IPP 43 - seconda parte

Rox gives us a lecture on what to expect on our trip to the WPC the next day and there are plenty of questions and answers until the deafening applause from the rear of the room signals the end of that session and dinner time.

In spite of the warning from others who’ve been here for a few days already we decide to try the hotel restaurant – in fairness we have a large table but we struggle to attract the attention of a waiter until Jo literally rugby-tackles one of them only for us to discover that he’s not entrusted with the magic order pad so we switch our attentions to said waiter…. We eventually manage to order, but there’s a farcical series of events that sees Nick getting his starter after his main course, several main courses getting substituted and my total inability to grab a Coke Zero… we still enjoy a fun evening together anyway and it’s great catching up with Doog!

Next morning there’s an absolute throng of people in the breakfast room but I manage to grab some brekkie while catching up with Simon, Tom and Dor…. The room magically empties on the stroke of 8am as the buses begin loading up for the trip to the WPC… so I get to finish my breakfast at a more leisurely pace… I see off some of the buses before heading down for a second round of pastries and coffees with Deidre, Gill, Nigel and Steve. We chat for a while and then I head off to Panicale with Steve… I’m navigating and we sort of make it there without incident although we need to get Benny to park Steve’s rental car because it’s a pretty tight spot!

Ali hooks us up with our wristbands to allow us entry into the WPC and we start chatting with our mates… it doesn’t take long for the allure of the food vans to take hold and I enjoy a wonderful hot dog in the park across the road with the Finnish crew… and when Vesa points out that there’s a crossword on the back of the hot dog wrapper, Tomas and I feel the need to complete it… we fail miserably but it gives my Finnish friends plenty of opportunities to have a laugh at our expense so it’s all worthwhile…

I do a quick tour of the WPC and I’m impressed with how much extra work has been completed since my previous visit!

I find myself outside again in the park with Steve and Ali and we decide it’s time for an ice cream so we round up a bunch of folks who want a gelato… somehow we end up in  one of the bars on the piazza for an hour or two having a pretty amusing time – I blame Benny! – before we make it to the gelato joint (superb!) and then I head off back to the hotel with Doog and Laura – the trip home turns out to be quite memorable when a local tries to kill us on the road and then a big chunk of our route is given over to road works that google maps seems unable to route us around… Doog triumphs in spite of the adversity and gets us safely back to the hotel.

We round up a bunch for dinner and head into town in a large taxi and the Doog-mobile to grab some pizzas… which turn out to be both excellent and inexpensive at a place that Gill had found earlier in the day. We feast and chat and laugh and enjoy another good meal with friends… Doog and Laura fit into the group really well.

I end up crashing soon after getting back to the hotel knowing that I need to be sensible for an early morning meeting on Friday…

I am duly up at the proverbial crack of dawn and grab some breakfast with Scott before heading off to a meeting for an hour or two. There’s a bit of time between the meeting and the first workshop which is a talk by Oskar, George and Andreas. The opening ballet involved some moving music controlled by Nigel, with Oskar, Andreas and George floating their respective pieces of Oskar’s cubes into position for the assembly… it is hilarious.

Oskar takes the lead telling the story of Oskar’s Cubes over the years before Andreas talks us through the next generation of BurrTools and trying to get a room full of puzzlers walked through the radically new user interface – I haven’t taken a laptop so I’m able to concentrate on his demo and I learn a stack about it…. Chris and Dan just about manage to get through the demo… and then George talks about the manufacturing process and gives away another Bambu printer to great cheers.

We all get a copy of the puzzle to assemble (Thanks Dan!).

I have a bit of a wander and chat to all three monkeys, catch up with Doog and Tim and Rainer… I head up to the room for a sandwich because the hotel restaurant wasn’t going to be open, although it actually does seem to be open today after all – I must be confused. The sandwich is great!

After lunch I chew the fat with John a bit before we head down for Marc and Ryan’s talk about puzzle cataloguing – PUZZ.BUZZ seems to be the future and it all looks pretty handy – especially if you already have some sort of catalogue of your own – there’s an easy way to stitch yours into the motherlode!

Next up Vinco runs a fantastic workshop where we make our own copies of his OMPIC puzzle, although in fairness he’s done literally all of the hard work, so we’re literally just bevelling the pieces and then gluing them together as Vinco’s already made the boxes… everything goes together beautifully with the jigs that Vinco has given us… everything gets a coat of wax and then we’re able to play with our puzzles and pack them into their boxes. Vinco put a huge effort into teeing everything up perfectly – down to the funky behind-the-scenes videos he’s created to show us the work that went into prepping our goodie bags – it’s a great couple of hours spent with friends building a puzzle of our own. I end up spending more time than I’d care to admit finding the solution, having several spells of wondering if I’ve glued the pieces correctly when I can’t even find a cube assembly, let alone get them into the box.

We freshen up a wee bit before heading up to the Welcome Reception where there’s already quite a buzz with excited puzzlers milling around and enjoying the free wine, beer and water. There’s a charity auction table set up with a bunch of desirable puzzles laid out and there’s much excitement and speculation on the best strategy with various people trying to psych one another out. I know other’s pockets are WAY deeper than mine and I resolve to bid on a breeding pair of Standard Puzzle Hamsters, even if only to make sure that they raise a decent price… later it transpires I needn’t have worried as the bidding quickly goes way beyond what I was planning to bid anyway – it seems there are several generous people out there with a sense of humour and good knowledge of MPP meme-ology.  

 

I get to have a few chats with my mates in between the flag tossers and the marching bands and there’s a stonking great spread of dinner with plenty left over after everyone’s had their fill… I make use of the lesser-known buffet tables down in the garden rather than join the throng on the roof terrace – it feels like a good choice.

I migrate back upstairs for the auction ably handled by Kellian who seems to be introduced as Killian for some strange reason throughout the party. Anne supports her by parading the various lots around the room with someone shining a phone torch on them so that people can actually see them properly. Kellian does an excellent job of whipping up excitement and has the audience yelling out any stereotypical Italian words when they wanted to bid… so there was plenty of “Cappuccino” and “Tagliatelle” randomly being called out as money was being raised for a good cause… not sure what yet. Tom buys a little wooden chest that he’s not allowed to touch until after the end of the Party… we’re all intrigued.

The higher end puzzles become the subject of a silent auction that goes into the next day. I spend a while at the bar where I find I can get a soft drink, so a few us end up having a chat there while we hear the frantic yells of random Italian phrases still ringing out from the roof terrace. There’s a television showing the World Cup games and it’s being pretty much totally ignored…

I retire at a vaguely sensible hour, conscious that the party is going to continue for quite some time!