Amsterdam meet: Report

From: Laurabelle <gvenour@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett
Subject: [F] Meet Report: "Ulterior Motives": Amsterdam Bookstore Meet III
Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 17:56:38 +0200
Message-ID: <6i9dfts7988b44qm887tihas3ev0qu1m5g@4ax.com>

Hear ye, hear ye!  This is an Official Meet Report!


Event: "Ulterior Motives": Amsterdam Bookstore Meet III
Date:  5 May 2001
Host:  Martin Wisse


Any resemblance of characters, places, or situations to those
in real life is completely coincidental.


Paras^H^H^H^H^H Attendees:

Rolf
Uwe
Eelco
Patrick
Daniel
Olaf
Sindy
Menno
Maarten
Boris
Jeroen (Labrat)
Jos
Kimberley
and YHN


Report:

In outline form, this meet followed the pattern of previous
bookstore meets, in that the early hours of the afternoon were
spent perusing the shelves of an English-language used
bookstore, after which we trekked to an Irish pub, the Tara,
and settled in for the evening.

The meet "officially" started with the meeting in the train
station.  When we were all gathered (except Kimberley and Jos,
who met us at the pub), we walked to the bookshop (all but
Boris, who had his bicycle), making a stop by the ATM on the
way, as prescribed by Ancient Tradition.

The bookstore had a good selection, particularly of
science-fiction.  It would be interesting to know the average
number of books bought per person; however, I'm relatively
sure that Eelco bought the most (don't know how many, but he
cleaned out a couple of entire authors) and I the least (one).
I wasn't planning on buying anything, but They (naming no
names) kept telling me "oh, you don't really need to eat" and
"you can filch from Eelco if you don't mind losing a couple of
fingers."

About 4:30, after a brief stopover in the next-door juggling
shop, we meandered over to the pub, which turned out to be
much fuller than expected.  After a brief moment of
indecision, we captured the end of a long table along the
wall, from which starting base we spread as space became
available.  The pub was really nice in the afternoon - very
light, airy, and pleasant.  Unfortunately the arrangement of
our tables against the wall meant that there was little
circulation between the two ends; movement was possible, but
it had to be conscious.  I didn't circulate, so I only know
what happened at my end of the table.

In accordance with Tradition, fluffy toys, cell phones, and
palm pilots came out of hiding.  We put our line of penguins
on the wall, and another couple across from us put their small
teddy bear on the mantel.  Eventually they even asked us to
put it up next to our penguins!  (The socialization of the
heathens is progressing nicely.)

I had the pleasure of witnessing web browsing through the
means of Eelco's Palm and Patrick's mobile; unfortunately the
browser crashed.  Ain't technology great?

The high point of the evening was Martin's announcement of his
Ulterior Motive in organizing the meet, namely that he had
another copy of _Ice Bones_ - this one signed by the author.
"To my Dutch fans, Stephen Baxter.  I hope you enjoy this one
as much as the first two."  The irony is too perfect.  (The
book was foisted off on the defenseless Kimberley.)  Mammoth
#2, currently residing with Cybercat, was fortunately not
present.  Who knows what would happen if they come into
contact with each other?

We stayed at the pub until the last subway from the train
station, where we bid goodbye to Jos and Kimberley.  Back at
the bat^H^H^Hdorm, we jumped on #afp and shared the news about
_Ice Bones_.  However, as soon as the kitchen was empty, we
all fell asleep.  I didn't even hear anybody snoring.

I woke up about 7:00 and couldn't get to sleep, so after a
while I got dressed and started reading, after which everybody
else woke up too.  They blamed it on me.  (I think the new
AFPsport is called "Let's Tease Laura."  It's very easy to
play.)

Eelco left in the late morning, explaining that if everybody
was going to sit around and read, he might as well go home.
The remaining few (Martin, Patrick, Daniel, Rolf, Uwe, and
YHN) saw him off on his red motorcycle and then took juggling
materials outside to play.  That was fun for a while, but the
wind was chilling in spite of the bright sun, so we headed
back inside.  After a bit of chat (and a nap on my part), the
Mildes and I headed back to Germany, successfully concluding
my second NL meet (the third meet in four weekends!).


Quote File:

Eelco: What's this bit?
AFPer: What bit?
Eelco: This dangly bit in front.

Patrick: All your Kimberley are belong to Jos.
(I think he really deserves the Book for this one, but
Kimberley was already gone by this time.)

This concludes the test of the emergency meet report system.
We now return to your irregularly scheduled programming.

Laurabelle
-- 
I use the words you taught me.  If they don't mean anything
any more, teach me others.  Or let me be silent. 
     -- Samuel Beckett, _Endgame_

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