Thanks

Hello Sid,

Sorry to hear that you have been left so disheartened following the Wee-Kend. Just to say thanks again to you, and everyone that took me under their wing, cooked and helped me fix my shed It's really never handled so well since I've had it. The 'Youngest Tosser' trophy has also taken pride of place on my otherwise rather bare trophy shelf!

It was a great pleasure to have met you all and I do hope to see some of you again at some of the other events I'd also rather hoped that I might perhaps be of more use to others next year, especially following the effort that was put in to help me, it would be great to have the chance to help with others machines.

All the best and thanks again for a great weekend,

Benjamin M


P.s, Cheque's in the post Sid, sorry to have kept you waiting.

shready said:

Was Trippy there?

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No he bloody wasn't.

Whatton said:

Why on earth do you want to leave it all and move to Wales, of all places?

If it's just to get away from Proff then it seems a bit extreme.

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Have you seen the type of places he's looking at in Wales?

.... and no, not really

Sid

As you know i was very sorry to let you down at short notice but as my pm said there was a valid reason i could not be there with Stan, i hope of all people you may have understood my reason. Right up until Friday morning i was hoping to make it but it would have been the wrong thing to do in the circumstances.

I totally understand your frustration having organised many biking do's over the years, and know how much you and all the team put into it and it is thoroughly appreciated by everyone.

As i said in my pm i am happy to put some money in towards the costs of running the weekend and some extra for your chosen charity.

Please reconsider your decision not to run the weekend anymore as it will be sorely missed.

Thanks to all concerned, but, of course, especially to Sid and Ann for an excellent weekend, we all enjoyed it.

I can only echo what everyone else has already said Sid.

It was my first GSer event and hopefully not my last. You and Ann were great hosts and while Syco was, I suspect, a little tongue in cheek above, I can say as someone who had never met you before, that you were a genial host all weekend. Yes you were to-ing and fro-ing fretting about things, but only the same way any of us would have in the circumstances.

I'd be more than happy to fire in some extra for the kitty too, just PM me and I'll sort it - with what I have left after proff nailed me for two extra shirts and a mug!!

It's sad that you won't be hosting a future Wee-Kend but that's your call and I respect that whatever you decide.

Hi Sid,
what can I say - an event to look forward to through the long winter, and having been to the last 2 events, it's an Institution now, and surely can't be stopped now !!
I can fully appreciate all the work that goes into this, and all the pre planning, food planning etc, and can understand your feelings.

I for one would be happy to come down to work on your bike with you, but I'm not that much of a mechanic compared to Steptoe and Rob; however, would that offer help you to maybe reconsider ? Maybe a small team of helpers to get Pink Lady sorted - could be fun. Happy to volunteer, and happy to do any jobs, given the required supervision.

I did wonder what the situation was on your bike (Pink Lady), but thought you had maybe decided not to progress with the work ?

So, whatever happens in the future, it was a great weekend, - and much appreciated. It was great just to be able to ask questions, and to see how some things were done. Maybe any future Wee Kend might need to be a bit more structured, sadly, eg - book up a slot on the ramp, have a sheet with a "Running Order" of who needs what doing, and estimated time etc.
I think one of the problems was that getting some of the parts from James was "uncertain"- particularly for the bike I was helping with - the big end bolts and tool for the bolts was a real hold up. He was out of contact for most of Saturday apparently.

Another solution/suggestion might be to have one person with a list of who needs which parts, and that James could be "on standby" on the Saturday . People could sign up on arrival and sign on for any last minute spares.

The idea of an up-front deposit, of say £25 would surely be absolutely fine , and would help offset any last minute dropouts, or ticket of any last minute drop outs could be passed on to a "shortlist" of people wanting to attend.

I was wondering how much was raised for the charity, as the idea of a charity local to you seemed an excellent idea.

Here's hoping you WILL hold a gathering in 2012 -
It was a great weekend, great company, amazing food, and a very special "event". Weather was crap, but suppose that was indeed beyond your control - at least I know the tent is waterproof now.

Thanks Sid, and my offer holds.....

