[F] MSN European Tour - Only NL Date, Saturday 18th
Karen
Jeroen 'Labrat' is firmly in charge of that one. This is more by way of
a 'thank you' note.
"Get thyself to Delft," they said, "get thyself on our side of the
channel" they kept saying.
In the end promises by various Beneluxers to drown the kids in a lake of
Chocomel for us, wave pancakes under my nose, and the chance to meet
Mary a week early convinced me that it was indeed *far* too long since I
last visited the land of yellow furry clog shaped slippers [I noted with
some joy that the shop also now supplies them in Friesian Cow pattern ]
and so off we headed to the land of windmills, clogs, tulips and cheese,
undersized mugs of coffee and of course Dutch afpers at meets. And
German afpers. And French and US afpers and Canadian afpers. I believe
there were also one or two Dutch afpers in the corners, even if only
half Dutch mostly 0:} "One of the plus points" I thought to myself, "
of lots of furriners at the meet is that mostly they need to crash and
so will still be around on the Sunday as well". And I was right, I
think the meet gathering eventually broke up after dinner on the Sunday
night, and then with considerable reluctance. 'Was this the longest
Benelux meet on record?' mused Leo.
Those of you who have read my announcement regarding the London MSN meet
coming up at the Green Man on Sunday next [not that I'm plugging it or
anything...] will note that I am being green myself and recycling the
next paragraph.
Last weekend I eventually made it, in a rather haphazard way, to the
warm up gig in Delft. En route I managed to get us lost three times in
three different countries within the space of two hours. This for some
reason induced considerable stress by cellphone and SMS to a poor ageing
Ent [how did the quote go now? 'gods woman you have given me RSI of the
SMS fingers' before we succumbed to ruinous rates charged on
International Roaming on mobiles, after repeated messages debating in a
civilised and adult manner [1] the precise whereabouts and direction of
the E17 and the E19 and the value of tunnels under Antwerp] but enabled
me to grab the chance to meet Mary for the first time IRL myself. As
well as being great fun this made me the only Green Man afper with
'previous' as far
as Mary was concerned. Or so I thought... Once again we will also have
visiting Beneluxers at the Green Man :}}
Having enriched my Euro culture credentials by forming an intimate
relationship with a variety of roads and villages between Lille and
Delft [direct routes are so boring doncha think?], and apparently
contributed to stress levels in Delft whilst so doing we finally made it
to our destination on the Friday evening. The sun shone and butterflies
sang, the road maps had been binned and all was well with the world.
Next afternoon, Leo and myself toddled off to Amsterdam airport to meet
Mary, Kimberley and Patrick detailed to be early at the pre meet at the
designated Cafe [more of which will doubtless appear in the official
meet report] all seemed to be progressing smoothly. Of course it didn't
work out quite like that but in between Heathrow failing to load half of
Mary's luggage and emergency shufflings of premeet locations and a
number of hasty phone calls eventually we all made it to the Athene for
dinner.
As well as Mary, I met Maaike for the first time, dropping in from
Canada via her summer course in one of the Frankfurts [I think...],
Boris and his incredible unicycle, and Cindy and Olaf and was able to
re meet a number of people whom I shall simply describe for now as The
Usual Culprits. Oh alright then there was a Patrick, a Jeroen, a Rolf,
an Uwe and a Kimberley [no not the biscuit]. If I have missed anyone
from this lot just yell.
Rumours that Eelco and Jos had gone heading for the hills at speed on
hearing I might actually turn up complete with the ankle biters were
greatly exaggerated. There are no hills in .nl, and they had already
planned to go anyway. Really they had. No honestly. And in fact Eelco
missed out on great vulturing opportunities with at least three of us
unable to finish off the huge pancakes on the Sunday evening. I'll leave
quotes and details to the meet report, and to others to fill in, since
my brain is decidedly fuzzy for detail but a good time was had by all
not least when Mary revealed her huge stash of Jelly Beans and some
beautifully decorated little tins of her own devising in which to store
them.
After dinner and thunderstorms we decamped to a local cafe before
finally drifting of homewards to catch a couple of hours sleep before
starting on phase 2 - the post meet Brunch at Leo's. This commenced
somewhere before midday when the first returners appeared. Sadly we had
lost a Boris, as he was off on the early train to Paris and ultimately
en route to the Toulouse summer afpmeet and sunny weather. Please being
some sunshine and dry weather back Boris! But we did gain a Reinier for
the Sunday, complete with his incredible modelling balloons [yes he can
even do deformed rabbit].
