lupestripe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lupestripe) wrote2007-10-29 09:39 pm
lupestripe) wrote2007-10-29 09:39 pm
The Stranger In You
LEEDS FURMEET - 27th AND 28th OCTOBER
Apparently it was 4-2. I don't know if that was the number of Leeds and Millwall fans injured on the streets of Leeds that day suffice to say as we headed towards the station to meet the fuzzies we were greeted to a baracade of fuzzies of a different type. Plenty of handcuffs but not a tail in sight. It just wasn't the same. And if you're going to dress as a police officer then you might as well strip. I thought that was the point of these Community Support Officers. Evidently I was sold a lie. I blame the Government...
I like the foyer to Leeds station - it's so nicely bland I can imagine an Eighties' quango dreaming up the architecture in some dull bedsit in Barnsley. And like a prostitute who's a little scared of the cold I've spent more time loitering outside that WH Smith than I care to remember. Still, welcome biscuits in hand (30 for £2.07 - you really can't be robbed - and they were in the shape of teddy bears - double yey!!) and collar firmly around neck I waited for the Millwall fans to beat the shit out of me. Having said that Mortious, with arms folded and flowing black coat, kept all the hooligans at bay with his passable security guard impression. It was most impressive!
The flood of furs that followed wouldn't have looked out of place in Tewksbury Town Centre three months ago. All fuzzy, all beautiful, all slightly perplexed with the police presence. The furs loved my welcome biscuits but sadly they weren't ginger nuts. Because mine are brown. Sad thing is you could tell that they cost the equivalent of 6p a biscuit - you could almost taste the grit in them. Next time I'll just stick to KitKat's. Because of the furry name.
Just as I was about to head into my random stratospheric stage of the furmeet I was quietly quelled by a friendly policeman who told us to move on. Fearing a Liverpool-style dispersal order being stuck on my ass (violating By-Law 33.2 subsection 13a platform 15b) Wolfie said he'd take the fuzzies to Tiger Tiger, the furmeet venue (wherewolfie_uk had pre-arranged to have our own lil fur area), whilst I waited for the straddlers. In the end I bought some black nail varnish and pretended I was normal.
Fearing the police presence I couldn't solicit so I had to make do with some friendly furs to keep me company. By 12:15 we'd got everyfur and we made our way up to the venue ourselves. Via Greggs of course. Becauseenteirah was with us. Having nominated myself official Greggs spokesman of the Leeds Meet I was more than pleased that the bunny bought not only a steak bake but a baked bean melt too. And something for pudding. Unfortunately I didn't get the unenviable honour of buying his lunch for him but he was made up with the fact that Leeds has a Greggs that's open almost 24 hours (9am-4am - a revelation!!). That's something that's not mentioned on your store locator Ent!
I spent a large portion of the first hour talking tolazyhowl. It was a very interesting discussion about politics, religion and philosophy and it reminded me of my heady university days when I was an impressionable young whipper-snapper (whatever the hell that means) ready to radicalise the world. By getting pissed and watching Neighbours. Except I was snapping no whips whatsoever back then. Sadly. I miss these debates nowadays and we came to the conclusion that we agree on quite a lot of things. Which was cool.
I also met the vice-president of St John's wildlife society, the society whichbalto_mike is the president of. He was bemoaning about there being no furs in York and when I told him about Mike he said I'd made his meet. Which was really sweet.
The place was crawling with fuzz at this stage and I'm not talking in a good way (furries wearing collars and leads on all fours). I ventured out to pick up Greskill and was greeted by a large wall of luminous dicks forming a blockade around the station. It was like testing day at the condom factory. To be fair the police were courteous and did exactly what they needed to do so I only jest. We all stayed safe and that was the main thing. So I say hats off to them. Or should that be helmets?
I spent a lot of the meet withcrystakitty and greyscar - it was good catching up with both of them. I was slightly distracted by the football (and the imminent 4-1 mauling at the hands of Manchester United) and the not inconsiderable amounts of alcohol I was drinking but I enjoyed swapping stories and anecdotes with both of them. And of course plans for the future.
To avoid the discharge of Millwall fans onto the street we decided to go bowling after Tiger Tiger. Due to the fact my liver was resembling a Russian distillery I refrained from the bowling and decided that the best plan would be to go to the bar in the bowling venue and drink some more. I must have been out of it as I chose a pint of Carling as my tipple. Shameful. But I also bought those crunchy nuts which are so gorgeous and for some reason you can only seem to get in bowling alleys. Why is that? Do they have a monopoly on the nut company? And do they own the Water Works and the hotel on Northumberland Avenue?
I also had a game of pool withmiles_foxboi that was relatively even until I got a phone call from a radio station back home that wanted me to give them some comment on our 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford. So out I dashed to do my duty (sorry for leaving the game Miles - who won by the way - I still have no idea) and spent the next 15 minutes arguing with the radio presenter under the daze of seven double vodkas. I did well to make it coherent let alone not to swear but apparently my points were valid, which was cool. All hail friends who were listening at home!
