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To Hull And Back
Apr. 4th, 2016 11:23 pmSo the only thing to catch up on is the second half of the Easter celebrations, which involved a trip to Hull to celebrate Arc's birthday. Tasked with getting up impossibly early on the day the clocks went forward, we were a little concerned we wouldn't make the 11am start, but having headed home from Stray's birthday meal early, remarkably we were up in time. However, we hadn't bargained on being unable to access Wolfie's car - a battery drain meant that not only would the engine start but we couldn't even get into it as the keyfobs were not working. With no spare keys, we were pretty stranded until a kindly neighbour (the one who supports fox hunting) helped Wolfie to guide his Mazda off the drive and around his broken down Vauxhall, at least meaning we could get over to East Yorkshire, albeit a good 90 minutes late.
The destination was The Deep for Arc's self-styled GoingInDeepCon, a hashtag that we liberally used on Twitter throughout the day. The reality was it was a gathering of about 12 of us going around the aquarium in Hull before having a bite to eat and staying overnight at the swanky Holiday Inn by the marina. The fluttering flags of the 28 EU nations added some colour to the rather grey and damp surroundings, while the whipping March wind certainly made the area far from pleasant. We had hoped to check in early but a wedding party had prevented this, meaning we just parked in the car park before walking over to The Deep, only to be confronted with a massive long queue. The time on the wall predicted forty minutes standing in line and with the others already deep inside The Deep, we did wonder whether we should just find a bar. However, as it was Arc's birthday and the line was moving quite quickly, we decided to enter, even though in the end we did not meet them until after we had finished the tour. As it was Easter Sunday, the number of kids really stifled the enjoyment although it wasn't too busy meaning at least we got to see a wide range of fish. My favourites were the penguins trying to dodge each other's liquid faeces in the water while there was quite a pervasive smell around the place, particularly in the plastic portals into which you climbed to experience life with the fish. The hammerhead sharks were probably my favourites, as were the little grey and white eel type things which bobbed out of the sand and moved their mouths at you. Disliking snakes, you would have thought that I would dislike these creatures, but they definitely had an odd and endearing quality to their personalities. We walked quite quickly through the exhibition largely because we had hoped to catch up with the others, but also because the palaeontology in particular I had studied at university and was thus aware of it. Alas, as I said, they finished long before us and waited for us in the cafeteria at the end. We weren't particularly rushing but we would like to go back again, perhaps on a school day, so it would be a lot quiter. And with a free pass for the rest of the year, this would definitely be possible.
I couldn't resist the ice cream in The Deep's exclusive pop-up ice cream stall before I picked up a pair of plushie crabs from the gift store just so I could make the 'I went in DeepCon and all I got was crabs' joke. Worth the £8 in my view. After this, we all headed over to the hotel, checked in and headed out again to find a place to drink and eat. Arc and I put our foot down at Wetherspoons - her because she's not a fan and me because the pro-Brexit views of the chairman means I am boycotting them - so we ended up in a rather quiet cocktail bar with 15ft wallpaper of various animals wearing various types of formal attire. This place turned out to be a rather excellent cocktail bar, offering a wide variety of cocktails at incredibly low prices, while some of the craft beer on offer was quite good too. The place was huge, meaning it easily sat our number, and soon we were sat down and having a good time, shifting seats whenever anyone went to the toilet so we talked to random people. Raddy had won a balloon from somewhere and Taneli untied it from its mooring so it floated up to the ceiling - it was quite a while before he noticed - while we debated having some food here, fearing that most restaurants would struggle to take our number. The food looked good but it didn't appeal to all, meaning a few of us headed out on an advanced scouting mission to see where else we could go. In the end, we ended up near the railway station and Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a place I always tend to overlook and certainly not somewhere I had been in a while. However, they do seem to have revamped their menu of late as the range was quite extensive and I had the sensational delight of a lamb and mint sauce Yorkshire burger, where instead of the bread bun, it is two Yorkshire puddings instead. This was quite a revelation and with some good hard-to-find beer on the menu too, we will definitely be coming again.
