^ Right on all accounts, dedehans He did, indeed, have a great time even though,occasionally he was called upon to use his expertise :)

I am so sorry obscure2k, that you took ill. Nothing is worse than traveling when you aren't 100%. I know, we went to Whistler for the holiday weekend and I spent 90% of the time in bed. Yuk! Tomorrow we have to fly to MCO and I am hoping that my head won't explode.

Thanks for the party. We have been to dozens of dos and this ranks among our favorites. Glad you liked the pictures. I especially liked this one of you and carnarsie. I know it is soft, but you both look so cute and happy.

Hope to see you and everyone else again in Tel Aviv, if not sooner.

O2K, hopefully you are now completely over your pneumonia and back to enjoying the good life of Cholula-supplied 5 star restaurants.

I know that nothing will draw you away from Venice in November, but would like to suggest a slightly different travel pattern for you for next year. By all means, fly to VCE and leave most of your bags there. Then get on a VCE-TLV flight and join us for a few days. AZ and AF both offer convenient flights (albeit with connections) and you can pick up SkyMiles with them.

Alternatively, you could fly here directly from LAX and then head to VCE. The problem with that is luggage. On the TLV-VCE segment you would be allowed only 23 kilos per person in Y and 30 kilos in Business.

Either way, we would love to have you and DocO2K with us -- and I am certain that your family here would be even happier than us!

Thanks, Punki for the photo of me and [/b] Canarsie. A very nice memory of a very special time in Venice.

Bold added to conform to the general punning emphasis pattern.

Yeah, I am really sorry about the way that worked out. I was, unfortunately, told that if I left my hotel on Sunday before 2pm then there was a chance that the courier who was supposed to be delivering my euros would arrive while I was out, and that only I, in person, could sign for the cash.

After that, I really only had time for lunch and then to dash for my train back to Milano. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

I tried to be subtle, but thank you for the explanation and apologies, NickW.

Since I only saw you for a few minutes at the restaurant where we had the actual dinner, I had no idea what happened to you or the circumstances surrounding your mysterious disappearance.

Anyway, if you and I find ourselves in Tel Aviv next year, I look forward to meeting you — and I do not intend to try the compact disc burning idea again...

For the benefit of those who have not actually heard this sad story and were wondering who/what/where I was most of that weekend and thought that I blew off the FT'er crowd to go sightseeing or something:

I left my wallet behind when I left the UK the previous weekend. I arranged for American Express to delivery a replacement card to the VCE travel service location for collection on Saturday morning, having been assured it was open until 12.30pm. However, on arrival I discovered it was actually closed all weekend and, rather than Venice, my card had been sent to Nice. Really.

I spent pretty much the whole of Saturday attempting to receive a Western Union transfer from the people at Amex Global Assist: failing due to one of a) a software failure in Western Union's systems, or b) the failure of Western Union's Italian correspondent bank to handle the transfer from Munich correctly. In any case, after 8 hours of trying, I went straight to the Ai Mori to meet everyone for dinner.

Next morning, I received a message that American Express were dispatching a courier to hand-deliver some cash to me at my hotel, but could not nail down the arrival time other than 'before 2pm', so I really had to wait there. Indeed, it was at 2pm that the aforementioned courier finally arrived.

Unfortunately, I had to check out not long after that and catch a train back to Milano in order to get back to Varese with the Sunday trains.

I knew nothing of your travails, NickW. It is sad to hear of all the problems you experienced during your trip to Venice.

When we meet again, I sincerely hope it is under better circumstances...

Better late than never!
 

First, greetings from Singapore!

Sorry I have not been able to chime in much earlier my thanks to dovster and ob2k for starting/organising such a fabulous DO, right down to the perfect weather! During the past two weeks, I have had very limited internet access, and when I finally do have some time today, and am in a decent (air-conditioned and cheap) internet cafe, it took me 15 minutes to log on to FT. :rolleyes:

Thanks also to punki, KLC and dedehans for the beautiful pictures that captured many of our great DO moments in Venice. Special kudos to KLC for guiding me through the mazes and alleys, and most importantly finding the surprisingly spotless clean public W.C. near Rialto at the most critical time. :o

Oops, gotta run, in-laws are waiting. ;)

big hugs to all,
belle

belle....great to hear from you and we hope your travels through the Far East are enjoyable.
Have fun....see you at the next Meet!

I have no doubt that belle3388 will be in Tel Aviv in November 2005.

I've been to 2 1/2 or 3 Meets (depends on how you count them ;) ) and both belle3388 and MsEverywhere have been to all. Hoping to see both as well as the rest of the FT crew in TLV...if not before...

Group CD Ready for Distribution!
 

The CD containing photos from Canarsie, Dedehans, Dorlee, KLC, Lili-Dui and Punki is now ready. Anyone attending the meet would like a copy and who has not already given me a mailing address, please PM me with that info.

I personally appreciate you taking the 30 blank compact discs with jewel cases home with you (they have traveled more than many people!) and doing all of the work that you have done, KLC. I apologize that you wound up doing it. That was not the way the idea was meant to be implemented, as the completed compact discs were meant to be a gift to everyone towards the end of the Venice Meet.

I suppose the initial idea could merit improvement. However, I don’t intend to bring up this idea again anytime soon...

Having been with all of those mentioned, I am sure this CD will be just great. How are the CD's going to be shipped? What about postage? Don't want KLC to be stuck with a big postage bill.