Just got home and it was brilliant.
And let me add croquet is a vicious game!

I got to the HAC Grounds just behind Jasper and Mari at about 6h30 and people started to arrive little by little.
It was all very English Summery with Pimm's on the lawn in the sunshine.

The order of play was announced and the Books etc / Borders team (my team) was going to play WH Smiths (with Mari as a guest player). We managed to win (hurrah!) and i even managed to score 2 points. Then we broke for a barbecue and played the semi-finals.

Here we were playing against "the hacks" a team from the press... and there was a bloke there (i think he was from the Express) and he was vicious, he was cheating away, making up rules as he went along and just playing really nastily... So they won and went to the final against Foyles...

That was the funny bit, the guy kept cheating, but the Foyles manager actually played croquet before and contested his rules, after a long discussion (i got some photos of that) Jasper who was the referee decided to make them all start the game all over again... They ended up winning, but it had to go to a sort of penalty shoot out...

Got my proofs signed and 3 postcards (they're in my bag so i can't tell you what they are now...) and chatted a bit with Jasper and Mari.

When I have time I will write a proper report for Whatever Next (Twila if I snail mail you proper photos, can you scan them?)

It was one of the best launch parties I've been to.
Roll on Foyles next week...

*Jealous glare directed at Carla *

Carla, no prob on the photos...I can scan away!

Glad you had fun! Aren't Jasper and Mari absolutely delightful? Sounds like a fun day!

yeah they are brilliant.
jasper was wearing a T-shirt that said

"what would Hamlet do?"

but unfortunatley by the time i got the camera out he was wearing a jumper on top.

Bummer!! Shoulda told him you wanted a pic of him in that t-shirt. I'm sure he would have obliged!

If we're lucky (and he is reading this) he could take the same t-shirt next monday for the Foyles event.

(btw the Foyles manager told me that they sold out already, good thing i got my tickets as soon as they came on sale)

*turns green with envy*

ah, einalem! Did you get an invite to a scrabble game at all? Just it's your go...

:-)

Croquet is an incredibly viscious game - don't believe anyone who tells you it is nice and gentile. They obviously haven't played in a game with my mother, my uncle and my (now sadly deceased) grandfather. A young kid doesn't have a hope when three of the adults (one supposedly on your team) are all playing to win. And all playing within the rules, as each was watching like a hawk for another to break them. I spent a lot of time fishing my croquet ball out from one bush or another.

Oh, the happy memories...



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

Hey Carla, if Jasper wears the same shirt twice, and there is photographic evidence you KNOW he'll get grief from SOMEONE on the Fforum...oh I don't know WHO it could be *coughing...skiffle* :)

Sounds a great evening! Congrats Carla on doing well in your first game :)

And who'd have thunk it, a "gentleman" of the tabloid press cheating!! Outrageous behaviour. Total prat, I mean I certainly wouldn't have tried arguing with anyone that worked for Foyles. I'm too scared to even enter their bookshop!

(For anyone unfamiliar with Foyles past reputation, I'm sure someone can provide a better explanation than me. Let's just say that customer service was not a priority and the owner was terrifying)

I think they are trying to change their image now!
:-)
I'm more partial to Foyles than Waterstones or WH Smith...

I never experienced the old Foyles reputation, but I have bought a couple of books there recently (I needed a book for my boyfriend to try and learn Portuguese and they had a better selection)

Foyles is no longer the bastion of customer patronisation? Hurray! Now I can shake of my cowardice and actually go in when I'm in London. I'd heard previously that their stock is impressively eclectic and I'd really like to see what they've got.

Foyles used to work on what I think was the same basis as the larger shops in (at least until recently) Moscow: Find the item that you want, queue to see the sales assistant for that section, take a note from them to a cashier located elsewhere on that floor, queue at the cashier's desk, pay, take the receipt back to the section where the book is, and queue again to collect the book from the original sales assistant.

************************************************************

"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

Yeah, they were doing that last time I was in there - could be two/three years ago now. (Last time I was in Foyles, not last time I was in Russia, that is.) It was kind of strange - I expected to get gut-barged by an eighty-year-old animate shawl at any minute.

More strangely, to get any decent Russian books I had to abandon Foyles and nip round the corner to a small foreign language bookshop behind Oxford Circus. And they didn't do the chit thing.



-----------------------------------------------
"Whisky-wa-wa," I breathed - she was dressed as Biffo the Bear.

Carla - sounds like a good time - really looking forward to next Monday (many thanks for getting the ticket)

I found the perfect 'milk-curdling shade of green' to make a skirt with. Have a loud multi-coloured blouse to go with it (but it doesn't quite!) Photos will look excellent! All I need is a yellow and pink scarf for the hair and it's Cordelia Flakk alive and kicking!

Do not have any dairy products on you next Monday for GSD sake!

I won't bother with dressing up... jeans and t-shirt will be my thing I think...

Apparently i'm the third fforumite he met in the UK.

Oh and I warned them there would be a huge concentration of fforumites in the Leeds event

without me. Boo. :-(

Is his count right?
There's me, Big John and you, Carla. Anyone else? I'm not sure if John was a fforumite at the time he met JFf though.



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

He mentioned 2 in Swindon... and that was it... so i think you're the first UK one Jo...

Unless Jasper's memory is going...