I have read yer original post again Sid and I think in a few more weeks you may look back on some of the great parts of this event and there were many

As you have already noted, and others have commented on
A little help and organisation maybe before the event would have been a help to you - we all failed you - just a bit
Maybe if folk had not stripped their bikes before the parts came would have moved things on a bit better - but James didnt turn up with some bits untill 2100 sat night - some of the bits were a miss order from the previous day I think a proper analasis of what to do on the pink lady and spares required should be got- then we all could do a bit
Tools again were a issue - Everyone thought someone else was taking them to the event. We were at fault in all the above bollocks dropped not you sir

There was some great times and memories to be got from this event
We have all met up and I can still remember most of everyones names
I nearly wet myself laughing a few times the craic at times was amazing

Hope you can see your way to changing your mind as to whether another event is possible

Not one person would ever say that this weekend was not a fabulous event and not one would not to be there at the next for sure
regards love and kisses

Mick

Sid.

If you do put the WeeKend on next year, wherever you may be living, I am prepared to take the week off beforehand to help with final preparations. I hope you do because they are all a great bunch of lads and ladies.


S.R.

OK, just to clarify a few things.

I do not want a single extra penny from anyone of you who attended the event.

As I originally stated, I fully accept that some people had very genuine reasons for cancelling and most people contacted me to let me know. I have no problem with these genuine cancellations. I also acknowledged that I had already received offers from some of these people to cover their share of the costs.
I did not mean to criticise any of the people who have replied to this thread. You are the good guys. Its the ones who put their names down and simply failed to show up or contact me in any way that really pissed me off. Perhaps I was wrong to include these in the same category as the late cancellations so I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear.

Ann's bike. A lack of planning and clarity on my part. I should have checked it over before hand and made a list of bits required. Also I should have prepared a job list of things that needed doing. I was a bit busy doing other things to get this organised and had just assumed it would happen. I know there were many very helpful people there who would have helped had we all been better organised. I've started work on it myself and I think I will be able to eventually get it completed but thanks for the various offers of help.

Job organisation. Steptoe is completely right. Previous years there has been less demand on ramp time so our previous shambolic approach was OK. With more lengthy and complex jobs, everyone needs to think ahead a lot more.

James Sherlock. It is not fair to blame James in any way in my opinion. The arrangement was to contact him long before the weekend and order your parts for me to collect in advance. He only agreed to open up on the Saturday as a special favour for last minute items. It was not meant to be, get to my place, strip down bike and then work out what bits were needed. I collected all the ordered bits and bought them back on Friday afternoon. Each order was individually bagged up with the individual invoice and placed in a large box. It probably didn't help that a certain individual (no names) attacked the various bags before they could be distributed to their respective owners. This may have contributed to the slight mix up of some parts.

Tools. I wasn't aware that there was any issue with tools apart from the spring compresser and other thingy that we borrowed from my neighbour?

Thank you for all the very kind comments that have been posted on here and in pm's.

I've still not finalised the figures and we still have various adjustments to be made. Some of the late cancellations have already offered to contribute and I will contact them shortly.

I have removed you final paragraphs Sid
BHT

Sid
If you do run it next year i would be happy to come down a couple of days before to help sort out/ set up.

Oh, and I would like to thank the kind people who found my glasses lens after it had dropped out on several occaisons. Mind you, after about ten o'clock on Saturday evening I didn't even notice

Dude

Sumprat said:

Oh, and I would like to thank the kind people who found my glasses lens after it had dropped out on several occaisons. Mind you, after about ten o'clock on Saturday evening I didn't even notice

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On Saturday night we could have cut yer fingers off and you wouldn't have noticed

If you do move to Wales, Sid..............it'll be a bit more central and IF you want to carry it on, i'm sure you will have overwhelming support for any future event that you care to put on, for the good of UKGSERS

sycomoto said:

On Saturday night we could have cut yer fingers off and you wouldn't have noticed

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He would have wondered why his glass kept falling out of his hand though But what a star, it was over two hours work for Sumprat to and his co-stars just to prepare breakfast for everyone. As a pro-brekkie man I'm eternally greatful

It's a sad thought that maybe some folk looked at the weather and just couldn't be arsed to attend. Or just changed their minds without consideration for the work that had been put in to organising the weekend and the fact that food had been purchased for 50 bodies. Mostly effoff big bodies wanting loads of grub. You should have seen the amount required, it beggars belief. I admit that it was an awful hardship dashing betweeen buildings lulls in the rain.

