Jenbel
Jul 26, 04, 10:19 am
Following our daring exploits in Edinburgh, a gathering was proposed in London. Some of the previous participants were able to attend ajamieson – still a considerate gentleman; Dave_C, still trying to maximise fun; and Jenbel still a pisshead. This time we had some new attendees too - (Rhys_UK, a Welsh singer with an ability to get hotels on Priceline the rest of us can only dream of; GodoSpoons, an American slightly bemused by the ability of BA board members to go off topic at the drop of a hat (but who joined in the fun nevertheless); and Shuttle Bored, who despite his teuchterish (1st use ever on FT J ?) background quickly showed why he has found a natural home on the BA board.
The evening started off sedately enough with me first to arrive to our chosen destination – the Audley. And there I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. (those are especially for you Dave_C – just to prove you can...) Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, waiting!
Eventually, ajamieson “prince among men” turned up to rescue me from my lonely vigil. As we got the drinks sorted, Shuttle Bored came over to hesitantly inquire if we were… Now my memory is not what it was, but I’m sure he never actually said FT or BA board or anything like that in his initial inquiry. So it could be possible that he was actually just a random stranger who we assumed to be Shuttle Bored and he was to polite to disabuse us of the notion (which would have made it an even more surreal evening than it turned out to be). OTOH he had a corker of a Concorde strike day story to tell, so he definitely was an Ft‘er in spirit J!
Having discovered that the Scots really were the first three to convene in the pub (which shows an admiral sense of punctuality in my opinion), we were rapidly joined by Dave_C and his umbrella, Rhys-UK and GodoSpoons. Now the Audley can be a bit surreal, possibly the bizzarest moment was the Indian bus tour that swooped in half way through the evening, taking pictures and video, and then just as strangely, seemed to disappear (Floo powder anyone?). I like to think that somewhere in the world, the photos and video taken will be shown to family and friends, who will admire the bemused/drunken* FT’ers as typical British pub goers. Topics of conversation (as befitting a BA gathering) were wide and varied including: agricultural journalists in Scotland (small world); food on BA, lesbian couples in Budapest, why Edinburgh Airport is slowly killing the Royal Highland Show, whether there is any good food in London, why 22 kg carry-ons shouldn’t be put into the overhead containers, where had CT-UK, spotwelder and Swanhunter got to (lightweights)and whether Dave-C could have spotwelder’s Farnborough ticket if he didn’t show up. And there was a long Tesco discussion. But as the evening drew on, the pressure to leave and find somewhere with a late licence mounted, so we left the merry Audley and wandered off in search of pastures new.
At this stage, I would like to point out that for the rest of the evening/night Dave_C and his umbrella became our guide, and suggested where we go. So the end result was entirely his fault…
Following Dave_C and his umbrella we headed off in the vague direction of Soho. At this point GodoSpoons departed, as he was still jet lagged. Or wise. Or blessed with some kind of foresight. Or indeed all of the above! (Note to the grammar watchers amongst you – you know who you are – are you going to object to starting sentences with “or” as well? :p )
So reduced to Five we found our way to “the Yard” which was desperately cool. It had a very high boy:girl ratio, which was a plus point, however the main downer being I don’t think they would have been looking at me. Nevertheless I did get chatting to two Americans when it was my round, whereupon two of the FT‘ers (who shall remain nameless) came across to check I didn’t need a hand – or rescue their drinks – or summat…
So we remained in there until chucking out (yes, I did say OUT) time whereupon we headed in search of shelter and an affable welcome. Dave_C and his umbrella took the lead once again, but this time we were a bit more cynical of his “It’s two minutes – just round the corner – honest!” statements, after the a forced route march we had endured to get to Soho in the first place (I’m sure we passed Mornington Crescent, but since we were under the ‘shortest way possible between two pubs’ rules, it shouldn’t have been allowed)! We did try and find munchies for Rhys_UK, but in the end decided that more alcohol would suffice. Eventually Dave_C and his umbrella presented us with a choice – we could either go to some other bar,which was good and just two minutes away round the corner honest or to Sanctuary which alright too, but opposite us on the street. Thus we made the fateful decision which would raise the meet from good to truly legendary.
We entered the Sanctuary.
At first it seemed innocuous enough. We even found seats, although Dave_C (and his umbrella), ajamieson (“prince among men”) and I definitely ended up in economy – but then that’s the story of my life! However after a short period during which we discovered that we really couldn’t hear each other speak, someone suggested we go up to the generally quieter piano bar upstairs – and so we did with Shuttle Bored (sans-umbrella) leading the way.
