English version
English version
...page 2...
Marjolein:
Hi,
My first GM-meeting was
organized by the DPG last June 19.
I thought it was a very
strange experience to meet so many George fans because usually when I start
talking about Our Man, people start to sigh but during this evening it
was strange if you didn't talk about him!
The evening was very well
organized. The food was good, the location was nice decorated by posters
(very large) of George, the music was...fantastic, the people were all
very nice. We've seen rare video tapes (nice!).
The music was taken care of very well; again we heard rare recordings.
These ingredients are all
I need to have a great (fast) party! It was nice to meet people who I only
knew from the internet.
I wanted to say a special thank you to Jules and Herma for the organization of this party; without you this would never have taken place *applause * We shouldn't forget Bianca here (our Dutch Planet George chapter manager). Doubtess, she had her input in the accomplishment of this meeting *applause*
Ladies, thanks for the pleasant night.
I hope many more will follow. You can count on me!
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James:
Hello,
As you may have
read in the Dutch Planet George newsletter, a George Michael party was
organized on Saturday the 19th of June in Rotterdam.
It turned out
to be a great night with a lot of GM music (rare tracks) and a GM video
(Rock in Rio, original video of Careless Whisper and a home video)…and
some really great GM fans.
A wonderful night
to talk about GM stuff and I met some really wonderful fans. I have to
disagree with the ones who missed out.
I want to thank
the persons who organized this party (Herma, Bianca and Jules and the others
who've helped out) and made sure this night was a success.
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Jeroen and Debbie:
Hello GM-party
visitors (and others ofcourse),
I promised to
write a short story, as Debbie and I are member or the Dutch newsletter…rather
passive.
People at the
party were rather surprised when we joined them at the party…miracles still
exist.
We decided to
go to the party, because Debbie is quite a fan of GM. I went with her for
support, so to speak…some of the men might understand, perhaps?
But I must say
that I learned to appreciate the man after the release of "Older".
Everytime we have visitors at the house, we hear: "Jee, that's a nice music,
is it new?" all the time. But it's always George Michael what they're hearing.
Oh well…the cd player always has one of the George Michael cd's in it.
An me, as boyfriend of a fan, have learned to live with it.
About the party:
Travelling from
Hoorn, we went to find a location in Rotterdam. Before going, we hade made
reservations is a hotel close to the Wijnhaven in Rotterdam. Arriving there,
we rang the door bell of the hotel. And guess what? Hotel closed…reservations
made or not!!!!
So we decided
to change clothes in the car and went off to the party…"a motel is easily
found later on", we thought!
After having
changed our clothes we entered a very nice café/restaurant. We were
welcomed very friendly which made things very pleasant immediately.
I want the organization
to know that they took really good care of things *applause*
The visitors whom we talked to were all very nice and friendly, which made the evening pass by very fastly. But what I had expected, was Debbie to have more correct answers in the contest than she actually did. She appeared to be less a fan than she thought she was.
After we left
the party, we went looking for a motel/hotel. The day after we had an appointment
in Zeeland, so while we drove from Rotterdam to Zeeland, we passed at least
20 hotels which were all fully booked. Germany had its first week of holiday
and had decided to spent it in Zeeland, apparantly.
So...on top
of it all, we had to spent the night in the car. But we had great fun the
two of us.
We might just
be present again next party….depends on my girl…
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J(ules)eannette:
Ofcourse my
experience of the party itself is quite different from the ones of the
visitors. I got too much exercise and not because of the dancing, but because
of the running around :) Oh well…
First people
to arrive, were Stephan and his girlfriend. Came in handy, as he brought
along the music :) That must have been around five o'clock in the
afternoon. Soon after that, people started pouring in and at seven o'clock
we had full house.
I enjoyed meeting
new people. Ofcourse, I knew quite a lot of people in person already, the
rest I knew by icq or email. I'm afraid I wasn't able to have deep conversation
with everyone, but I think I chatted long enough to make acquaintance.
