"An incredible meeting"

"Unbelieveable - well done, I'll DEFINITELY come again next year"

This is the type of comment dropping into my inbox at the moment, and it's pretty gratifying to hear that people enjoyed themselves this weekend. I am still buzzing with the excitement, and I'm certain it's all been worthwhile.

So worthwhile, that I have decided to run it for the Fifth time next year, at around the same sort of time. I've already started planning

However, before I slap myself on the back for all the wonderful work I did, it should be made known that there were many people who made this weekend special, so without further ado (and on no special order) I'd like to publicly thank them here:

Rob Voisey - for helping organise the meet in a very special way: he provided the greater majority of the prizes, did all the hard work of sorting out trophies and certificates (including the Incredibly special "Worst Install" trophy, complete with flashing lights), sorting the booking website, organising payment and paperwork, and generally being a superbly nice bloke. In addition to providing exactly the right pithy comments at the right times and a shoulder to cry on, he has a good grasp on reality and no project he manages deserves to fail!

David Moss - for spending the time to produce an excellent tee-shirt design for the meet, in his normal able fashion. What a hero - another collectable. Yours should be arriving soon!

Patrick Arnold - ah, what can I say? Along with virtual reality, he brought along demonstrations of the different (but equally interesting) world reality that he wraps around himself. Patrick has an ability to draw you in with these wonderful stories ("well, it was rubbish, so I had to make a completely new one from scratch!") that captivate his audience. Without his black bags, the feely bag game couldn't have happened: without his assistance, the cannons (and the watching crowd) wouldn't have roared. He struggled hard all day Saturday in the background with recalcitrant video gear (at no mean cost to his own pocket) in order to bring us "How to Make an Empeg" movies, was good natured at being passed over for two of the prizes (he was an insider, after all!).

Hugo Fiennes - for just turning up, so people could just touch him! And blimey, what a nice car! What a good bloke - and according to Peter (who went out for a ride in the NS-X) "Going for a spin" with Hugo means - Just That!

John Mac, Alvin Barber, Rob Ricc - good blokes who were (unasked) prepared to clean up the party mess when there was limited time for me to do repair work for others on the Sunday after the treasure hunt. Troopers!

Michal - for being patient with me while I worked on his player, after he drove across from Poland with his girlfriend (1,200 km!!!).

Tim Linke (and Nina) - Carrot Salad chef extraordinaire (see, it's easy, eh?), who helped out to get the dishes prepared under Merry's instructions before the Barby started when we were running behind after William decided to loosen both front teeth by diving headfirst downstairs just as we were setting up. Next year he will be chained to the wall. William, I mean

Godfrey and Christine - for the wonderful chef's pinny for the BBQ ("The Last Mango in Paris"). I'll wear it with pride!

Tony, Jenny and Rachel: Mark: John Mac: Jim Hogan: Alvin and Erin: Rob Ricc. - for being prepared to travel the distance they did, to make the event special. Fly the flag for us, guys and gals!

Mike Tempsch - for being the best, most rapid learning cannon loader I've had. Boom!

Sven - for being prepared to tolerate my fascination and nosiness about that wonderful nuclear-powered cyborg leg of his, and for putting in above-the-call-of-duty effort to get to the event.

Julf Helsingius - for bringing that bloody marvellous Land Rover which had me smiling all weekend. Bring the Pinky next year!

Steve Hoare - for putting the most amazing smile of spontaneous pleasure on his face when he realised he'd won the empeg in the raffle! Perfect choice for the right bloke. Bring it back next year in your car!

Mark Lord - for gracing us, in the nicest way, with your calm presence. What a wonderful bloke this man is, a great pleasure to meet him - generous and friendly, and as sharp as a button. Donated one of the major prizes at the event - and he even built an intelligent Easter egg into the latest version of HiJack!

Rob Ricc - for putting up with my hopeless navigation and retaining a sense of humour all the while - another major prize donor, in the form of one of his excellent new, re-engineered black sleds.

Derek Ward - for selflessly (to the point of almost going hungry at the BBQ, for goodness' sakes!) for starting off the cooking when I was up to my neck sorting out everything else that was going on at the time. Great to have a true, born-and-bred Barby chef on the job! He was also prepared to lug beer barrels, set up the barby, drive my kids around, put up with my bad temper, and all the rest. All this, despite being a runner up YET AGAIN in the Geek quiz. Next year, eh? (I'll get Rob to rig the questions).

Roger Lipscombe and John Graley - they didn't have to come, but they did - and they answered technical questions until they started to go blue in the face. I guess the beer and ribs is a magnetic attraction. Roger is now a four-year veteran, and I hear that he will definitely be coming over again for the special Fifth event next year, no matter WHAT happens! Oh, and thanks for making sure the keg was empty at the end of the evening

To all the "Girlfriends" - my thanks for coming over with your blokes, and I being tolerant of little boys with big toys during what must have been a bit of a trying day on occasions. Mind you though, it's pretty obvious I have to brush up on my kissing technique, and besides, there just aren't that many UFO's about these days!

Tony Fabris - for being an eternal fount of knowledge of all things empeg. Tony provides a good focal point to this community in the provision and management of the FAQ: it nearly, just nearly, won him the feely bag competition - but not quite! Next time, eh? And what an amazing coincidence that he's another closet fan of the 60's SciFi program "UFO". Next time, a wall projector and a Video room will be in order, I think.

Merrigan - she spent several days in advance of the meet preparing food, budgets, buying in provisions, cooking, preparing, and working damn hard on both the picnic lunch and BBQ bits in spite of already having other obligations for the weekend. The sucess of the meet hangs directly off her hard work - without good food this would have gone no-where. Seeing the smile that came with Rob's generous gift of an S30s player as a present made the weekend. She's now talking about the best compression settings for ripping Otis Reading and Hot Chocolate . If you persuade her enough, she might just post the cheesecake recipe here. Her address is [email protected]. Don't tell her I posted it.....

Nath and William - for being around the place and making it fun to do the feely bag game (only next time William, bust your teeth out AFTER the Barby, OK?). Nath's mini empeg models seems to have become limited edition collector's items!

Now lastly - but not least - everyone who actually took the trouble, whether it was last minute, planned, or otherwise, to turn up for this event. It takes a special kind of person to make the effort of travelling a long way to a foreign country to turn up just for a few glasses of beer and a barby on the unseen promise of having some fun - but without you, and all the people watching from afar, this weekend would not have been half the sucess it was. You made the effort, you made the fun.

There's names missed off this list that helped as well: don't be annoyed that I haven't given you a mention in public, it's mainly due to my tiredness and forgetfulness - but rest assured, I am grateful even so.

Here's a round of applause from me, to all of you: raise your glasses to the next, annual Empeg Owner's meet, in 2004!