Free tickets

[william]

A few months ago Henri macaux informed '' a chosen few '' that the chinese would be handing out 80 free tickets ( around 10 for checkers I believe) to the FMJD. I was among those chosen along with Alex ; Ron ; Richard etc.

This sounded great and as soon as they needed information I supplied it very quickly , ( Just a couple of days before I was informed of this , as Alex DID DO , I was actually on the verge of buying my round trip).

The following info was asked for ,,, date of birth , passeport number ; date of entry into china , date of exit , and departure point ; to which I replied outgoing 10 10 08 ; return 18 10 08 from PARIS.

last week the tickets came ,,, outgoing 08 10 08 !! return 20 ( arrive next day!!) from LONDON !!!! (I actually live in Paris).

Now appart from having to work for a living , I actually have limited holidays , and would have appreciated that they respect my requests, and some of those holidays I like to spend with my familly when they are not annoying me too much (lol) and found the whole affair of asking for the information then a bit pointless , useless ,,call it what you like!!

I am not alone ;; there are belgians having to leave from germany ; Greeks having to leave from Turkey etc etc etc .!!!

The gift from the chinese , and the efforts put in by macaux ,john reade and others are highly praisable ; but my conclusion is that the chinese should perhaps have been guided a bit more in the ticket distribution.

Finally I would like to apologise to someone ; I don't know who ; because if I had known it would turn out like this
then I would have given up my ticket to that person , who could have left from London.
*As it is now I will be buying a ticket from Paris , with my own money , and extremely sorry to say this ( yes yet another )
ticket will be lost. I AM SORRY .

I am sure the next Olympics will be easier to organise!!

As for the British Visas , we all sent our information , passeports etc. to john reade ,who has been doing a fabulous job

and the consulate told him that we had to do it on our own. Some at london embassy , some at welsh embassy ; myself in the Paris embassy.

Just one hitch , there is only 1 original of the group invitation , ... John will be sending out copies , but no one knows yet if they accept copies or demand on visa request all originals.

If we get to China , we will request the hurdles gold medal ,,

I am today not very optimistic especially when i hear that there are quite a few who have abandoned ;; I hope there is still a chance

william





.

[Ingo_Zachos]

...
Just one hitch , there is only 1 original of the group invitation , ... John will be sending out copies , but no one knows yet if they accept copies or demand on visa request all originals.
...

We were told that in case of Dennis Pawlek, who has to arrange his trip from Bangkok, Thailand, a copy of the invitation and reservation will be sufficient, even a scan-copy mailed by the internet.
Plus they already had the list at the embassy, and it seems like they were perfectly informed at least here in Germany.
Only problem was that the hotel reservation for referees was not included in the reservation for apartments, and had not arrived at the embassy, too.

...
If we get to China , we will request the hurdles gold medal ,,
...

hey William, you've ain't seen nothing yet.
Don't you know that the chinese invented bureaucracy?
Remember that Konfuzius was a high-ranked bureauocrat.

...
I am today not very optimistic especially when i hear that there are quite a few who have abandoned ;; I hope there is still a chance
...

chances r very good, william.
And we might find a few interested daughts 100 playewrs to join our event if there are places left, so don't worry.


Do you know what I am thinking about?

How they allocate the appartments?
I was told there r teo rooms with two beds in each appartment, so will they allocate the players by country (all Germans in the same room), by competioion (all checker players in the same room), and when do we get to know?

BTW:
You also have to fill a table for the Chinese organizers that shows your flight dates and flight numbers.
But I tjink John has enough information to do that.

Greetinx from Dortmund close to midnight,

Ingo