Well it took me a few days but finally here it is, hello and welcome to [b]MG's unnecessarily overlong and tediously detailed BWB York Meet 2009 Review[/b]. Read more than you ever wanted to know about this year's European BWB Gathering!

[b]Friday 29 May[/b]
For once I was early, arriving at Kings Cross almost an hour before our train was to depart. I spent about half an hour reading Altered Carbon until Sophelia, Dunhallym and Mentat arrived. We said our hellos and got caught up before catching the 1.30 train to York. The train was so busy that for a moment I thought we would not be able to fight our way through to our booked seats but fortunately we did. Or at least my three companions did. My booked seat was two carriages away but I managed to sneak into a spare seat closeby.

We arrived in York and made our way through the town in glorious sunshine to the Riverside Apartments where we found Eloisa and Padraig (better known as Pod, or that boarder you blame for shit) already waiting for us on the front step. Soph punched in the code and we made our way up the stairs into the beautiful apartment. To give you an idea of the place we stayed in the apartment building has four floors. The ground is just an entrance hallway, the second floor has a lounge complete with HDTV, DVD player, Nintendo Wii, stereo, a selection of CDs, DVDs, games, books and board games.  Also on the second floor is a well appointed kitchen/diner with washing machine, dishwasher, oven, hob, microwave and fridge/freezer. There is also a WC. On the third floor a large master bedroom with a massive queensize bed and a good view of the river, a double twin bedroom and a very nice bathroom with separate large shower cubicle and a bath with middle taps and two sloped ends big enough for two (or maybe more) people to share a bath - sadly nobody did this weekend. The top floor is a converted loftspace which has a double bed, a double futon bed and also a bathroom with shower over the bath too. You did need to mind your head on the ceiling and low beams up here but it was OK. The entire place was immaculately furnished throughout. Can you tell that I used to do typeset estate agent adverts for the local paper or what?

Soph and Mentat took the twin room, Dunny and Eloisa shared the master bedroom, Alytha and Red Sun who were both arriving later would end up on the sofa bed in the lounge leaving Pod, Slick Mongoose and myself to take the loft room. Well that was the plan anyway, but we'll come back to that later, first we must go food shopping. Sainsbury's is only a 20 minute walk from the apartment so Eloisa, Mentat, Dunny and myself set off on our hunter/gatherer quest for supplies. About an hour later we returned to the apartment fully provisioned to find Slick had arrived and it was not long after that when we all left for the pub to meet up with the others, except Soph who went to the train station to meet Alytha who had just arrived. Red Sun was not due in till 9.15.

The Golden Fleece, York's most haunted pub apparently, though the only spirits I saw there were in bottles. Pod marched into the place like he had been going there all his life and headed straight through and out the back to find the rest of the BWB in the beer garden and already having a great time. So who was there - you wanna know, right? Ser Sean, Chaldanya, dajamieson, Ghost of Nymeria, Isis, Tomfoster, WilliamJM, Tenalpia and the surprise guest of the weekend, Caress of Cersei, who had made the trip over from the US. "It was either this or Montreal and I thought fuck it I'm going to York." Apparently several BWB members had trouble finding the pub, walking right past without noticing the place. I have to confess we also went past once without seeing it, but that was when we were on the way to Sainsbury's and were not exactly looking for it!

We only had time for one drink because it was time for the planned event of the evening, the Ghost Walk. Leaving the Golden Fleece we somehow turned right even though Pod has checked the map just before and we should have gone left. At the time I was chatting to Tomfoster, a resident of York, saying I thought it was the other way to which he replied "Sean knows where he is going, he has never lead the BWB wrong before. I completely trust him." Seconds later everyone realises the mistake and when Sean is asked why we are going the wrong way he says "Tom told me it was this way." Clearly you should never trust a local to give good directions, or to be more accurate, do not trust Tom. At all.

