|
 York
Weekend
Date: 11-13 September 1998
Location: York, UK
Written by Julia Wharton
 Well
did we have a good time in York or what!!! Here is the report that
we got Julia to type up for the website. She was the youngest, so
she got the job!
We are all very much looking forward to the next 35 club weekend
and have already been approached by some more fans who have read
this wild report! We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed
a great weekend away.
Friday 11th
September
On Friday 11th September
1998 GB Fans hit York! Marja arrived at 9.30am after a long 12 hour
ferry crossing from Holland whilst Jan, Julia and Janette turned
up almost within 15 minutes of each other at about 3pm. We all checked
into the hotel and followed the smell of food back downstairs and
into the bar. The four of us demolished a plate of scones and lazily
sat in the bar until it was time for dinner. Jackie, the organiser
of our weekend turned up about 7.30pm just as we were tucking into
our very healthy deserts (not!).
We had planned
on taking the ‘Ghost Tour of York later on that evening, but,
Janette seemed to have bypassed the invention of the clock and we
ended up in the pub instead! We were all pretty tired that night
after our long journeys so it wasn’t a late night and most
of us were in bed by midnight (well it was a 35 club weekend!).
Jackie drove home to Hull and we arranged to meet her the next day
at midday.
Saturday
12th September
Next morning Julia is woken by Jan saying “Julia, do you want
to be asleep or awake?”. Thirty minutes later we were all having
breakfast downstairs. Janette was looking a little worried and said
she had somehow managed to lock herself out of the room. Julia took
control and seeked the advice of the ‘friendly’ hotel
landlady from Hell. She said “Oh it’s the foreign lady
again!...She did this yesterday.” Looking annoyed she wondered
off to prove Janette was imagining thing. Of course Janette isn’t
the ‘foreign lady’, that was Marja, but she is Scottish!
Towards the end of breakfast the landlady (from Hell) returned with
a huge smug grin on her face, apparently there was nothing wrong
with the door, you had to have a knack to opening it!
By 10am we were
casually wondering around the ‘Shambles’ (street with
lots of antique shops), searching for a jumper for Janette (“It’s
sooo cooooold”). We called a friend who was meant to be checking
into the hotel later on that day and was to share a room with Jackie.
She couldn’t make it down to York because of an accident in
her car and as we walked to the Minster (a cathedral) to meet Jackie,
we dreaded telling ‘Landlady From Hell’ the altered arrangements
later that day!
Having
met up with Jackie, a group decision was made to go and get some
lunch. It’s very cheap to eat in York and we soon found a place
offering a  three
course meal for a fiver, thanks to Jan’s eagle bargain-hunting
eye. On they way out of the restaurant we stopped to admire some
rather tasteful toilet roll holders on display in a shop nearby
(significant later on in this report!).
Our first and last tourist stop was back to the Minster. It has
foundations called ‘The Crypt’ underneath which date back
to Norman times. We were all speechless as we walked around the
ancient relics. Back in the cathedral we stopped to watch ‘Mark
and Sophie’ getting married. There was a huge crowd gathering
round waiting for the bride to appear, so we thought we would eaves
drop to see what was going on. Janette and Jan saw this an ideal
opportunity to brush up on their Fashion Editor skills and made
the following comments about the blushing bride.
“Ooooo
er, her dress is a bit short innit, definitely not suitable for
a cathedral like this, don’t the bridesmaids look like tarts!”
After the bride had entered the chapel to meet her doom, we left
the cathedral and took it upon ourselves to examine the ‘Constantine’
Statue with great detail. He was a soldier with an extremely large
weapon and whenever one of us happened to mention it we all fell
about, breaking into school girl giggles! He did seem very interested
in the leaflet that Julia was offering him though.
 We
then asked Julia to stand by a lamp post so that we could get a
shot of her 'touting for business' with her GB FANS leaflet. After
much shouting of 'urry up and take it before anyone notices' (which
caused the rest of us to calll about in pleats laughing because
she was not exactly quiet saying it and was drawing quite a crowd!!).
This picture has not been seen yet!!
We then took
it upon ourselves to examine the 'Constantine' Statue in great detail.
Constantine was a Roman soldier with an extremely large weapon and
whenever one of us happened to mention it we all fell about, breaking
into school girl giggles! He did seem very interested in the leaflet
that Julia was offering him though (Picture was not included in
original newsletter...but it has at last emerged!!!)
Bearing
in mind, it had only been approximately one hour since we’d
had our lunch, a group decision was made again to head for the nearest
tea shop for a ‘nice cup of tea and a bit of cake’ (please
remember we were all a bit old on this trip!).
A trip to all the gift shops followed to see how many ‘Beanie
Babies’ we could fit into our bags before we headed back to
the hotel for a nice lie down after all the walking (?) we had done.
Back at the hotel later that day Julia was sent into the toilet
whilst the others planned on a little birthday surprise. Ten minutes
later after hearing a lot of giggles she emerged from the room and
was given a birthday card and present, the present being a rather
tasteful toilet roll holder!
That
evening before having our official GB FANS dinner at ‘Russells’
in the centre of York we ended up in yet another pub. They were
filming a documentary in there and Julia did not rise to the challenge
of walking up to the jukebox where they were filming with a GB FANS
flyer in her backpocket on show!
Eventually we made it to Russels, it was a carvery where we could
put as much on our plates as we wished, seemed to suit everybody!
Alcohol now firmly inside of us we got a taxi back to the hotel
and gathered around Julia’s laptop to surprise everyone on
IRC, talking to a couple of ‘special friends’ and just
basically embarrass ourselves!
Sunday
13th September
Sunday morning, we headed off to ‘Betty’s’ one of
the posher tea shops in town. Jackie managed to complete her challenge
of leaving a GB FANS leaflet in the menu rack followed closely by
Jan who left hers in one of the toilets of BHS! Janette had one
of the most embarrassing challenges of the weekend, where she had
to climb up a lamppost and dangle whilst holding...yep you guessed
it a GB FANS leaflet!
It was soon
time to say our goodbyes to everyone, Jackie was first to leave
followed by Julia. Leaving Jan, Janette and Marja to aimlessly wonder
around the streets of York until they too departed homeward.
So, if anyone happens to be wondering around York, keep your eye
out for those GB FANS leaflets in the most unusual places and we
do apologies to anyone at the hotel for all the noise on Saturday
night! We had a great time, we all got on really well and can’t
wait for next time.
A big thank you to Jackie for organising the trip away and also
sorry for totally ignoring her wonderfully planned site seeing trips,
but I think we only had one thing on our mind that weekend, (no
not sex!), FOOD!!
Credit also goes to the people of York for putting up with us, Constantine’s
Statue and to the Landlady from Hell for giving us something to
laugh about.
End
of Report
|
