mrph | The Whitby review... [part 1]

Well, I'm more-or-less conscious now, so without further ado...

Thursday, November 1st

Woke up. Packed in a mad panic, then attempted to play phone tag - trying to find a room for Sarah at the last minute, because the previous arrangements went hideously wrong. Discovered that I didn't actually have a phone number for Sarah these days. Swear a lot. Replied to a post on /goth asking for Thursday accommodation (which I can do), and a post on Brumgoff offering a spare room (hurrah, thinks I - that's Sarah sorted). Phoned Tim to remind him that Ant (who was giving him a lift) still had his ticket. Got a phone call from Andy/Gh0st, who was packing, asking if he left his camera here when he moved out. Considered leaving the phone off the hook.

C&C turned up more or less on time, and we headed north. Foolishly, they left me in the back of the car with the CD player. It seemed to be a bit temperamental, though, and skipped when playing anything other than Ciaran's VNV Nation and Erasure CDs. Accordingly, we chose the lesser evil and spend most of the trip listening to VNV.

On arrival at the B&B, I managed to completely confuse the landlady. We had single folk in double rooms, Sarah for one night only, and a mysterious goth known only as "Matt" (the one seeking a room on /goth) due to turn up later. The other "mob" B&Bs were equally confused - Barnards has a "Mr Stuart" down for one room, which perplexed me greatly, as I didn't book for Mr Stuart, and I was wondering who's room he'd poached. "He" turns out to be Cat, as the B&B couldn't spell her surname...

The third B&B had Marc Elston and Andy staying there. I decided not to visit that one at all, as it's probably safer if the management never actually meet me... :)

Next stop - the Elsinore. We turned up as a mob at about 4:00, drank beer, and watched the goths drift in. All the usual suspects were about - ~Matt~, Tal, Paul Garside, a bunch of Camgoths and many, many Glaswegians. Tim & I moved on to Java for food, then headed over to "Creamy" at the Metropole. Creamy wasn't bad - the music was good, and it wasn't exactly empty. But I wasn't really in the mood, so I headed back to the Elsinore. At which point I ran into Davefish, Giolla, a bunch of Bristol goths (Rog, Sean etc) and gothslut. Very fun evening, and a good start to a good Whitby.

Friday, November 2nd

Woke up, with less hangover than expected. Gathered the mob and headed to the Spa to sort out tickets... as expected, they hadn't actually got our tickets (which they'd held on to as it was "too late to post them"), and instead offered us wristbands. As we didn't have everyone who needed a ticket there, that wasn't practical. We negotiated, it got sorted. Then down to the bazaar. For once, I was good. I didn't buy much. Lunch in Mills, then back to the Elsinore for more misbehaviour. Finally caught up with Marc Elston, who told me that he was being good this Whitby. I wasn't convinced. Said hi to Odie and Ant, GrahamB and other reprobates. Managed to get photographed. Managed to escape from Marc and Tim before they had a chance to put their gift-wrapping plan into action. Went back to the B&B, tarted up and headed for the Spa...