Heh, I see a lot of posts being sent to this thread and reading them makes me realise the loss of not having you guys around any more - while the school-start and the numerous choir-practises & gigs have kept me busy from even thinking about the Moot for a week now. I see many of you have done this "person to person" -thingy... Let's see where I get when I start a bit differently.
So we had initially this idea that we'd bring
Rikae, Mac & the Wereduckling here to my place as they'd have a room of their own with an ability to shut the door and maybe the others wouldn't disturb her sleep if we brought
Esty, Squatter and
Pitch here as well (thus
Esty could have a room of her own as well and wouldn't be forced to sleep in a shared bed with a random person possibly half her age).
Explaining this to the New Yorkers on our way from the airport I got smug smiles and some laughs... "it's not that the Wereduckling couldn't sleep if there was noise, but rather no one else would be able to sleep if she decided to be on that mood".
Happily she was tired enough the few evenings she stayed at my place that there was no problem with that. But anyway my place turned out to be "die älter-haus das Deutsches-volk" (whatever the correct German would be for that), aka. the old-timer house for the Germans - with
Squatter who seemed to be more or less fluent in German as well...
But if I'd thought of my place being the one where people could (or would) sleep unlike in the "Youth Hostel"
Lommy & Aganzir were having, well I was soo wrong!
I don't know about each and every night at their place but we did actually stay awake at nights: keeping company to
Squatter who needed to set off about 6am to the very end and pushing him into the taxi, sleeping two hours to drive the New Yorkers to the airport at 4am, sending
Esty off around the early hours while taking up all the on-line duties neglected, sitting with
Pitch the whole night talking and sharing pics others had posted on FB until the morning... And that was all great fun even if it did end up with some major sleep-deprivation.
It was not a purposeful act to try and separate the younger ones from us oldies but it was, I still think, the smoothest of arrangements (look above what I said about our pre-thoughts about the Wereduckling) and I think it worked out just fine. I had some really good time with
Squatter, Esty and
Pitchie, and the New Yorkers - even if their energy was oftentimes concentrated on the Wereduckling who is, to make it mildy, a strong personality, well a character. (And I do love her for that even if she yelled and cried all the boat ride from the Zoo to the harbour making other kids on the deck stick their hands into their ears...
)
Sure, the logistics were a problem, but we managed it quite well in the end. We went to our summer cabin for a few days not only to give our guests a chance to experience the "middle of nowhere between the forests and the lakes" in Finland but also because that was one of the only places we could get all of us being together and not needing to mind about the neighbours, but surprisingly we also managed to crowd my place with all of us aboard a few evenings and the "club-room" of
Lommy's & Aganzir's place was just priceless (priceless also in the way that it cost us nothing). So somethnig we were afraid of (well at least I was) just worked out fine as we got enough places to fit us all - as in the end of the Moot with dwindling numbers we had nice evenings both at my place and at
Lommy's & Agan's.
The Kinderwurst und Autobahn was recorded at my place with all of those left involved...
~*~
But even if I had some better chances to get to know
Esty, Squatter and
Pitchwife (and the New Yorkers for a few days), I do think it was really an easy going-time with the others as well.
I do think I know
Legate already more or less well, and I have met
Rune,
Skip and
Kath a few times already, so there were no surprises there as they were their lovable persons as ever. I had also met the New Yorkers,
Shasta & Oddwen the last summer we toured the US. and they were more or less as I remembered them to be - although I have to join the chorus of saying that
Oddwen is much more sinister and fun person I learned her to be last year - and that is a compliment!
~*~
But what about the people I met the first time?
Esty is just a heart of gold. Something that tells a lot about her is the following...
After our first evening gathering at my place we woke up the the next day and after breakfast she asked whether she could do the dishes. I was kind of undecided (as I don't like to put my guests into work), but she took my indecisiveness as a "yes" and said she would interpret that as a stable yes as to anything that needs to be done in the kitchen... and she did hold onto to that! I think she did more than half of the dishes at my place while she was here...
But that's anly the kind of glimpse into her - even if a telling one. I really found her the most gracious, witty, intelligent, fun and entertaining person - and every lover of music is someone I have my heart open to as I do share the love. But above all I feel she is the caring person, one who has love and wisdom enough to just think of others more than herself. *bows*
Squatter, oh my... I've interacted with you in a few threads a time or two, but that is little. But I do remember
Rune saying sometime that you are too intelligent... I don't know about the excess, but I loved your traditional "European learning", "bildung" a they say in German, and your Tolkien knowledge especially. Had we had more time I would have loved to dwell on some of the stuff you brought with you I o0nly got a glimpse with...
But way to go, you're just such a great person a well - even if some of the jokes you had with
Hookbill went quite far over most of us others as we have no inside knowledge of every British humour series you shared the jokes about.
I met a young British aristocrat at the archeological excavation site I was in on 2004 in Israel - he shared my room with two other guys. You kind of reminded me of him... learned, witty, fun, warm - but in this odd way soo British intelligentsia you just can pick out from the French or Scandinavian ones.
Pitchwife: it was a great pleasure to have met you. Before I met you I was thinking whether you were a neo-liberal (libertarian) or a hippie. To my great comfort I found you a true hippie indeed (even if you don't like the categorisation), but you did actually make me re-think some of the things I had already been forced to reconsider after meeting
Foley & Morm the last summer... even if we didn't exactly talk about that I just realised it after the fact that you guys have more in common you might think!
But politics aside, I really liked you and am looking forwards actually to redeem the hospitability; to see your hens and all the rest. Maybe one day, next summer... or the next?
Hookbill ho! Seeing your pics on the 'Downs I had always thought you were quite a short guy... could I have been more wrong? But on the other pre-beliefs I think you fitted quite well with my preconceptions... funny, intelligent, hearty, easy to go along with... actually I'm a bit jealous of those who said they had had nice political and moral discussions with you as I never get into that with you - which I would have loved to do as I think we share a host of convictions.
But maybe the next time?
~*~
It was a great two weeks even if I had to pull off at certain points to both keep up with my medical care and to prepare for the fall-semester. Great to have had you all here!!! To the next time, in the GB or Germany?
And remember you all are welcome to Finland any day you choose... after this summer we're confident we can manage any host of 'Downers here.