[F] Toulouse meet, 25-26th August
Sylvain Chambon
Disclaimer: this is not a meet report[1], I don't know if a meet
report is forthcoming but in any case, this is just a set of
recollections.
There was an afpmeet in Toulouse, far down the South of France, last
week-end. The theme was roleplaying (GURPS Discworld in particular).
Attendees:
Rose Humphrey
Yannick Larvor
Boris Bret
Fabrice
Hervé and his 18-month-old daughter Lola
Ophélie
Emmanuel
Frédéric
and me (did I forget anyone?)
The quote file:
A few quotes were jotted down by Ophélie during the meet; however
she's still on holidays for a week without Net access, and in any case
the quotes will have to be translated by commitee before being
posted. Watch this space!
The story:
All began on Friday night, when Ophélie and I took her car for the
700km drive from Paris. As it happened, we arrived in Toulouse a bit
earlier than we thought, around half past 6 in the morning, which is
to say, too late to try and catch some sleep and too early to begin
phoning people. A largish (in my case) cup of coffee and a very long
walk along a canal later, we stumbled by chance on to Emmanuel and
Frédéric's street (they had volunteered to provide crash space to
Ophélie, but had assured her the place was too remote for her to find
it by herself). A bit later (well, the time to get back to the car,
then back to the street, but with the car) we woke them up with an
early morning phone call (about nine or tennish IIRC, so still
decent...)
Some refreshments, showers, and small talk later, we called up Rose
and proceeded to the meet itself. Everybody was waiting for us at
Rose's when we got there, so after a short while to arrange
distribution of the people into three of the five (or six? I forget)
vehicles we had at our disposal we headed to the lake of ??????[2],
where the meet was to be held.
Once there, the temperature had risen to a pretty high level (I'd say
over 35 Celsius, but I could very well be wrong), and the first pangs
of hunger were making themselves felt; the Toulouse clan therefore
began taking amazing mountains of food out of bags, installing a
portable, single-use barbecue, as well as a few drinks (including an
excellent white wine).
Lunch was over rather more quickly than expected, with only a fraction
of the food consumed... A special note to the "saucisse toulousaine",
which was excellent with peanut sauce.
While we ate, chatted and lay down in the meagre shadow offered by a
few trees, Rose and Boris huddled in a corner to discuss various
GM[3]-related issues; they soon started to call each of us in turn to
discuss the characted we would be playing.
The rest of the afternoon was basically spent eating, geeking RPGs,
sleeping, shifting to follow the shadows, and (very importantly)
creating the characters.
Around eightish, decision was made to proceed to Emmanuel and
Frédéric's flat, due to sunlight soon to falter too much to play.
Once there, we ate some of the (copious) remains of lunch, drank some
of the (not less copious) remains of the rum and wine from lunch,
geeked RPGs a bit more and finished creating the characters.
Unfortunately, when everything was ready to play, it was already two
in the morning, and since Ophélie and I hadn't had the chance to close
an eye the night before, we decided to adjourn to the following day,
in the morning. We therefore adjourned to our respective flats or
crash space.
Sunday at ten sharp, Yannick and I (I had been crashing at Yannick's)
met Fabrice at Emmanuel's door, and we had the incommensurable
pleasure of waking Ophélie with a shock (and a doorbell -- she was
sleeping with her head a few centimeters from the doorbell
loudspeaker). Once in, we found we (and now Ophélie) were the only
people awake, which didn't really surprise us.
Waiting for everybody was spent geeking RPGs, reading comics and
playing UNO (a card game that can be very fun and/or very frustrating
when playing with extended rules).
Around twelveish, everybody was in, and hungry, so we ate the final
remains of Saturday's lunch. After lunch (around two), it appeared
that we (well, I) wouldn't have the time for the RPG since I had to be
at the airport at three; we therefore started watching the Wyrd
Sisters DVD which I had brought along by chance[4]: the RPGmeet became
a Videomeet.
Shortly after the start of the film, Yannick drove me to the airport,
and I have no more information about what happened at the meet so this
is a good end for this not-a-report.
As a final word, I would like to thank the Toulouse afpcrew for
organising a wonderful meet, with special mention to Rose for the
gigantic heaps of food coming from her apparently bottomless bags,
Fabrice for the desserts, Emmanuel and Frédéric for kindly offering to
use their flat, and Yannick for the crash space.
Sylvain.
[1] as far as I can remember, nobody's volunteered to write one... but
I might have missed it...
[2] A bad memory for names, I have.
[3] Game Master. Not Genetic Modification. Hopefully at least :-)
[4] If anybody could confirm that Ophélie did take it before leaving,
I would be very happy, BTW.
--
Sylvain Chambon - gou...@lepcf.org
New and improved! http://gourou.lepcf.org
the_peanut_gallery
On 28-août-01, Sylvain gave us food for thought:
> Disclaimer: this is not a meet report[1],
Yes it is. You started it, so you take the blame for it.
> I don't know if a meet
> report is forthcoming but in any case, this is just a set of
> recollections.
'Sa good a basis as any.
> There was an afpmeet in Toulouse, far down the South of France, last
> week-end. The theme was roleplaying (GURPS Discworld in particular).
