#mashaaaaaa

2. Powalen is a nice dude and we played card games the whole way through. Beats silently staring at each other for one and a half hours. He actually invented a card game called ‘fisticuffs’ which started off well but we both agreed needed work.

LOOK OUT TAY ‘FISTICUFFS’ WILL BE COMING SOON TO STORES NEAR YOU (probably not )

3. The card games helped time fly and we were in Sydney in no time. Before we arrived however, Powalen hit me with this bombshell. You might want to be seated when you read this if you are unaware. You’re seated? OK.

PEOPLE ‘TALK AMONGST THEMSELVES’ ON OTHER PLACES OTHER THAN TAY. ON TWITTER FOR EXAMPLE. THERE ARE CONVERSATIONS GOING ON ELSEWHERE THAT ARE NOT SANCTIONED BY MARK/ELLY. I don’t know what to believe anymore.

4. Reeling internally from that revelation Powalen and I arrived in Town hall and got our bearings around Sydney before finding the monorail stations. At first we went to the wrong station but luckily the meeting point was at the next station – a 2 min walk from where we were. We finally met up with the group of early TAYbies (what is the collective noun for TAY? A flock? A herd? ) and introduced ourselves. The early birds, from what I remember, were Bish, #35, Effluvium boy(flu), Ruffleberg and Nova. Everybody was polite and enthusiastically said MASHAAA when greeting me which was kind of cool.

5. At this point the whole group continued with their conversation and as I stood there I thought to myself “TAY people actually look OK and they are certainly well dressed.” Alex (Alexpants) was the next one to arrive. He had some train trouble with some track work and silly kids on their bikes. We then stood there and waited for Pez, Hugo and Doc What as bish and flu argued about who was more dapper. The dapper theme or rather the argument about dapper-ness seemed to permeate most of the conversation as we waited. In fact arguments about dapper-ness always seemed to come up from what I could hear throughout the day. Sorry guys I have no dapper clothing. Maybe I’ll buy some. Also doing a Google image search for ‘dapper black guy’ brings up pictures of Zac Efron for some reason.

6. Bish left the group to pick up harli. MorkaiAu arrived soon after. Bish had left behind his hat which was soon manhandled by Doc What once he arrived with Pez and Hugo. Actually in my head PEZ looked like a mini mob boss because he was flanked by Hugo and Doc What who are taller than him. Turns out he isn’t. Bish’s hat continued to be manhandled as we stood there. Nova made a joke about how TAY meat ups are usually just people looking through their phones and like clockwork most of us took out our phones. Pez and Doc What hassled bish and Shiggy respectively over twitter. Shiggy arrived soon after and Pez didn’t like his tie.

PSST TAY, I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS BUT I THINK SHIGGY IS A ZELDA FAN. HOW DO I KNOW? MAYBE IT WAS THE ZELDA BAG AND BELT BUCKLE!! SERIOUSLY THE BELT BUCKLE WAS PRETTY COOL.

7. The ticket lady at this point was staring at us for being there too long. I admit we did look shifty. She must have telepathically done something to us because we bought tickets soon after. Bish arrived with Harli who also greeted me with a MASHAAAAA. Harli had dapper-ed up with some suspenders and Flu tried to argue that he had suspenders as well but it doesn’t count if you hide your suspenders with a Vest, flu. Sorry. He did reveal his suspenders later in the day so we’ll forgive him this time.

THIS IS WHEN I BEGAN TO FEEL BAD ABOUT MY QUIET NATURE. THE THING IS WHEN SOMEONE SHOUTS YOUR NAME I THINK IT’S CUSTOMARY TO SHOUT THERE’S BACK. I DIDN’T. SORRY ALL.

8. Harli bought her ticket as well and we all walked to the platform. This was it. The reason we had all come here, to ride the Monorail. 9. The Monorail seemed busy for some reason. I thought it was shutting down? So we split into two groups since we would never have got on otherwise. I was in the carriage with Bish, #35, Rize, Powalen and Ruffleberg. Once we were inside we were all like Woooo \o/ \o/ but then two minutes in our carriage realised it’s just another train so we were all meh. 5-10 min later we were off the train. Ruffleberg later told us that it might be 3 years before they even tear it down. What?