The bar upstairs was considerably quieter, being rather more secluded. It was also dominated (or at least the area we ended up in) by a large white grand pianoforte. Sitting at the piano was a red-haired elf (of the wood elf rather than high elf kind for those of you interested in the finer details), who was playing a rather varied selection of music. We quickly ascertained that:
1) He was playing from memory
2) Half the bar was joining in singing
3) He was actually very good
4) We got to play name that tune
5) It was quite possibly the campest song list in creation
And so the evening plunged into the heights of surreality, with distinguished members of the BA, KLM and BMI boards singing along to a variety of camp tunes played by a red haired elf on a white grand piano whilst sipping champagne. Here’s a brief selection of some of the more interesting parts of his repertoire:
Like A Prayer - Madonna
Bach’s Toccata (in D?)
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Carole King
Then on to the Julie Andrews medley:
The Sound of Music
The Lonely Goatherd
Edelweiss
My Favourite Things
Do-Re-Mi
A Spoonful of Sugar
Chim Chim Cher-ee
Feed the Birds (Tuppence A Bag)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Overture from the Marriage of Figaro
Mamma Mia - Abba
My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina – Madonna (and lots of others)
Material Girl - Madonna
Flashdance...What a Feeling - Irene Cara
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
New York, New York
All That Jazz - Chicago
Theme music from the Antiques Road Show - Paul Reade & Tom Gibson
Theme from Fame
All Come All Ye Faithful
I Know Him So Well - Chess
If I Could Turn Back Time - Cher
Theme from Black Beauty
Dancing Queen - Abba
Pomp and Circumstance - Elgar
At this point I did stop writing down the titles (yes I really did, cos I knew I’d forget them and I felt they should be recorded for posterity). However, I distinctly remember Dave_C (on this occasion leaving the umbrella behind) requesting Delibe’s Flower Duet from Lakmé, aka the BA advert theme, which was duly played for us – thanks Dave. The elf must have played non-stop for over two hours and all from memory. He was pretty phenomenal.
Some other discoveries of the evening:
1. Rhys-UK can sing well.
2. ajamieson “prince among men” has a shockingly poor knowledge of show tunes and didn’t even know the words to half the Julie Andrews songs. :eek:
3. Playing guess the camp play list is really good fun - points all round in that game.
4. Mobile phones and drunken Jenbels shouldn’t mix. Apologies once more to those affected – but in our/my defence we were only trying to be caring Flyertalkers and share our experience with our friends around the world. Any donations to the ajamieson mobile phone bill fund gratefully accepted! J And I will just point out that once I suggested it, everybody else thought it was a really good idea too! :D
But eventually all good things must come to an end, and so with the elf still playing (he must have had magical powers to keep going for so long), we left the bar to make our way home to bed. Taxis were acquired, night buses were waited for, umbrellas were, I think, safely returned to base. Very drunken attendees were restrained from getting out of taxis every three minutes because of their mistaken belief “it’s not that far to my hotel from here” ;)
And so to bed, for the two or three hours sleep before my alarm went off at 05.30 to get me out to Farnborough. But that, as they say is another story.
Thanks to Dave_C for editorial comments again - even if I didn't alway concur ;)
The evening started off sedately enough with me first to arrive to our chosen destination – the Audley. And there I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. (those are especially for you Dave_C – just to prove you can...) Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, waiting!
Eventually, ajamieson “prince among men” turned up to rescue me from my lonely vigil. As we got the drinks sorted, Shuttle Bored came over to hesitantly inquire if we were… Now my memory is not what it was, but I’m sure he never actually said FT or BA board or anything like that in his initial inquiry. So it could be possible that he was actually just a random stranger who we assumed to be Shuttle Bored and he was to polite to disabuse us of the notion (which would have made it an even more surreal evening than it turned out to be). OTOH he had a corker of a Concorde strike day story to tell, so he definitely was an Ft‘er in spirit J!
Having discovered that the Scots really were the first three to convene in the pub (which shows an admiral sense of punctuality in my opinion), we were rapidly joined by Dave_C and his umbrella, Rhys-UK and GodoSpoons. Now the Audley can be a bit surreal, possibly the bizzarest moment was the Indian bus tour that swooped in half way through the evening, taking pictures and video, and then just as strangely, seemed to disappear (Floo powder anyone?). I like to think that somewhere in the world, the photos and video taken will be shown to family and friends, who will admire the bemused/drunken* FT’ers as typical British pub goers. Topics of conversation (as befitting a BA gathering) were wide and varied including: agricultural journalists in Scotland (small world); food on BA, lesbian couples in Budapest, why Edinburgh Airport is slowly killing the Royal Highland Show, whether there is any good food in London, why 22 kg carry-ons shouldn’t be put into the overhead containers, where had CT-UK, spotwelder and Swanhunter got to (lightweights)and whether Dave-C could have spotwelder’s Farnborough ticket if he didn’t show up. And there was a long Tesco discussion. But as the evening drew on, the pressure to leave and find somewhere with a late licence mounted, so we left the merry Audley and wandered off in search of pastures new.
