Ute's MIRA Debrief 2002
1. Arrival on June 13, 2002
After a very exciting tour from Montreal to St. Hyacinthe, Tamara, Llona,
Cordula and me (we had some problems with left and right) with the help
of a fireman we finally arrived a the "Hotel des Seigneures", our event
hotel.
A few Royettes from Ohio were already there, only to mention Littleshelly,
Pam, Ebby and Lina from Germany.
We unpacked our suitcases and went down for registration. Ebby told us
registration will be from 8 am until 3 pm on Friday. So we went for shopping
looked a little bit around and then we met the others again to go
to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. There was a lot of names to learn
but they all were such beautiful ladies. I sat right opposite of
Sharon, who told as a lot about the cruise she made together with
Don Francks a few weeks ago.
The event hotel is outside of the city between a mall and a huge market
called "Zellars", all kind of food is available too, as Pizza Hut, Kentucky
chicken, Chinese food and Tim Hortons.
Back at the hotel, we had a goodnight drink at the bar and met more
beautiful ladies.
We laughed a lot and some told us about the past Cons. I had some
problems to sleep. I was very nervous because nobody knows what would be
tomorrow. Would heeeeeeeeeee come or not ?
2. The day of the race June 14, 2002
The next morning we went for registration.
We got our identification cards round the neck and a nice big filled bag
with a lot of Mira and Roy stuff.
A nice MIRA shirt and an apron as well as an absolute beautiful picture of
Roy from Seraphin, a brandnew photo made exclusively for the event signed by
him. OMG !!! He looks heart-breaking......
At registration we met Dana, I saw her name on the card and asked her if she
has a ff site of LFN and she told me yes and I told her, that we know each
other, we had already mailed. I asked her to go for a coffee with us to
Tim Horton's.
We had a lot to talk and then again we did a small shopping tour and
afterwards we went home preparing us for the race, we wanted to look
best for Roy so make-up, perfume and lipsticks were used.
We were really creative with our hair and I think our room was
smelling like a chemical factory.
In the hall of the hotel there was a flip chart and all what we need to know
was mentioned there. This morning we read departure for the race at 17.30 h
and meeting time at 17.00 h. It was already after 17.30 h when we
started our tour. We had a little plan for the way from the hotel
to Granby and we tried to drive in a convoy but at the first traffic
light we already lost the first cars of the convoy and our guide Simon. So
we had problems to find our way, we followed one car, but they didn't know
the way either. So at least we drove into a petrol station and asked for the
way.
Three men stood outside and they already laughed when they saw us
coming. 5 women (Tamara, Llona, Cordula, Dana and me) dressed like going
to the disco looked for the way to the dirty Autodrome of Granby.
You could see on their faces what they thought.......5 mad women.......
Nevertheless we tried to find our way and suceeded at the end. We had
special places on the parking and then we waited for the others,
which hadn't arrived all yet.
Suddenly Dana pushed me and said look there it's him, I looked in the
direction Dana showed and in fact it was him, I only saw the beret
and I knew he was there. We stood like statues watching him but
he was too far to see him well. He was laughing signing posters
and autographs for the MIRA staff and the people from the Autodrome.
He was here ...finally...after all our doubts and hopes, he was here. OMG
!!!
Some of us started to film him by video and others tried to take pictures
but it was too far away. Simon was coming with the rest of our group
and so we walked into the Autodrome.
Inside we had special seats just right at the front of the racecourse so
that we had a very good view.
And now we had to wait. The race started officially at 19.45 h. I thought
that we would have the possibility to meet Roy before the race. On the
programme we saw the number of the car which Roy was using.
But Simon calmed us down and told us that we will meet Roy and
asked us for a little patience. As we are not like Nikita (a little bit
older but not cooler......*LOL* for him my patience would be lifelong)
we had the patience. But nothing happened for a while and we were
sliding on our seats.
Then we saw that Roy, the other drivers and codrivers went
in a big crowd with journalists under flashlights to their cars.
Not much later Simon came and said it's time to go now.
All excited but calm we walked over there through the wet
sand to the cars.
My heart was bumping loudly when we were coming nearer and nearer. OMG
!!!!!!!
I saw him first from behind. We walked round his car and then we were
standing in front of him and he smiled. This smile of him can give
you a heart attack. Simon told us that Roy had agreed
that we could take personal photos with him, always two ladies.
To see him only one step away from me was so wonderful his eyes, his
beautiful face. I thought I'm dead and in heaven now. The bodyguards
had a lot to do they always had to warn the crowd to let him a little space.
All the ladies were taking photos without stopping and so a lot of
flashlights were used. Then 2 ladies started to say hello to Roy shaking
his hand and stood besides him on each side. You could change a few words
with him, he put his arms around their shoulders and smiled.