It was also good quality grub, fantastic full english breakfast and I think that I counted five different curries on the Friday night, including two veggie options (how thoughtful is that?), plus enough rice to feed to feed a small African town for a week. I'd been organically analyzing the beer for some time so may need correcting. So the price list was I think £6 for breakfast, £5 for curry/BBQ. The folk that attended from Friday afternoon enjoyed Friday curry, Saturdfay breakfast, lunch, evening BBQ and Sunday breakfast. Plus endless amount of free tea and coffee.

Is it only me that thinks the no shows would be doing the honourable thing by holding up their hands and contributing around £30.00. They could of course double it to assuage their nagging feelings of guilt. Of course human nature being what it is.......................................

Sid, you have to do what is right for you and your family. I would like to put it on record that I thoroughly enjoyed my first and hopefully not my last Airhead WeeKend. The camaraderie (sp?) was excellent. I too would be happy to travel early and help with the organisation and Wales sounds good as it's about a 100 miles closer for me My 18,500 mile March '10 purchased R60/2 is now a 21,000+ mile bike.

Re the ever so slightly pink bike I saw Rob working on the wiring and when hat work stopped with wires still hanging off I assumed that a problem had been encountered. Never assume anything. Apologies for not asking if there was anything that could be done to it. I'm quite good with a hammer you know

Sid, was at FIRST one I think.

As said before you- knee-ca event, loved it, guys rebuilding my bike for free.

As for honesty boxes, do`nt change things, there as folks do pay more

Just get money up front £30 should cover, then they can do as wish.

I was on the reserve list, and was desperatly trying to get there.

Outfit sorted, camping gear etc and scones.

Mrs B is in Ireland, I was left wife a daughter just returned from a beach fest for 3 days , one with a broken leg and now a son with hand badly cut, A&E EXETER etc

So rat shite and almost left all and came down Saturday late to turn around and return Sunday morning, first thing, as so wanted to turnup

I`m in the hands of the weather with THE HOGRAOST as BANDS £2,750 before all the rest, TENT etc.

But folks have a great time as they do and did with you.

KEEP UP THE good work

£30 up front no refund and CUT OFF at 60 taking in the reserves and you will get 50 turn up and cash to cover your hardwork.

Charity tin keep seperate from your personal costs, most important as you have no bussiness to cover your back.

BAKERMAN said:

KEEP UP THE good work

£30 up front no refund and CUT OFF at 60 taking in the reserves and you will get 50 turn up and cash to cover your hard work.

Charity tin keep separate from your personal costs, most important as you have no business to cover your back.

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+1 except Sid isn't looking to cover his hard work, just the money that he spent so that as much as possible goes to the supported charity.

Sid I'd be more than happy to contribute towards any running of the event (including a retro payment for this one!)

I would say that Anyone going to the event Would be MORE than Willing to Contribute....... to be able to Share in the wealth of Knowledge and the Camaraderie of the airheads(owners and Bikes) that would be there and to the overpowering scent of cider infused wee and curry scented farts that would permeate the lower areas of the workshop!

Like I was one that wished more than anything that I could go but I ended up Marshalling a charity run on Saturday Which raised about £800 (or more) for MacMillian Cancer

So Sid If you have a Charity I think that you should take a sum to cover wastage and and COSTS because these don't run for nothing even Electric is expensive these days

Surely £15 a head would be in the bounds of folks budget?

If I wax Lyrical Then I Blame Sam Manicom I've just finished My Signed copy of "Into Africa"

IF by Any chance you Hold one next year then I'll ask Sam to Bring Libby Down

Jaythro said:

Sid I'd be more than happy to contribute towards any running of the event (including a retro payment for this one!)

I would say that Anyone going to the event Would be MORE than Willing to Contribute....... to be able to Share in the wealth of Knowledge and the Camaraderie of the airheads(owners and Bikes) that would be there and to the overpowering scent of cider infused wee and curry scented farts that would permeate the lower areas of the workshop!

Like I was one that wished more than anything that I could go but I ended up Marshalling a charity run on Saturday Which raised about £800 (or more) for MacMillian Cancer

So Sid If you have a Charity I think that you should take a sum to cover wastage and and COSTS because these don't run for nothing even Electric is expensive these days

Surely £15 a head would be in the bounds of folks budget?

If I wax Lyrical Then I Blame Sam Manicom I've just finished My Signed copy of "Into Africa"

IF by Any chance you Hold one next year then I'll ask Sam to Bring Libby Down

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Added on drivel

This post must be setting some sort of record for people typing whilst on their knees..