THAT’S TAY FOR YOU. EITHER WE’RE TOO EARLY OR TOO LATE. SO WHAT NEXT FOR A MEAT? I HEAR THE PS4/NEXT XBOX IS COMING OUT IN TWO YEARS LET’S HAVE A MEAT NEXT MONTH. :-)

10.Even though the Monorail ride might have been ‘meh’ while we were there Powalen and Bish exchanged street pass puzzle pieces. #35 showed me his cool pocket watch that has no battery. I guess he uses magic to guess the time and then physically change the setting on the watch. I don’t want to scare anyone but #35 might be a wizard. That or he is so dapper he doesn’t need batteries to tell time.

ALSO #35’s WATCH IS KIND OF BARE. IT NEEDS A PICTURE OF SOME SORT TO COVER THE INNER FACE OF HIS POCKETWATCH. I SUGGESTED HE GET A MISTRESS AND PUT HER PICTURE ON THERE BUT I THINK A PICTURE OF MARK WOULD WORK JUST AS WELL.

11. The other TAY group stayed on the monorail for 3 more loops around the track. What? That’s dedication folks. Morkai Au tried to take a picture of us from inside the train but it was too dark :-( While those guys were on the train we walked to Kinokuniya, then Bish disappeared again. He seems to do that a lot. Turns out he was doing some cupcake hunting for Freyr. The cupcake had a flag on it and everything. He even took photos of it. I was thinking to myself that Bish was a good guy for going to all that trouble for Freyr but I must have thought too soon because he ate the cupcake.

12. The other group caught up with us and we proceeded to block the walkways two different times once outside ICHIBAN, which had a long waiting time, and again outside Wagamama where we eventually had our lunch. It was my first time using chopsticks *shock* I fumbled with them for a while before deciding to use a fork instead. Also despite my perpetual silence, the group of guys in the corner (Pez, Alex, Harli, Hugo etc.) of the table still let out a hearty MASHAAAA which was always nice. Bish almost burnt himself with some hot tea. We all paid for our meal and apparently Bish is the one who does all the counting but we don’t trust him with money. This must be one of TAY’s mysteries

FORKS STILL BEAT CHOPSTICKS BY THE WAY. YOU CAN’T STAB SOMEONE WITH A CHOPSTICK.

13. After lunch we decide that the guys with bags should go to the hotel so we get back on the monorail and split up again. Woooo. This time I was in a carriage with Flu and Alex who seemed to be having a staring contest with Shiggy and I think Doc What. Bish now had a cane for some reason and he was limping very convincingly. We split into two groups as one group went to Galaxy World early and the rest of us went to the hotel. I was in the latter group which proved to be the wrong group as Shiggy lead us on a gruelling search for this mysterious hotel. Doc What told me about Shiggy’s Zelda back tattoos. Don’t ask me how Doc What knows that.

14. Some TAFE students were taking pictures of the road. It looked odd since some of them were taking pictures of themselves taking pictures. YUP. Shiggy continued to lead us on and we soon arrived at the hotel which didn’t have the best entry way. It looked okay on the inside though and the room wasn’t too bad. I was tired at this point so I just sat there slumped on the couch watching people. Shiggy hid Doc What’s 3DS under the TV which was kind of funny as Doc What tried to lift the TV looking for it. It was in a drawer under the TV. Pez curiously asked if the hotel TV had any adult entertainment and Rize was scared of his bed which may or may not have killed him. I wasn’t there so I’m not sure; I think Rize is still alive.

SO PEZ? DID THE HOTEL TV HAVE A SCRAMBLED ADULT CHANNEL?

15. After everybody had a breather we all agreed that we were not walking back to galaxy world, so we took two cabs. I was in a cab with Ruffleberg, Doc What and Shiggy. We talked about cel shaded games, PS2 RPGs and the Wiiu. Our cab was in the lead for most of the journey but the other guys arrived there before us. Weird. I think Rize must have scared the cab driver with his scary soccer stories.

16. At Galaxy world we met up with Ben. Yes, that Ben, Ben White. Looking back we should have asked him to take us for a visit to the Allure offices. Oh well, maybe next time. Galaxy world was really fun. Powalen and I raced against each other. I was crap and finished last even though Harli tried her best to cheer me on. We then went on the bumper cars which was so much fun but be warned they can be really hard on your knees if you’re tall. Afterwards Hugo and I played some Tekken 6 against each other. He won twice but I managed to win a match.