We were a little late arriving but Soph and Alytha were waiting outside the Jorvik Viking Centre which is the meeting point for the Ghost Detective and presumably told him some more punters were on the way. The thing about Ghost Walk's is they are not so very good at 7.30 pm when it is still full daylight outside, still the man who met us dressed smartly in suit and hat with a tall black cane did his best to exude an air of theatre and menace to get us in the mood. He put on an act of being like an 18th Century Scrooge, he would say things like "Out of my way boy" to the small children clustered around him.  To Tenalpia he said "Ah excellent, you've come dressed in a jacket suitable for camouflage if we venture into an upholstery shop on our travels."  :lol: When it was time to pay the £4 each for the walk he would not give people the £1 coin change if they paid with a Fiver, they had to pries it from his hand as he tried to keep hold of it. "I can't.... let the money go...." he would say to the amusement of the tourists. Sean however had no such problems as the Ghost Detective stepped wide to allow him to pass to join the paid group, very sensible choice I would say...

He told some good stories and he knew all the facts about the places we stopped outside of on the walk. Outside one small church he pointed out some Roman stone coffins that were open to the sky, saying how they had once had real dead bodies inside and asking if we knew what the hole in the bottom was for? Obviously to drain out the juices of decomposition, otherwise the coffin if sealed might actually explode in a shower of sticky brown goo.  To which Isis said "Awesome!". Ah pathologists :rolleyes: 

Of course everyone was asked where they were from, some of the tourists in the group were from France, Germany, USA. When asked where our group was from Tenalpia gave the legendary reply "We're from the Internet" :lol: The Ghost Detective actually broke character for a moment and laughed too.

The Ghost Walk finished in front of the mighty impressive York Minster, the largest Gothic Medieval church outside of Rome with more stained glass windows than all the rest of the churches in England put together. Eloisa suggested a group shot and Tom did the honours with the cameras. After that we headed into town to find a pub, we found a nice place called Ye Olde Starre Inne which had a separate room that seemed like it had been reserved for us or something, nobody in there so the BWB took over and settled in for the night. However it was just coming up to 9.00 so the pub had stopped serving food and those of us who had not eaten yet were hungry so we left to find sustenance at Pizza Hut. Alright, I know, not a startlingly great choice, but Eloisa had a discount coupon that could have got us 50% off but that turned out to be for deliveries only. We were there so we sat down and had a platter of starters followed by three large pizzas between us.

Suddenly we remembered - Red Sun was supposed to have just arrived and everyone had turned their phones off for the ghost walk. Soph had visions of Red Sun not knowing where to go and being stuck out at the station on her own. Fortunately after switching her phone on Soph discovered that Red Sun's train had been delayed and she had only just arrived. She was given directions and made her way through town just in time for pizza. For most people it was back to the pub after that for a drink.  Alytha, Soph, Red Sun and I headed back to the apartment quickly. Red Sun to drop off her bags and I needed to pick up a jacket since it was starting to feel a little cold. Alytha and Red Sun decided that the sofa bed was too narrow for both of them so after a little discussion it was decided that Aly would stay in the lounge while Red Sun would share the futon bed in the loftspace with me. It seems like it is becoming traditional for me to jump into bed with strange girls I have only known a few hours at BWB events :P

With the sleeping arrangements settled we headed over to join the others at the Starre Inne. I bought a drink for Soph, Alytha and Red Sun - well if you're gonna sleep with a girl you should at least buy her a drink first, right? ;) Another group had crashed the room so it was a bit of a squeeze to get in and out, but we managed. However Slick Mongoose needed to get out and visit the Gents. To allow him room to move past Pod jumped up onto the bench and said "I'm gonna let the Slick out." to which everyone :lmao: For a moment they thought he was going to do something else up there. Chal said "The weekend is fucking over, nothing is gonna top that." Sadly she was right so you may as well stop reading now if this is getting too tedious...

A little after 11 Luzifer's Right Hand arrived, I totally did not recognise him with the grey fox haircut he has now. Glad our Austrian friend made it, he brought much amusement over the weekend. There was more drinking and talking until closing time at midnight. Yeah I know, far too early for a proper BWB event, but a lot of people were tired after a long journey to get there so we broke up and headed our separate ways. But before that, outside the Starre Inne, Sean and Chal were asking Tom where the best place to get a cab was. "If you go right..." he suggests. A security woman on the club next door says "Left." I can't help laughing and say "Just go the opposite way to what Tom says!" To which he agrees.

