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Gungy Puppy!
Jun. 25th, 2017 11:38 pmIt's been a very busy weekend as on Saturday we headed down to Birmingham via Sheffield. The reason for stopping off at the Steel City was to go to the Sheffield Meet, which we hadn't done for a number of months due to other commitments. Usually, we don't need an excuse to visit a BrewDog and with some of their number now part of the LeedsFurs meet committee, we thought we would show support by going down there, plus we do always try and go to the Sheffield meet three or four times a year. The fact it was on our way to Birmingham, where we were going for an evening event, made it happily convenient.
We got to the venue just after noon as the furs were piling in, and discovered that the BrewDog app had been telling lies about the beer they had in stock. This was because they had had a Fourpure Tap Takeover the night before and hadn't had the opportunity to update it. By the by, there were two beers we hadn't yet sampled so we had thirds of those, which was just as well as this was all we could drink due to the need to drive to the Midlands. We caught up with a number of cool furs, including Cub, Kyuu and Bailey, while we also participated in Grem's quiz, where I got the nickname 'Google' because I knew the answers to every question in the guess the year round. I faltered a little on the Spain's population question, but I am pretty confident we did well. Alas, after picking up a few beers to take down to Birmingham, we had to leave before the winner of the quiz had been announced. Still, even though we were only there for two and a half hours, it was a nice little meet and hopefully we can come back again another time.
The main event in Birmingham was at fetish club Underworld, which SLOSH had rented out for their annual 'Messing About' gungy games event. Ever since watching Fun House in the early Nineties I have had an obsession with gunge and having joined the society back in April, I was determined to go down there, aided by a number of Birmingham furs who had encouraged me to sign up back at the Easter meet. In the end there were 10 furs of the 90 people in attendance and thus any fears I had had about not knowing anyone were somewhat assuaged. Indeed, for some reason I have something of a positive reputation in the city and many people were glad to see me.
Aside from the furs, I didn't know many other people so hid my shyness through humour, making a fair few people laugh about the time Martine McCutcheon was killed by a truckle of cheese on Midsomer Murders, along with a load of other crazy stuff I was coming out with. Through this, I met a load of cool people and it definitely made me feel more relaxed. Indeed meeting people was just so easy, perhaps because of the wacky nature of what we were doing, and I am definitely hoping to return to future SLOSH events.
You had the choice of participating or not particpating in the gungy games, with Wolfie opting out as it isn't really his thing (plus his foot is still playing up and would have been a risk on the slippy floor). I opted to participate but my number wasn't drawn out of the bucket, so there were no games for me (the people participating in the games were determined by the drawing of balls from a bucket which corresponded to the number on your wristband - I was number 45). If I was being honest, I had an element of trepidation about performing in front of so many people so it was a slight relief I wasn't picked, although deep down I probably did want to have a go.
There was a new addition to proceedings - the Gunge Tank - which had been constructed specially for this event. It was a proper set up too, similar to the early prototypes in Noel's House Party. It was used frequently throughout the show, which was compared so well by a sarcastic bloke from Hartlepool and another bloke in a red sequined dress. Some of the games required set-up and as they were being prepared, they asked us questions relating to gunge and old TV shows. I was delighted that I got Annibel Croft as being the other person in Treasure Hunt but was frustrated I didn't have the confidence to shout out 'Carling Black Label' for one of the other questions, an answer which was in the deepest recesses of my mind. The showmanship from the duo was first-rate though and they contributed to an excellently staged event, with a show that even Wolfie enjoyed and he's not really into the scene.
At half-time we had a competition to guess how many cups of gunge someone could store in their plastic Gary pants while you could also nominate people to go in the gunge tank. We decided to opt for Ray, who was too shy to participate in the games but always wanted to be gunged, and we got nearly all the furs in the room to nominate him too. Alas, he didn't get chosen but after the show, some of us got the opportunity to be gunged ourselves. I was one of those lucky ones and considering this was a lifelong dream ever since I had watched Noel's House Party in about 1990, suffice to say I was absolutely rapt. Getting into the tank was an incredibly slippery and difficult experience, it having been used a fair bit already, but it is the moment of trepidation before the gunging happened that made it so exhilarating. This was only aided by one of my furry friends, upon noticing it was me in the tank, insisting that they use bright pink gunge, which only made the whole thing sweeter.
