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PING WEEKEND Sept 22-24 |
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Sept 22 - 24Off to Stoke and Scotland....
Friday, September 22
Excitement is building, throughout today and tonight there will be an influx of a new group of people who were only available to attend the weekend activities, mainly U.K. residents and a few members of a Coronation Street tour that is run by the lovely Joan McClement out of Toronto. More new faces to meet and bodies to hug!!! Tonight's event is a barbecue at Annie's flat, one of the U.K. organizers of Ping Week. Her flat is on the ground floor and has a nice grassy yard (garden) in back, perfect for a crowd.First, however, to get through the day. Connie, Carole and I decide to walk into Manchester central and do a little shopping. Connie wants to get some photos developed at Boots, too and check out the largest Marks and Spencer store. We head out late morning and it's a nice morning again today. We make our way to Deansgate
and take a couple of side treks to look at the shops and, for me, architecture. There are some nice buildings in Manchester, not particularly old but probably late Victorian at least. We come again to St. Ann's Square where the Royal Exchange theater is and do a little shopping in Past Times before heading into M&S which is right across from the end of the Square and also attached to the bright new Arndale Center by an overhead walkway. This was an area leveled by an IRA bomb just a few years ago and rebuilt.
Into Boots first to drop off the films and then to a café on the same floor for a cuppa and a scone. Connie heads for a phone to call home and touch base there while we start shopping in Evans, which is a UK based women's fashion chain store carrying larger sizes. That pretty much takes up an hour or two, browsing, trying on and paying. I tried on a wonderful sweater with deep v-neck both the front and the back in a light olive green but it didn't fit right. Connie spied it and her eyes lit up. Sure enough, it fit her perfectly. Ka-ching… oh well, I guess cash registers don't ka-ching anymore, they're all computerized and the drawers slide open with barely a tinkle of coin these days.
Back to Boots, pick up the photos and somehow we found ourselves back outside in a square between M&S and the Arndale instead of resuming our trek through the Arndale. Never mind. We walked through that area, stopping to watch some street entertainers who were doing the limbo underneath a fire-lit poll. Then to Debenham's department store where Carole was in search of a small book light. Hey , they have a cyber café in this store so up we went and sat for an hour to catch up on email and Coronation Street news. By now it's nearing the end of the afternoon so we decide it's time to walk back and get changed for the barbecue tonight. We encounter another of our group, looking tired and laden with shopping bags. We direct her to the cyber café and continue on. Couldn't get a taxi for love or money so we trudged on sore feet all the way back.
I saw a couple of newcomers, Emily and Jane in the lounge so we ducked in to say hello. Turns out Philip had also arrived but was hiding to surprise me and Adele turned up soon after. Hugs, photos taken, and promises to meet back in the lobby in time to be driven to the barbeque, we headed off to get changed for the barbeque. Yes the room was sorted out today, with even a checklist laying on the bed to prove to us. But I think we still need to get more toilet roll as we're low again.
What AM I going to wear? I had something picked out but changed it to a sleeveless top and pants with my funky black boots. I decided against a jacket because I thought we'd be inside most of the evening. Turns out I was wrong, we were out in the back garden much of the time and it did get chilly later on. Thanks, Annie for the lend of a sweater!
Back in the bus for our last trip and out to the Manchester suburb of Chorlton where Annie lives. She's got a lovely cozy flat and she has a marquee canopy erected in the back yard in case it rains and she's got her television and stereo pulled out into the yard as well so we can all watch Coronation Street as a group together at 7:30!!! More new faces to meet! Lorraine, Ken, Glenda, Bazza, Mark, Chris, Graham! I've chatted online with Lorraine for nearly 4 years but have never met her in person. In fact, though I have met quite a few of my chat room friends at pings across Canada in the past few years, there were not very many people attending this week's events that I had actually met before in person, only a handful, Alan, John, Mike, Alison, Jo-anne, Brenda and Connie I think are the only ones. Some are chat room regulars, some frequent the newsgroup, or bulletin boards and guestbooks on various sites.
Most of the evening was spent meeting, greeting, catching up and laughing. We watched Corrie at 7:30 which was fun too, especially when one character, Martin , was sarcastically referred to as "The Voice Of Reason". Everyone laughed and cheered and I strenuously objected to be compared to that prat, Platt! :) (for those that don't know, my online nickname is tvor, The Voice Of Reason!) The computer in Annie's bedroom had a webcam on and we took turns chatting in our chat room and taking part in a web party. I've always been on the other side of these web parties and it was pretty cool to be there this time! There was lots of food and we brought our drinks and we had such a good time!