At this stage, I would like to point out that for the rest of the evening/night Dave_C and his umbrella became our guide, and suggested where we go. So the end result was entirely his fault…
Following Dave_C and his umbrella we headed off in the vague direction of Soho. At this point GodoSpoons departed, as he was still jet lagged. Or wise. Or blessed with some kind of foresight. Or indeed all of the above! (Note to the grammar watchers amongst you – you know who you are – are you going to object to starting sentences with “or” as well? :p )
So reduced to Five we found our way to “the Yard” which was desperately cool. It had a very high boy:girl ratio, which was a plus point, however the main downer being I don’t think they would have been looking at me. Nevertheless I did get chatting to two Americans when it was my round, whereupon two of the FT‘ers (who shall remain nameless) came across to check I didn’t need a hand – or rescue their drinks – or summat…
So we remained in there until chucking out (yes, I did say OUT) time whereupon we headed in search of shelter and an affable welcome. Dave_C and his umbrella took the lead once again, but this time we were a bit more cynical of his “It’s two minutes – just round the corner – honest!” statements, after the a forced route march we had endured to get to Soho in the first place (I’m sure we passed Mornington Crescent, but since we were under the ‘shortest way possible between two pubs’ rules, it shouldn’t have been allowed)! We did try and find munchies for Rhys_UK, but in the end decided that more alcohol would suffice. Eventually Dave_C and his umbrella presented us with a choice – we could either go to some other bar,which was good and just two minutes away round the corner honest or to Sanctuary which alright too, but opposite us on the street. Thus we made the fateful decision which would raise the meet from good to truly legendary.
We entered the Sanctuary.
At first it seemed innocuous enough. We even found seats, although Dave_C (and his umbrella), ajamieson (“prince among men”) and I definitely ended up in economy – but then that’s the story of my life! However after a short period during which we discovered that we really couldn’t hear each other speak, someone suggested we go up to the generally quieter piano bar upstairs – and so we did with Shuttle Bored (sans-umbrella) leading the way.
The bar upstairs was considerably quieter, being rather more secluded. It was also dominated (or at least the area we ended up in) by a large white grand pianoforte. Sitting at the piano was a red-haired elf (of the wood elf rather than high elf kind for those of you interested in the finer details), who was playing a rather varied selection of music. We quickly ascertained that:
1) He was playing from memory
2) Half the bar was joining in singing
3) He was actually very good
4) We got to play name that tune
5) It was quite possibly the campest song list in creation
And so the evening plunged into the heights of surreality, with distinguished members of the BA, KLM and BMI boards singing along to a variety of camp tunes played by a red haired elf on a white grand piano whilst sipping champagne. Here’s a brief selection of some of the more interesting parts of his repertoire:
Like A Prayer - Madonna
Bach’s Toccata (in D?)
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Carole King
Then on to the Julie Andrews medley:
The Sound of Music
The Lonely Goatherd
Edelweiss
My Favourite Things
Do-Re-Mi
A Spoonful of Sugar
Chim Chim Cher-ee
Feed the Birds (Tuppence A Bag)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Overture from the Marriage of Figaro
Mamma Mia - Abba
My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina – Madonna (and lots of others)
Material Girl - Madonna
Flashdance...What a Feeling - Irene Cara
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
New York, New York
All That Jazz - Chicago
Theme music from the Antiques Road Show - Paul Reade & Tom Gibson
Theme from Fame
All Come All Ye Faithful
I Know Him So Well - Chess
If I Could Turn Back Time - Cher
Theme from Black Beauty
Dancing Queen - Abba
Pomp and Circumstance - Elgar
At this point I did stop writing down the titles (yes I really did, cos I knew I’d forget them and I felt they should be recorded for posterity). However, I distinctly remember Dave_C (on this occasion leaving the umbrella behind) requesting Delibe’s Flower Duet from Lakmé, aka the BA advert theme, which was duly played for us – thanks Dave. The elf must have played non-stop for over two hours and all from memory. He was pretty phenomenal.
Some other discoveries of the evening:
1. Rhys-UK can sing well.
2. ajamieson “prince among men” has a shockingly poor knowledge of show tunes and didn’t even know the words to half the Julie Andrews songs. :eek:
3. Playing guess the camp play list is really good fun - points all round in that game.
4. Mobile phones and drunken Jenbels shouldn’t mix. Apologies once more to those affected – but in our/my defence we were only trying to be caring Flyertalkers and share our experience with our friends around the world. Any donations to the ajamieson mobile phone bill fund gratefully accepted! J And I will just point out that once I suggested it, everybody else thought it was a really good idea too! :D
But eventually all good things must come to an end, and so with the elf still playing (he must have had magical powers to keep going for so long), we left the bar to make our way home to bed. Taxis were acquired, night buses were waited for, umbrellas were, I think, safely returned to base. Very drunken attendees were restrained from getting out of taxis every three minutes because of their mistaken belief “it’s not that far to my hotel from here” ;)
And so to bed, for the two or three hours sleep before my alarm went off at 05.30 to get me out to Farnborough. But that, as they say is another story.
Thanks to Dave_C for editorial comments again - even if I didn't alway concur ;)