Social Events
Fundraising Pub Crawl - August 1999
Details on the fun and games of the pub crawl will appear
here.
Show Meal - L'Amore D'Italia, Fountainbridge
Details on what happened at the Show Meal will appear here.
After Show Party - Marco's,
Slateford Road
Details on what happened at the after show party will
appear here.
The Weekend In Pitlochry That
Never Was!
What happens when people learn of Showcase’s imminent
arrival in the quiet towns of Scotland – they fabricate a story about a collapsed
roof at the hotel and send Showcase to Perth! Still looking on the bright side –
Perth being at least one hour closer to Edinburgh added a potential 2 hours drinking time
to the weekend – thirty two of our members set out on a very wet Bonfire night on the
annual adventure. This year’s group was augmented with a significant contingent of
stage crew members for the first time. This helped to bring the numbers up to the largest
for a few years.
The journey for most of us was the same – a nightmare
to Barnton, and then plain sailing (well it was really wet) to Perth. By the time we
arrived at about 7pm there were already several people in the bar, and that is where many
of the party stayed for the rest of the weekend.
Included in the very reasonable all-in cost - negotiated
for us by Peter and Kirsty - was a three course meal, and this was where everyone, who had
not succumbed to McDonald’s at the south end of the Forth Road Bridge, came across
the parsley which was going to feature widely in the haute cuisine of the weekend. It
seems that garnish in the County Hotel Perth is stuck in some late 70s time warp, and the
obligatory sprig of parsley features widely – even on Judith’s single rasher of
bacon at breakfast! The meal finished with a rather popular fruit crumble (described
as "orgasmic" by some!) , surprising sans parsley, which caused many of the
party’s energy levels to dip.
Dinner on Friday also provided us with our own indoor
bonfire, which saved us having to leave the building for Perth’s bonfire and
fireworks display!! Diane somehow managed to set light to the menus, and in the ensuing
panic, the glowing embers set fire to the seating, with Kirsty playing the role of Guy
Fawkes.
However, our second winds must have returned as before we
knew it, it was nearly midnight and the seasoned party animals disappeared to Diane and
Kate’s room. The assembled company was well impressed by the way the drink had been
neatly laid out on a little side table in a sophisticated manner, and obligingly brought
their glasses from the bar to tuck in. Even with this level of organisation, there
was the usual to-ing and fro-ing between rooms, especially once it was clear that smoking
was banned in Diane and Kate's (Kate is the pious ex-smoker from hell, after all!).
Diane's CD player gave up in disgust at Joan's insistance of putting on her Steps CD,
which left us with a rather splendid chart tape (bought "by mistake" by Kate at
an airport) which becAme the soundtrack for the weekend. And as if that wasn't
enough entertainment, there was always Diane's tirade against the sizing charts on Marks
and Spencers hosiery to keep everyone amused. You had to be there,
really......
Later, Graham went closer to his hat-trick of embarrassing
moments on Showcase weekends, when for the second time in two years he walked in on a
little game of “horsey horsey”. This was after his “Aftershock
induced” collapse off stool trick, causing Gavin to become Florence Nightingale
– once a drag queen, always a drag queen!!
Breakfast beckoned on Saturday for about half the party
– although Mavis was the only stage crew member who surfaced, and Carol Gibson was
reported to dismiss breakfast as a highly overrated meal – some excuse. It was over
breakfast that we found out much about the walls of the County Hotel (well the thickness
of them at least). Malcolm could be to blame for Carol’s non-appearance as they
were reported to have been practicing for their wedding night (by a source which would
like to remain anonymous). Fiona Mac and David Faulds admitted to having had difficulty
sleeping due to snoring. Not each others – but Graham’s!
Following breakfast a wonderful array of knobbly knees left
the hotel – with half wearing kit supplied by Andy McGarry and Pete - to play
football, while many of the girls went shopping for last minute bits and pieces for the
fancy dress.
Then it was back to the hotel for the Treasure Hunt. It was
at this time that the stage crew were beginning to surface, as they haven’t
learn’t how to pace themselves for a Showcase weekend yet. As a result only 4 cars
left the hotel, with Fiona Mac managing to scrape her car before leaving the car park
despite Fiona Currie’s navigation!!!
