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NL Gamesmeet 1.0

Eindhoven/Geldrop
14-15 April 2001

This was my second AFPmeet, and my first Dutch meet. It was, simply put, a completely awesome meet. (Even Old Farts like Leo agreed.) I shall now attempt to convey some of my first Dutch AFPperience...

Saturday started for me at approximately 5am, when I woke up, staggered out of bed, and headed off to catch my 7:47 train. The train turned out to be 20 minutes late, causing me considerable worry for the sakes of Rolf and Uwe, two kind German AFPers who had offered to give me a ride from the train to the meet. It did eventually arrive, however, and it turned out that my paranoia was unmerited; my e-ticket for the train was fine (never having traveled so before, I wasn't quite sure that it would be okay), and the train managed to make up nearly the whole 20 minutes between Hamburg and Duisburg, arriving only 2 minutes late.

It was a relatively peaceful drive to Geldrop. Upon our arrival at Eelco's house, we found no one at home, much to our surprise since we'd called just a minute before. Eelco and Patrick turned up shortly, explaining that they hadn't been able to understand anything of the phone call, and we entered the house.

At that point it was just Eelco, Patrick, Uwe, and Rolf and I there, and I felt rather awkward. I didn't know anyone (I'd read their posts for years, but I'd never met any of them), and it was an odd situation - two Dutch, two Germans, and an American, all speaking English. I suppose fatigue might have had something to do with my mental dislocation; at this point I'd been awake for nearly seven hours.

After a while we left for the train station in Eindhoven, where we attempted to meet the rest of the attendees at the Meeting Point which Eelco had announced, and which no longer existed. Luckily everyone had had the good sense to convene in a nearby cafe, and after a whirlwind introduction (punctuated by Leo's "So That's Laurabelle! She's a girl, I was right!") we spun off to our Laserquest appointment.

Laserquest was very fun, in spite of the sprogs. We had 14 people playing, not enough to fill the arena, so a few of the regulars jumped in and creamed the rest of us. They kept on yelling at the Mildes and me in Dutch; we had no idea what they were saying, since we don't understand it. In spite of them, I came in a modest but respectable 10th out of 17 (or was it 19?). The most disappointing thing was that we didn't get reports of how many times we'd been hit, and by whom. Due to a screw-up, they lost our data, so they gave us a discount instead - reasonable, but I would have preferred to have known who kept shooting me so annoyingly in the back!

Next we trekked back to Eelco's and settled in for some serious game-playing. I chose to sample a game called "Vinci: Rise and Fall of Civilizations;" it's an interesting game, pretty easy to grasp, but unfortunately Cybercat wiped out my entire civilization in one go, which set me back irremediably. I finished pathetically, 20 points behind everyone else (as usual, actually).

During the game Eelco started preparing food, so we had to move the game from the dining table to the coffee table, a task which I undertook. To the wonder of my play-mates (eyes fixed on the board, memorizing the location of every pawn), not a token quivered. I can't build strategy for anything, but I have balance and coordination! Yay!

Eelco has my undying amazement for managing to feed us all so well and so relentlessly. We scarfed faster than he could boil spaghetti. At one point I complimented Eelco on the salad dressing, at which point he ran off bashfully into the kitchen and came back with a packet of garlic-herb dressing mix. Slightly disappointing, but this means I can have it myself!

Our game of Vinci finished about 10:30, and I headed off to bed before anyone else. Perhaps due to my fatigue, I had a very good night's sleep; Arwen and I woke up the next morning before anyone else, I think. Since we were the only ones up, we got to chatting, and it eventually came out that we were both going to be in London the next weekend. She proposed a meet; I accepted.

After more sleeping-bag slugs became sentient, there were horrible puns, bits of breakfast, and final games before the last lingering AFPers dispersed towards mid-afternoon. As a parting gift, Kimberley presented me with a pink finger-monster, which now resides in my coat pocket and reminds me of how much fun I had.

Uwe and Rolf deposited me at the train station in Köln, and I made my way home, thinking how wonderful a meet it had been. I can't really describe or convey what made it so much fun for me; I think the closest I can come to it is that I felt very much a part of the group. People were friendly and made me feel welcome. I enjoyed it enough that I'm going back again, of all insanities. :-)

Other Links

Leo's Meet Report
Uwe and Rolf's Photos

My Photos

	In the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, waiting for the train to come, twenty minutes late. Trains halting tauntingly on either side.
	The Roach's T-Shirt: "Now It Is Time To Play" (I think he said it was a paraphrase of Cicero "Now it is time to go to war," but I couldn't be sure)
	Chowing down on Eelco's simple but tasty fodder: counter-clockwise from right, Maarten, Leo, Flexor, Uwe, Arwen, and Cybercat
	Patrick: "Are you going to put that on L-Space?" Note the Wokkels lurking on the counter. (left to right, Kimberley, Patrick, Rolf, Boris; Jos, Leo, and Gerbrand in the background)
	Eelco stunned by the flash; Leo pondering his revenge.
	The first game of Vinci: clockwise from left, the Roach (out of view), Cybercat, Kimberley, Leo, and Gerbrand
	This game is apparently called Carcasson; don't ask me how to play it, because I didn't understand the explanation at all (clockwise from left, Maarten, Arwen, Flexor, Jos, and Boris)
	Leo showering Eelco with confetti. Very lucky shot on my part. (Poor Kimberley had to clean up the confetti afterwards.)
	Eelco admiring his new talking motorcycle with siren and flashing lights. Leo gloating.

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