When Tamaras and my turn came I shook his hand and told him in French,
that my name was Ute and I was coming from Germany.
He couldn't believe this then he told me that he knows 2 German
words "Vorsicht und Achtung" and asked me what they mean while laying his
arm around me. I felt his hand on my shoulder I watched him from the side
and I was nearly collapsing. I don't remember if Tamara asked him something.
Then waiting for my answer he turned his head again in my direction......OMG
...These eyes on me...I nearly fainted, my knees got weak...and at least I
answered him his question trembling like a 15-year-old teenager who was
in love the first time that it means "Be careful and Attention".
Then we said good-bye and he whished us a lot of fun. When all photos had
been taken, Roy tried to get a little distance between him and his fans, I
think he wanted to concentrate himself on the race and the never ending
flashlights were disturbing him at least. Simon told us, that we have
to leave now.
Roy watched us going and wished us a lot of fun and promised us a good
laugh.
We sat down on our seats being into a trance and short after that the race
was started. Every round when Roy was passing us we all shouted loudly
Roy...Roy....and applauded him. The race was very funny but I
think it's a little bit dangerous too. After ten rounds and a lot of
crashed cars Roy and his driver Lawrence who is a very nice
guy too got the 4th place and the race was finished because of
too many damaged cars at the course.
Roy was interviewed in French afterwards. I couldn't understand
much but at the end the interviewer asked him to say something
special to the audience and then he said in English in our
direction: I'm greeting all the people coming from the States and
from Europe,what brought him a big applause from us.
3. The After-Race-Party
After the race our convoy started again. We saw Roy leaving with his car and
asked ourselves if Roy would visit the party too. The party took place in a
hotel not far away from the Autodrome.
Again we had some problems in finding the way and with the parking but at
least the cars were parked and we were on our way inside.
Reaching a big hall filled with lots of people and loud music I already saw
him standing a few meters in front of me. I think I would see him
everywhere.
As far as I remember one of his director's wrote in an interview, when he
enters a room everybody looks at him, feeling his presence. This is
something you cannot learn, you have it or not. He has it.
First I could not believe that he was giving us the honor of being with us
that evening. He stood in the middle of the room and it seemed
that nobody knew what to do now. One or two of us talked to him, but not
very long and then he stood alone again. Me with my knees very weak,
I went to him and asked: „Would you do me a favour ?“ He smiled as
always and asked me:
„What kind of favour?“ I answered: „Would you give me some autographs ?"
He looked around for a table and said to me:“Come with me!“ (who wouldn’t
follow him....*LOL*) then he said: „Sit down!“ as this was the best
for my knees I obeyed and sat down for more than 3 hours.
He asked me what he should write and I asked for something personal
later we often laughed because he had some problems with our names
but with Ute he hadn’t problems at all....*LOL*
In the meantime Tamara sat on his right side and Llona on my left side.
The others formed a line and all looked to find something where he
could give them an autograph. When he was finished with mine I thanked
and hugged him. I can still smell him and feel him, will never forget that.
It’s so bad that I had to wash my face...................*LOL*
You have already heard from others what was talked during the following
hours. He asked me a lot about my home country and I answered all of his
questions. He loves classic German music like Bach, Beethoven and Wagner
and he talked about „The last Chapter 2“.
I cannot repeat all, but I can say that he is really such a nice, sweet
and funny guy. He listened to everybody with a lot of
patience, you could tell him what you wanted. He waited until you were
finished, not pressing and he had nice words for everybody too.
He likes joking and laughed a lot. He looked "live" even better than in
every film I saw with him.
And when he laughed his face was that of a boy. And those eyes...OMG...
Sometimes I had to behave myself not to stare at him the whole time then
I looked at his hands but then it seemed that something forced me to look
back at his face. He is so beautiful.....a gentleman......charming....
..sweet..patient......this list would be endless........
When the last of us stood up from the chair, he stood up too
and two police officers accompagnied himto his car and paid attention
that nobody was following him.
We the last ones stood outside the hall when he passed us. Again he said
good-bye and wished us a lot of fun with the still coming days.
My eyes couldn’t leave him until he got into his car and drove
away and then I watched him until I couldn’t see him any longer.
When we drove back to our hotel, it was very calm inside the car.
We were in shock, before the race nobody had believed
that that could happen. It was nearly unbelievable, that he had
spent over 3 hours with us.
Back at the hotel we couldn’t sleep, at least it was nearly 4 o’clock
in the morning when we fell in our ROYal sleep.
