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In a Nutshell, third event - table tennis at Parc Sir Wilfred Laurier.

I got there first as I had mentioned in the group that I would scope out the place and if it was super occupied we had a backup park to go to. So at 15h30 I found the two tables were occupied, one with four people that would rotate playing one on one, and the other three people that would rotate playing one on one. It seemed to me we'd be okay to wait for them so I didn't end up going to the backup park.

By 16h05 C arrived, he had electric-biked from the south shore. He has considerably modded his electric-bike so it looks a little sci-fi/mad max. Just a few minutes later J arrived, from Laval, mostly a French speaker but he could handle English pretty well. Then K arrived at about 16h20 and so now with four of us I approached the players at one of the tables and we agreed that they would continue to play for another 20 minutes and then we'd take their table. 

C claimed, at 23 years old, that he hadn't played in 10 years. There was little evidence he had played before based on his low skill level. J admitted he hadn't ever played, but had played Wii games of Tennis and was hoping that experience would help him. It didn't. K had played before and not long ago, so he could play reasonably well but was still a few grades below me. Then N showed up who was a good match for me; we both enjoyed playing quite a bit as we both found each other good competition.

We tried around the world for a fair bit, perhaps 10 or 12 minutes worth; it was fun to get everyone involved at the same time. Then A arrived and I played against him for perhaps 30 minutes as most of the others had had enough. He was lower skilled than K but better than C & J. Then to end it off N and I played for about a half hour ending at 19h.

Throughout this time we were all speaking with each other, learning about each other. I had only met A previously as he had come to the first Mount Royal walk. It is fun to meet new people; still too early to say if anything will develop into a longer lasting friendship.

When we ended N indicated he had to leave but the rest of us decided to go out to eat. At that time G arrived, who had been on the second Mount Royal walk. So the six of us went to Chez Claudette.

Where I had a Smoked Meat Poutine and a Coke:

It was quite good. After the meal, someone else from the group on Discord asked about going out for drinks; so the five of them (not me) went to a bar called Plan B where that other person would join them. I was fairly knackered at that time and also was ready to get away from the continuous social interaction that had been the previous four-ish hours.

During the meal I asked C & J to my left what they thought of the future of the group - would it continue or would it fizzle out. J indicated that so long as events keep getting planned, it ought to continue going. I supposed he was correct about that, though we do not always get the good turnout for events that are originally shown in the discord group. For example, 9 people were signed up for i/g and only 6 showed up.

Next event is the next Monday evening Mont-Royal walk; the forecast at the moment is calling for 14C and light rain during the time we'd walk. There is much heavier rain in the forecast for the few hours just before the walk, so hopefully that heavy rain is ended by the time we start.