Oh Belgium...
Before I forget to do so, I'd best write about FOSDEM. I took Friday off work, so that we could take the ferry (drove to Dover in convoy with Uncle Sledge and took the ferry to Dunkerque) and arrive in time for the geekmeet at The Roy, which was good fun. Spent most of the weekend at the Debian stand selling t-shirts, and bought myself a fitted girly one, which actually looks semi-decent on me, which I didn't quite expect.
Saw various people I'd not seen since Debconf, such as h01ger and Wouter. Talked to some people I'd heard of but not talked to before, including liw (who brought a bagful of Finnish sweeties at least vaguely involving salmiakki, which results in instant popularity with people like me, of course) and rafl, who shares a name with my laptop. (I should probably point out that my laptop isn't named rafl, but rather fits into a naming scheme with my bicycle (Cyril) and a small cuddly hedgehog (Hilarion) -- fifty house points to the first person to comment saying correctly what this scheme is.) Even met some people I'd not heard of before, including ducttape_geek, who held the fort at the stand with me. Plotted evil with Heike.
Totally failed to either see the Manneken Pis (sp?), or have either moules or waffles. I did ask one waiter if they served waffles, and his response ("Hélas, non," delivered in a rich, deep, velvety voice), while initially somewhat disappointing, was rather swoonworthy. Wandered around at midnight with nunfetishist, Tollef and fivemack in search of waffles. As mentioned, this mission was entirely unsuccessful. I may have inadvertently blurted out something about an old picture on the wall being rather dishy in a nattietype way, and been told "Um, I think that's the King" (NB: not Elvis, a different king altogether). Whoops.
Wish I could have stayed a little longer. I waved at lots of people (stets debil grinsend) and hugged nearly as many. We missed the ferry we were meant to get on because a lorry had broken down somewhere between us and the ferry port. We re-booked, and got on the following ferry, which was very, very shiny. Got home about quarter past one and collapsed exhaustedly into bed. All in all, even with minor drawbacks, a fantastic weekend.
Saw various people I'd not seen since Debconf, such as h01ger and Wouter. Talked to some people I'd heard of but not talked to before, including liw (who brought a bagful of Finnish sweeties at least vaguely involving salmiakki, which results in instant popularity with people like me, of course) and rafl, who shares a name with my laptop. (I should probably point out that my laptop isn't named rafl, but rather fits into a naming scheme with my bicycle (Cyril) and a small cuddly hedgehog (Hilarion) -- fifty house points to the first person to comment saying correctly what this scheme is.) Even met some people I'd not heard of before, including ducttape_geek, who held the fort at the stand with me. Plotted evil with Heike.
Totally failed to either see the Manneken Pis (sp?), or have either moules or waffles. I did ask one waiter if they served waffles, and his response ("Hélas, non," delivered in a rich, deep, velvety voice), while initially somewhat disappointing, was rather swoonworthy. Wandered around at midnight with nunfetishist, Tollef and fivemack in search of waffles. As mentioned, this mission was entirely unsuccessful. I may have inadvertently blurted out something about an old picture on the wall being rather dishy in a nattietype way, and been told "Um, I think that's the King" (NB: not Elvis, a different king altogether). Whoops.
Wish I could have stayed a little longer. I waved at lots of people (stets debil grinsend) and hugged nearly as many. We missed the ferry we were meant to get on because a lorry had broken down somewhere between us and the ferry port. We re-booked, and got on the following ferry, which was very, very shiny. Got home about quarter past one and collapsed exhaustedly into bed. All in all, even with minor drawbacks, a fantastic weekend.