Our group head back to the apartment and pretty much go straight to bed. Pod and Slick discover that they are sharing the double bed to which I say "What, have you never shared your bed with another man before or something?" But they were cool with it and we all drifted off to sleep. What - you mean all that was just the first day, oh yes indeed folks, one down, two and a bit still to go :D

[b]Saturday 30 May[/b]
Saturday was race day and most of the BWB headed up to York Racecourse for a day of drinking, gambling and sunburn. Thanks to Sean for organising things and everyone who went had a really great time. From our apartment Pod, Slick, Eloisa and Red Sun went to the races, while Soph, Mentat, Dunny, Alytha and I spent the day in the Castle Museum and wandering around the town doing a little shopping.

At lunchtime, while sat in a small cafe eating a jacket potato, Soph received a text to discover that Slick had won £27 on Nosferatu, well with a name like that how could you lose? Not sure how much everyone else won but I know Slick spent the money on Pimms and returned suitably inebriated later that evening. Eloisa went straight from the races to a friend's party in Sheffield for the evening and it would be after 1 am when she got back to York.

But lets take things back to late afternoon, to find the five of us non-racers were waiting for everyone to return to the apartment. We were sat round the table chatting about books, A Song of Ice and Fire (really, how insane is that!), the HBO show, RPGs, LARPs and just generally compared Geek points. I scored quite highly with my binary watch. Of course I could have outgeeked everyone there, but I don't give up my big secrets that easily....

We did not hang around for long once the others got back, it was straight off to the Masons Arms for the evening. A really nice quiet pub with a good sized function room which we had to ourselves, very nice food and friendly staff who let us put on the final of Britain's Got Talent that certain people who shall not be named were keen on seeing. But actually it was probably a good idea since it was quite entertaining to see a surprise winner. At about 9.00 ish another York boarder arrived, Ratty, wearing a proper flat cap even though by his southern accent he is clearly not originally from York. Full credit to Ratty for just wading in and saying hello to everyone and he just naturally fitted in with the cool sociable people and the geeky crowd alike. Glad you could make it Ratty :cheers:

Luzifer's Right Hand was quite drunk by this time and he knocked over an almost full pint spilling it all down Caress of Cersei's dress. He offered to buy her another drink, but she was like "Fuck the drink, get me some napkins."  I had a handful spare so it was MG to the rescue to a round of very sincere thanks from CoC.

Later on Sean stands up to talk to everyone about plans for the rest of the night, someone brings up the fact that he should play Gregor Clegane in the TV show. Sadly for Sean I think he is just too nice to play The Mountain, try being meaner at the audition is my advice. Someone else shouts out that maybe he could play Hodor instead. Sean wanders round the room doing an impressive Hodor impersonation "HODOR!". Luzifer's Right Hand goes crazy and tries to jump up on his shoulders and play the part of Bran. Chal gets a little worried about LRH moving in on her man.

I should explain that earlier in the day, at the races, there were a group of people in the crowd cheering every few minutes at seemingly random things and as the day wore on this became a "thing" that we did in the bar when new people arrived, or came in the door from having a smoke outside or having gone to the toilet. "Yay" everyone would cheer, inevitably followed by a small "boo" for laughs.  When Chal goes to the Ladies she demands "fucking applause for her, not just cheers" and she did get the biggest cheer and applause proving the adage "ask and you shall receive".  When Tenalpia went, Sean urged everyone to quickly leave the room, which made us all look very strange to the other people in the pub, she was just glad nobody tried to jump her when she came out!

Shortly after that we left and walked up to the Stone Roses Bar, unfortunately it was very busy and we did not want to queue. Then we tried the Gallery nightclub but we balked at the £8.20 entrance fee. Besides this did not really seem like our kind of place. Most people wanted either a quiet place to talk or a cheesy dance place. The group split in two with everyone from the apartment except Pod heading back to the peace of the Riverside flat and the others went to The Willow which is a Chinese restaurant that at night moves the tables back and becomes a cheesy dancehall place playing 80's music. It has become a kind of cool alternative place to go in York and I gather everyone who went had a great time jumping up and down to some classic 80's hits.