17. After most of us were ready to leave, Ben and Rize were not going to give up so easily and we all went back to watch them play. They were actually pretty good. Once we were all done at Galaxy world it was time to decide where to go. Pez tried to get some ideas for a restaurant to eat at but Bish complained that he was too short to be heard. Ha. So Pez stood on top of a bench and some TAYbies actually went on their knees to listen to him which was pretty funny. There was actually an old woman there who was watching us. She must have thought we were all crazy. There was also a married couple in the shopping centre for some reason.

AT THIS POINT ALEXPANTS HAD TO LEAVE. HE CLAIMS HE WAS GOING TO A DINNER PARTY BUT I THINK HE IS CHEATING ON TAY WITH ANOTHER FORUM. SO WHAT IS IT ALEX? IS IT GAMESPOT, IGN?

18. After saying goodbye to Alex we walked up the street and decided on dinner at Yard House. Doc what actually called Harry’s café de wheels, which was outside Yard House, café de whee which I thought was pretty funny. We sat down for dinner and some beers. While we sat there FLU told us about all the endangered meat he’s eaten and he explained the origins of his name. Bish doesn’t know how he came up with his username. Rize’s beer mysteriously disappeared and he came up with a new scale of richness a. Millionaire b. Billionaire c. Packing tape.

19. Batgirl joined us for dinner and Powalen left thereafter. Bish tried to take a picture of Shiggy and me on the 3DS camera but I don’t think it turned out very well. (I hope you still have the pic Bish, crappy or not I wouldn’t mind having it.) Shiggy explained the origins of his phone dongle. You see, Shiggy has a weird yellow dongle on his phone which he claims does nothing but it’s obviously there to mesmerise you. Disappointed by the picture we made fun of MorkaiAu’s camera which was admittedly awesome but, you know, it doesn’t do 3D. 3DS wins this time!! The group across from where I was sitting let out another MASHAAAA, which was still nice to hear. 20. The fun day we were having so far was unfortunately ruined by the jerk who stole Harli’s bag, which put a damper on the mood for a while. Harli seemed distressed but OK. We all paid for our meal and proceeded to have drinks next door. Pez bought a round of drinks for all of us which was very kind of him. Nova, Ruffleberg and Freyr talked about parents and computers as Pez let out another MASHAAA. At this point I’m beating myself up for not replying to any of the MASHAAAA shouting. (I’m sorry everybody)

21. I met batguy for 2 seconds (Adam I think) Hi. Apparently he’s a very smart dude according to Ruffleberg. He looked the part.

22. We changed seats and went to a corner of the bar. From there we watched Pez take too many photos of BISH and FLU. Rize told scary soccer stories. Also Rize and #35 can do weird things with their fingers, be warned.

23. Unfortunately I had to leave at that point and as I left I experienced one of the best things ever. Imagine a group of 10-15 people in a corner at the bar all shouting your name as you leave. It was beautiful as everyone shouted MASHAAAAAAAA for almost a minute. The other patrons on the bar looked dumbfounded but I was very thankful and over joyed.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR BEING ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT SHOUTING MASHAAA. EVEN THOUGH I DIDN’T RETURN THE ENTHUSIASM I’M STILL THANKFUL INSIDE. THE GOODBYE AT THE END WAS REALLY HEART MELTING.

THE END.

If you read all this I hope you enjoyed it. I apologise for any grammatical/spelling errors.

Finally, we didn’t have a Community Kudos last week and Mark implied this week’s would be huge. In that case I think we should all nom Harli for being awesome. Her weekend was dampened by the guy who stole her bag and I think winning Community Kudos would be good for her as she deals with cancelling and replaces any lost cards.

P.S. I’ve copied this bit from AlexPants meat write up. So here are my Mono-Meat awards:

MOST COMMITMENT: Pez for staying in his suit the whole time and not changing shirts.

CHEAPEST DAPPER: Bish. Plastic monocle and plastic cane made even worse because it was repaired using packing paper.

FANCIEST DAPPER: #35 with his sweet pocket watch.

GAMING DAPPER: Shiggy with his Zelda belt buckle.

DARING NAME CHANGE: Rize decided to change his name to the jelly guy or Rize: The jelly guy

BEST SUSPENDERS: Harli. I’m sorry Flu you hid yours for too long.

MOST SILENT TAYBIE: Me. Yes! I win something.

P.P.S

Question: Will I attend the next Sydney meat?