Maaike was generally agreed to be very Lara Croftian [as dubbed by Leo]
and general conversation and banter ensued. Later in the afternoon most
of the group went off for a walk around the block for some fresh air and
exercise for an hour or so. Kimberley and myself were very noble and
self sacrificing about this and generously volunteered to be the two
staying behind to keep the sofa warm and the kettled boiled, and the
comestibles safe, maintain the flow of conversation ready for the
returners to rejoin. Life is tough at times. *sigh*
Sadly Uwe, Rolf and Maaike had to return to .de at the end of the
afternoon, but those of us hardy souls remaining launched an attack on
not one but two pancake houses before finally returning to our various
beds for the night.
A good time was had by all, including the ankle biters who were spoiled
rotten by everyone and will probably have lost all their teeth before
their next dental check up after a weekend of pancakes, coke, games,
staying up late and unfettered access to the Entish comic collection.
And especially by me. It was well worth getting lost three times in
three countries, and bursting a few Entish blood vessels on the way.
Well from my point of view anyway :}
--
Karen/hypatia Ka...@lspace.org
** AFP will be 10 years old in 2002 **
Want to come to a world wide party?
http://www.lspace.org/fandom/afp/afparty/
melcha
> Don't kid yourselves this isn't anything approaching a meet report,
<savage snippetry ahead>
> As well as Mary, I met Maaike for the first time, dropping in from
> Canada via her summer course in one of the Frankfurts [I think...],
One of the Heidelbergs, acsherly. But it is near a Frankfurt.
> And in fact Eelco
> missed out on great vulturing opportunities with at least three of us
> unable to finish off the huge pancakes on the Sunday evening.
*whimper* Damn distances and early leave-takings!
> a good time was had by all
> not least when Mary revealed her huge stash of Jelly Beans
And not just any jelly beans; these were the almost-every-flavour
ones. I'd never had pear before.
> and some
> beautifully decorated little tins of her own devising in which to store
> them.
Mine is, unfortunately, long empty. But it is beautiful; I'll have to
show it to my brother when I get back. He makes dragons and things out
of the same material, and the holographic effect is quite impressive.
He'll be experimenting with dragon scales for weeks. :-)
> But we did gain a Reinier for
> the Sunday, complete with his incredible modelling balloons [yes he can
> even do deformed rabbit].
And swords... I'm telling you, I could have won that fight. No,
really. Honest! But my sword popped, and Anklebiter #1 is the default
victor.
> Sadly Uwe, Rolf and Maaike had to return to .de at the end of the
> afternoon, but those of us hardy souls remaining launched an attack on
> not one but two pancake houses
*double whimper*
> A good time was had by all,
Most definitely so. Even if I did miss the poffertjes...
-Maaike
--
Waah! I wanna live in easy travel distance to meets!
Leo Breebaart
> off we headed to the land of windmills, clogs, tulips and cheese,
> undersized mugs of coffee and of course Dutch afpers at meets. And
> German afpers. And French and US afpers and Canadian afpers.
It was certainly one of the most international afpmeets I've ever
witnessed, and we're fairly used to the Benelux-meets being quite
cosmopolitan.
> Rumours that Eelco and Jos had gone heading for the hills at speed on
> hearing I might actually turn up complete with the ankle biters were
> greatly exaggerated.
And they were greatly missed, too. When the storm hit on Saturday night,
we really could have used their unique brand of engineering to, say,
take five minutes to turn the Beestenmarkt square into a covered
mega-gazebo, using only some beermats, jellybeans and altoids tins as
components and leathermen as tools.
> There are no hills in .nl
Ah, but there are Dutch Mountains...
> we did gain a Reinier for the Sunday, complete with his incredible
> modelling balloons [yes he can even do deformed rabbit].
And then everybody went home and left these sculptures at my place. As I
type this, I sit surrounded by about a dozen deflating balloon animals
of varying sizes and colours, all staring marvin-like at me with
accusing little balloon eyes on their ever-shrinking balloon faces. I
should just pop them and throw them in the trash, but I can't bring
myself to do that -- yet this slow wasting away is kind of horrible,
too.
> A good time was had by all, including the ankle biters who were spoiled
> rotten by everyone and will probably have lost all their teeth before
> their next dental check up after a weekend of pancakes, coke, games,
> staying up late and unfettered access to the Entish comic collection.
My comics have rotted your children's teeth? I was aware that many
parents oppose the reading of comics, but I had never realised that
there were dental reasons for that.
