Wild Dogs And Puppies
Apr. 1st, 2015 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeFulfilling a promise, on Saturday we went to the Sheffield furmeet in their BrewDog. I've always had deep reservations about holding a furmeet in a BrewDog bar and indeed some of these were well-founded, but in the end it was a very pleasant afternoon drinking craft beer with some friends, as well as meeting some new people too. It wasn't a huge meet, around 20 were in attendance overall, but this made it far easier to meet people and so definitely had its advantages. The meet was very relaxed and I'll admit that some of my misgivings faded, although only having to deal with two fursuiters was a blessing in disguise I feel.
Due to being our usual lazy selves, we didn't get to the bar until about 2:30pm, and it would have been later had we not sprinted for the Sheffield-bound service at Leeds railway station. This was probably for the best though as our general desire to taste as many beers as possible, coupled with their strength in BrewDog, often makes for a messy conclusion. In the end, three hours in the bar after a pre-drinking Subway sandwich turned out to be ample, particularly as they had a Redwillow tap takeover on, meaning we aimed to get through all seven they had available. We also tried Brewdog's new Paradox Compass Box, possibly one of the nicest drinks ever created and a real return to form from a brewery which had a disappointing 2014 in my view, along with a few odds and sods we hadn't sampled before. In the end, there wasn't one drink there we hadn't tried and we had a great time playing games and talking to people as we sampled the full range. It was a shame Stray and Arc weren't there - they had expressed a desire to come but due to differing last minute reasons they couldn't - but hopefully they'll be there next time.
We arrived just in time for their Fursuit walk but we opted to stay behind and drink, despite everyone following the suiters around some of Sheffield's key landmarks. Meanwhile, we were playing Battleship (which I won), Dominos (using the very same set that I used to play with my grandmother when I was a kid) and Linkee which I wasn't very good at at all. There was a nice couple with a kid next to us on the table and they were playing Jenga (well the Chad Valley version, Tremor Tower or whatever), while we chatted to them once in a while when the occasion allowed. Meanwhile, as the Fursuit walk continued, the bar continued to fill up, meaning when they were back, the furs had to split into two groups. It wasn't really a huge problem but this was one of my reservations. I suppose at least we had the cubby hole near the door to store all our stuff but being separate from many of the others was a shame. We sidled up to one of the groups though towards the end of the meet and I even trolled the bar staff as after five high strength brews I said I needed a non-alcoholic one as I was driving later. I wasn't but I had her going for a while.
At around 6pm, a large group of us moved to Wong Ting, a Chinese restaurant nearby which is proving to be the furry Chinese restaurant of choice. Apparently the furs always go here after the meets, so much so that they are known to the owner, who puts on a huge buffet spread for a set price and doesn't stop serving until all of the fuzzies are full. Furthermore, in February, some fursuiters including Arc had been invited down here for Chinese New Year so they could perform in their goat suits (it being the Chinese year of the goat and all - I'm looking forward to the Dog year), meaning the relationship between this restaurant and local furs is quite strong. The owner is a Chinese lady with a thick Yorkshire accent - I love unpredictable and misplaced accents, I find them fascinating - who kept complaining that certain people on the table had "scoffed the lot" when it came to the range of food that came out. And what a range it was - satay, noodles, sweet and sour, various different rices, sizzling pork and beef dishes, pretty much anything we wanted really. There were 13 of us around the table, which had a revolving glass centrepiece so you could pick up whichever food you liked on a regular basis. The decor may have been slightly faded but the atmosphere was great and the service exemplary, and for £16.99 you couldn't complain at all. The round table also enabled us to meet more furs, some old friends and some we had never met, and it was a really nice way to end the day.
Inexplicably, the paying up bit took quite a while, over an hour, and I'm not sure what we did during this time beyond chatting - time flies and all that. Whatever we did, it caused our Swedish friend to miss his train, necessitating an extended stay in Sheffield for him, while we took a group of seven including Max back to the station and the Sheffield Taps, where we had a quick drink while waiting for our train. Max lives nearby but we hadn't seen him in ages, and he told us about a fetish club called Alert in Manchester we should go to. I am looking to go to more fetish clubs but I'm not sure this is the right one for me - I prefer mixed gatherings than male gay places - but it may be worth a try. We discussed this on our way home, with Max joining Wolfie and I after we had split from the others.
In the end it was a very pleasurable day and we hope to be able to get to more Sheffield meets in the future. I don't think we can do every meet - the Leeds meets already take up one weekend a month and I have other things going on in my life - but we are hoping to visit once every two months or so. The meets are small but are very friendly and it was great meeting new people in a craft beer setting - always a winner for me. Consequently, we are hoping to make late May our next one.
