Naomi #afp Meet: Report

From: mwisse@ad-astra.demon.nl (Martin Wisse)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett
Subject: [F] Meetreport: Naomi #afp meet, 14 october 2000
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 21:13:58 GMT
Message-ID: <3a3b4067.85259708@news.demon.nl>

The Naomi #afp meet october 14th 2000. 

Attending: Ali, Arwen, Barry, Brett, ccooke, Corinne, Flexor, J, Julie,
Kate, Martin, Melody, Mole, Naomi, Peter, Thomas, Vicky, Womble

(If you don't know who some of those people are, it's because they're
too kewl for afp of course... You'll never be part of the incrowd if
you're not on IRC, you know. Tsk, tsk.)

(Blame Karen for guilt tripping me into posting this slightly dated
meetreport. See the Tolerance thread for why...)

(Enough with the parentheses -ed.)

Naomi Ridge, one of the regulars on lspace IRC, was moving to the US at
the end of October 2000 and since various people[1] had expressed an
interest in getting to meet her beforehand, a meet was thrown together
for her. Thanks go out to Mole, who arranged it and Thomas, who made
crashspace available.

Since both me and Flexor were going to come to the meet we decided to
travel to the UK together, via Easyjet, the favourite airline of cash
starved afpers everywhere. Arriving at Luton airport early in the
morning, we took the bus into London then walked to the first part of
the meet, an exclusive luncheon in Kings Road. Here we were greeted by
Corinne, who had been the first to arrive and had taken a strategic seat
near the entrance. A bit of confusion followed as I was called on my
brand new nifty keen mobile by my mother and had to shift gears quickly
from English to Dutch. Erk.

The next person to arrive was Kate Elliott, who had braved the wilds of
London in her car and managed to do so unscatched, quickly followed by
Mole and his legal counsel, Vicky. It was now time to move downstairs
and start lunch, which we did after Melody and the star of the meet,
Naomi herself had arrived as well.

It was also time to lighten my own burden somewhat by handing out copies
of _The Truth_ to those people who had asked me to bring them a copy,
the book having been out in the Netherlands for a while but not yet in
the UK. All in all Flexor and me had to lug along some 12 or so copies
for various persons. Verily, the Truth weighted heavy on my shoulders.

After harassing^Wvisiting Thomas in the tiny toy shoppe he worked in and
waiting around in a conveniently located pub nearby, it was time to
brave the horrors of the London underground and move out to Kenton for
the meet pub. Thomas had to go to arrange some things and Melody had to
get home to arrange dinner and the like, so we were left with Mole &
Vicky, Flexor, Corinne, Naomi and me to get to the meet proper, which we
managed to do after some misadventures on the way. (London Underground
eh? Marvelous!)

Arriving there, we met up with the main contingent of the meet,
consisting of Barry and Arwen, Peter and Julie, Brett, Womble, J, ccooke
and Ali. Time of course to hand out some more copies of _The Truth_, now
finally lifted of this terrible burden.

One of the people who had requested a copy was Peter Ellis, whose
birthday was not that far in the future, being on the day of Halloween.
(Explains a lot, eh?) Fair enough, I thought and gave it to him as a
present:

"Peter, you know what's in this package and this is my birthday present
to you. Of course, you realise you can only open it on the day
itself..."

His reaction:

"You bastard!"

After that, we settled down for the serious meet business of getting
food inside us, wetting our throats with the various beverages on offer
and sampling the cough medicine I had brought along as a going away
present for Naomi. This cough medicine being 80 proof Stroh rum, named
cough medicine because: "you take a sip and it makes you cough". Of
course, as at every afp meet, the silly toys, fluffy animals and puns
were out in force.

When closing time arrived, far too early for somebody used to more
civilised hours, most of us made our way to the crashspace arranged by
Thomas. Yours truly did not manage to sleep there, due to the high
density of snoring afpers... 

The next morning, the after meet ritual of video watching, breakfast and
general recuperating was followed until it became time for me to go
along with Peter, Julie and cookie to Cambridge, where I was to stay
until my flight back to the Netherlands on monday, Peter and Julie
generously letting me stay at their place. For which thanks.

For those wishing to put faces to the names bandied around above, or
just curious which embarrassing photos I've put online *this* time,
please visit:

<http://www.ad-astra.demon.nl/afp/naomi.html>

[1] Yours truly being one of them, obviously.

Martin Wisse
-- 
....British writers all eventually get around to 
the smell of overcooked cabbage.
-Lucy Kemnitzer, rasseff

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