Last weekend was definitely one with an exceeding amount of awesome (I know this is quite overdue but one is often quite busy). Not only did I have the pleasure of going to my first Scottish Nerdfighter gathering, but on the day after it, I also met up with my friend Lauren, where we discussed many topics that surprisingly hasn't put us in the loony bin. Full of hugs, laughter, Nerdiness (a LOT of Nerdiness), deep talks, awesome people, writing, hugs, cool hats, sitting, standing and an unnecessary amount of running.
In the early weeks of being decreed a "Nerdfighter", my attention was brought to an event page on Facebook declaring, that a Scottish Nerdfighter gathering would take place in Glasgow Green on Saturday 31st August. Not only was I pleased to be given such a grand opportunity to meet lots of awesome people, but rather surprised, considering the fact this was posted very well in advance, in February/March. After a long time of waiting, the gathering was upon me.
Prior to the gathering, the members of "We are Nerdfighters" going to the gathering, agreed on a place of meeting before we advanced to Glasgow Green. I decided to come fashionably late (in other words, I was just being a lazy ass hole). The day before, I had made the use of Google Maps to refresh my knowledge of the correct path to Glasgow Green, but my friend Sophia had took it upon herself to be the guide and directed us through a different path. The area itself I recognized, just the way to Glasgow Green from that point, was unknown to myself. Eventually, we reached Glasgow Green, and upon reaching the center part, we glanced at a few people staring at us. Whispering between ourselves, we questioned whether these people were Nerdfighters or just random strangers. We directed the typical Nerdfighter hand sign to clarify if they were one of us, followed by a delighted cheer, we had found more of our kind.
I found myself, as I'm sure my friends did as well, a little surprised, due to their only being four people already there to greet us. We moved over to a grassy bit beside a nice tree so we could have our bottoms seated. Not long passed before a couple more members appeared, one of them having a Minecraft sword in their possession (which if you didn't know, is awesome). Then the reminder of the group followed subsequently. A few people brought their Ukuleles, which turned out to be very entertaining.
Later on, a group of us decided to play Duck, Duck, Goose. I was awful, though I am excused as we did play it on a bit of hill, so my feet would go a funny way and hurt. We also made a pile of leaves; my friend Andrew started it, but a few of joined in. We are so mature aren't we? A small conflict occurred between myself and Andrew, unknown to me as to what influenced these actions, Andrew picked up some leaves and threw them at me. Then I retaliated, this went on for a while, before we agreed on a peace treaty. On a number of occasions, my dear beanie hat, was stolen from me by some of the members. There was no real ill intention to this shameful act, just a bit of fun to pass the time, thought I did not overly enjoy it as it required me to run. Then, Robert (the guy with the awesome Minecraft sword) guided most of the group to the St Enoch Center to get food. Not that most of us didn't know our way, he was just given the role of guide.
Upon arriving at the food court, myself and my friend Sophia were not too keen on purchasing food from any of the fast food shops. Sophia wanted to get some vegetarian food and I generally refuse to eat at McDonald's or Burger King. If given the choice, I would rather starve. So on wards we went to the Tesco, I myself purchased a bottle of diet coke and what proved to be a very tasty bottle of orange juice. Sophia bought a number of items (biscuits, orange juice, cookies, tablet), originally, I thought we were buying food just for ourselves, but then I understood that she wished to buy enough food for a few members of the group. When returning, we met most of the members on the top floor of the food court, enjoying some humorous conversations and consuming our purchased food products. My friend Chloe, requested that we pick her friend (who she refers to as her brother) at Central Station. Eventually we reached the station, it all went pretty swiftly. As the group exited Central Station, it was brought to my attention that my sister was leaving, so after saying my farewells, I continued on wards with the group. we had to wait for some of the members for they were taking some time. We got into trouble with the police, seeing as we are such rebels, because we were kind of getting in peoples way so we kind of had to leave.
Anyway, when we finally returned to Glasgow Green, we got up to some entertaining activities. The more younger members, decided to play toilet tig but with our own little Nerdy twist. My friend Rosemary (who sadly was unable to come to the gathering) had thought up the ingenious idea of Sherlock tig. The rules explained that if you were tug, you would stand still and stretch both your arms out and say "elementary my dear Watson" until someone came behind you, repeated the line and caught you as you fell backwards. The worst part of playing this game, was that I was the first to be given the role as tigger, which meant I had to do an unnecessary amount of running which proved how unfit I was. I did do a decent job, but I managed to convince everyone to enroll a second person as the tigger as a considerable number of us were playing. The person chosen, ran sometimes, but generally just refused to run and just walked most of the time. Eventually, we moved on to the typical chain tig. That proved most enjoyable as well as exhausting, and proved to be daunting when the chain reformed, the members no doubt plotting their next evil scheme and finally charging towards the people still remaining. To my great surprise, myself, Sophia and this other cool guy who's name I have forgotten, were the last three and technically the winners. This came as such a shock to us, Sophia continually stated she hadn't run in years and I just question how my unfit body managed to escape them. This literally defied logic, it was some amazing scientific discovery.
We later moved slightly across Glasgow Green for no real apparent reason. A lot of pictures and hugs were taken, but I didn't want to make this post a gallery of photos so I chose my favorite out of them. All of a sudden, a large group hug started to form and I couldn't deny the opportunity to join in. It was such a bonding moment, it was like the group was a herd and we were trying not to separate. Though, a number of people kept on tripping up as we walked, until we all fell over. I was under so many people, I could barely move. I assumed it would be ok for a few minutes, as I was still able to see. Until one member decided to pile on, right on top of me. I literally could not see a thing and I was terrified in case my glasses broke. I was literally shouting "someone is on top of me, someone on top of me! I have galsses and someone is on top of me!" I think it was after that that I got the most pictures of myself with another person, i literally just went up to people and said "i don't know your name but I am going to get a picture with you anyway".
One of the people that I got a picture with was Manus (ha, ha). He is freaking awesome, he is a writer, a singer, a gamer and just generally an awesome guy. I will need to find out where his opinion lies in Doctor Who, but he does have the potential to be my new best friend. At first, when talking to him and his other friend, I thought I was talking to two seventeen year olds and felt rather awkward but as it turns out, Manus was only 14 and his friend who was considerably taller than me was 15. I was happliy surprised, and when a lot of the members went to Geek Retreat, we just joined in conversation in our natural habitat. It was so much fun that this post can't even explain how much fun it was.
The worst part was saying goodbye, I feel a part of my soul die whenever I have to say goodbye to my Nerdfighter friends. Myself and Sophia, got the same train home, which lead to a nice conversation before I was no longer accompanied by a Nerdfighter. I thought another day with such awesomeness like this would never appear again. but the next day, as you will already know if you remember reading the start of the post, I met my friend Lauren on another day of awesome. I was running a little late, of which Lauren made very clear. Then I decided to steal her hat because it was awesome, but then I gave it back of course, I'm not that cruel. We wondered around town for a bit,looked at some cool hats, we had no idea where we were going, but then we went to the Waterstones and I got a Diet Irn-Bru and a yummy chocolate muffin. We talked non-stop for over four hours; many dirty jokes were made as well as some surprising amount of deep conversations. It was just so much fun, and carried on the awesomeness. Then, we went to meet her parents at Primark before I departed. Despite the post being very late, the weekend still remains to be one of my absolute favorites and I will never, ever forget it.