Difficulties were presented to the participants by the fact
that in the short time since the treasure hunt was devised, the tourist season seemed to
have ended - it was a very surreal sight, car after car driving aimlessly round in circles
at a deserted caravan site and adjacent race course! In a very close contest, Fiona’s
scratched Audi won by two points from Tricia’s unpranged car (at least the bottle of
red wine she won, went a little way to salve Hugh’s anger). Then it was back to the
bar (where we met up with the crew again!!!) and then into costumes.
The movie theme with each person getting a letter of the
alphabet proved taxing for some, and it seemed that so long as the first name, last name,
actor’s name or film title started with the letter it was OK. Even this broad
interpretation still caused problems, and Malcolm with the letter “F” despite
looking for Fred Flintstone or Friar Tuck costumes ended up coming as “Fat Obi Wan
Kenobi”. But everyone really entered into the spirit of it - with
special mentions to the Austin Powers posse, Champion the wonderhorse, and the
Davros/Jamie combination of Indiana Jones and Hitler (girls, if you missed Indiana Jones,
you missed something!)
As usual, some poor soul from the hotel was charged with
judging the fancy dress, and awarded the prize to Mavis - even if he did miss the point of
that well-held pinky completely, and announce that the winner was "the guy dressed as
Blofeld - that baddy from James Bond". He was Dr Evil from Austin Powers!
After the fancy dress judging, we were treated to a
"Before they were famous" moment - or was it more like "Star secrets"
- as a tape of non other than Andy Johnston singing with a band at a school rock night in
1986 had made it's way into the hands of a member of the company. If you weren't
there, you didn't miss much!
Then it was party, party, party - and the DJ really did the
Showcase crowd proud. Especially with his Karaoke which actually recorded for
instant playback! David Faulds declined Bohemian Rhapsody, Andy McGarry took the
microphone, and the hotel staff were stunned. And we had wonderful re-run of
"let's take the piss out of Kermit"!
The party finished – much to the dismay of the hotel
owner who was really enjoying the entertainment – at 1am, but most of the party
refused to go to their rooms. Errm.... actually, the hotel owner refused to
leave as well, sitting up with the assembled company until 3am, listening to the entire
repertoire, and even giving a thankyou speech at the end! Even those of us who did
decide that partying in the bedroom was preferable to singing in the function room were to
be summoned to join in the fun.
Then it was back to room 203 for a more subdued party. It
was actually starting to look like that scene from Grease, as people slipped into their
nightclothes to sit around singing and drinking - Zoe looked very fetching in her pyjamas
cuddling her Dalmation (purchased for all of £5.98 from "Your more store"
earlier that day to finish off her Cruella de Ville costume). A 4am curfew was
imposed in the interests of sensibility, and those still around were treated with Diane's
impeccable manners as a hostess - "I don't mean to be rude, but would you all f***
off?"
Sunday morning, and a small group went for a walk after a
breakfast only about one third of the party made. The rest, who had parted until at least
5am struggled to get out their rooms for the 11am turf out, and Diane despite having the
party in her room, was last seen going back to her room to clear up what she described as
something “resembling an explosion in Boots the Chemist meets an explosion in
Haddows!”
I guess that sums up the weekend – another success.
We’ll leave you with some quotes from the weekend
:
“If it wasn’t for my legs, I’d be 5 foot
3” – Fiona Currie
"Back a bit.... back a bit.... back a bit.... oh, sorry" Fiona
Currie
"It's a big puffy one! Oh - where are Crofton and Brian anyway?" -
anonymous, on sizing up the Yorkshire Pudding
"Will you two stop it and find somewhere to shag!" - Diane. But who was it
directed at??
"Euan? Which ones Euan? Oh - the one I just stepped over in the
corridor" - undetermined due to drink
"I loved your mother in the Wizard of Oz" - man in bar, to Joan
"Oooh one of them's a really good singer. He's even doing that song from Miss
Saigon. Yes, the one dressed as a rabbit" - member of bar staff
"At least it didn't go on very long" - anonymous (but in the room next door to
Malcolm and Carol.....)
"Where the fork did you get that tape?" - Andy Johnson. At least we think
that's what he said. |