> It was well worth getting lost three times in three countries, and
> bursting a few Entish blood vessels on the way.
My capillaries are healing nicely. No worries. Hoomph.
--
Leo Breebaart <l...@lspace.org>
Patrick Dersjant
Read it? y
>Karen <Ka...@lspace.org> writes:
>
>
>> off we headed to the land of windmills, clogs, tulips and cheese,
>> undersized mugs of coffee and of course Dutch afpers at meets. And
>> German afpers. And French and US afpers and Canadian afpers.
>
>It was certainly one of the most international afpmeets I've ever
>witnessed, and we're fairly used to the Benelux-meets being quite
>cosmopolitan.
As keeper of the Benelux meet reports, and after checking my data, I
will declare this the most international afpmeet. Definitely.
>> Rumours that Eelco and Jos had gone heading for the hills at speed on
>> hearing I might actually turn up complete with the ankle biters were
>> greatly exaggerated.
>
>And they were greatly missed, too. When the storm hit on Saturday night,
>we really could have used their unique brand of engineering to, say,
>take five minutes to turn the Beestenmarkt square into a covered
>mega-gazebo, using only some beermats, jellybeans and altoids tins as
>components and leathermen as tools.
Why do I suddenly have the A-Team (or should it be EJ-team) theme song
in my head?
>> There are no hills in .nl
>
>Ah, but there are Dutch Mountains...
All Technicalities Count.
>> we did gain a Reinier for the Sunday, complete with his incredible
>> modelling balloons [yes he can even do deformed rabbit].
>
>And then everybody went home and left these sculptures at my place. As I
>type this, I sit surrounded by about a dozen deflating balloon animals
>of varying sizes and colours, all staring marvin-like at me with
>accusing little balloon eyes on their ever-shrinking balloon faces. I
>should just pop them and throw them in the trash, but I can't bring
>myself to do that -- yet this slow wasting away is kind of horrible,
>too.
You now know how I felt after the first video meet, which left me with
loads of balloons hanging from my ceiling. Keep them, time their demise,
report on it. Write a thesis about Oxygen Deficiency in Deformed Rubber
Animals.
>> A good time was had by all, including the ankle biters who were spoiled
>> rotten by everyone and will probably have lost all their teeth before
>> their next dental check up after a weekend of pancakes, coke, games,
>> staying up late and unfettered access to the Entish comic collection.
>
>My comics have rotted your children's teeth? I was aware that many
>parents oppose the reading of comics, but I had never realised that
>there were dental reasons for that.
The more as it wasn't observed that they actually chewed on them. Leo
would have been mad if that had happened, anyways.
Patrick Dersjant
--
* "2002: A Discworld Odyssey" * The Discworld Convention *
* Hanover International, Hinckley * August 16th-19th, 2002 *
* Web: http://www.dwcon.org/ * Email: in...@dwcon.org *
* Snail-mail: DWCon 3, 23 Medora Road, Romford RM7 7EP, UK *
Richard Bos
> So what is the highest point in NL again? I found one place on the map
> with 126m, are there even higher ones?
Vaalserberg, at the point where NL, BE and DE meet. 321 m. Impressive,
what?
Richard
Patrick Dersjant
Read it? y
>On 23 Aug 2001 22:13:15 GMT, Patrick Dersjant wrote:
>
>>a - a scroll of news from Leo Breebaart
>
>>>> There are no hills in .nl
>>>
>>>Ah, but there are Dutch Mountains...
>>
>>All Technicalities Count.
>
>with 126m, are there even higher ones?
The highest point is the Vaalserberg with 321m, though we have to share
it with you germans and the belgians, as it's right at southeastern most
point of the country.
Patrick
ppint.
nos...@vanitydomain.org "Patrick Dersjant" reported:
> a - a scroll of news from Rolf Milde - Read it? y
>> Patrick Dersjant wrote:
>>> a - a scroll of news from Leo Breebaart
>><snip>
>>>>>There are no hills in .nl
>>>>
>>>>Ah, but there are Dutch Mountains...
>>>
>>>All Technicalities Count.
>>
>>So what is the highest point in NL again? I found one place on the map
>>with 126m, are there even higher ones?
>
>The highest point is the Vaalserberg with 321m, though we have to share
>it with you germans and the belgians, as it's right at southeastern most
>point of the country.
>
- love, ppint.
[the mailbox from which this was posted does not accept mail;
use the reply-to: e-address to email me, or to send ccs.]
--
[1] - "I like rhetorical questions;
I usually get them right."
- joann l.dominik, 6/95