“over the next few months we saw each other a lot”
In the Valentine’s Day video, after talking about how they met, Phil says that they saw each other a lot after that, which is notable because they lived 350 km (220 miles) apart (that’s a 3.5 hour train ride).
Between the time they first saw each other in real life (October 19, 2009) and the Valentine’s Day video (February 14, 2010), they saw each other on:
October 31 (and possibly November 1)
November 29 to December 4
December 10 to December 14
December 22 to December 24
Yup, that’s a lot :D Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, this post’s going be long.
October 19 to October 22
This was their first meeting and there’s another very long post about it, so I’ll just link you to it: "the first time we met".
October 31 (and possibly November 1)
This is for the YouTube Halloween Gathering in London.
They likely met in London on the 31st, because Phil was in Ireland working on Apartment Red [watch on YouTube] and came back on the 30th:
I’m not sure when Dan went home after the gathering, they may have spent part of November 1st together as well if they stayed the night in London. Phil tweeted about still being in London the next day, but he’s visiting family during the afternoon, so Dan had probably gone home already by then.
November 6 to November 9
Spent at Phil’s. We know Dan was there from the 6th to the 9th because he tweeted from the train on the way there and on the way back.
Dan on the train on his way to Phil’s, he realized he forgot something.
On the 7th, they went and met with Stephen (3sixty5days) to shot footage for ApartmentRed. They shot Stephen & Phil in Manchester [watch on YouTube]. Dan’s dailybooth from November 5 and his Twitter exchange with charliehasfangs (aka charlieskies) below seems to indicate that Charlie may also have been there as well (although he’s not in any photos, so I’m not entirely sure). Charlie was Stephen’s boyfriend at the time, and may be Phil’s ex.
"ready for Manchester now :D cant wait to see phil, and hang out with charlie, and say hi to stephen"
On the 7th, they also shot some, er, interesting pictures that they posted to Dailybooth over the following days.
Phil confirms all the pictures were taken on the same day. Also, not easy to spot, but that’s Dan standing behind Phil.
That’s also when they shot the ending of How To Befriend Your Favourite Internet Stars [watch on YouTube]
Dan on the train on his way back home on the 9th:
November 29 to December 4
This is "the week we spent together in my house" that Phil refers to at another point in the video, so if you want details about that week, head over to that post.
December 10 to December 14
Dan went to Phil’s house on the 10th and stayed there until the 13th, when they took a train to London together to attend the Festive Gathering. They spent the night at wtftomcoolio's place and on the 14th, they spent the day in London, then headed to their respective homes.
On the 10th (the Manchester Museum has a dinosaur collection, so that’s probably where they went):
At the sky bar, on December 10th in the evening. They had gone there on October 19, the first day they met. If the “they have nibbles again” comment aimed at 3sixty5days in the tweet below is any indication, they likely went when Stephen was in Manchester on November 7th (see above). They also went on November 29, when Dan spent the week in Manchester.
On the 12th, playing dress up. Dan is wearing the same outfit Phil wears in his I like fire and petrol video [watch on YouTube] [alternative link 1] [alternative link 2]
On the 13th, on their way going to the Festive Gathering (bus from Rossendale to Manchester, train from Manchester to London).
In his video "I WANT SNOW!" [watch on YouTube], Phil talks about the Festive Gathering, shows some photos and mentions the “placenta” incident Dan described in the tweet above.
Dailybooth photo from the Festive gathering:
wtftomcoolio offering a place to stay on the 13th after the gathering:
Still in London on December 14th, they went to the Natural History Museum (Dailybooth from Phil also confirms that they did indeed take Tom’s offer for a place to stay.)
Then in the evening on the 14th they headed to their respective homes. We know Dan didn’t go back to Manchester with Phil because on the 15th he tweets about finding a pen he’d lost, so we know he’s home.
December 22 to December 24
This is the "snowiest day ever" that Phil mentions at another point in the video, so go to that post to read about it.