After this, our number started to thin out, with those people not staying overnight heading off. Meanwhile, we had about an hour until the hotel pool closed so we decided to head back and dive in, spending a fun half an hour splashing about and being a general nuisance. The hotel pool wasn't particularly big and I am sure we wouldn't have got away with such schenanigans had other people been in there, but to be fair to the hotel staff, they let us get on with it. I did a fair bit of swimming, with Arc teaching me how to turtle or some such thing, but I wasn't very good at it and nearly drowned. Meanwhile, some of the more boisterous lads got rather excited about the floating sausages, and spent a lot of time bashing each other with them or dragging themselves around. Raddy's rubber cap got a hole in, while we all retired to the sauna, which was quite a squeeze with seven of us. Still, it was all great fun and definitely made staying overnight far more worthwhile, particularly as it did start to feel like a mini-con. This sense increased as we convened in the bar later on, staying down there for three hours playing card games like Exploding Kittens and Uno before jumping on the quiz machine and breaking even overall. I am not a huge fan of card games generally, something else which marginalises me in the Fandom really, but Exploding Kittens was quite fun and as I alternated between colas and a rather excellent gin and tonic, I must admit it was a relaxed and fun time. The same was the case with the quiz machine, even if it did spit out questions of varying difficulty on a rather random basis. We ended the night teasing Raddy as someone had stolen his vodka while the initial plan to have a room party was abandoned as we were all feeling rather tired. In a way this was a shame as Draken had traded his double room for a twin so he could be next to us and share an adjoining door which was between our two rooms but at least this was useful for delivering breakfast the next day. All in all then, it was a great evening and one we would definitely like to repeat, perhaps extending it to more people and doing it every six months or so.
We had to leave quite early on the Monday due to the need to fix Wolfie's car, although in the end it only took about fifteen minutes to repair. We had arranged to see Zootropolis in Everyman with Taneli, partly because we were desperate to see it again and partly because the cheetah had never been there before. Consequently, it made more sense for Taneli to come back to Hull with us, even if it did mean him being squashed in the back of Wolfie's Mazda. I was rammed up against the glovebox and we did have to stop off at Ferrybridge services, where we bumped into a load of Warrington Wolves fans on their way to the game against Hull, but we got back safely and after a relaxing afternoon in the house and some home-cooked Mexican food, we were soon on our way to the cinema. Due to this pre-arranged booking, as well as needing to repair the car, we missed out on Arc's trip to see Kung Fu Panda at Xscape although the queues to get into the complex looked rather gnarly as we drove past the exit. It was worth it though as Zootropolis was as good as the first time and having it with a beer just made it so much better. Also, afterwards, we also got to check out some potential meet venues for the main meet at the end of April, not to mention dropping in on Northern Monk for the first time in ages to sample their full range. I also showed Wolfie and Taneli the new South Entrance to the railway station and we marvelled at the architectural feat of placing it on a pontoon above the river, although we also did lament that there is no thoroughfare through the station from one side to the other. We also wondered why one of the entrances just popped out into a rather grim tunnel with little attempt to spruce it up but there you go. At around 10pm, we headed back and Taneli grabbed the bus while we dropped into Brewdog to try a few new beers there, ending a rather hectic but brilliant weekend in the process.
The destination was The Deep for Arc's self-styled GoingInDeepCon, a hashtag that we liberally used on Twitter throughout the day. The reality was it was a gathering of about 12 of us going around the aquarium in Hull before having a bite to eat and staying overnight at the swanky Holiday Inn by the marina. The fluttering flags of the 28 EU nations added some colour to the rather grey and damp surroundings, while the whipping March wind certainly made the area far from pleasant. We had hoped to check in early but a wedding party had prevented this, meaning we just parked in the car park before walking over to The Deep, only to be confronted with a massive long queue. The time on the wall predicted forty minutes standing in line and with the others already deep inside The Deep, we did wonder whether we should just find a bar. However, as it was Arc's birthday and the line was moving quite quickly, we decided to enter, even though in the end we did not meet them until after we had finished the tour. As it was Easter Sunday, the number of kids really stifled the enjoyment although it wasn't too busy meaning at least we got to see a wide range of fish. My favourites were the penguins trying to dodge each other's liquid faeces in the water while there was quite a pervasive smell around the place, particularly in the plastic portals into which you climbed to experience life with the fish. The hammerhead sharks were probably my favourites, as were the little grey and white eel type things which bobbed out of the sand and moved their mouths at you. Disliking snakes, you would have thought that I would dislike these creatures, but they definitely had an odd and endearing quality to their personalities. We walked quite quickly through the exhibition largely because we had hoped to catch up with the others, but also because the palaeontology in particular I had studied at university and was thus aware of it. Alas, as I said, they finished long before us and waited for us in the cafeteria at the end. We weren't particularly rushing but we would like to go back again, perhaps on a school day, so it would be a lot quiter. And with a free pass for the rest of the year, this would definitely be possible.