Liar. The theme was food, wine, and falling asleep. And military service
in the country's most boneheaded regiment. And GURPS.
> Attendees:
> Rose Humphrey
> Yannick Larvor
> Boris Bret
> Fabrice
> Hervé and his 18-month-old daughter Lola
> Ophélie
> Emmanuel
> Frédéric
> and me (did I forget anyone?)
The rabbit in the cage downstairs?
> The quote file:
Although Ophelie was ostensibly noting Quotes, there is one she /must/
have missed, since it happened at about 7 am (we hit the sack about
3am) on the Sunday morning. There were noises of impatience, and a
not-quite-16-month-old voice lisping "dodo papa 'miné" (Daddy wake up
now).
> The story:
> All began on Friday night,
Yes, while Sylvain and Ophelie were enjoying themselves, I was waiting
at Toulouse main railway station for a man that I didn't know, and had
no idea what he looked like, except that he was carrying a unicycle.
All this under the sardonic eye of a fellow member of my local karate
club, curse these small town things.
> Some refreshments, showers, and small talk later, we called up Rose
> and proceeded to the meet itself. Everybody was waiting for us at
> Rose's when we got there, so after a short while to arrange
> distribution of the people into three of the five (or six? I forget)
> vehicles we had at our disposal we headed to the lake of ??????[2],
> where the meet was to be held.
Flourens. No swimming (we were Visited by an obvious Colon, who picked
on us because of signs of Youth, Food, and probably Wine too)
> Once there, the temperature had risen to a pretty high level (I'd say
> over 35 Celsius, but I could very well be wrong),
Well, you may have underestimated a bit... Hottest day of the year, for
once.
> Lunch was over rather more quickly than expected, with only a fraction
> of the food consumed...
Well, some of us were otherwise occupied as GMs and no-one volunteered
to ply us with food. Bad mistake, bad mistake... <shakes head>
> A special note to the "saucisse toulousaine",
> which was excellent with peanut sauce.
Toulouse sausage is excellent with /everything/.
> The rest of the afternoon was basically spent eating, geeking RPGs,
> sleeping, shifting to follow the shadows, and (very importantly)
> creating the characters.
The latter being an entertainment in itself. I have great hopes of
certain PCs...
> Around eightish, decision was made to proceed to Emmanuel and
> Frédéric's flat, due to sunlight soon to falter too much to play.
Not true. The ground was finally declared far too hard to sit on, and
there was rather too much sunlight around. Also, the wine was getting
warm.
> Sunday at ten sharp, Yannick and I (I had been crashing at Yannick's)
> met Fabrice at Emmanuel's door, and we had the incommensurable
> pleasure of waking Ophélie with a shock (and a doorbell -- she was
> sleeping with her head a few centimeters from the doorbell
> loudspeaker). Once in, we found we (and now Ophélie) were the only
> people awake, which didn't really surprise us.
Oh, we were awake, near enough. it's just that age and small children
make it harder to be punctual with so little sleep.
> Waiting for everybody was spent geeking RPGs, reading comics and
> playing UNO (a card game that can be very fun and/or very frustrating
> when playing with extended rules).
Or when playing against 10-year-olds. For the benefit of lurking Frogs,
I bought the "Trolls de Troy" comic books today. Very funny, rather
pTerryish in many respects.
> Around twelveish, everybody was in, and hungry, so we ate the final
> remains of Saturday's lunch. After lunch (around two), it appeared
> that we (well, I) wouldn't have the time for the RPG since I had to be
> at the airport at three; we therefore started watching the Wyrd
> Sisters DVD which I had brought along by chance[4]: the RPGmeet became
> a Videomeet.
... and a raid-the-bookshelves-meet...
> Shortly after the start of the film, Yannick drove me to the airport,
> and I have no more information about what happened at the meet so this
> is a good end for this not-a-report.
I took Herve to the airport - an odyssey in itself. We will merely note
in passing that very small children will wantonly forsake very good
creamed potato made with *real* spuds (swoon) when offered 'gesiers de
canard' and "foie gras' out of Daddy's plate.
Apparently, the Incurables played Feng Shui (not the Discworld version,
which is a shame, because only /DW Also/ has fully grasped the
possibilities of Feng Shui as a martial art) until 5 am. I fell face
forward on my bed at 11 pm and didn't move until the alarm rang next
morning.
> As a final word, I would like to thank the Toulouse afpcrew for
> organising a wonderful meet, with special mention to Rose for the
> gigantic heaps of food coming from her apparently bottomless bags,
I am not a bottomless bag!
> Fabrice for the desserts, Emmanuel and Frédéric for kindly offering to
> use their flat, and Yannick for the crash space.
And to everyone who turned up for being great fun to be with. This
includes the red-eyed Thing kipping in a corner that I nearly walked on
at 11pm on Saturday night, and the lovely lads who barely know me, but
nevertheless lent me one of their favourite videocassettes.
A quote from a non-reading friend (he prefers to go and look at the
stars, or the countryside rather than read a book):
"All the people I know who read Pratchett are people I like and respect,
so I reckon this Pratchett person must be a good sort too"
We have a reputation to maintain!