Varsity followed but to be honest I was flagging. Call it the alcohol, call it tiredness but I had completely run out of energy. The poor food at Varsity didn't help (the one amazing thing about being a vegetarian is the inability, despite the wonders of modern science, to create a burger that doesn't disintegrate in your paw as you are eating it) so I resigned myself to making sure that those who needed to go back to the station got back safe and sound and in time for the train. I like being of use. I remember speaking tolsfiox here - it was great catching up with him. And his annoying jangly bell :P
The plan had been to hit the town harder than a drunk Millwall fan hits the floor on Saturday night but we were all (actively_lazy, enteirah, patter_snowfox, wolfie_uk, crosseyeddragon and I) so tired we made do with a pint in the (scarily deserted for a Saturday night) Hogshead before heading off to our respective hotels (or if you're patter_snowfox, your own house) to enjoy the extra hour of sleep that the Victorians had gifted us. All hail Queen Victoria. Frumpy bitch.
Sunday saw us gather in the foyer of our hotel before stepping out on to the barely tarmaced streets of Leeds. They were digging it up you see and the stench ot tar was everywhere. The perfect elixir to a painful hangover. I also found one woman's shoe that still had the sweat in it from the night before. I tried balancing it on my head. I don't know why. I also spent a lot of the journey sticking my tongue out atactively_lazy. Because he smells (only joking hun :P).
We got about 14 furs down on the Sunday which was a pleasant surprise. Another surprise was that we all managed to agree relatively quickly that we would go to Red Square for some nosebag. I had a cocktail that the waitress didn't know how to make so it alternated between the richness of strawberry and the plainness of soda water depending on which straw you sucked out of. I also madeenteirah's dinner ridiculously late due to my overly complicated cocktail request hehe. The toilets there had been frequented by Kipper Knickers who clearly had trouble establishing her gender. Her number was left in the men's toilets. If you want it I think I still remember it. If you live in Leeds you'll be charged local rate. Bargain if you ask me although I accept it does sound a little fishy.
A nice talk withtungro followed before we arrived at the Travelling Man. This was to be the next port of call as card games were on the, erm, cards. Here I managed to talk to Tom, a new fur, for a while but feeling it a little bit hot and cramped I decided to take the opportunity of showing him the way to The Crowne Plaza to talk to him a little more. enteirah followed me (before all this we had spent a whole half hour trying to find a cash machine that would dispense ten poxy quid to us - but with little success. I also had a really dry iced finger which, had it been from Greggs, would have been far moister. You live and learn) and the three of us discussed life, love and fur.
After we dropped Tom off withvrekkar enteirah and I headed to Starbucks for a corporate latte in a little plastic pot. I felt so Friends with my creamy carton of crap. It tasted nice though and it was great getting to know Ent some more beyond the general piss taking that often occurs between us (secretly I just think he's jealous of my puns).
We then decided to head back to the station where we met up withsouthpaw1805, seraphistar, tungro, shiinsuh and foxxtail. Seraphistar showed me his fursuit head and paws which looked impressive (he had shown me the body of his suit the previous day and all I can say is it's softly strokable) whilst we all drank and waited for our trains, ending our weekends.
The flood of furs that followed wouldn't have looked out of place in Tewksbury Town Centre three months ago. All fuzzy, all beautiful, all slightly perplexed with the police presence. The furs loved my welcome biscuits but sadly they weren't ginger nuts. Because mine are brown. Sad thing is you could tell that they cost the equivalent of 6p a biscuit - you could almost taste the grit in them. Next time I'll just stick to KitKat's. Because of the furry name.
Just as I was about to head into my random stratospheric stage of the furmeet I was quietly quelled by a friendly policeman who told us to move on. Fearing a Liverpool-style dispersal order being stuck on my ass (violating By-Law 33.2 subsection 13a platform 15b) Wolfie said he'd take the fuzzies to Tiger Tiger, the furmeet venue (where
wolfie_uk had pre-arranged to have our own lil fur area), whilst I waited for the straddlers. In the end I bought some black nail varnish and pretended I was normal.Fearing the police presence I couldn't solicit so I had to make do with some friendly furs to keep me company. By 12:15 we'd got everyfur and we made our way up to the venue ourselves. Via Greggs of course. Because
enteirah was with us. Having nominated myself official Greggs spokesman of the Leeds Meet I was more than pleased that the bunny bought not only a steak bake but a baked bean melt too. And something for pudding. Unfortunately I didn't get the unenviable honour of buying his lunch for him but he was made up with the fact that Leeds has a Greggs that's open almost 24 hours (9am-4am - a revelation!!). That's something that's not mentioned on your store locator Ent!I spent a large portion of the first hour talking to
lazyhowl. It was a very interesting discussion about politics, religion and philosophy and it reminded me of my heady university days when I was an impressionable young whipper-snapper (whatever the hell that means) ready to radicalise the world. By getting pissed and watching Neighbours. Except I was snapping no whips whatsoever back then. Sadly. I miss these debates nowadays and we came to the conclusion that we agree on quite a lot of things. Which was cool. I also met the vice-president of St John's wildlife society, the society which
balto_mike is the president of. He was bemoaning about there being no furs in York and when I told him about Mike he said I'd made his meet. Which was really sweet.The place was crawling with fuzz at this stage and I'm not talking in a good way (furries wearing collars and leads on all fours). I ventured out to pick up Greskill and was greeted by a large wall of luminous dicks forming a blockade around the station. It was like testing day at the condom factory. To be fair the police were courteous and did exactly what they needed to do so I only jest. We all stayed safe and that was the main thing. So I say hats off to them. Or should that be helmets?
