At 9/3/10 07:50 PM, Retrospective wrote: Also, if anyone needs somewhere to stay, I've got 2-3 spaces to sleep at in my flat. It's about 30 mins from Town and is surrounded by pubs. Just be warned if anything gets broke... PM me or let me know some other way, and I'll get it arranged.

I'll be 17 by the time of the meet, think I'll get served?

At 9/3/10 07:50 PM, Retrospective wrote: Also, if anyone needs somewhere to stay, I've got 2-3 spaces to sleep at in my flat. It's about 30 mins from Town and is surrounded by pubs.

Sounds good. Would I be needing anything extra to bring?

Unsure as yet, but I might have to make the way up to see people. No guarantees issues herewith, just seeking to keep topic bumped, yada yada ya.

At 9/4/10 06:04 AM, simon wrote: Sounds good. Would I be needing anything extra to bring?

If you want to bring games, (only 360) books or anything, it's up to you. I always have a stocked fridge, and I don't mind much of you guys eating from it as long as it's not empty by the end of your stay!

At 9/3/10 11:10 PM, Obvious-M wrote: I'll be 17 by the time of the meet, think I'll get served?

Depends what pubs you go to, but if it comes to it, I'll buy you some.

At 9/4/10 08:41 AM, Retrospective wrote: If you want to bring games, (only 360) books or anything, it's up to you. I always have a stocked fridge, and I don't mind much of you guys eating from it as long as it's not empty by the end of your stay!

I can bring snacks and 360 games no problem! We'll PM a bit along the way anyway.

At 9/3/10 07:50 PM, Retrospective wrote: Also, if anyone needs somewhere to stay, I've got 2-3 spaces to sleep at in my flat. It's about 30 mins from Town and is surrounded by pubs. Just be warned if anything gets broke... PM me or let me know some other way, and I'll get it arranged.

That´ll be great if there is any space left. I´ll surely compensate you for the stay. Plus it wouldn´t hurt beating Simon at Rock Band at least a half dozen times.

as if

I´ll shoot you a PM.

I completely forgot about college, if I go then I'll be in Manchester for about 16:45 or something, or pull a sickie. :o

At 9/4/10 08:41 AM, Retrospective wrote:

At 9/3/10 11:10 PM, Obvious-M wrote: I'll be 17 by the time of the meet, think I'll get served?

Depends what pubs you go to, but if it comes to it, I'll buy you some.

I'll be 17 too, but I don't plan on drinking.

this is alot more people than i was anticipating. i figured youz gaiz were back in school again and itd be a smaller gathering. Ah well the more the merrier

At 9/4/10 02:21 PM, Luis wrote: this is alot more people than i was anticipating. i figured youz gaiz were back in school again and itd be a smaller gathering. Ah well the more the merrier

It's because we prefer Manchester over London. Plus, most of us going are going to be over 16.

I dunno if anyone else would be interested in this, but I think I'm going to head out one of the days for an afternoon skiing:

http://www.chillfactore.com/

It's not exactly like the real thing, but it's a good practice slope to brush up on and you're not bound to snowboarding or skiing whilst there, there's a bunch of other activities going on (see website for details).

If no-one's bothered about that, I'll just hook up with my brother in law if he's not flying that day, or go on my own.

At 9/4/10 03:01 PM, Tramps wrote:

At 9/4/10 02:59 PM, liljim wrote: If no-one's bothered about that, I'll just hook up with my brother in law if he's not flying that day, or go on my own.

I'd guess I'd need to have some skii-ing experience if I was to go :(

You can take a lesson there if you wanted to.

I've never done any skiing before, but that gave me an idea that we should do some sort of ice skating day on the 15th when everybody is here.

Can't seem to find a price for equipment on there, but if hire is relatively cheap i'd LOVE to go

At 9/4/10 03:09 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: Can't seem to find a price for equipment on there, but if hire is relatively cheap i'd LOVE to go

The slope pass includes the ski hire. You'd just need gloves, long socks, a warm waterproof coat and some salopettes.

Actually, all you need really is a warm waterproof coat - they do rentals on the other stuff and it's not particularly pricey from what I remember - I had all my own stuff apart from skis, but my bro didn't have salopettes or gloves and they cost him like £5 or something like that to hire. Obviously, the more you can bring yourself, the cheaper it'll be - if you don't have ski socks and have hiking socks, use those.

Keep in mind, like I said, there's other stuff to do there as well. I was thinking an hour or two skiing and a late lunch or early dinner in one of the restaurants that's there. If you don't want to do the ski stuff, there's tubing, climbing wall, etc, as an alternative. There's plenty of info on the site I linked about all of that.

Most of you guys qualify as juniors or students, so I'd think you need to have about £25 at most to spend on the slope pass and any hire of clothing (that doesn't include any lessons). It might even be cheaper than that for some of you, given that we could get a family pass for any adults + juniors.

Just a thought. If you guys don't want to do it, I'll be going regardless.

At 9/4/10 03:16 PM, Tramps wrote: Oh actually, I've seen that place before. I can't remember where I was heading when I passed it.

Manchester :-P

I think it's placed next to the Trafford Centre.

Btw, here's the breakdown on the clothing hire:

http://www.chillfactore.com/main/Snow_Ac tivities/Overview/What_to_wear

Wondering if my old waterskiing trips would come in any handy for snow skiing, what with there be no getting up process and not been tugged by a boat.

