London Xmas drinkies?

[stunsworth]

I once stayed at the Park Lane hotel for £29 a night.

Then again it was 1978 or thereabouts.

[Rolo]

Royal Horseguards on Whitehall for me. Room overlooking the Thames and next to the seat of power. Breakfast with Gordon, if he doesn't cry off again.

What's a ten minute walk like Andy? So long ........

Rolo

[bartok]

Brian,

I'm going to try and make it, but probably won't be there until 1 pm.

[spylaw4]

My thanks to all those who managed to come along to today's meeting. For those whose attendance was dodgy, we stayed at St P until 1:15pm then repaired to a fairly local pub/restaurant/tapas bar.

Attendees : Gabriel, Steve, Michael, Robert, James, Rolo, John, Louis, Adrian, and me.

[biglouis]

Firstly, many thanks to Brian for organising a great get together. It was really great meeting Rolo and Steve who came all the way down from Manchester for the event.

The living proof taken by Rolo with my new camera. 1/4 at iso320, not bad, huh?

l/r James, Brian and Steve

Attachment 64688

[robert_parker]

It was great to meet everyone again - thanks to Brian for the very efficient organisation and to TFL for just about getting me there on time !!

[earleygallery]

Thanks to Brian for organising a very enjoyable afternoon - with the weather as it was I'd have just stopped in and watched TV if I didn't have a reason to go out today!

That pub - or should I say Tapas bar - was excellent.

[stunsworth]

Well, the tapas bar was totally unplanned, but turned out to be a wonderful place to basically do nothing other than eat and chat for a few hours and put the (Leica) world to rights. I really, really enjoyed meeting up with some familiar, and not so familiar, faces. Roll on the next one!

[ejd]

It was great to see everyone again this afternoon.
All the best for the festive season,

John

[Rolo]

Saw the biggest Leica Glow ever on Saturday on the face of BigLouis with his 24 hour old M8. A pleasure to see someone enjoying their new kit so much.

Thanks to all of you for your hospitality and friendship. It was good to meet and chat in spite of several greeting me with: "Hello Rolo, I'm looking forward to meeting Pete Taylor one day" ....... WHY, he's Panasonic Man ?.

Disappointing to find that all the traditional London pubs have been turned into Tapas bars. I was looking forward to jellied eels and hearing a pearly queen singing "my old man's a dustman". Sadly not to be, maybe next year.

Those of us with no homes to go to: Stunsworth, myself and Robert Parker, continued shooting until well after dark. Looking forward to seeing the results after all the developing and scanning.

Kind regards,

Rolo

[spylaw4]

Hmm.... venue comment noted Rolo! Maybe (with Louis' help) we'll arrange the next one more in the deepest East End!
Brick Lane anyone?

[ade909]

I'll add my thanks too, Brian - it was great to meet everyone, and put faces to some (user)names. Let's do it again soon.

Louis - don't forget to order your filters!

all the best

Adrian

[biglouis]

Originally Posted by spylaw4

Hmm.... venue comment noted Rolo! Maybe (with Louis' help) we'll arrange the next one more in the deepest East End!
Brick Lane anyone?

Brian

Next time we could start at the Blind Beggar in Whitechapel (avoiding the Champagne and going for the Guiness instead) and then retrace out steps towards civilization (e.g. that big building rammed into the ground in St Mary Axe) by way of Brick Lane.

We'll collude on the next meet-up!

Rolo, thanks for your kind words. It is a great piece of kit and I am lucky to be able to have one.

LouisB

[earleygallery]

Couple of shots from the meeting, these were with the R3 and 35mm Summicron at f2, about 1/8 sec.

[farnz]

Just came across this thread by accident. I would certainly've joined you all had I seen it in time! Oh fiddlesticks.

Book me in for Chrimbo 2008!

Pete.

[earleygallery]

Shame you missed it Pete, we had champagne and everything

I hope there'll be another London meet before next xmas!

[spylaw4]

Originally Posted by earleygallery

Shame you missed it Pete, we had champagne and everything

I hope there'll be another London meet before next xmas!

Definitely shame that you weren't there Pete! Keep your eyes open next time!
I suspect that Louis and I will be organising something for mid-year when hopefully we'll have decent weather for a wander around the E.End.

[stunsworth]

I couldn't help but notice that no one was rushing to buy a round in the St Pancras champagne bar <grin>. Mind you at their prices no wonder.

At the Manchester meeting we had a couple of hours of shooting as well as the meal and that worked very well.

[farnz]

Originally Posted by spylaw4

Definitely shame that you weren't there Pete! Keep your eyes open next time!
I suspect that Louis and I will be organising something for mid-year when hopefully we'll have decent weather for a wander around the E.End.

Sounds like a great idea! Would that be a stroll round Albert Square in Walford and then over to the Jasmin-Allen Estate in Sunhill?

Pete.