BTS Lectures and dinner 2011

[James Box]

Jackie and me had a great time at the lectures! thanks to Kim and Mark for their organising
it was sad that numbers were down, but it was great to see the usual suspects and make some new friends!
the lectures were brilliant as always, too. i enjoyed them all though particular emphasis goes to Martin Nicholas' great coverage of Peruvian tarantulas and JMV's talk on the magnificent Lampropelma nigerimmum

on a personal level, there was a slight hickup with the food...everything had evil fungus! but when we mentioned this to the staff, they rustled me up a lovely grilled chicken breast and veg. that's service for you!

[Nicola Dolby]

Glad you had a lovely time James, I'll try to get there myself next year!

[Mike_Strick]

I'd like to add my thanks to Mark and Kim for another excellent event. Katherine and I really enjoyed ourselves. Pete's spider-related movie quiz was a great ice breaker although I was a little disappointed by my performance and not sure whether recognising the clip from "Ice Spiders" is really something I should be proud of. The standard of all the lectures was superb and the range of tones and subject matters was exactly right. Andrew's after-dinner speech revealed some truly shocking facts about both the dry trade and fraudulently wild-caught specimens in Malaysia. I hope he can reach a wider audience with this information. I cant think of a better way to have rounded off the day than chatting in the bar with a great bunch of people while sampling various lethal forms of home-brewed sloe-based alcohol.

Mike

[James Box]

only two replies?
i'm justified, i think, in bumping this!!! it was a great time!

[Ray Hale]

Your right James it was great weekend. There were a few minor issues that were sorted out swiftly by Mark and Kim . In the main down to the hotel and crossed wires but it was all sorted and I think that all had a good time. The lectures were excellent this year especially Jean Michel's and Richard Gallon. Although Martin, Jan and of course Pete did a stirling job. As always Andrews after dinner lecture was well recieved although it was noted that certain attendees (you know who you are!) were nodding off at timesLOL ( too much food and alcohol).
All in all a huge sucess again and I for one would like to thank Mark and Kim for the effort. I know its been a stuggle for them with the new buisness and all but well done guys.

PS....sorry about the fire alarm at 8.00am. That was from our room. God know why it went off but a rather rude Mr Britas type figure accused us of smoking in the room. Needles to say neither of us smoke and I was fast asleep. As you can imagine I was less than impressed with him. .......but I think he got the message.

See you next year. 10 years and the big one for us.

[James Box]

Your right James it was great weekend. There were a few minor issues that were sorted out swiftly by Mark and Kim . In the main down to the hotel and crossed wires but it was all sorted and I think that all had a good time. The lectures were excellent this year especially Jean Michel's and Richard Gallon. Although Martin, Jan and of course Pete did a stirling job. As always Andrews after dinner lecture was well recieved although it was noted that certain attendees (you know who you are!) were nodding off at timesLOL ( too much food and alcohol).
All in all a huge sucess again and I for one would like to thank Mark and Kim for the effort. I know its been a stuggle for them with the new buisness and all but well done guys.

PS....sorry about the fire alarm at 8.00am. That was from our room. God know why it went off but a rather rude Mr Britas type figure accused us of smoking in the room. Needles to say neither of us smoke and I was fast asleep. As you can imagine I was less than impressed with him. .......but I think he got the message.

See you next year. 10 years and the big one for us.

ah the technical issues must've been a nightmare...but it all got sorted, and we had a great time!
the fire alarm was interesting...but we'd already gotten up, as we had to rush to miss our train LOL! 5 hours travel because of engineering works...we were joking (if joking is the right word, doesn't seem bitter enough) that Marc Meyer and Eddie Hijmensen would get home before us! but wasn't enough to ruin the weekend, it was a lovely time! i always just wish it was a bit longer.
the only regret is we were too tired to stay up with everyone!!! next year we'll be there!
and yeah i must emphasise i enjoyed all the lectures, i just listed my top faves above!!