That said, would feel mighty awkward for your brother-in-law wouldn't it? "Hi Dave, I came with a bunch of blokes from the Internet if that's alright."

At 9/4/10 08:59 PM, Idocreating wrote: That said, would feel mighty awkward for your brother-in-law wouldn't it? "Hi Dave, I came with a bunch of blokes from the Internet if that's alright."

No. And his name's not Dave.

At 9/4/10 03:47 PM, liljim wrote: I think it's placed next to the Trafford Centre.

You're right, it's about 5-10 mins away from Trafford Centre. Also, there's a golf course, a Odeon and LOADS OF CLOTHES SHOPS!!! Urmston is the place to go to wander, Eccles is the place to find pubs.

Seriously, we're famous for our pubs up here.

At 9/4/10 09:02 PM, liljim wrote:

At 9/4/10 08:59 PM, Idocreating wrote: That said, would feel mighty awkward for your brother-in-law wouldn't it? "Hi Dave, I came with a bunch of blokes from the Internet if that's alright."

No. And his name's not Dave.

A good thing too, you'd be right creeped out if i'd got it right!

At 9/4/10 09:08 PM, Retrospective wrote: Eccles is the place to find pubs.

Seriously, we're famous for our pubs up here.

I thought Eccles was the place to find and was famous for Eccles cakes?

At 9/4/10 09:22 PM, liljim wrote: I thought Eccles was the place to find and was famous for Eccles cakes?

Nope. We have MANY pubs. Eccles ckaes are small time. It's not unusual to have 3 pubs next to each other, or 15 within 5 minutes walking of where you live.

At 9/4/10 09:32 PM, Retrospective wrote:

At 9/4/10 09:22 PM, liljim wrote: I thought Eccles was the place to find and was famous for Eccles cakes?

Nope. We have MANY pubs. Eccles ckaes are small time. It's not unusual to have 3 pubs next to each other, or 15 within 5 minutes walking of where you live.

Yeah but, what about Eccles *cakes*?

At 9/4/10 09:32 PM, Retrospective wrote:

At 9/4/10 09:22 PM, liljim wrote: I thought Eccles was the place to find and was famous for Eccles cakes?

Nope. We have MANY pubs. Eccles ckaes are small time. It's not unusual to have 3 pubs next to each other, or 15 within 5 minutes walking of where you live.

Ah. Too bad you're not old enough to purchase alcohol in said pubs! :-D

I'd really like to come to this, but I say that for all the meets and stuff comes up that prevents me going EVERY, SINGLE, FUCKING, TIME. But I am getting paid a lot of money in the next couple of weeks, and I could put some aside to renew my passport, that's the most expensive part, and the reason I didn't make it to the London meet.

Will keep you updated.

At 9/4/10 10:11 PM, LazyPint wrote: I've never tried skiing either, but I take a "how hard can it be?" attitude to most things in life. It's fair to say it usually ends in embarrassing disaster.

However, climbing walls are always fun, and relatively injury free, assuming you don't swing headfirst into the bit that's not air. It would be interesting to see how English climbing walls compare to our Scottish ones, because obviously every single thing south of the border is in some way dissimilar to our version of said thing!

I'm interested in the climbing walls, I prefer bouldering to climbing but it'd still be fun to check it out.

At 9/4/10 10:11 PM, LazyPint wrote: I've never tried skiing either, but I take a "how hard can it be?" attitude to most things in life.

Well, I'm no expert on it - I mean, I can ski, but only on an amateur basis. The toughest thing is learning and that's partly down to how they teach you how to do it. I can't remember the exact terminology for it, I think it's "snow plough", where they start you off going down the slope with your skis pointed in an inverted V. That's a real killer on the legs.

Things start getting easier when you start doing parallel skiing and pick up enough confidence in turning at speed (which is easier than doing it slowly).

If I remember correctly, Timmy is a keen skier, so he'd be able to describe this better than I could. Malachy, I think, is also a keen skier.

Anyway, if enough people do want to do it, keep in mind that:-

- if you have never done it before, you WILL have to have a lesson.

- we may need to book in advance.

- I'd rather do all of this on a week day when things are cheaper and quieter on the slope.

At 9/4/10 09:38 PM, liljim wrote: Ah. Too bad you're not old enough to purchase alcohol in said pubs! :-D

Ah-hah, I will be in November. Plus if you wish to challenge my wines and spirits...

I'll finish this post off tomorrow, my camera's broke...

At 9/4/10 10:38 PM, Jawdyn wrote: Is that a rule they have there or are you confident that we'll just fail? I think i'll go at it without the lesson! If its anything like skateboarding i should be alright

It is, but harder to stop, and slightly more harder to turn, but other than that it's pretty similar.

At 9/4/10 10:38 PM, Jawdyn wrote:

At 9/4/10 10:35 PM, liljim wrote: - if you have never done it before, you WILL have to have a lesson.

Is that a rule they have there or are you confident that we'll just fail?

I'm pretty sure that it's a pre-requisite that you're able to ski or snowboard before you go unattended on the slope. If you lie about it, it'll be pretty obvious to staff there, given that you'll just keep falling over as you're trying to make your way up the poma lift. They're not going to want to repeatedly stop that lift so you can get yourself up again whilst everyone else is stuck around waiting.

I think i'll go at it without the lesson! If its anything like skateboarding i should be alright

I thought that about snowboarding (I used to be big into skateboarding when I was younger). I was wrong. Ended up falling on my ass so many times I thought my coccyx was in my throat.