Back at the flat we found a pack of cards and dealt them out to start a long night of Live Mafia. The two Jokers were the killers with any other card drawn being an Innocent. Those of you who recall my Denver Worldcon Report will know I did not enjoy the one Live Mafia game there, but this time I survived a bit longer and played like a fucking pro :smoke: In the first game Mentat and Slick were the killers, but Red Sun and Alytha managed to find Slick in the end game to win for the Innocents. During the first game Pod returned and he joined in the second game for his first ever Mafia experience.

I enjoyed the second game since I was a killer with Aly and we took down Soph who was the Finder and I mimicked a gun shot to take down Slick to the amusement of Eloisa who had just returned. However when Aly was caught I did not have much of a chance against Mentat who convinced Pod that I was evil and they won the game. Pod did pretty good for his first game!

After that we decided to play a Vampire game. One player starts as a Vampire with everyone else as a Villager. We start with a day phase and pick one player to test with holy water which has no effect on Villagers. This means nobody gets lynched and the only way to end up out of the game is to be a Vampire who is killed. After testing one villager it is the night phase and the Vampire bites one Villager, turning them into a Vampire. The player finds this out by being quietly tapped on the shoulder by the Game Moderator while everyone else is covering their eyes. The Vampires then have to try to steer attention away from them and vote for someone else to be tested.

We played two games of Vampire, the first ended rather quickly as I correctly guessed Red Sun who was quiet in the first round was the Vampire. Red Sun took over Mod duties from Slick and we played a second game which was rather good fun. Eloisa in her first game of Mafia was the original vampire and she bit Slick who had just been incorrectly tested. Eloisa was killed in the second round but Slick cleverly diverted attention from him by saying he would be the obvious choice and he would test him if he were us, but foolishly we did not for a long time and the Vampire horde grew, however we managed to catch the others quickly, eventually catching up with Slick, but not before he bit Dunny just after she was tested. You would think we would have learned that trick by now. In the end Alytha, Soph and I figured it out to take down the last vampires of Pod and Dunny to win the game.

By this time it was nearly 3 am and we decided it was time for bed.

[b]Sunday 31 May[/b]
I only just saw Sunday morning getting up at almost midday. While I was having breakfast most of the group left for Sainsbury's to buy food for the evening dinner party. While we waited for our friends to return, Pod, Slick, Dunny and I did the hard work of lounging around chatting about Mafia and different variations on the games. Eventually those slow-coach shoppers returned and we got ready to head up to York Minster. Mentat decided he was a bit tired for that and had a siesta instead. "How Spanish" said Pod. We waited for WilliamJM to join us and then walked through the town in the dazzling afternoon sunshine to the Minster where we met up with Luzifer's Right Hand. Lucky for us we picked up a couple of extra people since with 10 we got in for a group discount :D

First we joined the 4.00 group to climb to the top of the tower. There is an awesome spiral staircase, narrow, tight, twisty, I loved it. Alytha was not so happy since she did feel a little claustrophobic but she was OK once we reached the top. I thought Soph might have a problem with the height but with a solid steel cage encasing the public walkway around the top of the tower it really wasn't a problem. There are plenty of viewing points in the cage to let people see out and take pictures unobstructed over the city. The most impressive thing about being up there was looking down on the vast sweep of the Cathedral, it really is a huge and majestic building and it must take a lot of work to look after.

About half hour later we climbed back down the same staircase and once we all made it to the ground floor we took some more stairs down into the crypts which house a very interesting museum about the history of York Minster. From Roman times with the first major building on the site, to the original Norman church and through to the Medieval church which still stands today. There were plenty of artifacts, statues, models and artwork on display. The crypts also contain the Minster's collection of silver and pewter plates, cups and objects of art. We easily spent well over an hour down there looking through all their displays.

Soph decided to return to the apartment to start preparing the apple crumble while the rest of us had a good look around the Cathedral and the gift shop. After that we took a slow and pleasant walk back to the apartment via the park and along the riverside. When we got back to the apartment Eloisa joined Soph in the kitchen to cook the dinner, they were the main two cooks but through the evening they had help from various others including Mentat, Alytha and Dunny. Everyone involved did a really great job - thanks guys.

