A confession is required: Geeklawyer has been so busy this year he hasn’t had time to do anything for the conference. Given also the disappointing drop off of UK lawyers blogging there is also the question of attendance which it must be feared would be sparse.
The suggestion has been made and accepted, therefore, that a less formal perhaps smaller do should be organised in London pub. There we can eschew the pretense of a professional grown up conference (that’ll be next year honest) and just drink beer and gossip.
Central London. Late August?
Wasn’t it in London last year? You can’t have a conference/piss-up at the same venue.
I suggest Birmingham.
But that’s up North?!
If you cast your puffy and short-sighted eyes in the direction of the map, you will see that it is in the Midlands. Ideally placed, therefore, for a meet-up!
But I’m not too fussed. I’m a Southern fairy myself, after all.
My dear Martin, clearly you didn’t get a GCSE in geography. The Midlands extend from Potters Bar to Luton, as any fule kno.
I’m up in London In August…. a MASSIVE Pub Bender, er , sorry, serious and leanred discussion as to the future and nature of blogging, sounds like great good fun!
London Late August is good - but what about a pre-conference symposium to plan the late August piss-up sometime in June…?
As it happens… there are quite a few new bloggers…. and, as far as I know, none of them seem to be in Birmingham. I could be wrong.
Late August is good for me at the moment. Also interested in a planning piss-up in June…
Oh and London please.
What term do you use for a gathering of bloggers? A gaggle? An orgy!? A posse? A hangover?
A ‘case’ of law bloggers…. but I am drinking a glass of rioja?
GL may suggest a ‘jihad’ of law bloggers?
For my part…. what about a ‘bucket of blawgers’?… or perhaps, something more classical, prosaic… a ‘halcyon’…. an ‘ineluctability of blawgers’?… or even…. a ’synod’?… perhaps even something masonic… ‘a Tubalcain of blawgers’….
And then we could be mysterious and say “All square, squire’ and mutter about temple’s not being finished…. etc etc….
F**k… I’ve overused that apostrophe gag again this week…. mea culpa
It should, of course, opus dei, have been Temples…
I shall drink three Hail Mary’s in penance… and then nip down to the lodge.Bound to bump into a Worshipful Master (WM).
I can do not better, this night, but quote this gem: ” How many times have you heard the WM open a Lodge for the “purposes of Freemasonry in the second degree”, only to hear a little gasp from the IPM, and correct himself with “oh sorry, for the instruction and improvement of Craftsmen”. In that moment he’s been made to look slightly incompetent. The dignity of his office has taken a slight dent.
I am sure, when we meet, in the place where we agree to convene, bringing with us the tools of our craft and other regalia - that we shall meet as members of a craft and then get pissed….. possibly. I cannot, do not, shall not, and will not, speak for other brothers on these most secret matters.
Geeklawyer… Is it Friday already? It cannot be? tell me that it is not so.
I’m off to find Tom Cruise to see if he will let me become a scientologist… I’m not sure he hangs around Chiswick High Road - but… I’ll give it my best shot. May well bump into Beckham…. I had two Jehovah Witness people trying to climb up the watchtower I have erected in my front garden beside my hedge (to get advance warning of PCSO visits) the other day - so anything is possible tonight.
[…] At the moment, plans are secret, as befits our craft - but all, shall, no doubt, be revealed in time…. in the meantime you may care to read… of the following… […]
A ‘Menu’ Of bloggers. I’ll have a No. 1 for starters and then a No. 4 and 10 pls.
If the diminished numbers of us are true, then an Horatii of blawgers, surely? Or, more mundanely, a comment of bloggers.
Geeklawyer Ms R is honoured to be your special guest.
What about these, eh?
A Whingeing of Bloggers.
A GasBag of Bloggers.
A Booze of Bloggers.
A Staggering of Bloggers ( following on from the intial gathering that is the Booze of Bloggers, naturally.)
The fact that I can’t remember the last time I got drunk is either very sad or very bad!
i think birmingham is a great place for you to meet. i shall send a postcard from london.
as a blogger in the legal industry - feel free to disparage my blog without it going to my trade profession or calling - i would be happy to crash this august gathering.
did you see what i did there?
and i assumed you just meant: ‘ello brothers; temple’s not finished then…’
What’s wrong with up North any road?
Leave Birmingham in the Midlands if you don’t mind!
“What term do you use for a gathering of bloggers?”. Wrong question. What distinguishes the best from the rest is that we are blawgers and they are bloggers.