Due to being our usual lazy selves, we didn't get to the bar until about 2:30pm, and it would have been later had we not sprinted for the Sheffield-bound service at Leeds railway station. This was probably for the best though as our general desire to taste as many beers as possible, coupled with their strength in BrewDog, often makes for a messy conclusion. In the end, three hours in the bar after a pre-drinking Subway sandwich turned out to be ample, particularly as they had a Redwillow tap takeover on, meaning we aimed to get through all seven they had available. We also tried Brewdog's new Paradox Compass Box, possibly one of the nicest drinks ever created and a real return to form from a brewery which had a disappointing 2014 in my view, along with a few odds and sods we hadn't sampled before. In the end, there wasn't one drink there we hadn't tried and we had a great time playing games and talking to people as we sampled the full range. It was a shame Stray and Arc weren't there - they had expressed a desire to come but due to differing last minute reasons they couldn't - but hopefully they'll be there next time.
We arrived just in time for their Fursuit walk but we opted to stay behind and drink, despite everyone following the suiters around some of Sheffield's key landmarks. Meanwhile, we were playing Battleship (which I won), Dominos (using the very same set that I used to play with my grandmother when I was a kid) and Linkee which I wasn't very good at at all. There was a nice couple with a kid next to us on the table and they were playing Jenga (well the Chad Valley version, Tremor Tower or whatever), while we chatted to them once in a while when the occasion allowed. Meanwhile, as the Fursuit walk continued, the bar continued to fill up, meaning when they were back, the furs had to split into two groups. It wasn't really a huge problem but this was one of my reservations. I suppose at least we had the cubby hole near the door to store all our stuff but being separate from many of the others was a shame. We sidled up to one of the groups though towards the end of the meet and I even trolled the bar staff as after five high strength brews I said I needed a non-alcoholic one as I was driving later. I wasn't but I had her going for a while.
At around 6pm, a large group of us moved to Wong Ting, a Chinese restaurant nearby which is proving to be the furry Chinese restaurant of choice. Apparently the furs always go here after the meets, so much so that they are known to the owner, who puts on a huge buffet spread for a set price and doesn't stop serving until all of the fuzzies are full. Furthermore, in February, some fursuiters including Arc had been invited down here for Chinese New Year so they could perform in their goat suits (it being the Chinese year of the goat and all - I'm looking forward to the Dog year), meaning the relationship between this restaurant and local furs is quite strong. The owner is a Chinese lady with a thick Yorkshire accent - I love unpredictable and misplaced accents, I find them fascinating - who kept complaining that certain people on the table had "scoffed the lot" when it came to the range of food that came out. And what a range it was - satay, noodles, sweet and sour, various different rices, sizzling pork and beef dishes, pretty much anything we wanted really. There were 13 of us around the table, which had a revolving glass centrepiece so you could pick up whichever food you liked on a regular basis. The decor may have been slightly faded but the atmosphere was great and the service exemplary, and for £16.99 you couldn't complain at all. The round table also enabled us to meet more furs, some old friends and some we had never met, and it was a really nice way to end the day.
Inexplicably, the paying up bit took quite a while, over an hour, and I'm not sure what we did during this time beyond chatting - time flies and all that. Whatever we did, it caused our Swedish friend to miss his train, necessitating an extended stay in Sheffield for him, while we took a group of seven including Max back to the station and the Sheffield Taps, where we had a quick drink while waiting for our train. Max lives nearby but we hadn't seen him in ages, and he told us about a fetish club called Alert in Manchester we should go to. I am looking to go to more fetish clubs but I'm not sure this is the right one for me - I prefer mixed gatherings than male gay places - but it may be worth a try. We discussed this on our way home, with Max joining Wolfie and I after we had split from the others.
In the end it was a very pleasurable day and we hope to be able to get to more Sheffield meets in the future. I don't think we can do every meet - the Leeds meets already take up one weekend a month and I have other things going on in my life - but we are hoping to visit once every two months or so. The meets are small but are very friendly and it was great meeting new people in a craft beer setting - always a winner for me. Consequently, we are hoping to make late May our next one.
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no subject
Date: 2015-04-01 06:13 pm (UTC)as after five high strength brews I said I needed a non-alcoholic one as I was driving later
*snerk* And they didn't throw anything at you? =:D
Now that's a buffet! All made fresh, not just sat out for ages, and with quite a variety - yep, easy to see how they've carved out a place for themselves with the colorful furry community. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2015-04-17 11:32 pm (UTC)No one threw anything at me, I said it with my own unique puppy charm ^^