I did my part by keeping everyone entertained in the meantime with a little bit of Wii Sports. I think only Slick and Mentat had played before so there were plenty of noobs to introduce to the fun of Wii Tennis. Pod and Dunny had a great time and really enjoyed the game. Mentat played Slick. Red Sun played Luzifer's Right Hand. WilliamJM played well - once he confessed to being left handed after trying to play right handed, he did not realise we could change it until I did so for Red Sun. It sure made a big difference since he did not hit the ball once first time around!

Then we had the big game, MG V Slick and it was a match for the ages, a 5 game thriller! MG took the 1st game with serve, Slick won the 2nd and then broke MG's serve to take the 3rd. But MG broke right back to take it to the tie breaker. Slick had match point at 30-40 but MG took it to Deuce and came back from the dead to win the game on a freaky point which clipped the net and only just dropped in. After that we played some Wii Bowling for a while. Mentat racked up the highest total of 183 beating MG's score of 180. Everyone had a really fun time and it was a good way to pass the evening, but finally the dinner was ready and the TV went off.

Eloisa and Soph had prepared us all a wonderful dinner: sweet and sour pork, chicken in white wine, vegetable ratatouilles, Turkish sausages, jacket potatoes, bean sprouts, carrots and broccoli.  A strange combination - you betcha! But still absolutely delicious :P

While we were eating the main meal in the lounge Soph put on the oven to cook the Apple Crumble she and Mentat had prepared earlier. But the oven was kind of strange and did not seem to be cooking properly. After a bit of playing around they got it going. While waiting for the crumble to finish cooking we had some chocolate cake complete with Happy Birthday candles as a surprise for Alytha. She was completely shocked, especially since her birthday had been on Friday and nobody had mentioned it then!

We sat around talking for a while and then Soph went to check on the crumble. She came out of the kitchen all in a panic asking for some help because the crumble was on fire! Well not really on fire but burning and bellowing out really thick black smoke into the kitchen. The smoke detector in there did not go off once which was more than a little worrying. Luckily I think we got to it just in time and Slick held the crumble out the window for a few minutes to let the worst of the smoke out and then set about scraping all the burnt crumble off the top and into the bin. It sure was lucky Mentat had made so much crumble mixture meaning we could scrape off half of the thick layer and the pudding was salvageable. We opened all the windows and turned the oven down to a lower temperature to finish cooking the apple crumble. Eloisa called it the "Great Crumble Burning of 2009" and joked "How many BWB members does it take to cook apple crumble?" The answer is 7 :rofl: 

Eventually the crumble was ready and it turned out delicious in the end. Pod said "Maybe that's how you're supposed to make it!" sending Eloisa into a fit of hysterics!

Finally we cleared the plates away and got started on some Live Mafia with LRH and William joining in their first ever games. We played two more games of Killers with Mentat and Eloisa picking the Jokers in the first game. They took down the experienced players one by one leaving the two noobs (or as Dunny called them nobs, she laughed too when Slick informed her that is a slang term for penis :lol: ) and Dunny in the end game. Mentat voted for William and when LRH also voted for him all Eloisa had to do was add her vote and the game was over, but she left her partner hanging a little as she kept playing her innocent role in chat with Dunny before finally sliding the knife home to pick up the only win for the Killers all weekend.

In the second game Slick went straight after Eloisa claiming she had sighed after picking up her card, saying she might be feeling tired of playing the baddie after being the Vampire yesterday. However it probably should have been Mentat feeling like that as he was again a Killer in this game. At the start of the second round I picked up on something Slick said, it seemed to me he was being a bit too honest about attacking Eloisa earlier on and I was taken back to the previous day's Vampire game where he said we should test him, he was the obvious choice. I built a solid case on Slick but he batted it down focusing on the claim of the previous round about Eloisa that I had mentioned, strongly asking why I was questioning that. It was working for him until Dunny threw her vote on Slick and from there everyone else agreed and it turned out he was indeed a Killer as I had guessed. But from there we were not entirely able to pin the second killer, I thought it might be William because he was a bit more nervous this game but he really was an Innocent. In the last night phase LRH was murdered leaving Mentat, Dunny and I. But I saw through his ambitious plan to trick me into voting Dunny and we won the game.

