Madchester 2016 - is ON!

[Grobi]

Will need a hotel for the Saturday night though - any suggestions?

John,

over the past years the Normanhurst Hotel (http://www.normanhursthotel.co.uk/) has become a kind of "Free Spirits Madchester event hotel", it's within walking distance from the venue.

[CamiCrew]

Peter - whew. Didn't want our timing to be responsible for you missing your 1st ever Madchester, glad you can make it =D> Also very cool Erik & John are a go!

Booked at Normanhurst arr. Fri 5/13 dep Sun 5/15. (Edit: 15th not 16th oops) Not sure if it is typical? but the hotel booking engine has "no space available" for those dates, whereas the travel brokers - Kayak, Priceline, Expedia have rooms.

[Recess]

Normanhurst booked for the 14th. Woo-hoo!

[Jill]

We're booked into the Normanhurst Hotel for the Saturday Night.

Really pleased to read that the ' not sures ' Peter and Eric are coming and will be keeping fingers, toes and everything else crossed that Paul will be able to make it too.

[hewitt]

I am pretty sure I can make it. But my life has been thrown upside down at work at the moment. Not a bad thing. I have been taken off the shift pattern I have been on for 6 years and moved into a different area at work in a different hanger. Better than being made redundant and after training I will be on more money because of a different shift pattern. The problem is that I have to train on day shift for 3-4 weeks before getting my new team and shift. One of the shifts is a back to back nights were you do Wed, Thur, Friday night followed by the Sun, Mon, Tuesday night. Fingers crossed I am not shoved on that shift on the week end of the 14-15th.

[CamiCrew]

Fingers crossed Jason as I've already showed Jack all your fighter jet pics in the Sanctuary by way of introduction.

[-o<

[Paul Victory]

Looking forward to it! I'll be there, even if I'm still injured. I'm planning to stay over for the Saturday night for a change. Not sure whether I'll head over on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. What time are things likely to start?

Paul V

[plummy]

What time things start kinda depends on a) how many are coming b) how many are rowing and c) what distances/times they are going for.
As a fair estimate I would go with around 12:00~1:00pm for some sort of rowing activity

How many ergs do we have ?
Jane x 1
Me x 1
The Underwoods x 1
The Havemans x 1
Jonathan Davies x 1 (if he's coming).
That would be enough as their isn't marquee space for more (unless the weather means one more can go outside)
Peter is arriving on Friday evening (I'm collecting from the airport)

[Liefcat]

Thx, yes I guess Jon will be coming - from our Facebook messages - and I guess he would also like to be in shape to do some erging...

What are the "restrictions" as to distances/times

[jhaveman]

We're looking forward to seeing everybody.
We've also booked the hotel for the Saturday night.

Sheena & Jan

[Paul Victory]

What time things start kinda depends on a) how many are coming b) how many are rowing and c) what distances/times they are going for.
As a fair estimate I would go with around 12:00~1:00pm for some sort of rowing activity

Just looking at flights now. Thinking of getting the 10:35 flight to Manchester on Saturday morning (arriving at 11:35) and the 12:00 flight home on the Sunday.

Without wishing to put anyone on the spot, would this get me there on time and what are my chances of availing of the exceptional transfer service that I have enjoyed in previous years? Failing this, I presume other transport options are available and would welcome any guidance in relation to these options.

Paul V

[Recess]

I'm going to base it around a 4 hour drive from Glasgow. So 12:00 start would mean I could leave at 08:00.

Happy to throw my machine in the back of the car if another it required.

John

[Jill]

Fingers crossed Jason

Ours will be crossed as well Jason.

Without wishing to put anyone on the spot, would this get me there on time and what are my chances of availing of the exceptional transfer service that I have enjoyed in previous years? Failing this, I presume other transport options are available and would welcome any guidance in relation to these options.

The Underwood Taxi Service will be available if needed.

[plummy]

There are no "limits" as such as to what anyone wants to row. I'd still like a crack at the 50~59LWT 100km British Record but unfortunately taking 7 hours 30 out of the day and potentially being unable to function much afterwards means that sort of thing is outside the limit.

I think a bit of variety would be a good thing rather than everyone doing say, whatever the CTC is that month. Probably the easiest way to approach this is for everyone to PM me with a first and second choice of what they want to do. That way they aren't influenced by anyone else to begin with. There's no rush on this but if you do have an idea already please feel free to fire it across to me. I also need to know if any spouses are "having a go" (I believe that was a "No" from the California crew )

Maybe everyone could do their first choice event and if the CTC is suitable we could have a group effort at that. I appreciate they may not be 100% representative of a best effort but as the event is about floating boats as much as the boat's position it could be fun for a bulk entry.

