UK LUG Tour, Day 4: Powys LUG

POWIS, Wales, Thursday, April 20, 2006
After a bullet ride over winding backroads into Wales in Jono’s micro 4×4, we arrived in Powis. Powis is a gorgeous town, the kind of place that would appear in a dictionary next to “idyllic.”

After a short wander about asking people where things were, we supped on curry (at long last! Curse you and your hidden mile-long row of curry houses, Manchester!), and then toddled over to the Powis LUG venue.

For being in a small town, the Powis LUG was a great bunch of folks, with almost 20 people filling the small room. Once again, a couple women were attended, which marks a difference from what I have seen of LUG’s back in the States.

Also, I was well pleased to see SUSE Linux 10.0 on all the machines in the PC training center where the LUG meets.

My favorite comment from one of the attendees after we finished and milled about the lobby was “I almost didn’t come, but I’m glad I did. I was extremely entertained.”

Goal met: extreme entertainment delivered. (Ted makes checkmark on list.)

Midnight, Rhayader, Powis, Wales
For the want of petrol, Jono and I followed terse instructions from Jono’s TomTom GPS unit to three different Texaco stations, each one progressively more shut than the previous. We ended up calling the British Automobile Association–something like AAA but for some reason they don’t call it American–and after an hour wait, “Frank” supplied us enough petrol to get out of Wales.

Hint taken, we departed, making Wolverhampton at nearly 3:00 AM. (At least this will offset the jetlag when I reach the Desktop Summit in California.)Petrol. I think we Americans need to look further into this alternative fuel source that seems to have taken over all of Europe. Perhaps it will work as an alternative to our American addiction to gasoline.

Last Hurrah
Today we head to Oxford Brookes Computer Society, and then off to Gloucester (apparently two syllables) for our final two matches.

Even if these go badly, dear Jono, we’ll always have Powis.