--
Rose "still some wine left" Humphrey
Sylvain Chambon
the_peanut_gallery wrote:
> On 28-août-01, Sylvain gave us food for thought:
>
>> There was an afpmeet in Toulouse, far down the South of France,
>> last week-end. The theme was roleplaying (GURPS Discworld in
>> particular).
>
> Liar. The theme was food, wine, and falling asleep. And military
> service in the country's most boneheaded regiment. And GURPS.
I plead guilty, yer honour. Although I don't remember the military
theme to've been decided on beforehand; it just cropped up.
[...]
>> Around eightish, decision was made to proceed to Emmanuel and
>> Frédéric's flat, due to sunlight soon to falter too much to play.
>
> Not true. The ground was finally declared far too hard to sit on,
> and there was rather too much sunlight around. Also, the wine was
> getting warm.
Ah, well, we must have been on opposite sides of the group then; I
distinctly remember (one of) the excuse(s) for moving to be that
sunlight wouldn't last long enough for the game to be played.
[...]
> And to everyone who turned up for being great fun to be with. This
> includes the red-eyed Thing kipping in a corner that I nearly walked
> on at 11pm on Saturday night,
*no comment*
BTW, when do the pictures come online? I can provide a webbish abode
if needed.
Sylvain.
boris bret
> On 28-aoūt-01, Sylvain gave us food for thought:
> > Disclaimer: this is not a meet report[1],
> Yes it is. You started it, so you take the blame for it.
Fortunately, I was myself still in holidays till now, and mostly far from
any computer and internet, and therefore couldn't launch one... :-)
Thanks Sylvain! ;-)
> Liar. The theme was food, wine, and falling asleep.
What? no... I don't remember any merkins at this meet, or were they hiding?
> And military service in the country's most boneheaded regiment.
Too bad I didn't have to go to military service, I would also have some nice
/hum/ stories to tell... ;-)
> > Attendees:
> > ...
> The rabbit in the cage downstairs?
and a city officer forbidding a member of the group to splash in the lake,
such a shame...
> > The quote file:
>
> Although Ophelie was ostensibly noting Quotes, there is one she /must/
> have missed, since it happened at about 7 am (we hit the sack about
> 3am) on the Sunday morning. There were noises of impatience, and a
> not-quite-16-month-old voice lisping "dodo papa 'miné" (Daddy wake up
> now).
I'm soooo glad I slept in another room, and far from these happenings...
> > All began on Friday night,
> Yes, while Sylvain and Ophelie were enjoying themselves, I was waiting
> at Toulouse main railway station for a man that I didn't know, and had
> no idea what he looked like, except that he was carrying a unicycle.
This being quite a good way to recognize people... not as if I told I had a
beard and a moustache.
Very good the unicycle : first of all, it's nice to ride, doing sport,
having fun etc, then, it is a very good way to get recognized by people you
don't know, and finally it is wonderful for some people to start a
conversation in a train (most of the (long) hours I spent in the train
between MSN.nl meet two weeks ago and now have been eased by talking with
strangers who began to talk to me because of the unicycle...)
:-)))))
> All this under the sardonic eye of a fellow member of my local karate
> club, curse these small town things.
Was there? damn, I would have liked to try my unicycle as a contondant
weapon! ;-)
> > vehicles we had at our disposal we headed to the lake of ??????[2],
> > where the meet was to be held.
> Flourens. No swimming (we were Visited by an obvious Colon, who picked
> on us because of signs of Youth, Food, and probably Wine too)
But obiously distressed when he understood we had Right with us (the No
Swimming post was far from us, not speaking about the one on the other side
of the lake...)
> > Once there, the temperature had risen to a pretty high level (I'd say
> > over 35 Celsius, but I could very well be wrong),
> Well, you may have underestimated a bit... Hottest day of the year, for
> once.
... Who wants to go fishing in such a weather anyway...
> > Lunch was over rather more quickly than expected, with only a fraction
> > of the food consumed...
> Well, some of us were otherwise occupied as GMs and no-one volunteered
> to ply us with food. Bad mistake, bad mistake... <shakes head>
Worse, the Toulouse sausage was getting cold when we came back... (but still
very good with the pean.. ANY sauce... ;-) )
> > Around twelveish, everybody was in, and hungry, so we ate the final
> > remains of Saturday's lunch. After lunch (around two), it appeared
> > that we (well, I) wouldn't have the time for the RPG since I had to be
> > at the airport at three; we therefore started watching the Wyrd
> > Sisters DVD which I had brought along by chance[4]: the RPGmeet became
> > a Videomeet.
> ... and a raid-the-bookshelves-meet...
And a First french meet for a froggy, thanks a lot guys!!! :-)))
> I took Herve to the airport - an odyssey in itself. We will merely note
> in passing that very small children will wantonly forsake very good
> creamed potato made with *real* spuds (swoon) when offered 'gesiers de
> canard' and "foie gras' out of Daddy's plate.
And I just came back to the netherlands... duck... /drooling/
> Rose "still some wine left" Humphrey
Boris "very nice little red fronton"