I spent a lot of the meet with
crystakitty and greyscar - it was good catching up with both of them. I was slightly distracted by the football (and the imminent 4-1 mauling at the hands of Manchester United) and the not inconsiderable amounts of alcohol I was drinking but I enjoyed swapping stories and anecdotes with both of them. And of course plans for the future.To avoid the discharge of Millwall fans onto the street we decided to go bowling after Tiger Tiger. Due to the fact my liver was resembling a Russian distillery I refrained from the bowling and decided that the best plan would be to go to the bar in the bowling venue and drink some more. I must have been out of it as I chose a pint of Carling as my tipple. Shameful. But I also bought those crunchy nuts which are so gorgeous and for some reason you can only seem to get in bowling alleys. Why is that? Do they have a monopoly on the nut company? And do they own the Water Works and the hotel on Northumberland Avenue?
I also had a game of pool with
miles_foxboi that was relatively even until I got a phone call from a radio station back home that wanted me to give them some comment on our 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford. So out I dashed to do my duty (sorry for leaving the game Miles - who won by the way - I still have no idea) and spent the next 15 minutes arguing with the radio presenter under the daze of seven double vodkas. I did well to make it coherent let alone not to swear but apparently my points were valid, which was cool. All hail friends who were listening at home!Varsity followed but to be honest I was flagging. Call it the alcohol, call it tiredness but I had completely run out of energy. The poor food at Varsity didn't help (the one amazing thing about being a vegetarian is the inability, despite the wonders of modern science, to create a burger that doesn't disintegrate in your paw as you are eating it) so I resigned myself to making sure that those who needed to go back to the station got back safe and sound and in time for the train. I like being of use. I remember speaking to
lsfiox here - it was great catching up with him. And his annoying jangly bell :PThe plan had been to hit the town harder than a drunk Millwall fan hits the floor on Saturday night but we were all (
actively_lazy, enteirah, patter_snowfox, wolfie_uk, crosseyeddragon and I) so tired we made do with a pint in the (scarily deserted for a Saturday night) Hogshead before heading off to our respective hotels (or if you're patter_snowfox, your own house) to enjoy the extra hour of sleep that the Victorians had gifted us. All hail Queen Victoria. Frumpy bitch.Sunday saw us gather in the foyer of our hotel before stepping out on to the barely tarmaced streets of Leeds. They were digging it up you see and the stench ot tar was everywhere. The perfect elixir to a painful hangover. I also found one woman's shoe that still had the sweat in it from the night before. I tried balancing it on my head. I don't know why. I also spent a lot of the journey sticking my tongue out at
actively_lazy. Because he smells (only joking hun :P).We got about 14 furs down on the Sunday which was a pleasant surprise. Another surprise was that we all managed to agree relatively quickly that we would go to Red Square for some nosebag. I had a cocktail that the waitress didn't know how to make so it alternated between the richness of strawberry and the plainness of soda water depending on which straw you sucked out of. I also made
enteirah's dinner ridiculously late due to my overly complicated cocktail request hehe. The toilets there had been frequented by Kipper Knickers who clearly had trouble establishing her gender. Her number was left in the men's toilets. If you want it I think I still remember it. If you live in Leeds you'll be charged local rate. Bargain if you ask me although I accept it does sound a little fishy.A nice talk with
tungro followed before we arrived at the Travelling Man. This was to be the next port of call as card games were on the, erm, cards. Here I managed to talk to Tom, a new fur, for a while but feeling it a little bit hot and cramped I decided to take the opportunity of showing him the way to The Crowne Plaza to talk to him a little more. enteirah followed me (before all this we had spent a whole half hour trying to find a cash machine that would dispense ten poxy quid to us - but with little success. I also had a really dry iced finger which, had it been from Greggs, would have been far moister. You live and learn) and the three of us discussed life, love and fur.After we dropped Tom off with
vrekkar enteirah and I headed to Starbucks for a corporate latte in a little plastic pot. I felt so Friends with my creamy carton of crap. It tasted nice though and it was great getting to know Ent some more beyond the general piss taking that often occurs between us (secretly I just think he's jealous of my puns). We then decided to head back to the station where we met up with
southpaw1805, seraphistar, tungro, shiinsuh and foxxtail. Seraphistar showed me his fursuit head and paws which looked impressive (he had shown me the body of his suit the previous day and all I can say is it's softly strokable) whilst we all drank and waited for our trains, ending our weekends.The final thing to point out is that
wolfie_uk had arranged everything perfectly and I'm very proud of all his efforts on the day. He went above and beyond for us all and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him personally.