Great War Forum Conference 2013 - all speakers now announced

[Simon_Fielding]

Hi Alan - did you receive my deposit of the 28th October? Via PayPay....

Cheers

Simon Fielding

[AlanCurragh]

Yes I did, Simon - email sent

Alan

[Ice Tiger]

Alan

Deposit payed by PayPal re post 143 on this thread.

Andy

[burlington]

Hello

Which Premier Inn in Birmingham do Pals stay at?

Martin

[keithmroberts]

Hagley Road is ideal for the friday night curry. many of us will be there.

Keith

[centurion]

Hagley Road is ideal for the friday night curry. many of us will be there.

Keith

Keith. It might be useful to suggest an agreed curry rendezvous and eatery and a sort of indicative time - in the same way as applies to the pub.

[keithmroberts]

The Indian (Akbar's) is next door to the Premier Inn , in the Hagley Road. Those of us who are heading there will no doubt be booking taxis from the Old Contemptibles sometimes towards closing time. The abstemious lady from North Yorkshire will as usual emerge from her taxi holding two full pints without having spilled a drop. Of course she will have to address them before entering Akbar's.

Keith

[keithmroberts]

They are part of a chain now, but the food is excellent . http://www.akbars.co.uk/birmingham

Keith

[centurion]

The Indian (Akbar's) is next door to the Premier Inn , in the Hagley Road. Those of us who are heading there will no doubt be booking taxis from the Old Contemptibles sometimes towards closing time. The abstemious lady from North Yorkshire will as usual emerge from her taxi holding two full pints without having spilled a drop. Of course she will have to address them before entering Akbar's.

Keith

And any sexist jokes about pairs of jugs will no doubt invoke swift and vicious retaliation

[Martin Bennitt]

Just advising you that I will probably be absent from the conference after all this year. The AFP Foundation, which trains foreign journalists among other things, has asked me to go to Bhutan for this purpose during March and April. After much hard internal debating over whether I should attend the GWF conference (and Chris Baker's one-day Lys tour) or spend two months in a Himalayan Shangri-La whose capital is the only one in the world without any traffic lights and which prides itself on having a General Happiness Index, I'm afraid the Forum lost out, though it was close. I won't miss out on the curries either -- in Bhutanese cooking chillies are a vegetable, not a flavouring. Will definitely confirm in due course. My deposit naturally will be for Forum funds.

cheers Martin B

[Pighills]

Oh that is a shame for us - but great for you though, what an experience, you couldn't have missed that!

If you're honest though, you just couldn't stand the thought of being in a car with me for the crossing back to France though, could you

Now you lot are getting mixed up! It was two glasses of wine in the pub (at once) and one pint of beer (in the taxi) coming back from the conference - am I the ONLY one who wasn't drunk enough to remember properly?

[centurion]

I can remember you arriving at the Premier inn with the beer but I could have sworn it was two pints. (Just shows - eye witness accounts aren't always reliable even less than a year afterwards much less more than 50 than is often the case with war memoires)

[keithmroberts]

We'll miss you Martin, have a great time.

Keith

[Pighills]

We need Simon to corroborate this, he took a photo of the two wines (and posted on FaceBook - thanks) and it was his pint I took charge of in the taxi - see I still have my faculties (I think ).

[Ice Tiger]

Looked like 2 pints to me

Andy

[keithmroberts]

I certainly remembered it as two pints, but as discussed elsewhere, memory is fallible, wspecially as i had chosen to drink my beers rather than transport them by taxi.

Keith

[Pighills]

Well, if you two remember it as two pints, then please describe the circumstances (when/where/who for) in which I carried two pints, 'cos I distinctly remember it being one pint (a Guinness I think - other beers are available ) because I put one hand over it (to stop spillage) whilst the other conveyed it in the back of the taxi.

[centurion]

The answer is obviously that you were seeing double and what we saw was what Hindu mystics call a 'thought form' (doubtless a phenomena caused by high concentrations of Hindu mystics in the Hagley road). I'll go and light some incense sticks

[Ice Tiger]

The answer is obviously that you were seeing double and what we saw was what Hindu mystics call a 'thought form' (doubtless a phenomena caused by high concentrations of Hindu mystics in the Hagley road). I'll go and light some incense sticks

I don't remember incense sticks although I did have a small cigar. Would this contribute to the theory of thought form?

Andy

[centurion]

Depends on how whacky the baccy was

[SteveMarsdin]

Hi Alan,

I know it's a bit early to post a list of those attending and I know the counter-attractions of that other shrangri-la have taken their toll but numbers wise, how are we doing ?

[AlanCurragh]

Around the 70 mark, Steve, and that is before I email previous attendees, and the conference leaflet (still in production) is distributed around WFA meetings etc.

[Neil Mackenzie]

Alan

What would you say a reasonable maximum figure is?

Neil

[AlanCurragh]

Last year we had 165 or so - I'd be inclined to say that was a few too many - the room was a bit full. But interested to hear others views on the maximum practical attendance...

[Roger H]

Alan

I would say an absolute max of 150 but try to limit to 130

Roger