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This summary was originally written by Karl-Johan, with some comments from Patrik, Nicklas and Björn (given in "[ ]").
Some pictures from the Social are now available, thanks to Carin and Patrik.
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving notes that become books. Books fades to films, and even the film is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In an Age, called the Television Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose over the Atlantic ocean, blowing eastwards and gathering rain and cold on its way, striking the two darkfriends who struggled to reach Gothenburg. Not that it was much of a struggle, since the Darkfriends were traveling by train, and the train had to make two extra-long stops due to being ahead of schedule, but we do have to do some things for dramatic effect. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
Upon leaving the train the two Darkfriends, Nicklas Andersson besides yours truly, noted that the weather in Gothenburg was not good this Sunday afternoon, with the rain more often raining horizontally than vertically. Considering the temperature was just a few degrees above zero, this was not pleasant, and we quickly found that Carin and Patrik had had the same idea as us, seeking shelter inside the meeting-place instead of outside.
But first a a recapitulation from the previous Gothenburg DFS (which took place exactly one year before this one, which I didn't realise until it was time to write this report) discussion:
Somehow (though it might not be that much a coincidence), Patrik and Carin managed to spend most of the evening close to each other and talking a lot. We'll see what happens...
Which is exactly what now has happened, even though it was hardly said anything about it but with body language. Should we bring some champagne to the next one?
[Patrik: That won't be necessary. We'll do just fine without ceremonies.]
Anyway, after settling in a dry and warm place we set out to wait for the other Darkfriends, known and unknown. Those in attendance, in no other order than an arbitrary one: Samuel Kleiner, Oskar Brandt, Nicklas Andersson (still present), Mikael Berglund, Karl-Johan Norén (surprise surprise), Christian Johansson, Björn Wennberg, Johan Klockars, Annika Bergstrand (having recently moved to Gothenburg), Carin Wesslau and Patrik Montgomery. Kjell Ståhl couldn't attend due to being ill (hope you're well now!), and Glenn Fallhorn was for some reason unable to leave Karlstad. Annika had wisely went directly to the restaurant, so she didn't have to endure the ordeal of walking a distance that appeared to become longer and longer ("we'll just follow the canal"), against the wind and - consequently - the rain. The infamous "five-block walk" was mentioned, but I doubt it was far from as bad as that, except that Oskar's already WIA umbrella became KIA.
Anyway, we arrived at the restaurant, a mongolian one named Bamboo and found Annika already present. After having settled, gotten the introductions out of the way and having ordered we set in on a rather expensive but very good eat-all-you-want dinner, mongolian style, which seemingly means you pick up all the things you want from a collection of meat, seafood and vegetables, adds sauce and then have it given a combined frying and boiling. When you add that we got a good starter and dessert it wasn't very surprising that we left the place stuffed.
Discussion concerned many things, among them that film, fantasy, some Jordan material, latin (both Oskar and Björn study it), translations and quite a few other things. Anyway, in the lull between the main course and the dessert we had a short Trivia Quiz, organised by yours truly with the prize of a signed copy of my latest book together with a certain receipt from the Swedish Postal Giro regarding an insertion of 1 SKR as a bookmark.
For those interested in such, here's the quiz:
Noone figured out the answer to the elimination question (which would give instant victory), but Nicklas won a decisive victory with four correct answers, even though he missed the last question despite having read the book(s) just two months earlier.
In the inofficial recurring race for The Last Finished Eater Oskar took a clear victory when he appeared with his third plate during the dessert order, a plate which was so over-laden that the bottom seemed at danger at falling out at any moment.
After that we decided to go see some flick, and after long discussions we had settled on the new Bond (not a surprising decision). Until then we spent the time walking around in the Gothenburg evening, which was quite nice at that time, sitting yakking in a cafeteria and waiting for Carin to finish shopping candy. Topics continued with literature, computers, camels & committees beside some RJ discussion. My theory of that Alanna would die in the next book came up again. Before we went to see Bond Oskar departed, since he'd already seen it (though Johan was quite willing to watch it again), and Annika had to Carin's chagrin ("sole girl again") left already at the restaurant. We also took some group photos, and a few of the ugly porcelain horses we were given at the restaurant (that one was a first!) as well as some other ones. Should be here RSN.
[Björn: Where is my theory about that Berelain is a lesbian? What's the world coming to?]
[Karl-Johan: I probably missed because I didn't listen.]
[Nicklas: Yes, you listened. You almost shouted: "Don't mix in the Reds, don't mix in the Reds!"]
[Karl-Johan: Seems I'm either getting senile, or has really effective repression mechanisms.]
After having watched Bond we were rather agreed that this one was one of the better Bonds as of late. You had the plot with a mad mastermind, war mongers, obese Americans, the big bad henchman (who looked and sounded quite like Rob Pfeifer to me), femme fatale and femme fatalité (both in rather large doses) and a plot which was geared towards action, witty one-liners and things blowing up rather than for consistency or believability. But what the heck, it's Bond, even though he didn't get to say "Shaken, not stirred", so who cares. The most jarring thing was that the scriptwriters managed to make Bond ignorant of Greek mythology! Oedipus my ass! What did they do, hire an American to write the script?!?
[Patrik about the Rob Pfeifer-lookalike: Seconded!]
Well, after a pleasent night for all we called it, and we split up for our respective trams and buses, during which the fantasy & sf discussion continued, drawing me at least a few amused looks as I left the tram after having made a long monologue about fantasy.
After that not much happened except for both the people at Patrik's place (Carin, Christian and Björn) as well as Johan's (myself and Nicklas) stayed up a long time yakking, and at least I came back home in one piece, and I hope the rest of you also did that and had a good time as well. Stay tuned for coming DFSs, even though we didn't discuss it much.
Some quotes out of context:
"We are not going to see that movie."
"The answers to these questions."
"You have to agree, Stockholm is better than Gothenburg."
"Don't look at me, I'm not from there."
"You sure like cream..."
"I had expected you coming out with him carrying a bag of candy several sizes bigger."
"So having only a water costs money, but if you ask for a soda and a water, the water's free."
"Is it chicken in this soup?"
"It seems I've put 100 SKR too much into the pot."
"How do you say 'Släng dig i väggen' in Latin?"
"Quite frankly, M, I don't think you have the balls for this job."
"Maybe, but that means I don't have to think with them."
(Yeah, this one is cheating, but who cares.)
"I'm trying to talk. Can't anyone hear me?"
"Every time I try to get some chocolate cake I get something weird, like creme caramel."
"Must be really strange guy to be able to speak in CAPITALS!"
Karl-Johan Norén,
kjnoren@hem3.passagen.se