International Mini Meeting '99 / Mini 40th
'Become, Be or Acquire'


Saturday 14th
Don't remember at what time I got up, but while I still was in the process of waking up a guy walked up and said; 'You must be Anne Krijger' (or words along those lines anyway :) Turned out to be Carl 'THE Mini-owner of Ohio' Thompson IL, who had been asking everyone whether they were/knew me and finally had asked at the gate where I was staying. After a nice breakfast (if you like stewed tomatoes that is) I became an honorary member of the Mini Owners Club of Belgium (MOCB in short) and followed Andy onto the grounds of the BHMC to put our two Mini's in the Mini Clubs of the World display.

Carmen, Boris,
me & Bas at Camp
Mini Clubs o.t. World Trailer

Being the well organized man that he is Greg Fripp IL had made a list of provisional meeting points and times for all the events taking place that weekend. This enabled IL-ers to meet and greet. In hind-sight there was nothing provisional about it though :)
First meeting point was at the Wildgoose stand on the BHMC grounds. Around 12pm we met Greg & Marcel there again, as well as Russ and Rachel.

Caravan ? WildGeese at Large Carmen & Charles

The speaker at that time was desperate for some more clubs to enter the club competition, so Andy and I enrolled the MOCB, not knowing what the competition would entail. We would find out soon enough...
But first we listened to a interview (if you want to call reading questions from paper that way) with Dr Alex Moulton, the designer of the suspension of the Mini. (Yes a Mini _does_ have suspension ! :)

The competition seemed very simple; push a Moke around, which had mirrored steering and hit some drums hard enough to let them fall over. Why we decided to let the only non-smoker, Andy, take the wheel while Boris (who had a multitude of excuses not to drive :), Carl and myself pushed the Moke I can't remember. I do remember being totally out of breath after this little exercise. Time to get some refreshments. In the mean time more clubs had signed up for this 'fun' so we strolled around a bit looking at the various Mini's on display and caught a couple of the other clubs cheating a bit here and there :)

Dr Alex Moulton
(middle)
& Carl Push
(Andy,Boris,me,Carl)
Around and Around

The next assignment was a bit easier; pull a scaled model Moke through a zig-zag course to a Mini, disassemble it, get it and all the people through the Mini, reassemble and pull it back again. Carl had spend a good 15 minutes measuring all sides of the model as well as the room inside the Mini between the doors and the steering column ('Do the math' :), only to find the latter was removed just before the start. Although we never made it to the prize giving (we were inside the museum at that time), I'm sure we did very well on this one. Boris was a bit over enthusiastic and fell down while pulling. Hurt the rest of the week it did.
With two people who live in places where Mini-parts are few and far apart it was then time to have a look at all the trade stands. Carl's search for a model ERA body kit looked promising but turned out to be a lot harder than it seemed at first. Boris ended up buying his first part of the week, many would follow, and regretted not buying even more that first day.

Since the BHMC host a variety of special Mini's we then headed on into the museum. At the entrance we met John England IL and his wife Yvonne.
Loads of pictures were taken, among others of the rally-Mini's that won the Monte Carlo rally in the 60-ies, the #1 Mini as well as a Mini designed by David Bowie; a totally chromed Mini. By the time we were done looking at all these fine Mini's (and some other cars for that matter) the events of the day at the BHMC came to an end and we headed back to the camp-site.

Entrance Three Rally Mini's Together
with...Boris Carl and...Me
The Mini Also a Mini Andy's idea Bowie's Mini
Some Special Mini's Moke's Double Vision ?
Avenger ? Bean ? Bean !
Half a Mini makes... ...Mini !

There we met with a big blonde dude; Jukka Harkola IL from Finland and a couple of his mates. Dinner was a bit undefined again (undercooked Cumberland sausages I later learned) but was needed to be able to take the drinking that came afterwards :)
While looking at some of the pics MTB had brought, I saw a black Mini cabrio with red roof and black Mini-trailer. Turned out this was the guy who they'd met the year before and who had told them about the Mini Seven Club Netherlands (MSCN) which had got their whole adventure started. The weird thing was that this was exactly the Mini a colleague of mine had been describing of a neighbor of his packing, probably leaving for the IMM as well. And it turned out it was. What a small world we live on... During the club presentations we counted at least 25 different nationalities present, most of which had brought their Mini's.

Ze Tent Yanks Vikings Punkers Strippers

The party that followed in the party-tent is a bit hard to describe, although I can remember everything, honest I can :)
It ranged from your basic Mini-talk to stripteases and warm bodies rubbing together.
In short, we danced, talked, drank and were merry. If you want to have some fun, invite MTB, Andy, Boris, Arnoud, Jukka and let Carl.... be Carl :)
(I'm sure someone will now correct me and tell me I did forget something or someone :) And of course the band made the mistake of playing 'living next door to Alice' again. A hit ever since the IMM '95 in Sweden :)
I have no idea at what time we got back to our tents. I do remember some of us having a bit of trouble getting there on their own accord though.
Carl opted for spending the night with Arnoud (I love the way that sounds :) and I got back in Boris's (or was it my ? :) tent.

Jukka Carl
Inmar & Yvette
Carl Carl & Boris Boris Bas
Carmen
(me in back)
Carmen & Jan-Willem Wave that Bonairian Flag
Where's Your Shirt ?! Andy..
Ready To Rock and Roll ? Time to go...

 

 

Friday 13th IMM'99/
Mini 40th
Sunday 15th