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

Thursday 19th
Was the day of the M.I.N.I. List Curry dinner in Woking, organized by Greg Fripp.

As you can imagine (if you read Wednesday report that is), most of the day was spent at John's workshop, working on Jan-Willem's Mini.
A replacement (Metro) engine, for not too much money, was sourced by John and the broken engine was taken out and the new one put in.
Now this sounds simple, but it does takes a lot more work than it does to say it. Removing the exhaust even proved to be a rather painful experience for Andy :) (Then again, he already has 3 kids :)

'New' Engine	Old	Out

Those of us not directly involved (or needed; how many captains can a ship have ?) spent the day doing some chores (washing, making sandwiches) or fiddling around on our own Mini's. This next to giving moral support obviously. Personally I talked to John about the erratic running of the Van in the mornings (but didn't come to any final conclusions) and did a compression-test together with Arnoud. The latter set off for Silverstone later in the afternoon. At the end of it the work had progressed nicely, but still needed quite some finishing. When we were about ready to leave my Van ran more erratic then before. A quick look by Andy proved sabotage by Arnoud who had switched the leads.

After cleaning ourselves up back at camp we we left a bit on the late side for the Curry dinner in Woking, about an one hour drive from Southampton.
Greg had done a brilliant job organizing the dinner and about 40 to 50 Listers had turned up to honor his trouble.
The dinner was simply brilliant; finally we could meet the people we spend a lot of time talking Mini's with over the internet.
Of course those whom I hadn't met before didn't look anything like I had imagined them to, which is quite normal though :)

ILC I	ILC II	ILC III	ILC IV	ILC V	ILC VI
ILC VII	ILC VIII	ILC IX	ILC X	ILC XI

Food was good, company was great and got to meet what seemed a zillion new faces next to meeting the old ones I already knew. So before we knew it it was time to go back again. Andy had decided to stay near Woking at Scott Beavis's place, who apparently had some trouble finding his own home again :)
Back at camp we hung out for a short while again before turning in. With Boris arriving at Heathrow the next day, this was going to be the last night Carl and I spent together (in the same tent that is :). And again I fell asleep mid-sentence :)