I am alive.

And thank you (again), Bernie!!!!!!

Some thoughts:

-LH first: 1, UA first: 0.

-Summer thunderstorms in chicago suck (aka: "Have fun in Dusseldorf without me, guys...").

-The ORD UA first concierges rock (aka: "I'm going to Dusseldorf, baby!")

-Jet lag + hangover + extremely tall structure + moving floor = a problem only more alt can cure.

-How is it that I seem to always randomly end up in the same dive bar in Aldstat?

-I was at all the events. You just couldnt see me thanks to my nifty new stelth technology!

-Emailman rescued me at the wheel!

-The only thing better then little glasses of alt? Little KEGS of alt.

-If I were born in 1984, how old would that make me, exactly????????

-Dont wear Raiders jerseys and expect to be openly welcomed at Dusseldicos.

-I am not scottish. I am not scottish. I am not scottish. And my accent sucks.

-No one likes to have altbier poured in their ear at 5am.

-Try not to vomit on the nice LH ladies.

I need a nap.

Bernie-

Masterful planning and execution. Bravo, standing ovation!!

What a fabulous party! It was so great to see everyone, including folks from the original PiP (Rudi, Gisela, Punki, Joe, Wingless, auh2o, Koko/Matt/A Freak, and many more), folks I had never met before (ozstamps, Joh, bernie, beaubo, Kathy, and many more), and "local" folks like daydream.

Thanks, bernie for your hospitality, organization, and long-suffering acceptance of people with too much Alt inside them.

BTW, as I posted elsewhere, do you realize we went through *SEVEN* kegs? At ~€110 per keg, and an exchange rate of about $1 = €0.85, that makes over $900 worth of Alt we sopped up at that tent!

Hey, anything to help the Düsseldorf economy, right? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Dangge villmool bernie!

folks were so fond of having (more and more) Alt, I didn't have any opportunity to introduce more newbies to the side-car clique!

individual activities, beside having some (more) Alt (or very good 'Apfelschorle' without alcohol), did include:
* dancing, flirting, kissing
* eating, eating, eating
* mounting endless castle steps
* posting on FlyerTalk (includes Currywurst-posts - sorry Patron
* fitness training at Nikko's healthclub
* (endless) talking to each other (and laughing)
* listening to cracy LH-train--mileage runs by paulusst
* tram-riding in Düsseldorf downtown
* fast lift riding to the top of the (revolving Restaurant) at the Düsseldorf TV-/Radio tower
* neutralizing the local Cologne (Köln) - Düsseldorf rivalries
* worrying about the poor BA employees who had to 'handle' Punki's strike problems at Heathrow
* unpacking/mounting/repacking a Boeing 777
* playing Alt-beer brewmaster (thank you mjm)
* comforting FlyerTalkers who lost their car-keys with an ad-hoc bed (thank you Spliff
* transforming some FlyerTalkers into bunnies
* exchanging FT coupons
* displaying sets of FT-Gold/Paltinum/whatever airline/hotel/car-rental-cards like a hand of bridge-cards
* trying (in vain) to make wake-up calls ...
* writing postcards to other (non-present) FlyerTalkers to make them jealous
* learining (or getting reconfirmation) that 'other' FlyerTalkers are at least as cracy as I/you
* having fun (yourself), fun (seing how everybody else had fun), fun (to be part of such a fun-groupe)
* already looking forward to the next (jazz-) FlyerTalk weekend in Düsseldorf (end of june 2004)

what did I forget?

Thank you bernie - you did a tremendous job organizing this. I had a fantastic time. I enjoyed meeting so many FTers. The dinners and meetings were a great opportunity to talk to folks whom I knew previously only by their FT handle. I also got to meet a couple of "friends" of FlyerTalk - I tried to persuade them to register and graduate to "member"!

You gave even MORE money to that guy?? I gave him a Million Turkish Lira and thought that would just about cover the booze? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Let me take this a step further. Each keg was 15 litres. Each glass was 200 ml capacity = 75 glasses per keg x 7 = 525 glasses of Alt ... and goodness knows how many bottles of soda and other stuff we had as well.

As I was abstaining from alcohol for religious reasons that weekend, SOME of you "others" drank a LOT of booze. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I gues anyone with the handle of Spliff does not need booze of any kind? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Thank you for all your kind words. Way too kind b/c a host could only be just as good as his guests are and you were a fab bunch of people. I had sooooo much fun see all of you enjoy this DO http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

So grab your '04 calendars and be prepared for DUS IV (Jazz in Düsseldorf) June 25th - 27th next year As requested pre announcement will follow at least 9 months in advance.

bernie, thank you again for a fantastic weekend in DUS!

Oz and Rudi: Where do you guys come up with these superfluous consonants? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Where do you guys come up with these superfluous consonants?

sorry Spiff - I blame it to the ALT!

Oh, one more thing: I seem to have lost an undershirt... Has anyone seen it????

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

why wonder about your underwear ?

at least you've got your mind back, right ?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

You stood up in the tent, ripped off your clothes and threw the undershirt under a bench, where it was drenched with spilt Alt.

Remember now ?

Bernie, thanks for organizing the Do & being such a gracious host. A wonderful weekend was had by all (well, in Punki/Hunki's case, a day) & we appreciate all that you went through to put this together.

Rudi, the Sidecar will have to wait until next year - maybe by that time blood will be flowing through our veins instead of Alt. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Who said FTers can't drink?!

It was great meeting so many FTers; look forward to meeting more in the future. And again Bernie, many thanks. Cheers.

------------------
Sharon

I have just spent the last 5 hours being shown around the Cologne shopping, sights, restaurants and brewary bars by Cologne born local djohannw.

I mentioned I might like an ALT. He said that in Cologne ordering such a strange beer would just get totally ignored by the waiter, as only their German "friends" up the road would order "such terrible stuff". http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

But that at the Cölner Hofbräu Früh we could get something MUCH nicer. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif