[HPFGU-OTChatter] Friday night

[GulPlum]

At 15:46 13/06/03 , David wrote:
<snip>

>Does that make me hopelessly anti-social?  I mean, there's all this
>hoopla with muari (or is it mauri) which loads of people want to do,
>and I wondered if I was abnormal here.  Or are there others like me?

I have mixed feelings. I want to get my grubby hands on a copy and sit down 
to read it peacefully ASAP. However, what happens in the run-up to getting 
my hands on it is a different issue. I'd like to have the opportunity to 
share the last moments (hour or so?) of waiting with other fans and perhaps 
be part of a group build-up of tension, but I fear that won't be possible. 
I don't want the pre-release tension to go too far (mainly to preserve 
strength for post-midnight reading), so the muari/meetup-suggested six 
hours is far too much.

However, despite the fact that I live in the UK's second-largest and second 
most populous city, no adult fans appear to have come out of the woodwork 
thus far. The muari page for Birmingham on meetup.com consists of a dozen 
or so 11-13 year olds, and I'm not really sure that I'd be comfortable with 
them. Not only because I suspect that my interest in the books is on a 
different level, but also because I have no particular desire to be 
labelled a pervert by onlookers... (not to mention that the current meet 
locations are all McDonalds branches and I have principles to maintain...).

My current plans are to leave home at about 11.30pm for central Birmingham 
10 minutes away (where there are two Waterstone's branches, a WHSmith and a 
couple of other bookshops within a five-minute walking radius), try to take 
some pictures if there are any queues (which I doubt, judging by the 
complete lack of queues at previous midnight releases), pick up my (non 
pre-ordered) copy at whoever's cheapest and start reading. If it's a warm 
(and dry!) night, I'll probably plant myself with a bottle of water and a 
bag of nibbles in the gardens of one of the two towers which inspired JRR 
Tolkein (http://www.jrrtolkien.org.uk/Images%203/twotowers1.jpg 
or  http://www.jrrtolkien.org.uk/Images%203/twotowers2.jpg) until I've 
finished. I might take a break at shop-opening times in the morning to take 
a few more pictures, but my reading of the book will be a private and 
solitary pleasure.

That is, unless any other adult fans from Midlands want to hook up with me....

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who really should be doing other things right now, and 
should try to find time for replies to several HPFGU posts...