There's no need to know everything about me anyway! :D
Because of "some
prize contest", I seemed to have missed quite a few things of the party.
While we (Herma
and I) were isolated upstairs, wrestling with the contest's answers, people
suddenly started dancing (without us!), drinking (without us!) and at some
point we even heard someone singing and we guessed it was Bianca, but we
didn't really see it. Fortunately, pictures were taken and I think it even
ended up in Nobby's video.
Ofcourse, the
briljant idea of making a group picture only occurred to us after some
people had already left. Too bad.
"Oh too soon"
(a bit over midnight) more people had to leave. A small group of people
stayed behind, planning to have some sort of after party…
About the music: it was great! Thanks to Stephan and Nobby who brought lots of stuff with them. What can I say more about it? Ofcourse mainly Mr Michael. The older the evening got, the faster the music. But ofcourse there was music for the heart too, for the people who planned to spend the rest of the night together ;-) … six persons in Herma's living room that is (don't ask!).
Although I live
in Rotterdam myself, I decided to spend the night with the others at Herma's.
I think it showed how tired some of us were when one of us misunderstood
the phenomenon "daylight".
Martin:
He's back and you won't like it…
Well..that was quite something…Saturday the 19th of June. Did I want to go the meeting, they asked.
After having taken care of my original
plans for that day (I try to be a fanatic walker…), I decided I would go
and arrived late at Fast Party. My late appearance caused such a impression,
that when I entered the GM music spontanously stopped. I was welcomed by
a very charming younglady, who after some investigations my part, appeared
to be Herma.
She spontaneously started to talk
in English, asking all sorts of difficult questions about George to the
crowd. They were obviously already busy with the most difficult part of
the meeting: the prize contest.
Being very dissapointed in this, I
moved myself to the bar to drown myself in Diet Coke. Yes indeed, ladies,
I have to keep an eye on the calories too, you know!
Did I tell you that when I entered
the place, I heard sounds of relief and even whispering: "that's Martin!"?
Yes, I have seldom experiences such
a joyfull and happy reaction to my entrance.
Prepared to anything, I brought special
equipment to keep the enthousiastic GM lady-fans off me. Because, you gentlemen
in the Dutch GM fan society, were consipcuous by your absence (no, I'm
not talking about Peter, Peter and Stefan). [You
forgot about Stef, Marco, Jeroen and Alex; and about the foreign presence
of male fans here, Martin…like Holger, Nobby and James!; ed.]
Obviously, you thought that the pictures
you'd seen of the ladies were representative, but it's quite the opposite:
in real life, the ladies are even more charming, goodlooking, sweeter,
kinder, cosier and nicer than as they present themselves on the internet.
To cut it short, to anyone who wasn't
there: you missed a chance to meet your fellow fans in whole different
way. Even I, shy as I am, had the time of my life.
Luckily, I lived to see the outcome of the prize contest. Us Dutch people, didn't impress much with our knowledge of George. The foreign countries appeared to have much better knowledge…as the results of the contest showed. Back to studying, I would say.
As the contest had a foreigner as a winner, Bianca has a spare copy of "Bare" ["Zelf", the Dutch version; ed.]. And before you can even think about this for one second: ofcourse this book will be for me now. I took my chance during the meeting to have a "tete a tete" with Bianca about this, and kissed her feet to get the book. It happens that I'm quite good in kissing up, so the book is mine, that's for sure.
As for the rest of the evening, I enjoyed
listening to GM songs I never heard before.
With pain in my heart, I had to say
goodbye to everyone at twelve o'clock as my transport was already waiting
for me.
Having kissed everybody enthusiasticly
(Peter, your moustache tickles !), I went on my way to go home again.
Herewith, I want to bow humbly to
the Dutch Planet George meeting committee, as they delivered a great piece
of work and attended to a very pleasant evening…for now and another time…when
all the stress is gone, ladies…did you have a good time upstairs by the
way??? [we're not sure WHAT they actually did, Martin
; ed.]
