on the wii, we started off with a bit of tennis, then it got into stuff like baseball and ultimately, wii boxing. I think I ruled at wii boxing, doing some mighty fierce jabs and managed to beat adam in the first round with 3 knock outs. Bowling wasnt that fun, I beat stu with loads of spares, stu had a spin going on whilst I was able to control my ball to get strikes or spares.
Baseball was fun haha, most of the time it was strikeouts. Me and stu played and it ended in a 3-2 victoria (or maybe 2-1). We hardly did much home running. Stu did some pretty fast bowls and all. After wii sports inn kinda took charge of the multiplayer mode in wario wares smooth moves. We tried one of the sub games where we had to get cake and jump over holes, that was fun. Me and inn managed to get a cake and fuck up only a few times. Adam and Kazzie tried it too but missed out on the cake.
We then played a variety of multiplayer games which we would pass the wiimote to one another. It was pretty exciting, I managed to come second all the time in that :(.
After all the wii goodness it was back to the game we were all creaming over. Super Smash Brothers… MELEEEE! This time we excluded kazzie and adam from the game purely on the fact that they were rubbish ahha. The games were pretty intense. I was cocky enough to play against them handicapped, they knew they wouldnt have won if it was a free for all so it was probably the most fair way to play. At first I even threw in a jigglepuff to aid them, but consider this. I had 5 lives, I had to kill them 15 times to be able to win. A good victory if i managed to pull it off. It was definitely a challenge to fight humans handicapped. They’re not like computers, least you cant hold grudges against computers anyway.
It waas a vicious vicious battle. The games kept coming and coming, we would scream and shout if we lost or won a battle. Near the end, I was finally getting the hang of it all. My strategies in the past were focused mainly on computers, usually my tactic was to let them kill each other and then go for the kill but this time, they were all after me 
Stu kept using pikachu to throw lightening bolts whenever i was above him and inn would just run away everytime she got a beating.
It was tedious nonetheless. Sooner or later I managed to figure out the best ways of defeating them and then it was apparent that I was defintiely a threat to them, EVEN when being double teamed haha.
The battles lasted all night to about 4 or 5. It was depressingly awesome haha. We were well aware that another meetup was scheduled tommorow but we just couldnt put our pads down and goto sleep, there was so much animal instinct built up inside of us that we couldnt of just called it a night. We finally did, but probably because we were far too tired to play and that the characters were becoming more and more blurred haha.
We decided to call it a night. Kazzie had sorted the airbed and all for me to sleep whilst the other two were sleeping on the couch (separate ones obviously).
Anyway, since the meetup was held at 1pm we had to wake up at around 9 and leave around 11 to kinda make it on time. I managed to set a few alarm clocks (my ds lite and my phone) to go off at that time. I put my ds in an awkward place which required me to get up to turn it off so it should be bullet proof.
Anyway, sleep time, had a bit of a chat but eventually we all went to sleep. I had NO idea who it was but I was woken up about 5 or 6 times by some VICIOUS snoring. It kept building up, and I was so close to just throw a pillow at whoever it was (i think it was stu!) but yeah. That didnt help with the sleep haha.
At 9 I did managed to wake up, thanks to the ds lite and mobile phone, but guess what? Everyone was tired as fuck and still needed to sleep. GARGH! There was hardly any motivation in getting up so I just gave up and went to sleep a bit more. It finally got to a point where I HAD to turn on… the wii. and Play SMASH BROTHERS
Stu bounced right up and we were immediately playing smash brothers, that REALLY got her heads working haha.
Thats part 1 done 
Sort of a pre birthday meetup. Was originally planned as a normal Nando’s meetup where people just went nuts on Nando’s but since it was so close to my birthday I dubbed it my birthday meet haha.
The planned time to meet up was 3pm… I somehow managed to arrive at 5:30 or something stupid. Can’t remember what I was doing, probably bantering about on my camera and trying to get to grips with Photoshop CS2. I met Popey, Blee and Max at Victoria station, got a bit lost on where it was but eventually found it (usually I’m good at finding my way around Victoria since I went past there twice a weekend last year). Never knew Victoria had a Wasabi thingy.