I'm very happy to set up a handicap start race again (I think they are great) but that by definition means several people doing the same thing and flies in the face of lots of variety. To be honest, I'll work with whatever you guys want to do - but I can't do anything until I know what people want as I need to allow for warm ups/No. of ergs etc etc

As a starter, I'm toying with the idea of trying to go <19:00 for a 5k. My SB is 19:07.5 and I think Peter's is very close to that so maybe a head to head challenge?

[Liefcat]

Just looking at flights now. Thinking of getting the 10:35 flight to Manchester on Saturday morning (arriving at 11:35) and the 12:00 flight home on the Sunday.

Without wishing to put anyone on the spot, would this get me there on time and what are my chances of availing of the exceptional transfer service that I have enjoyed in previous years? Failing this, I presume other transport options are available and would welcome any guidance in relation to these options.

Paul V

My flights appear very similar, arriving 10.50 on Saturday and departure 12.30 on Sunday - so one might kill two birds with one stone

[plummy]

Are you both arriving at the same terminal?

[Liefcat]

Are you both arriving at the same terminal?

Not sure yet... I´m on the LH942 from Frankfurt - but I should have plenty of time to "move around" at the airport till Paul arrives...

[hewitt]

10400491_1036119783106425_8667773696411907028_n.jpg (178.24 KiB) Viewed 795 times

Fingers crossed Jason as I've already showed Jack all your fighter jet pics in the Sanctuary by way of introduction.

[-o<

I have actually changed jobs to work on one of your planes Barbara. The JSF. I am sure Jack can find plenty of pictures of them.

[Paul Victory]

Are you both arriving at the same terminal?

Not sure yet... I´m on the LH942 from Frankfurt - but I should have plenty of time to "move around" at the airport till Paul arrives...

Ryanair fly into and out of T3 in Manchester.

Paul V

[plummy]

Are you both arriving at the same terminal?

Not sure yet... I´m on the LH942 from Frankfurt - but I should have plenty of time to "move around" at the airport till Paul arrives...

Lufthansa operate from Terminal 1

[Paul Victory]

Just looking at flights now. Thinking of getting the 10:35 flight to Manchester on Saturday morning (arriving at 11:35) and the 12:00 flight home on the Sunday.

Without wishing to put anyone on the spot, would this get me there on time and what are my chances of availing of the exceptional transfer service that I have enjoyed in previous years? Failing this, I presume other transport options are available and would welcome any guidance in relation to these options.

Paul V

My flights appear very similar, arriving 10.50 on Saturday and departure 12.30 on Sunday - so one might kill two birds with one stone

Sounds like a good idea. If you can make it across from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3, we can travel together to Jane's.

[Liefcat]

Are you both arriving at the same terminal?

Not sure yet... I´m on the LH942 from Frankfurt - but I should have plenty of time to "move around" at the airport till Paul arrives...

Lufthansa operate from Terminal 1

That was what I thought...

Yes, Paul, I think I can manage to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 to meet you there... (Hope you´re not going to Liverpool this year... )

(Anyways, this time maybe we should exchange phone numbers beforehand... )

[CamiCrew]

Jason yep, he's familiar. He's also a talent at the grill like you. Plummy I am up for anything on the erg agenda. I couldn't have imagined I'd cross the Atlantic for an erging celebration, so put me in, Coach. Ready to play. 5k, 20 min, 30 min, sprinty CTC, 10k, half-marathon, 2k... oh wait I'm on vacation... ah bring it. I can't wait! Sorry, I was supposed to PM, wasn't I?

[plummy]

Ready to play. 5k, 20 min, 30 min, sprinty CTC, 10k, half-marathon, 2k... oh wait I'm on vacation... ah bring it. I can't wait! Sorry, I was supposed to PM, wasn't I?

Are we getting a bit excited?

Thinking about the date, we are just into a new season - so there is always the "soft" option of an SB attempt for anyone looking for something a little "easier".

I've started a list of what people are happy to do. I appreciate it may change in time but the sooner I know, the sooner it will take a proper form and shape.

[Liefcat]

Ready to play. 5k, 20 min, 30 min, sprinty CTC, 10k, half-marathon, 2k... oh wait I'm on vacation... ah bring it. I can't wait! Sorry, I was supposed to PM, wasn't I?

Are we getting a bit excited?

Guess I´m open to most of the possible and impossible challenges at this point... When we get nearer I will most probably have worked out some "preferences" - and then I´ll PM you, Dave...