Photo Show of the Maastricht 2009 Fan DinnerI have made a Photoshow of the Fan Dinner. I know there are some fans missing in it, but the photos I used are from several fans and these were the only ones I had to choose from. If any of you have more photos of any that are missing please send them to me and I will add them to the show. The link to the show is at the bottom of the article here ... Sue :)
"A Letter To Everyone From Ruud and Ineke"
Everything worked out so well with the Fan Dinner this year! First of all we were delighted that the fans payed the fan dinner amount so promptly on Ruud's pay pal account. That is very important. That works relaxing for us. A few months in advance we had received most of the money, so the last month we could concentrate on the new fans who had troubles with pay pal or who wanted to pay by bank (that takes time), the last minute changes and cancellations. Even some last minute fans paid cash by entering the boat, after we already had paid the shipping company in advance. To make it easy for us, they brought the money cash in an envelope, so no need to change coins. Bravo fans!! Your cooperation was very much appreciated.
The contacts with the manager of the shipping company Stiphout and with the servants on the boat, were wonderful. They also liked the Andre Rieu happening!! One of the servants said: I work here for 5 years now, but this is the most wonderful group we ever had! Isn't that a compliment, fans??? They loved the variety of nationalities, behaving like one big happy family.
A few of us entered the boat early at 3.30 pm, to be able to fix the decorations. The servants were still cleaning the ship, for it had sailed up and down the Maas river with tourists till 3 pm that day. The ship, named Scheldevallei (which means the valley of the Schelde-river. The "Schelde" is a river in Belgium, with a very big harbor in Antwerp), can hold 300 people. The ground floor was for 100 people and a buffet, and was reserved for us.
Ruth made 100 buttons, Chris P. made as many name tags. Alice brought for everyone a nice Canadian stamp souvenir, signed by Andre. And the Leung family made all the flags on the railing of the boat and on the tables. Jann, who could not attend the fan dinner, because she arrived at Saturday in Maastricht, sent me seven "You'll never walk alone" posters from Australia.
At the entrance Ruud checked the list of participants, so that the right people could come in and I wrote the names on a small piece of paper, for the after dinner lottery. Jann's posters were the door prizes and Ruth added very nice stationary she made out of a Vrijthof Square aquarel and an Andre bag. Fans from Brazil, England, Germany, USA and Holland won the prizes.
When I look at the pictures, I see German tables, Dutch tables and French tables, but also a lot of mixed up nationality tables. Arie (Dutch) can speak Portuguese with the Brazilian fans, Mireille can speak English and she translated for the French fans. Most German and Dutch fans can speak English, as well as the South African fans, who can speak Afrikaans and English. Chris and Siggy Plewa (USA) can also speak French and German, Sonja and John (USA) speak also Dutch and German, so it was a Babylonian chatting noise at the ship!! Wonderful!! We loved it!
At last we want to thank all the fans for the presents they gave us. We got chocolates and Mozart Kugeln for our entire family for a whole year, we got a lot of other nice gifts, from Bejing, China, to souvenirs from Maine, and other USA-states, a watch, bracelets, a wallet, Swiss and Austrian souvernirs, candy from Perth, too much, too much!
You all know you should not do that, for we work on our and your hobby, but we were very touched by your appreciation.
Love to you all,
Ruud and Ineke
12 comments:
Wonderful Photo-show Sue !
Wonderful article Ineke & Ruud !
Sure brings back pleasant memories. That was right before our 1st official concert.
Sue....aren't you sorry that you taught me a few things?????HaHa
MaryAnn
Wonderful review of all the activities, Ineke and Ruud. Sorry that we missed it. But there is always next year. And so enjoyed the previous three that you organized. They get better every year.
And now to watch the Photo shows. Many, many thanks, Sue for posting them and for all your hard work on the fantastic Parlor.
Laurie
What a beautiful photo show of the Fan Dinner, Sue, it made me feel like I was almost there!! Thanks so much to you and Ruud and Ineke!!
Eileen
Thank you Sue for the wonderful photo show and thanks Ineke and Ruud for all your work and planning of the fan dinner. It was so much fun meeting everyone. The friendship and cooperation among Andre fans is just incredible.
Kay
Loved your report and both photoshows, Ineke and Ruud.
We are all so fortunate to have you both organizing everything so well for fans going to Maastrich and relaying it all to those of us who watch from afar.
Thanks for posting,Sue.,and passing everything on to Jann for the Aussie Site.
Cheers
Bernadette
Okay, MaryAnn, what was it that Sue taught you?? If it was something bad, I WANNA learn too!
This was so wonderful to watch! I tried to guess as many names as I could before names came up on the screen - and look forward to the day when I will meet them in person. I have met a handful, but most I only know through email or fan sites. Thank you so much Ruud & Ineke for organizing things like this over the years, and thank you Sue for pulling it together in a way we can all see it, read about it & feel like we were almost there, too!
I would like to echo the thoughts of the previous contibutors. Congratulations and thanks to all concerned
Fantastic, just fantastic !!!
Aren't we all proud to be in a 'team' like this !!!
Adele
Thanks Ineke, Ruud for this most memoriable photo show for me personally since this was my first trip to charming Maastricht. The fan dinner was a class act with all the class to go with it. Thanks Sue for posting, oh my what an experience!
Martha
Sorry mispelled a word, I can write at times.
Martha
Alice ~ Me??? Teach Mary Ann anything BAD???? ;-)
She never knew you could make comments on the articles here until I told her the other day. It's a whole new world to her now!! :)
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