Sorry for posting so late, it just took too long for this idea to brew. I happen to be in London next week and I'm meeting Andrei Ellman there. And we thought it would be fun to turn it into an a.cc London Meetup. It would be on Thursday 15th evening time in a pub somewhere, either Central or West-London. The place and time will be announced here not later than on Tuesday.

Next time please announce that a little bit before the week end ;-)

Why ? Because I would have took a train ticket and come, but now it's too late for me to have a cheap ticket.

Edit: Yeah, I've noticed that you already excused yourself for the late announcement.

I'm so sorry. I knew this was terribly late. I'm on other business there and although this idea came up a week or two ago, I had too much other things on my mind.

I've not been on the Eurostar since they changed it to connect to St Pancras (which has much better connections to the rest of the country than Waterloo). However, I do actually work in central London so would be likely to be nearby. I'm not currently free next Thursday, but will look into it.

I'd love to come along.
Looking forward to it already.

I can't make it unless you change the venue 300 miles north of London

I can't make it unless you change the venue 6500 miles west of London

However, when my company makes millions I'll join you in London if you'd like.

You want them to change the date to a week next Wednesday?

If Steve Terry can post during the birth of his first child, you'd better have a really good excuse

I can't make it unfortunately but I would love to see photos. What's the greatest number of a.cc people ever to meet at one time? Three?

Pete

I'd go but the authorities might have a problem with that. If you see Lori's sister, tell her I said hi.

Thursday nay good, I be working

We're talking about evening time here!

That's what a pub can take at its most and not be instantly destroyed.

Just look at Chernobyl. There were three of us there, and there is not even that much left there to destroy.

I'd say two is the safer option.

I think we were 4 or 5 in Amsterdam a few years ago.

Ah ha!

[edit]
That's more than a little bit unlucky: I've pretty much had nothing scheduled each week for the past 2 months apart from a single 2-hour driving lesson (yes, I'm a WoW bum at the moment). It just so happens that my next lesson is on Thursday afternoon next week. I would happily reschedule it though if more than 2-3 people will be turning up, especially if it would break the record for most allegro people in one place at the same time.

I will however require some sort of guarantee that you will not be as weird a bunch as those at the last internet meet I attended.

Well, Andrei, William and me.

I knew there was a catch!

I have weekly a.cc meet ups with le y mistar and Manjula, so we're 3 in total. Beat that!

I've never directly met another A.cc, but there used to be someone about 15 minutes away in the next town, and Goalie ca lived in the apartment building the in the summer a few blocks away form where I was (But I was away for the time he was there).

I have daily meetups with this guy.

Hi,

Haven't had much time to post on here since I migrated to West-London and started work at Digi-Guys, but will definitely be coming on Thursday.

Seeing that some more people are coming, it's probably best to hold the meetup in Central London rather than on the outer reaches of the Central Line.

As for the venue, here are three possible centally-located suggestions. Usually, these places are quiet unless you get a bunch of loud nutters in looking for a quiet pub.

The Yorkshire Grey
The Horse and Groom
The Cardinal

All 3 are easily reachable by me (although I think the Yorkshire Grey might be the reachableest of the three). Let me know if you have a preference.

I should be able to make it to Central London about 7pm on Thursday (or later if the Central line breaks down), but the rest of you are welcome to meet up earlier.

If this goes well, perhaps we could even have another UK meetup but with longer advance notice.

AE.

They all sound agreeable to me. I'll go with the Yorkshire Grey if that helps.
Since I'm going coming from Norwich it doesn't make a lot of difference to me.

What should we all bring ? Cameras, for sure. If anyone's bringing a laptop I'll bring a copy of my WIP.

I'm not sure about my laptop. I should borrow a battery from somewhere. But I will at least bring some music stuff with me on an mp3 player, it's game related. Yorkshire Grey is fine by me, I'll be there at 7:00 pm.

OK. Yorkshire Grey it is.

I'll bring my laptop along so you can run your WIP on that. I'll also bring my camera along.

I've not followed a.cc much these past 3 months, but if someone's decided on the Allegro mascot, we could print out a few copies and stick them up in whichever part of the pub we're seated at.

AE.

We're back.
Bumping so AE can post a photo...

All above board I hope. If not, do share the photos.

As for the uk meeting, how did it go? were there many embarrassing pauses as you supped your lager tops

It was great. Andrei brought his laptop so we had a look at his chickens game and my game which I'm working on.
There was loads to talk about.
Johan had made some music.

Definitely glad I went.

