A long and tiring weekend

[karohemd]

but a fun one, too, spent with cool people.
Saturday
Headed off at about 11, and just before the A14 got a phone call from andrewdavies that his car had broken down and he was waiting for the AA to turn up. Didn't actually see him/his car on the M11, so I assume he was past the M25 junction.
Hit queue/heavy traffic at the M4 turnoff that cleared up after, fortunately, so made it to faerierhona's at about 1:30. Rich, an unfamiliar cyber who turned out to be hamsterhotep ("Hi, I'm Ozzy" - "Tom, or hamsterhotep." This has happened to me several times recently, people introducing themselves with their Lj name...), nevecat and wyrdness were there already.
Spent the afternoon packing stuff, loading Rhona's and my car to the brim and drive the lot to her parents (three journeys in total).
Nice house and Rhona's parents seemed lovely despite their house being invaded by a bunch of weirdos ;o) Met Ashley as well, which was cool. Had a short moment of fear when Bess (the dog) suddenly decided to not like me anymore and growl madly at me. A quick scritching behind the ears and stroking of fur thankfully brought her to her senses again (perhaps I didn't pay her as much as attention as she would have liked).
andrewdavies and zenmeisterin turned up in the evening, as well as Martin. Had lovely pasta dinner cooked by Caroline and Lucy while we were doing the last load. Had a couple of drinks as well and then we decided to head off to the Abbey for some chilling. That was a really cool idea, just sitting in the grass, passing bottles around and chatting about whatnot (music, mostly).
Some random quotes:
Martin: "... you look up in the sky and you're thinking, 'star or cruise missile?'"
faerierhona: "I'm not a munter!" - Rich: "You're a muntess.".
When it threatened to start raining again, we headed back, chatted a bit more which was a bit of a problem due to the neighbours complaining about noise earlier, so we gave up and rolled up in our respective sleeping bags. Only had a thin foam mat underneath but slept quite well, despite having had a couple of drinks.
Sunday
Woke up at about 8, mooched around a bit, wanted to go to the toilet but Rich had decided to sleep in front of the door so I went back upstairs to sleep another two hours. Had huge fry-up breakfast cooked by the lovely (and veggie) Rhona and then packed more stuff in hope for the van to arrive.
Watched Rhona redo hamsterhotep's undercut which was quite funny and chatted more about various things.
Van driver was delayed, so we decided to move the smaller bits that were still left in Andy's parents' and my car. Got back - still no van. :o(
Loaded people in cars and off for a final journey to Crowthorne. Lounged in a wonderful chair for a bit and then helped prepare some salads for the lovely BBQ we graciously had been invited to. Sadly, I couldn't stay as long as I would have liked because I had a 2 and a half hour car journey in front of me.
Said and hugged goodbye to friends old and new and made my way home, Springsteen blasting from the stereo. Had a quick stop at a Services to rest my foot and got home with no problems.
Shower now and then bed.

Was a tiring, hot, wet but wonderful weekend, and I got a new desk chair and a wine rack out of it. ;o)