Fictional Twinning

Claire‘s birthday trip to Manchester was a success last weekend; saw some good comedy, drank ’til late at a gay bar which has to be the only pub I’ve ever seen to have a balcony overlooking the middle of a multi-storey car park, and spent most of Sunday recovering. It’s not like being 21: staying up 7am to 3am and getting into the pub by mid-afternoon hurts the following day. Maybe I’m getting old.

We stayed at my mum’s house, as she’d vacated it to go to Somerset. She was apparently staying in a town called Wincanton, which has an unusual characteristic. It’s one of only two towns I’ve seen to be twinned with a fictional place (it’s twinned with Ankh-Morpork). The other is, of course, Westerburg, which is twinned with Daventry.

This week we’ve kept ourselves busy with ongoing QParty organisation. We posted out the first half-or-thereabouts of the invitations this morning, to the people we know the addresses for. Would you believe that in the entirety of Aberystwyth it’s impossible to buy C5-size envelopes with a window?

Back to League Of Gentlemen Night II.

11 comments

  1. Strokeyadam Strokeyadam says:

    If Daventry has an entry on Wikkipedia it must be a real place!

  2. Dan Q Dan Q says:

    Ankh-Morprok has an entry on Wikipedia. So does Baldur’s Gate, the Emerald City, Laputa, Mega-City One and Mega-City Two, and Zion (from The Matrix). An entry on Wikipedia for a fictional place does not make it any more real.

  3. Sarah Sarah says:

    Work won’t give me Saturday off even though they said I could have it off this week. I’ll do what I did last week if thats okay with you guys and come after work if I finish pre-12. Or if your still going at 12 let me know and I’ll wander down.

    See you later.

  4. KD KD says:

    Westerburg exists you muppet!!!!!!!!

  5. MisterJTA MisterJTA says:

    I don’t believe that not even Paperway sells them. Or, rather, I do, because if I were looking for slightly non-standard (ie, not A-seized) stationary, that’s the first place I’d go, and I assume you did the same.

    But I find it very hard to believe that… Had they just run out, or can you actually never buy them?

  6. Dan Q Dan Q says:

    Paperway normally sells regular C5s, but not windowed ones, but they were sold out anyway.

    Most envelopes don’t come in “A” sizes (not even the ones that claim to!) because that’d be silly. You can’t fit an A4 sheet of paper into an A4-sized envelope, on account of it being the same size! Instead, enevlopes for holding whole unfolded A4 sheets are called C4 envelopes, and they’re just a little bit bigger. A C5 envelope is just a little bigger than an A5 sheet of paper, and is the same size as most bills come in. DL envelopes (size D, Letter) are the “fold-an-A4-sheet-three-times” size envelopes you see a lot of.

    So as you see, a C5 envelope isn’t really that exotic a request (I got some from Woolworths in the end), but apparently C5 envelopes with windows are, somwhow.

  7. Dave Thorp Dave Thorp says:

    If it is any consolation, the envelope’s you used were adequate

  8. Dan Q Dan Q says:

    KD: Yes, it does. Read the actual words next time – it’s Daventry (Westerburg’s twin) that’s fictional.

  9. Andy Andy says:

    Erm…
    http://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=Daventry, NN11, UK&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title

    See you at the weekend. Lotsa ale and dancing no doubt (But I’ll try not to break anything this year)

    Cheers, Andy

  10. Dan Q Dan Q says:

    Argh! You’re PART of the conspiracy!

  11. Mum Mum says:

    Dan is correct. Daventry doesn’t really exist. Even the people who were born there, and particularly those who commute to it to work, will happily confirm this.

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