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BBQ at Sam's

To continue from where James left off...

The atmosphere in the room turned noticeably grouchy as people started to get hungry so the curry was cooked and eagerly consumed.

The scaping ground to a halt when George discovered the Snes (old school baby!) but I showed them who's boss on street fighter but wasn't up to much on Mario cart. Having forgotten the HC the tank remained as Jim described and is unplanted in my spare room at the moment. Plans include growing UG emersed to see how it would work.

The rest of the night was really just more of the same, beer and chat, until George, Graeme, Dan and Jeremy left at 9pm. Me, Biz, John and Dave stayed up continuing to chat and drink until 1am, when I think we all decided it was time to turn in for the night.

That's really about it. I personally had a fantastic time, got 10 tiger shrimp for £16 in MA (they very kindly gave us a discount) and enjoyed the chat, always good to pick the brains of some of the UK's best aquascapers.

Thanks to all who made the effort to come and for the stuff I got. Will keep you posted re the nano and emersed UG spcape. Dave - I might have to make a trip up to that quarry of yours, for a boot load of rocks 😉

Glad people had a good time, looking forward to the next one 🙂

Sam

PS - Biz has worn here UKAPS t-shirt all day today!
 
Well as everyone has described the day was great fun.
a huge thanks to sam and biz, I'm glad she likes her shirt!
I am still suffering, once again George and graeme and myself made it our business to drink as much alcahol and have as little sleep as is humanly possible, Its like a fast growing ukaps tradition.
I am looking forward to the next one!
 
Yeah big up to the Ukaps MASSIVE lol
We mashed it up this weekend, very Leary indeed, the drive home from Sam's was poticulaly interesting when Dan decided to put Trance classics on full blast while bombing it down the M40, i was driving Dans flash Lexus while Dan, George and Jeremy was giving it all large and such like, while i just wanted to have a nice cup of tea and sit the hell down ( in joke dudes lol ). No we really messed that M40 up, it was a good laugh.

Thanks to Sam and the wife Biz for their great hospitality and fine fodder. It was good to see you all again and to meet Dave Spencer for the first time.

I just want to say how nice it is to be able to sit around talking not only about aquaria but anything in general. Its not at all pompous or stuck. Its so nice to relax, learn new things and get mulled or ruined ( phrases of the weekend folks) with very down to earth people.Great thing this Ukaps!!!!!!

Cheers to all who came, to Sam and Biz, and a thank you from me to Dan and his Wife Beckii for putting me up for the weekend, cheers all !


Regards,
Graeme,.

PS ill put some of the pictures up when i get a min tomorrow night.
 
It was great to meet you all for the first time and rub shoulders with the greats of the UK aquatic plant scene. 🙄 It was an excellent day, and freebies are always welcome. Anyway, here are some piccies, untouched by Photoshop.

Substrate was a layer of Tropica, followed by Unipac black sand (I think):
Sams010paint.jpg

Graeme was trusted with the hardscaping, being the only sober one (driver):
Sams016paint.jpg

Add a touch of N. Wales` finest rocks:
Sams018paint.jpg

Options were limited for Graeme, as the rocks were a little samey, but this was the result. It was actually the final result, due to a combination of booze and the SNES but, most importantly, a complete and utter lack of plants. :lol:
Sams019paint.jpg

Here is the point when testosterone kicked in and Super Mario Kart put in an appearance. If I never have to look at George`s blue boxers again, it won`t be a day too soon! The lovely lady in the picture is Biz, Sam`s wife. Boy, is he punching above his weight. 😀
Sams026croppaint.jpg

This is jeremy Gay, Deputy Editor for PFK, the one we have to grovel to for a possible trip to the Amazon:
Sams024croppaint.jpg

Thanks to everyone, especially Sam and Biz, and I am looking foreward to the next meeting. I`ll hold one of these once I get my life sorted out post divorce.

Dave.
 
Was the tropica substrate mounded up in the middle as well?

I was nearly right with my prediction of binging on chinese takeaway and beer and then falling asleep 'till 1am!

Glad everyone had a good time. I'm looking forward to making the next one!
 
Was the tropica substrate mounded up in the middle as well?
Click to expand...

The tropica substrate was slightly higher in the middle but no where near has high as the black gravel.

a complete and utter lack of plants.
Click to expand...

Sorry folks that is completly my fault, unlucky for Sam I am the most unorganised person in the world. Four hours sleep the night before may have had something to do with it and maybe trying to think about three scapes in one weekend may have pushed my little brain over the edge. 😳

Nice pics Dave.
 
Hi Guys, firstly i would like to thank Sam & Biz for putting up with me for the night and i must say i enjoyed the evening very much ( my head was banggin from three bottles of red wine ) i enjoyed the talk about aquascaping and also the food was great but i must mention the insant bond i made with biz (sams wife),we talked at some length about other things in our lives and i can say this much she is a very fine and caring young lady and sam is a very lucky guy and she is a credit to her profession, My wife Ann is very keen to meet her soon, It was also nice to meet james flexton aka jimboo, jeremy gay, and dave spencer, once again Sam and Biz thanks for the weekend it was great, regards john. 😀

PS: when i arrived home and checked my setup i noticed that my golden rams had spawned on some of my wood, now concidering i asked for all males when i bought them this was a surprise indeed anyway we will see what bcomes of the eggs.
 
It was me, and you are out of your league, Sam. Apparently, short, fat and balding is the new look.

Dave.
 
hey all,

did anyone end up coming home with 2 pots of glosso and some crypts? george and i had a bag mix up at MA but thought we'd sorted it and i cant remember anyone else buying any plants. i only picked up one carrier bag and thought everything i had asked for was in it but there was no glosso or crypts.

George: i assume your bag did contain the plants you bought? i have no idea what i paid for i just handed over the card as you do whilst chatting. no biggie i just wondered if anyone got a surprise in their bag?

i have a ton of HC to plant now so i don't really need the glosso anyway but i did want to try some crypts as i have never grown them before. never mind.
 
Just my Anubias and Ludwigia in my bag, James.

Who else bought plants? I thought it was just us two?

Weird.
 
yeah i haven't left it anywhere so dont worry Sam. i had 3 bags, one of plants which i left in the car and the 2 cory bags which i brought in to float in your tank. the plant bag never left the car so i cannot have been given them in the first place. you know how it is. i said i'll have 1 of those, 2 of those, 4 of those etc... he said i'll bag them all up and meet you at the counter. i paid later on and just picked up the bag he gave me. i didn't check what was in it and i dont know what i paid for. i just heard the total and paid that. as i said it's no biggie i just wondered if they ended up in someone elses batch. i think i only paid £17ish and i did get an anubias, 2 bunches of red stems, 2 of the tiny ludwigia pots and some MU. i dont think they charged me for the missing items but TBH i have no idea.

i am really not looking forward to this HC planting session tonight... James3200 sent me a slab the size of a shoebox for £10 you can imagine my back pain on the way tomorrow morning i'm sure lol. he sent some hairgrass as well so i'll plump up the current section of hairgrass as well. anyway rambling now so will leave you all to it.

George: OK mate, no worries. i think it was just us who bought plants. thanks for the reply
 
yeah i am going to have some fun with it. i'll plant the main carpet as very small clumps an inch apart all over the open forground area. i really want it to carpet properly. if i have any spare i will put some in my nano and tie it to bogwood just under the surface and see if i can get it to grow emerged as the wood is 50/50 in the tank/out of it.
 
Hi Jimboo, have fun doing that amount of hc it took me ages when did mine, but the worse thing is when it keeps popping up to the surface its really frustrating good luck with it anyway i am sure it will be worth the effort, regards john
 
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