Today was also where I was able to test out my new mobile service I signed up a few days ago, Shozu. It allowed me to upload photos I took on my mobile immediately to my flickr account. I wrote a quick muse board thread detailing photos that they can expect to appear randomly during the meetup, it was quite a few thing. Bit too geeky but it’s something people will be heading eventually (automatically geotagged photos, the lot).
We eventually headed down to Nando’s where we had some Sangria before we ordered. Kazzie was going to be a tad late since the people at her work made her work slightly longer then she had expected. Popey began devising his Secret Santa treasure hunt he had made for Kazzie. The locations were slightly unadventurous (under chairs and tip boxes) but I guess its the thought that counts haha (I was expecting places like inside some waiters mouth or behind a table of people who were already eating, or better yet, stuck on the managers back and she had to get it without the guy noticing).
Today, as well as being my birthday meetup, we also made sure that we were going to do the Nando’s challenge which was to eat a full extra hot platter. The platter would include a whole chicken, a large salad or coleslaw and large chips or rice. Me and Popey were the main people involved in the challenge, Max tried to join in but since he opted for Medium he was instantly disqualified.
Oh and Kazzie arrived at the scene, I immediately greeted her with my Canon EOS 400d camera which made her very jealous indeed, though at least we were dSLR buddies. She had a fun time finding her presents WHILE she was dying to use the little girls room.
The nando’s challenge was pretty intense…. for the other two. Max in particular since he couldnt finish his food off. A whole large salad was left to waste since he was full on 3/4 of a chicken. Popey got a bit sluggish near the end but he DEFINITELY finished it (cheated a bit with by eating a bt of chicken and then eating some coleslaw to neutralise the heat) but nonetheless he proved that he was manly enough to finish a full platter. I myself was a bit pissed off that I didnt use any strategies when eating my platter. I went nuts on the chicken first and had to finish off with the salad and chips. Really should have mixed up them up alot as the food was getting boring near the end. It wasnt a case of being able to finish it off, but more of a case of wanting to eat salad after some hardcore chicken (it technically is a meal for 2).
Most of the food was consumed and I even had a bit of Max’s chicken just to taunt him a bit haha. We eventually left Nando’s in search for other entertainment and while we left, Popey managed to persuade me to get my own cock stick haha.
He also tried to make me get him one but I only do crime for myself haha, I did give him room to steal on himself but he didnt (being the pope and all?). Anyhow, this was where we rode the tube to Picadilly Circus and went to funland. Blee had to leave so she said her goodbyes at Leciester Square station. Before he went to funland, Kazzie also managed to get herself a Joey hat for Kev.
The rest of the evening was spent watching the other three go nuts on the games that gave tickets for prizes. As well as some fun games such as DDR, that drum simulator game (broken bass drum haha), some horse riding game, bumper cars and some other stuff haha. Max suggested that we’d do Musecast during the bumper cars but then it got a bit weird when I tried filming it haha. We had alot of fun and eventually got ourselves 4 trumpets from the tickets they won (I didnt have change so I didnt go nuts on the shooting games etc).
Think that was it, eventually Max left and so did everyone else. The one thing that pissed me right off was that my cockstick was in Kazzie’s bag! I had to put it in there since it could be seen as a weapon in funland. Was pretty annoying, dunno what she’s doing with it now haha. So yeah.
Also dubbed the “Nandos Meetup”. Kev assigned himself as team leader for this meetup since I wasnt about on the muse board on Wednesday so people were slightly confused as to what was going on. Kev did ring me up the night before asking when we should hold the meetup and all. Twas fun how he wanted to team lead it and everything haha. Read the rest of this entry »
Right, part 2 of this epic epic journey haha. This was a mixture of the worst day ever imagined and the best gig ever imagined. Twas somewhere randomly in the middle as a day in general. Having said that, the gig and afterwards sort of made up everything for the day.
Right, best start writing about these gigs before they slip right past me. Make sure you’ve got time to read it as it’s pretty long of a entry..