A couple of stand out moments, (aside from meeting so many wonderful people for the first time, that is) included a liplock on Philip. You see, he was bragging and carrying on so I decided to call his bluff and kissed him! Shocked the life out of him and after I did it, Mary Sue did too! Poor man didn't know which way to turn! ;) Later on Chris aka The_Rattler finally arrived. He had driven up from Birmingham after work. Everyone was so pleased to see him that the camera flashes went off in tandem and the poor man thought he was being stalked by paparazzi! Mary Sue had something planned for him, too. He is very into the metal music scene and wears pretty much nothing else but black or black and white so Mary Sue had talked him into wearing a pink tshirt if she brought it over. She made the presentation of the hot pink shirt and he gracefully wore it, again braving the cameras, for about 5 minutes! I think he turned as pink as the shirt! Shirley discovered a wedding bouquet that was used in the show and paraded around with that, thrilled to bits. I did notice that the marquee was held up at one end by an old broom which struck me funny. Another memory that sticks in my mind is standing in Annie's kitchen with Glenda, Bazza, Chris, Graham and Mark chatting and joking. I thoroughly enjoyed
meeting them as well as all my other friends but Glenda, Bazza and Graham were people I had known and seen around the online coro community since I started on the net in 1995 so I was particularly pleased to meet them and have a great chat. They were every bit as great in person! In fact, everyone was just as great in person as they are online. There was no one person that was very much different from how I know them in the chat room or elsewhere. Better in fact because you get the give and take, the facial expressions, hear their laughter. The party went on well past midnight and we participated in the Friday night Coro_street quiz en masse from the bedroom.
I think a group of us ended up sharing a cab back to the hotel sometime around 2. Off to bed because tomorrow will be a big day too!
Saturday September 23.
Today is the climax of the week! We gather our cameras and make sure we have plenty of film, don our custom tshirts and head out to the Ox pub for a 1 o'clock lunch. The Ox is just around the corner from Granada Studios, you see. Annie is bouncing off the walls, full of plans and excited to see the fruits of all her hard workcome to pass. There are a few new faces in the crowd today and one other new face in the crowd today that I've been looking forward to meeting, Peter "Dewey" Dewhirst. Another onliner who's been around for years! And isn't he just a Star! You never see a photo of Dewey that he isn't smiling broadly!
Off we go around the block to Granada's front entrance, Annie jogging off ahead to make arrangements with the entrance staff. We are allowed in and group near the front gate, in front of what looks like a Manhattan set. There are over 40 of us, and Alan
played paparazzi, with everyone's cameras dangling from his neck and wrists trying to take a group shot but we were being given directions and things and we were off. Across the compound, up a set of metal stairs and through a dark "alley". It was an old set that used to be used for Sherlock Holmes and/or Moll Flanders, a Victorian type street with big studio lights hanging above the camera range. Then out into the sunlight again and there it is!!!!!!!!
I can't believe I am actually standing on the cobbles of Coronation Street!!! The first bit you see is the new "Victoria Street" development that is parallel to the "Street", with "Rosamund street connecting them. I was so excited I didn't know which way to look first! Well, the Rovers (the pub) first of course and then we all scattered in all directions, exploring. The din of camera shutters echoed, I swear! The Rovers, the Kabin, The Corner Shop, the yellow and blue stone cladding! The Cobbles! Up and down I walked taking pictures, having my photo taken and taking other people's photos. One house, Number5, was open but there was just some things stored in it and a staircase. I do know that there are writers' conference rooms built into the upstairs, where it's not individual houses but all one or two big rooms.
Chris and I were the first into the back alley behind the houses. I was going to take a photo of the beer barrels in back of the pub but Chris, daft beggar, offered to pose collapsed on the barrels as if he had had a rough night drinking! Never one to pass up a photo op, not me! :) The others started coming down the other end into the "ginnel"
and we were all peeking into the tiny back yards and taking photos of each other. Back out front, I wandered some more, happy as Larry! The only thing missing that was removed when Granada started renovating and building the new parts of the set is Stan Ogden's "grave" which was set up in a little spot just before you came into the street proper. The phone booth used to work and the mail box used to be a functioning one and if you sent postcards they would be postmarked for the city Corrie takes place in, Weatherfield. Not now, sadly. We had some group photos taken in front of the Rovers Return, splitting up into geographical groups, the East Coast Canadians, the Ottawa, the southern Ontario and the UK/Rest of the World group before the "Everybody" group shot. Annie took all the photos, refusing to be in the group shot until the end when we dragged her across the road. She was so delighted that all her hard work came together so well and I think her ribs were probably aching with all the hugs she was getting all afternoon, and rightly so!!
Time is up and we are led off the set, down one set of stairs and up another becausethey opened the gift shop for us too! Crowded and hot but most of us came away with an armful of treasures. Fridge magnets, postcards, little ceramic houses and pubs, pins, and other odds and ends. 14 pounds poorer, I thought I did quite well. I didn't want to buy anything breakable as I had two more weeks to carry it around. After we finally left the studio, some of us went back to the Ox for another drink and a natter. I had a great chat with Dewey, Connie, Glenda and Bazza once again. Then it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the ping.