3. MIRA
On Saturday morning the most of us were still in a kind of trance or
dazzing, disbelieving and doubting what was happened the day before. But when our car convoy started again in the direction to MIRA we slowly came back to reality. This time we had no problem with finding the location. Meanwhile it had started to rain and the staff from MIRA welcomed us. We were parted into 4 groups because there were 4 different parts of MIRA to visit. My group started with the obstacle course and for me it was quite difficult to let myself lead "blind" through the course by the
dog (in general I have a problem to let me lead even with dancing, so it wasn't a surprise for me, that it was the same with the dog......*LOL*)
"Paprika" was a beautiful and nice dog, but that didn't make it easier for
me. Here I have to make a compliment to Simon, Dani, Pierre and all the others, they had a lot of patience with us and tried to help us as much as they could.
After the course we went to the main office. We saw 2 films about the
work of MIRA. The first was about a working dog, helping handicapped
persons and the second was about a 12 year old blind boy who got
a " Suisse Sennerdog" as a leading dog.
MIRA is the only organisation, that gives dogs to kids of 12 years,
in other countries only kids from 14 years and up can get a dog.
It was interesting to see what a very important help those dogs
can be and that they are real comrades to the people they are helping or
leading.
We learned that the dogs were given to the people but the owner of every dog is still MIRA. MIRA is paying all the food or medicine for the dogs during the time they were "working" (between 6-8 years). Then the dogs retire and it is very hard for the people to give the dogs away and take
a new one, that often causes problems. After retiring MIRA is searching a
home where the dogs can live without working until the end of their
lives and in such case Mira is then giving up their ownership.
The third location were the puppies. OMG !!!!!! We saw 6 weeks (hope I
remember right) old Labrador puppies, they were so sweet and so tired
and everybody who wanted could touch them. We were told that the
dogs stay at MIRA until the first year of their life, then they were
given to a family to learn "normal" daily life with noises and voices.
After a year they come back to MIRA and they are evaluated for what kind
of work leading or helping or others they can be used and a fitting client
is searched. The client comes for one week to MIRA and meets the dog.
If the trainer has the feeling that dog and client fit together the dog is
trained especially for the necessities of this special person.
After his training and before MIRA is giving the dog to
the client, dog and client have to be trained for 4 weeks together and
then both can start their common life.
The last location was the guest house, where the people live who
are trained 4 weeks together with the dogs.
All that was very impressing and interesting so we nearly forgot about
Roy........*LOL*
At the end we bought some souvenirs and we were in a hurry to
return to the hotel because the next event of the day was the
"Blind Dinner" and it should start soon.
At 5 o'clock p.m. we were standing in front of the dining room with
"blind" eyes and we were guided into the room to our tables and seats.
It was a real experience to eat "blind". The meal consisting of salad,
spaghetti and a dessert lasted much longer than a normal dinner would have.
But we had a lot of fun. At our table no "accident" happened.
Now we could imagine how difficult it can be to put a little salt on your
noodles if you are blind or to pour some water into a glass.
As a "blind" your feeling for sizes or rooms is much different. The dining
room was really large, but for me "blind", I thought it was much smaller.
After the dinner we got a small concert with French chansons from one of our blind mentors called Yvam. He had a beautiful voice.
It was already late and we had to hurry to come in time to the video
presentation..
Ooooooohhhhhhhh……….it started with the best M/N photos from LFN
together with a beautiful music……..then we saw some scenes from different
Royfilms and deleted scenes from LFN season 3 to 5, very interesting,
at the end Bloopers from season 4 as well as some dailys from Seraphin.
We had so much fun watching all those videos together as a group.
Last but not least we had our beautiful Royettes party and it was really
nice to meet other Royettes.
After a hard but great day we fell in a dreamless sleep early in the
morning.
4. The auction
Like every morning during the days of the event we were in a hurry and this last day
was something very special for me too because I was volunteering as a runner at the MIRA Charity Auction. The auction began at 12.00 o'clock and was scheduled until 3.00 o'clock p.m. I had to be in the auction room half an hour before to get my instructions. I had never done this in my life, and so I was a little bit exhausted. But all went well and finally the auction lasted until 5.30 p.m. and I was over 5 hours on my feet, but if you ask me today I didn't notice it and I enjoyed every second. When I saw the more than 150 items for bidding, my heart nearly stood still. The photographs, the posters, the magazines, the clothes or the artwork, the handmade craft and nearly all signed or worn by Roy.........OMG !
It was such a pleasure to touch and to present all those wonderful things and the amount what
we got for MIRA was worth every second of work.
By the way, there was such a nice and beautiful working atmosphere between all the helpers of all "working" groups like registration desk, the photographers, the auction team, the
accounting team.
The hardest thing on this evening was to say good-bye to all the people I have met there for
the first time and to all those I have already mailed for a long time and seen there the first
time.
Finally there is only one thing left to say......I'm really looking forward to the
MIRA CHARITY EVENT 2003 to meet again all the beautiful ladies and gentlemen
I had the honour to meet 2002 and perhaps some new ones………..