SW: Nothing like an august august gathering….
They’ve been building that bloody temple for years…. can’t get the masons these days…. not like the good old days…. when I were a lad…. or entered apprentice as I should have said…. not!
my uncle always used to say he went to the lodge on thursdays.
the tynemouth lodge (a fantastic real ale pub and definitely worth a visit if you are within 100 miles or so - a stonesthrow from the quayside in north shields where hastings banda once practised as a doctor it’s true, i promise.) was my local and i could never work out why i didn’t see him.
took years before my aunt explained…
i am so innocent.
i sincerely hope nobody has moved birmingham to the north; i’m one of the few people i know who quite likes brum and its brilliant baltis but ‘oi no!’
anyway, jailhouse; i thought you were a blagger…
The Baltis, I will grant you, are a reasonable justification for not bombing Brum.
Let me know where and when, and maybe I can do it, too–if you invite me, and if Ruthie agrees to a few things (the usual: hats, games, costume matters, etc…) in advance. I promise not to eat, drink or talk too much.
The problem with Ruthie is trying to keep her out of a bizarre costume: and that’s just when she’s shopping at Asda. However if you do turn up we will get her to do the Antler Dance as recompense for the horrors to follow.
On the downside you will be forced to give a talk. Naturally, since this talk will be with your horrid beastly American accent we will need to put you behind a chicken-wire screen (a’la Blues Brothers redneck diner) to protect you from the booze addled Limey lawyers. And if it isn’t a good talk we will debag you. Hazing? Dude, you have no idea.
On the plus side getting Ruthie to cater to your every evil depraved taste will be easy, if ultra expensive: bring a sea-container full of $100 bills. However, like eating Foie Gras made from children, rather than ducks, the pleasures of Ruthie are a once-in-a-lifetime carnival all men should attend once before being interred.
Even Miss Robinson couldn’t compete with Ruthie.
Your lot, especially southerners, usually like me–but I always like a good debag. Which reminds me. Tell Ruthie to go to the gym even more; it’s good to remind her…we need her in shape. The Antler Dance needs reintroduction in Europe. Droll Eastern European-Americans living in weird other-worldly steel towns (like in movie the “The Deer Hunter”) in Pennsylvania and West Virginia have hijacked it.
I’ve been trying to get Ruthie to lose some weight for 2 years to no avail. Notwithstanding that she rows, runs, plays rugby, has wild sex with strangers in seedy motels and does knock down cage-fighting in her local bar, she is still has an arse bigger than the Antartic ice-shelf.
HAH…it pays to read this blog more often to find out when I’m being talked about..
Ah Ruthie my dear - all the tools of technology are available to you for such a purpose - if only you knew who to ask
(*Having been directed to correct post by Geeklawyer, Picks Up Megaphone*)
My Dear Geek,
WILL THERE BE AUGUST BLOGDRINKIES AND WHERE/WHEN?! THERE EXISTS A HUGE GAGGLE OF BLOGGING BAR AND LAW STUDENTS WHO WANT TO COME AND GET S**TFACED,(er, sorry that should read “discuss legal issues of the day and the future of UK bl*wging in general”, now that the end of the BVC is nigh I am getting FAR too carried away….)WITH YOU AND CHARON AND RUTHIE AND VM (if she’ll have us)AND NEARLY LEGAL AND JOHN BOLCH AND PUPILBLOGGER AND LEXI AND ADVOCATUS DIABOLI AND….
(*falls over blue in the face at this point, dropping megaphone and is dragged off stage left by paramedics*)
You are shouting. Stop. I will issue a notice when I have sorted it. I think it exceedingly unlikely VM will be there as a boisterous London pub is no place for a virtuous Victorian Maiden.
…..(*resists bieng wrestled off stage by paramedics*) I FORGOT SIMON MYERSON AND SCRIBBLER AND LEGALLY BLONDE AND…….
(*is once again dragged off stage, this time by two community plods and a psychiatric social worker*)
A notice?… excellent… Geeklawyer… might it be like a Roman proclamation?…. urbi et orbi?
Or will it be like one of those “Golf Sale” notices held up on a pole by an out of work investment banker on the Tottenham Court Road?
GOLF SALE
——->
Dear Geek,
Of course I’m shouting - I’m using a virtual megaphone to deafen you into organisational submission!!
I shall be there! Have you thought about going to the Cittie of Yorke? The upstairs room there used to be free. And do you want speakers or is it just ale?