The venue was a pub called the Southern, in Chorlton a few miles away. We had booked a couple of mini van private taxis to take a couple of groups over and we were in charge of making out own ways back. The Southern's upstairs function room was used for a Corrie Valentine's disco where a beloved couple got engaged at the end of that particular episode. There is a buffet arranged as well. Alan and Annie had a computer and stereo set up and the music was provided by playing mp3 computer files all night. There was a glittery disco ball and coordinating lights in the ceiling. We got drinks in and started mixing and meeting, passing around our "yearbooks" to be autographed. Adele, bless her, put together a yearbook of some of the participants, as many as she could nag into sending in photos and a bit of a biography! What a great souvenir with everyone signing messages. We all signed one page for the lady who proposed this get together but was not able to attend in the end. Mary Sue had a fabric pen for us to sign her tshirt, designs provided by Annie. We printed them off on our own and ironed on a shirt of our choice, size and colour!
The buffet had a bit of everything, salads, hot and cold entrees. We ate and went back to the dance floor in the bar. We toasted absent friends, and bought raffle tickets on a few prizes rounded up by Annie and donated by a couple more. I had hand painted a mug and didn't I forget to bring it to the ping but I described it and they raffled it off anyway. The man that won, Art, was staying at the Dolby so I was able to give it to him later on. There were books, a signed script, and a light blue sweatshirt worn by an actor as his character, Gary, in the show with a certificate of authenticity. Yay Annie again! Chris won that. Yes Chris of the pink tshirt from the night before, Chris who only ever wears black! Figures! We had a good laugh at that!
Mike brought over an induction "kit" to make Annie and honourary Nova Scotian so we got our heads together as to when we should do this. At the end of the raffle we
stopped her getting off stage and proceeded. You have to wear a yellow sou'wester (big brimmed rain hat) and anoint it with sea water. Did that. Annie was a star and went right along with it! Then you have to hold your hand over your heart, face the Atlantic and down a shot of black rum. We weren't sure if she would drink that so Mike got a shot of black currant instead and whispered to her what it was. She played right along and staggered down to her knees but popped up for the rest of the ceremony ! It went over really well, brilliant idea, Mike! We had done that to Alan when he was in Nova Scotia back in June (only made him drink the real thing LOL!)
There was an actress that attended who has a regular non-speaking part in the show and we were thrilled to meet her and talk to her, Diane Carney! I had a lovely time and yes, my reputation did suffer a bit with the flirting but I'm not getting into that! :)
It's getting late and the bar is getting ready to close so some of the group are going back to Annie's but the rest of us planned to go back to the hotel and chat for awhile in the lounge. Taxis are called, a bit of a wait but we made it back in one piece. Carole had already come back before us but Connie and I sat up with a small group until about 2 or so then headed to bed.
What a wonderful week this was! A real delight, with one treasure of a memory after another! Meeting so many people in person that I've chatted with so long, renewing friends I have met before. Special memories include the mini bus laughs (Pay and Display jokes and the pig sheep, eh Shirl?) By the way, John finally did pay and display in Blackpool but since he was parked in a lot that was not for larger vehicles he had to pay a 30 pound fine on top of it!!!!!! What else, Group watching Corrie at Annie's, bumping around the Dolby, Glorious Glossop, Chatsworth, York, and pinging. Initiating Annie, Drinking Smirnoff Ice, getting to chat with the ratucs gang (they know who they are), just being generally outrageous!!! Final good byes tomorrow.
Sunday September 24
The rest of the Dolby crowd apparently got back a short while later and stayed up just about all night! This we learned when Philip staggered into breakfast the next morning looking like the walking dead! Too much to drink, no sleep for about 30 hours and he was shattered! Alan followed him in, having crashed in his room and kept him awake with his snoring! LOL! Then it began. The teasing. The camera stalking. Philip and I were being teased mercilessly. Ok, I admit it, we flirted a little. . . ok a lot last night. It was a bit of fun but will they believe it? ;) There are a few slightly incriminating photos that exist, one taken by Adele of us sitting in the lounge after breakfast, the poor lad nearly collapsed into a coma leaning on my. . . well he was well cushioned! :))) I'm not even going to try to defend myself anymore. They won't believe me anyway. Can't a girl have any fun? (that photo below, left to right, Philip, Alan, me and Chris)
We are going to Harry Ramsden's which is a famous place in Britain for fish and chips. At 11 a.m.... who's idea was this? It seemed like a good idea at the time but 11 turns out to be a less than ideal time of the day to have fish and chips! But we went because it was the last time we would all be together before scattering for home or other legs of holidays. I wasn't very impressed and found the food to be rather greasy and very expensive! It was sad to say goodbye when it was over. I'm still homesick for that week!
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