Pub Meet 2

Following last week's Quest pub meet in Blackpool, I again travelled up to the great northern seaside town, this time for a Phoenix pub meet.Whereas I have been to many Quest meets over the years and gotten to know the regulars who attend, this was my first Phoenix meet and as I was kinda apprehensive. Although I've been chatting online to some of these guys for nearly two years, had no idea who they were or what they looked like. As one of the handful of females who play the game, they would surely know who I was!

The meet was being held in a different hotel, which in itself was strange, as historically, it had been held at the same one as the Quest meet. Parked up, tentatively knocked on the door and entered a room full of 10 guys ... I was kinda speechless and muttered a small "Hello" to no one in particular, but a couple of the guys straight away introduced themselves and it was a case of 'oh, so that's what you look like!'

It was a bit awkward at first - these guys had been here since the night before, so were chatting together, at ease and joking. I was perched on my seat, not knowing who to speak to, so to give myself something to do and not look like a lemon, I took out my notebook and just made notes of people's names, so I would remember who was there (and who talked to me).

Around noon, we went out and wandered to a pub as some of the guys wanted to watch some football. It was an opportunity to chat to some of the guys anyway. Felt very small as a couple of them were 6 ft 4 and 6 ft 5 respectively - giants!

Grabbed a bite to eat in a Wetherspoons pub - the guys in general were really nice, there were a couple who didn't make an effort to either catch my eye or say anything, but I've put them down as bit-part players, not worth bothering with (my starbase is bigger than theirs! LOL!)

Sorted out some in game deals, found out snippets of game info and even had a football bet (won 30,000 in game stellars on some football predictions!).

The GM didn't arrive until around 6pm but even then, there was no gathering around and sharing discussion; people just grabbed him as and when and went off on their own to discuss their own affiliation issues.

Before I went, I took part in a pub meet game to win some in game prizes - the competition was Space Invaders and I found out later that my score was good enough to pick up 3rd prize! Woohoo!

Took some photos so I could remember who was who. All in all, a very good meet - look forward to the next one.