It was a Scotsman who pulled the lever, another great chap, while Wolfie was more interested in the engineering behind the construction. The gunging itself was marvelous, but I was surprised by just how much there was, not to mention the rather bitter and gritty taste, as some of it had gone in my mouth. It also took me about ten minutes to get full visibility back, which made the waddle to the washing pits quite difficult, but of course it was totally totally worth it. I must admit I was quite shy asking whether I could do it and indeed had already put my good clothes back on before the opportunity presented itself, feeling a little down as I did, but Wolfie asked the treasurer of SLOSH on my behalf and I am eternally grateful to the people at SLOSH and indeed Wolfie for letting me live my childhood dream.
We were staying in a hotel just down the road from the venue and upon arrival, we noticed about twenty of our fellow attendees drinking in the bar. The people at the event were from all over the country - and indeed there was someone from Germany - so they were just chilling. We asked whether we could join them and spent the next two hours talking shite and making new friends. A handful went off to a room party involving Morrison's trifle but the rest of us stayed downstairs, finally heading to bed at around 1:30am. As the last ones left, we popped over to McDonald's as our last food was a pizza at BrewDog many hours earlier, with my Tennessee Stack being an adequate burger, pretty much like all their food.
We woke up quite early on Sunday but Wolfie's foot had jarred, meaning we didn't get chance to do much in the hotel room. The drive back was pretty sedate, with us stopping off for a Sunday lunch at the fantastic Elm Tree pub in Heath, Derbyshire. This was the first entry that had come up when I typed 'good pubs M1 notts' into Google, and it was an excellent choice, even if it did get the county wrong. The carvery was top notch with three different types of meat, Yorkshire Puddings and all the trimmings, which made us feel quite bloated for the rest of the day. When we got back, we just pottered around the house and I went to the gym so nothing overly exciting but then there had been enough excitement over the weekend really.
We got to the venue just after noon as the furs were piling in, and discovered that the BrewDog app had been telling lies about the beer they had in stock. This was because they had had a Fourpure Tap Takeover the night before and hadn't had the opportunity to update it. By the by, there were two beers we hadn't yet sampled so we had thirds of those, which was just as well as this was all we could drink due to the need to drive to the Midlands. We caught up with a number of cool furs, including Cub, Kyuu and Bailey, while we also participated in Grem's quiz, where I got the nickname 'Google' because I knew the answers to every question in the guess the year round. I faltered a little on the Spain's population question, but I am pretty confident we did well. Alas, after picking up a few beers to take down to Birmingham, we had to leave before the winner of the quiz had been announced. Still, even though we were only there for two and a half hours, it was a nice little meet and hopefully we can come back again another time.
The main event in Birmingham was at fetish club Underworld, which SLOSH had rented out for their annual 'Messing About' gungy games event. Ever since watching Fun House in the early Nineties I have had an obsession with gunge and having joined the society back in April, I was determined to go down there, aided by a number of Birmingham furs who had encouraged me to sign up back at the Easter meet. In the end there were 10 furs of the 90 people in attendance and thus any fears I had had about not knowing anyone were somewhat assuaged. Indeed, for some reason I have something of a positive reputation in the city and many people were glad to see me.
Aside from the furs, I didn't know many other people so hid my shyness through humour, making a fair few people laugh about the time Martine McCutcheon was killed by a truckle of cheese on Midsomer Murders, along with a load of other crazy stuff I was coming out with. Through this, I met a load of cool people and it definitely made me feel more relaxed. Indeed meeting people was just so easy, perhaps because of the wacky nature of what we were doing, and I am definitely hoping to return to future SLOSH events.
