OS meet up?

LilMissEmmylou

My OH has no interest in MSE but when i read this and told him about the fact some woman had a bit of an !!!! ache over you all meeting for paid tea and cake and trying to rent you a room he wanted me to post something for him:

This is a clear example of a person trying to take society away from the people. As I sit and think about this and as Emmy was telling me this story, I now know that this is a perfect example of modern day living. The woman who asked you if you wanted to rent a room was either standing behind her counter serving other customers or walking up and down the cafe with one over riding frustrating annoying thought in her head and that thought was this. How can I get extra money out of this group of people, how can I turn this simple social gathering into a plus situation for myself and this unfortunately is the world we live in today.

Now evolution as we all know creeps up on the world and the people living on it, but this part of evolution I have seen creep up rather too quickly over this past 3 - 4 yrs. I was fishing about 2 years ago in co. Armagh, N.Ireland, it was out of season so we where fishing at a stocked farm, the place was filling up (and keep in mind this is fly fishing) the owner of the place approached me and a friend and asked us politely how many we had caught, I was 1 away from my ticket and my friend was 2 away from his. We where asked to hurry things up - it was at this point I never went back to that establishment and i would never fish his land again. I don't need to tell people for I have a life long love of fishing and the serenity that it involves, the relaxation of the whole sport. Our circumstances may seem very different story wise but they are not, they are very similar.

Do as I did, make your feelings known with the very thing they thought they could exploit... your pocket.

*a note from me is Im glad you all seemed to have a good time - when i am back in London in 6 months, if these meets are still going I would love to pop along for one

Caterina

LilMissEmmyLou please thank your OH for his very wise contribution! It makes a lot of sense and unfortunately in many cases it is just as he thinks - however, I am pretty sure that in this particular case it is not like this because the women running the cafe are volunteers and the centre is a charity. There is absolutely nothing gained for her whether we stay or go or rent a room or go there for free.

I think that the only reason for the woman saying what she said is that she is used to think in a restrictive way and lacks imagination, therefore a "gathering" needs to be "contained" in her limited view of the world, I suppose! Weird huh?

Looking forward to having you at whatever meeting in London we will be having in 6 months time!

Caterina

Plum_Pie

I think a lot of it has to do with the staff being volunteers who haven't bee trained very well. (I say this as someone volunteers and who has been a volunteer coordinator!)

[Deleted User]

Blooming cheek, good job I wasn't there .How dare she tell you what to do. You are paying customers in the establishment. Its Big Brother and a jobsworth attitude that gets my goat I hope that in the January one I will be able to attend .

Penelope_Penguin

Glad you had a good time - I'll add this to the previous meet thread

Penny. x

Caterina

Thanks PP, we can always count on you to keep the threads tidy!

I hope that one day you can join us in person if you ever are in London on the day of one of the meets. Of course you could let me know in advance if you were thinking of going to London and I would make sure to organise one in your honour anyway!

Caterina

VickyA_2

How on EARTH did I miss this? Especially as I was doing nothing yesterday! :wall: :wall: I was obviously living under a stone over the past couple of months. Next time, I'll endeavour to come - unless my stone prevents me.

Caterina

Don't worry VickyA, we hope to have more meets like these, provided the bureaucracy of the volunteers of the Blackheath centre don't meddle too much with our pursuits. If they do, we move to the pub across the road!

See you in the new year then!

LilacLillie

Oh goodness! It comes to something when you are told you can't meet up for tea and cake in a tea shop!!!
Caterina, might it be worth having a word with the management?
We didn't take up much room and were eating and drinking, what on earth is the problem?
I thought we were being given the 'evil eye' a couple of times, but put it down to imagination from my fluey tablets.
Had another nice meet up, good to see M.E, Plumpie, Bargain Rzl and hope we get to do it again sometime in the near future, whereever it may be.

My PC crashed on Saturday night and we've lost everything because we hadn't backed it all up.
Such a blinking nuisance.
LL

Caterina

Hi LilacLillie,

I had thought of having a word with the management but I also thought better see if we meet again and use the larger table at the back (more space for all of us anyway!).

Then see if they say anything and if they do we can weigh up whether to say anything or just find other cafes and places around the SE London area - there must be dozens, even the cafe in Lewisham M&S is quite nice, if not so atmospheric or cheap.

SE area OSers, suggestions for other meeting places are welcome! Someone here on the forum posted about a lovely place in Walthamstow, but I cannot remember for the sake of me who it was, but I have the place's website in my favourites, here is the link:

http://www.hornbeam.org.uk/

There are city farms with nice cafes, pubs, community centres, if we decide to make it regular and find Blackheath Age Exchange's attitude difficult, it would be a fun challenge to find a different place each time! It would also help us all expand our horizons, no?

Caterina