Several people will be getting there from 11:30am onwards, as we have a special guest this time from America!

You’ve got to be there to see who it is (unless you’ve already visited SFC and seen to whom I am referring )

The next scheduled SO:UK meetup (as well as Alpha’s return to the motherland for a visit) will be on Saturday the 8th of October at the Willow Walk pub, a mere few metres walking distance from Victoria Train Station in London. Most will be there from around 12 noon, and we shall probably end up shuffling onto a few other pubs as well

I hope to see as many people there as possible!

- Swalchy

The next SOUK meet is happening this weekend, on Saturday 2nd April. We’ll be meeting up at The Knights Templar in Bristol, a brief walk north from Bristol Temple Meads train station – feel free to arrive whenever’s convenient, I’ll probably be there from around 1pm onwards.

As those of you keeping track may have guessed, the Winter 2010/2011 meet has had to slide for a few reasons (mainly down to confirming peoples’ availability and my lack of availability during this time). However, the March 2011 meetup is most definitely on, marking the 20th anniversary of the Shining series on the 29th, and will be held on either Saturday 26th March or 2nd April. Chances are this will be held somewhere in the Bristol area as previously planned (still need to confirm a venue), though this is still open to negotiation.

This may also mean a slight shuffling of meets later in the year. Plan is to have a London meet sometime in the summer (i.e. June/July/August), and the Liverpool meet may be shifted to sometime in November. Again, these are open to negotiations at this time.

Oh yeah, I found I had a photo from the last meet (Liverpool 2010) lurking on my camera phone earlier this week, and have added it to the media page (along with some follow-on comments on a couple of Walchy’s pics). Click here to see them.

- We’re looking into the possibility of holding events in Bristol so folks in the South-West have convenient access. We need to decide whether or not to do so now or later in the new year (i.e. probably March 2011); the alternative would be The Willow Walk, London (i.e. the usual venue).

- A date hasn’t been decided, but would most likely be sometime in December or January.

Knowing which weekends would be ideal for anyone wanting to attend will help with deciding on a date that suits as many people as possible. It would also be very helpful to know whether or not you’d prefer a Bristol or London meet (or if you can make it/feel indifferent to either) for deciding on a venue.

And yes, I know we’ve yet to get a follow-on to the September meet added. In brief, it was pretty swell, not least because of it being our biggest turnout yet and led me to getting the SHF3 cover of GamesTM issue 100.

Plan is for it to be another Northern meet – probably at The Ship & Mitre in Liverpool if we don’t decide on a different venue beforehand. As for dates, the 4th and 11th of September are the pair of jokers we seem to be deciding between.

Although I still need to sort out overnight accomodation for myself (which I can’t do until we’ve confirmed a venue), I am planning on driving up to the meet, so any Southern members who are interested in coming along and are prepared to spend a few hours in a car with a “P” plate may want to get in touch (i.e. reply to this post).

General discussion were had by the three of us on various Shining and non-Shining things, and it looked like the turnout was a record low with the three of us… until around 6pm when things started getting busy again in preparation for the England match. We decided it was time to move on to somewhere else to eat, then Kazgaroth finally turned up in the nick of time!

The four of us headed down to the Founder’s Arms, a restaurant Gately knew near Waterloo (the others initially had somewhere else in mind, but I misunderstood the plan and got the wrong tube ticket >.> ). It was a nice bar and restaurant (albeit pricey… luckily Walchy offered to pay – to a limit!), and although it was a touch cramped we were able to get an outdoor table so it wasn’t a problem. We were also able to catch the England v USA match – or at least guess what was happening from the oohs, aahs and cheers!

I had to head off a bit early (having the Falklands memorial service in the morning), but I gather the others headed on to Gately’s lodgings for a bit of an afterparty!

Current plan is that we’re still going to meet up at the Willow Walk (I’m going to aim to be there from around 1-2pm), but chances are we’ll be relocating once things get particularly busy. Best advice is to arrive early to avoid missing us.

Pub details: http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/pubs/pub-details.php?PubNumber=1169

More info can be found in the thread at Shining Force Central: http://forums.shiningforcecentral.com/index.php?showtopic=16070