December 30 to January 2
They went to a New Year’s party in London on the 31st and then went to Dan’s.
Meeting up with Phil on December 30 in early afternoon.
Phil leaving for London on December 31st at late afternoon.
Those tweets indicate that they were together on the 30st but didn’t meet in
London. It’s hard to say from Dan’s tweets whether they met in Reading or Manchester, but it seems to be Manchester because Dan says he’s on the train. Also, Phil tweets about being “in Danland" (ie, at Dan’s house) after the party, which would indicate he wasn’t there before.
If they were indeed in Manchester on the 30th, that means Dan spent 7+ hours on a train (Reading -> Manchester on the 30th, then Manchester -> London on the 31st) - just to spend an extra 24 hours with Phil, when he could have easily met Phil in London the next day and only spend 20 minutes on the train.
And then New Year’s party:
The video "things people don’t want on the internet (pt1)" from 0titch0 [watch on
YouTube] (lost / privated video!) includes some footage of Dan and Phil at the New Year’s party. (Also, don’t go looking for pt2, despite the title, there isn’t one and web archiving tools seem to indicate there never was.)
Some photos from that party (we can tell it’s the same party because the clothes
and Dan’s Malibu bottle match the video above):
And then at Dan’s house on January 1st. Dan lived much closer to London than Phil, so it would make sense that they’d go there after events in London, but they didn’t go there after the Halloween or Festive gatherings, both of which were in London as well. This is the first time they stay over at Dan’s house.
Phil goes back home on January 2:
Dan was doing work experience in London for most of January so he only managed to get to Manchester twice that month.
[Editorial sidenote: I don’t think Phil had a job at the time, so I find it interesting that it’s almost always Dan who travels to meet him, especially in January when he was doing work experience and it would have been much easier for Phil to travel. They seemed to prefer to spend time at Phil’s house for some reason.]
Tweet from Phil on Thursday, January 14:
On the Friday, Dan takes the train to Manchester (and gets stopped by the BBC for an interview).
They saw Avatar that evening:
On the Saturday they finished New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which they had been playing since December.
And on Sunday they lurked on Chatroulette:
There’s no tweet indicating when Dan would have gone home, but since he was working, I assume he went back on the Sunday night. Also, he traveled to Manchester again the following weekend and we have a tweet indicating he came back on the Sunday night - I assume he followed a similar schedule both weekends.
We know he met a London-based friend on the 19th, so he was definitely back by then. wtftomcoolio is the one who offered Dan and Phil a place to sleep after the Festive Gathering, so we know he lives in London.
We know Dan was at work on the 21st, and we know he was at Phil’s on the 23rd.
We don’t know exactly when he traveled but it’s likely he followed the same pattern as the previous weekend, meaning he took a train to Manchester on Friday mid-day, and came back on Sunday night.
Still at work on January 21st:
At Phil’s during the night between the Saturday and Sunday:
The tweet below seems to indicate he was back in London Sunday night. It probably means he stayed at wtftomcoolio’s in London to avoid catching a late train to Reading (Manchester -> Reading usually has a layover in London).
Interestingly, Phil tweeted this at noon on Sunday.
If your friend travels 7 hours (3.5 hours both ways) to see you, and can only spend 2 days with you, do you really want to spend half a day in bed? Unless he’s in there with you, that is :p
That trip marks the last time they would see each other before Dan left for India (link wip! you have to go to bed leaving me for 5 hours...) with his family on February 5 or 6. So the next time they would see each other was almost a month later.
When Dan came back to the UK after his trip to India, he actually went to Manchester first, rather than going back home, and spent February 20 to February 24 with Phil.(link wip! you have to go to bed leaving me for 5 hours...)
Phil made the Valentine’s Day video while Dan was in India so I’ll stop this post here. But if you’re curious, the traveling back and forth did slow down a bit when Dan came back from India, but that’s because the visits became much longer...