I couldn't resist the ice cream in The Deep's exclusive pop-up ice cream stall before I picked up a pair of plushie crabs from the gift store just so I could make the 'I went in DeepCon and all I got was crabs' joke. Worth the £8 in my view. After this, we all headed over to the hotel, checked in and headed out again to find a place to drink and eat. Arc and I put our foot down at Wetherspoons - her because she's not a fan and me because the pro-Brexit views of the chairman means I am boycotting them - so we ended up in a rather quiet cocktail bar with 15ft wallpaper of various animals wearing various types of formal attire. This place turned out to be a rather excellent cocktail bar, offering a wide variety of cocktails at incredibly low prices, while some of the craft beer on offer was quite good too. The place was huge, meaning it easily sat our number, and soon we were sat down and having a good time, shifting seats whenever anyone went to the toilet so we talked to random people. Raddy had won a balloon from somewhere and Taneli untied it from its mooring so it floated up to the ceiling - it was quite a while before he noticed - while we debated having some food here, fearing that most restaurants would struggle to take our number. The food looked good but it didn't appeal to all, meaning a few of us headed out on an advanced scouting mission to see where else we could go. In the end, we ended up near the railway station and Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a place I always tend to overlook and certainly not somewhere I had been in a while. However, they do seem to have revamped their menu of late as the range was quite extensive and I had the sensational delight of a lamb and mint sauce Yorkshire burger, where instead of the bread bun, it is two Yorkshire puddings instead. This was quite a revelation and with some good hard-to-find beer on the menu too, we will definitely be coming again.
After this, our number started to thin out, with those people not staying overnight heading off. Meanwhile, we had about an hour until the hotel pool closed so we decided to head back and dive in, spending a fun half an hour splashing about and being a general nuisance. The hotel pool wasn't particularly big and I am sure we wouldn't have got away with such schenanigans had other people been in there, but to be fair to the hotel staff, they let us get on with it. I did a fair bit of swimming, with Arc teaching me how to turtle or some such thing, but I wasn't very good at it and nearly drowned. Meanwhile, some of the more boisterous lads got rather excited about the floating sausages, and spent a lot of time bashing each other with them or dragging themselves around. Raddy's rubber cap got a hole in, while we all retired to the sauna, which was quite a squeeze with seven of us. Still, it was all great fun and definitely made staying overnight far more worthwhile, particularly as it did start to feel like a mini-con. This sense increased as we convened in the bar later on, staying down there for three hours playing card games like Exploding Kittens and Uno before jumping on the quiz machine and breaking even overall. I am not a huge fan of card games generally, something else which marginalises me in the Fandom really, but Exploding Kittens was quite fun and as I alternated between colas and a rather excellent gin and tonic, I must admit it was a relaxed and fun time. The same was the case with the quiz machine, even if it did spit out questions of varying difficulty on a rather random basis. We ended the night teasing Raddy as someone had stolen his vodka while the initial plan to have a room party was abandoned as we were all feeling rather tired. In a way this was a shame as Draken had traded his double room for a twin so he could be next to us and share an adjoining door which was between our two rooms but at least this was useful for delivering breakfast the next day. All in all then, it was a great evening and one we would definitely like to repeat, perhaps extending it to more people and doing it every six months or so.
We had to leave quite early on the Monday due to the need to fix Wolfie's car, although in the end it only took about fifteen minutes to repair. We had arranged to see Zootropolis in Everyman with Taneli, partly because we were desperate to see it again and partly because the cheetah had never been there before. Consequently, it made more sense for Taneli to come back to Hull with us, even if it did mean him being squashed in the back of Wolfie's Mazda. I was rammed up against the glovebox and we did have to stop off at Ferrybridge services, where we bumped into a load of Warrington Wolves fans on their way to the game against Hull, but we got back safely and after a relaxing afternoon in the house and some home-cooked Mexican food, we were soon on our way to the cinema. Due to this pre-arranged booking, as well as needing to repair the car, we missed out on Arc's trip to see Kung Fu Panda at Xscape although the queues to get into the complex looked rather gnarly as we drove past the exit. It was worth it though as Zootropolis was as good as the first time and having it with a beer just made it so much better. Also, afterwards, we also got to check out some potential meet venues for the main meet at the end of April, not to mention dropping in on Northern Monk for the first time in ages to sample their full range. I also showed Wolfie and Taneli the new South Entrance to the railway station and we marvelled at the architectural feat of placing it on a pontoon above the river, although we also did lament that there is no thoroughfare through the station from one side to the other. We also wondered why one of the entrances just popped out into a rather grim tunnel with little attempt to spruce it up but there you go. At around 10pm, we headed back and Taneli grabbed the bus while we dropped into Brewdog to try a few new beers there, ending a rather hectic but brilliant weekend in the process.
