Reading skeptics' meetup

[John Stumbles]

The 'Caring for pets left behind by the rapture' thread got such a good response I thought I'd spam-and-be-damned here[0] with this:

In a nutshell: skeptics' and fellow-travellers' jolly in the Global Cafe at RISC in London St (not Road) in Reading, Tues 16th March 18:30 - 21:30 (nominally), and thereafter on the 3rd Tuesday of each month (probably).

Not quite a Thames Valley uk.d-i-y meetup (now there's an idea whose time has surely come[1]?) but maybe some like-minded souls in this geographical area may be interested.

[0] or maybe not: does thinking for yourself count as a DIY activity? ;-) [1] again, but it's been a while: last one I recall was graced by the late lamented Andy Hall.

[Steve Walker]

Too far for me, but good luck with that John -

[David WE Roberts]

I don't seem to have seen this post (unless it was in another thread). Can someone please let me know which email address JS is using to post in case I have inadvertently blocked it.

Cheers

Dave R

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "David WE Roberts" saying something like:

Read the refs in the headers and retrieve the post.

[David WE Roberts]

Ah...O.K. I can see a series of references in the posts which get longer further down the thread. So I presume that the first one is the original post. However I have no idea how to use this reference to retrieve the original post. My news reader is Windows Mail so is not 'feature rich'.

[Andrew Gabriel]

The next

is on 9th March at Copa, Kings Road, in Reading (on the original site of "The Shop on the Bridge" for those who remember that, before it moved to other side of Reading).

This is one for professional computer geeks...

[John Stumbles]

Ah! my original mail was cunningly crafted not to show up to adherents of Microsoftianity ;-)

[ericp]

I loved that strange shop and Loverings next door to it. I went to school with George Lovering. And Sleeps just further down the road with it's magic tools and just-about-everything-you-could-want.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "David WE Roberts" saying something like:

That's it. .

In Agent, I double click on the ref and Agent goes and gets it with a bit of jumping about.

Possibly not this way, true.

[Gib Bogle]

You could think of it as DIY salvation. ;-)

[Andrew Gabriel]

My grandparents knew Mr and Mrs Milne who originally owned "The Shop on the Bridge". My grandparents weren't anywhere near Reading, but originally met them when they were staying in the same hotel on holiday in Bournemouth, and they got on well. The wholesale side of the shop was called Milnes, and occupied several rather derelict looking shops further along Kings Road towards the town centre. I think it's their son who still runs the current "The Shop on the Bridge" on the other side of Reading, although I haven't been in there for a few years.

I went to school with Sleep's grandson... By the time Sleeps moved into its final position in St. Mary's Butts, his father had taken over running the store from his grandfather.

Small world...

I remember Loverings now you mention it. My recollection is that it was very expensive - generally too expensive for me to spend my pocket money in there. I tended to use Henry's Radio in London (and many other similar shops along that bit of Edgeware Road) which were much cheaper, and Proops in Tottenham Court Road. Eventually, Maplin and Rapid when they started doing mail order.

Another place I remember was Jones Radio in Oxford Road, which was mainly a TV repair shop, but also sold electronic components if you asked. I drove past a few weeks ago, and it looked like it had just gone - you could still make out the shop name where the letters had recently been removed from the facia.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I didn't know about it, but a quick glance at a map, and it looks like that's a few hundred yards further out of Reading than Copa.