BTW Andrei holds the record for having met the most allegro members since this was his third meet up.

I've met between ten and twenty a.cc'ers.

Okay. I did wonder if Andrei was basing his conclusions on too little research.
I notice that you live in a part of the US with quite a lot of a.cc'ers . Definitely a cool part of the states to come from.. If I ever cross the pond (which I hope I do ) I think I'll head that way.

I've met approximately zero. Had plans to meet several over on two occasions, but circumstances changed and I wasn't in the position to follow through with the plans. Ah well, someday...

The midwest? Hardly

I was basing my conclusion on Detroit and Chicago being there. Compared to where I live it seems cool.
Maybe I should reconsider.

I also have met zero. By a twist of fate I did end up on Regent Street at about 7:30 on the 15th and am aware of the location of the Yorkshire Grey, but couldn't stop. In any case, I'm reliably informed that half of it is closed at the minute, so it was probably extremely packed out?

Yes it was. I thought it would have been better if it wasn't so noisy. There was a rowdy group right in front of us and we were cramped in a corner.

Andrei's keen on doing another somewhere with a bit more advance warning.

It's true they don't have rap music or hydraulic cars, but that's a good thing.

More notice and the ongoing lack of photographs would certainly make me more likely to attend.

Not sure I understand. You'd be more likely to come if there were no photos ?

One of those people in front of us took a picture of us all . Andrei said he'd post them here. I suspect he will he's just taking his time.

You were missed.

Yes. I'd feel like an important line that separates my normal life from my Allegro.cc life was being crossed. I don't think my opinion here is rational.

He's in the witness protection program.

...he's afraid we'll find out he really does look exactly like his avatar.

Pete

oh well,

I'm sure noone would care if you didn't want to be in the photos.

I'm back home. I had a great trip to London. The Allegro meeting was just one part of it. It was great to meet some a.cc members finally for real. I'm looking forward to seeing William's great puzzle game on the depot.

I had the "Monday Song" on my iPod, sung by Matthew. I think it was the latest mix Ron did. And I had a song called "DTL-song" from my game DTL-rally, sung by Andrei. This song still waits for publication on a.cc, even though it has been played on a Finnish radio station already! What I wanted to show Andrei and William was my latest music tune for Andrei's Chickens game. I thought my lousy iPod would show up on Andrei's laptop, but Windows said it needed to be formatted for Windows.

But I got inspired by the meeting so in the plane back to Helsinki I wrote lyrics for the tune. I'd like to have someone sing it with an American Southern accent. Anyone interested? The recording might find its way into the game as an Eastern egg (hopefully not a rotten one), if Andrei likes the idea. I'll send the tune as a midi karaoke file to anyone interested.

Glad you got back okay Johan.

Thanks for those Allegro Brew print outs. I'll put them on my wall.

Hi,

I've finally gotten round to posting. Without any further ado, here are the pics.

http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/597585
From left to right, me, William and Johan.

http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/597586
The legendary Allegro Brew.

The closure of the bottom floor of the Yorkshire Grey did make things more crowded (we were squashed in a corner with barely enough room for my laptop). I only just discovered it had a top floor. If it wasn't winter, we could have sat outside on the benches.

We each got to show off some of the stuff we were working on, although for some reason, Windows Vista on my laptop insisted on wanting to format Johan's iPod before it could read the files (I thought that a USB-connected iPod could transfer files regardless of whether it was Mac or PC formatted).

I finally heard the "Monday Song" for the first time (since I've started work, I've hardly looked at a.cc), suggested some improvements for William's game, and showed off the new music system in Chickens.

Another UK a.cc meetup with more advance notice might be a good idea. I'm still somewhat overwhelmed at the moment, so someone else may want to organise something. Cities outside London are OK, but if it's a mid-week meetup, I'd have to have enough time to be able to get there after I finish work.

I have now met precisely 11 a.cc'ers IRL in 3 countries. I've been to 3 meetups (this one, the Chernobyl con (which reminds me, I still haven't posted all my pics, but at least I now have a digital camera) and the Dutch Allegro con (still haven't leaarned how to open my eyes in the presence of cameras)). I also knew two from a previous job and met two more through job interviews.

AE.

EDIT: PS: If anyone wants larger versions of the pics, you just need to ask...

You've got a beard now?

Nah, it's just a mutation.

Andrei, you've just caused that I've been frowned upon my loud laugh.

Thanks for the pics, Andrei. And read your e-mail

Andrei is being modest here. One of the guys was Shawn.