You had the choice of participating or not particpating in the gungy games, with Wolfie opting out as it isn't really his thing (plus his foot is still playing up and would have been a risk on the slippy floor). I opted to participate but my number wasn't drawn out of the bucket, so there were no games for me (the people participating in the games were determined by the drawing of balls from a bucket which corresponded to the number on your wristband - I was number 45). If I was being honest, I had an element of trepidation about performing in front of so many people so it was a slight relief I wasn't picked, although deep down I probably did want to have a go.
There was a new addition to proceedings - the Gunge Tank - which had been constructed specially for this event. It was a proper set up too, similar to the early prototypes in Noel's House Party. It was used frequently throughout the show, which was compared so well by a sarcastic bloke from Hartlepool and another bloke in a red sequined dress. Some of the games required set-up and as they were being prepared, they asked us questions relating to gunge and old TV shows. I was delighted that I got Annibel Croft as being the other person in Treasure Hunt but was frustrated I didn't have the confidence to shout out 'Carling Black Label' for one of the other questions, an answer which was in the deepest recesses of my mind. The showmanship from the duo was first-rate though and they contributed to an excellently staged event, with a show that even Wolfie enjoyed and he's not really into the scene.
At half-time we had a competition to guess how many cups of gunge someone could store in their plastic Gary pants while you could also nominate people to go in the gunge tank. We decided to opt for Ray, who was too shy to participate in the games but always wanted to be gunged, and we got nearly all the furs in the room to nominate him too. Alas, he didn't get chosen but after the show, some of us got the opportunity to be gunged ourselves. I was one of those lucky ones and considering this was a lifelong dream ever since I had watched Noel's House Party in about 1990, suffice to say I was absolutely rapt. Getting into the tank was an incredibly slippery and difficult experience, it having been used a fair bit already, but it is the moment of trepidation before the gunging happened that made it so exhilarating. This was only aided by one of my furry friends, upon noticing it was me in the tank, insisting that they use bright pink gunge, which only made the whole thing sweeter.
It was a Scotsman who pulled the lever, another great chap, while Wolfie was more interested in the engineering behind the construction. The gunging itself was marvelous, but I was surprised by just how much there was, not to mention the rather bitter and gritty taste, as some of it had gone in my mouth. It also took me about ten minutes to get full visibility back, which made the waddle to the washing pits quite difficult, but of course it was totally totally worth it. I must admit I was quite shy asking whether I could do it and indeed had already put my good clothes back on before the opportunity presented itself, feeling a little down as I did, but Wolfie asked the treasurer of SLOSH on my behalf and I am eternally grateful to the people at SLOSH and indeed Wolfie for letting me live my childhood dream.
We were staying in a hotel just down the road from the venue and upon arrival, we noticed about twenty of our fellow attendees drinking in the bar. The people at the event were from all over the country - and indeed there was someone from Germany - so they were just chilling. We asked whether we could join them and spent the next two hours talking shite and making new friends. A handful went off to a room party involving Morrison's trifle but the rest of us stayed downstairs, finally heading to bed at around 1:30am. As the last ones left, we popped over to McDonald's as our last food was a pizza at BrewDog many hours earlier, with my Tennessee Stack being an adequate burger, pretty much like all their food.
We woke up quite early on Sunday but Wolfie's foot had jarred, meaning we didn't get chance to do much in the hotel room. The drive back was pretty sedate, with us stopping off for a Sunday lunch at the fantastic Elm Tree pub in Heath, Derbyshire. This was the first entry that had come up when I typed 'good pubs M1 notts' into Google, and it was an excellent choice, even if it did get the county wrong. The carvery was top notch with three different types of meat, Yorkshire Puddings and all the trimmings, which made us feel quite bloated for the rest of the day. When we got back, we just pottered around the house and I went to the gym so nothing overly exciting but then there had been enough excitement over the weekend really.