Damn, it's like I am actually starting to enjoy Mafia now - what have you done to me! I still think Board Mafia would drive me crazy, Live Mafia just drags so slowly while waiting for everyone to make up their minds and vote. I mean really, how difficult is it!

It was well after midnight by this time and LRH had a 6 am train to catch the next morning so he decided to call it a night. The rest of us considered playing another game of Mafia but most people were too tired so we just sat chatting for a while. Before we went to bed however there was time for one more piece of excitement - [b]MG's inaugural awesome FREE book giveaway prize draw![/b]  Sorry you missed out on that Luz but I only just thought of it after you left.

As an employee of Macmillan I get to buy books at 50p each (£1 hardbacks) from our returned goods charity shop. Most books there is nothing at all wrong with them, brand new and perfectly OK. These are books mostly printed by Macmillan and their labels, but we also distribute for other publishers so we could really get anything in sometimes. Over the past few weeks I had picked up a few extra books, things I already had copies of and knew some of my friends here would love to have as well so I brought them up to York with the intention of giving them away, but I did not know how to pick who to give them to. So on the spot I just decided to have a prize draw, pick a name out of a hat (provided by Aly) written on a piece of paper and that person gets first pick of the books to take what they want.

The top book which everyone wanted was 'The City & The City' by China Mieville, a paperback edition which is not even out yet! I already have a hardback copy for myself. I also had 'Looking for Jake' by China Mieville and 'Dreamsongs Part One' by some chap, don't know if you've heard of him, George R something Martin? Seven anxious people entered the draw. I picked out the first winner - WilliamJM! He deliberated for a moment as if he really needed to think about it :rolleyes: before picking 'The City & The City'. Enjoy the book William :) The second winner picked out was Dunny who took 'Dreamsongs'. You know I really thought she already had that in the full size version. The third pick was Slick but he was only after 'The City & The City' so he was willing to pass and let someone else take the last book. That someone else was Alytha who did say she would be happy with 'Looking for Jake' so it all worked out good in the end.

I was pretty pleased with how that went so I think I may do this again at future BWB meets, like say Worldcon in Montreal this August. I will see what treats I can find in the bookshop and bring them over with me. Look out for sign up sheets at the BWB parties and I will organise the draw for the Sunday night party. The draw will only be open to BWB members only and I may ask George to pick out the winners for us himself!

We said our goodbyes to William and he left the apartment to go back to his B&B with a copy of 'The City & The City' burning a hole in his backpack. The rest of us settled down for sleep a little after 2 am and we said goodnight and farewell to Red Sun who was leaving early to take an 8 am train. Hope you got enough sleep Red Sun!

[b]Monday 1 June[/b]
I know I sure did, yes it's the last day and I slept quite late only just getting up in time to say farewell to Mentat, Soph and Slick who left at about 10.45ish. I sat down for breakfast and ate my way through far too much cereal, toast, leftover apple crumble and chocolate cake. Pod left at about 11.20 and the rest of us did out best to clear up the kitchen before we had to be out at 12 noon.

We divvied up the spoils of war with Eloisa taking the wine (gasp! yes we actually had two unopened bottles of wine and 1 bottle of cider leftover), Alytha took some fruit juice, Dunny took coffee, crumpets and cookies (anything beginning with C really) and I helped myself to potatoes and onions. What? That was the obvious choice wasn't it? :uhoh: 

The cleaners let us leave our bags in the hall of the apartment as we went shopping one last time to fill the time until our trains in the afternoon. Eloisa bought some toffee and then said her goodbyes in town about 1.00. Then there were three! We spent another half hour or so in town before picking up our bags and making our way over to the train station. Soph had got me an advance ticket for a train at 2.53 but I was not allowed to use it earlier so I had to wait as Dunny and Alytha took the 2.10 train to London. There was not enough hugging during this weekend but thankfully we had a little :grouphug: before they took their train.

So there I was, the last BWB left in York (non resident I mean of course). I finished Altered Carbon while waiting on the platform, a thoroughly good book - can't recommend it highly enough and finally got my delayed train about 3.00. And there you have it. That was the BWB European meet 2009. Can't really say there was a stand out moment, not really a great story that we will be talking about for years to come. But it was a good time, with good people, good friends and I for one can't wait to do it again.