Windy Larp

This weekend I tried out a new character a noble with lots of lace handkerchiefs, this was difficult because I had to forget all the knowledge I had, however the character was a lot more useful in a fight than my primary character who normally stands around because he's a pacifist and very fragile, one blow drops him. The costume I'm told looked good, although because it was shinny and new I found a reluctance to lie in the dirt, which will fade as the costume gets worn in, one of the refs liked my hat so much he kept firing arrows into it mainly he said it was the look of disgust on face that my hat was ruined.






The weekend was very windy with bits falling out the trees, one small branch (about the diameter of finger) hit with a bang and actually punctured our day tent, only the leaves and smaller branches stopping it passing straight through onto out heads.

On Monday the rain came with a vengeance, pulling guy ropes out of the ground which collapsed the tent so I had to dash and re-peg the ropes mid fight, getting my costume very wet, saying that I was nowhere near as wet as the crew who did a stirling job fighting outside the tavern while most stayed dry. I should not complain since it appeared other friends around the country had worse problems with broken tent poles, and a whole tree blocked the main road not far from our camp site.

My weekend did go to plan

I seem to have spent this weekend with things not quite going to plan, this started Saturday when I was washing a bunch of red and brown coloured cloths at low temperature, something in there must have bled red, since all the white stripes on one Tshirt are now pink, my jeans pockets are now pink on the inside, and other labels or uncoloured items are now pink, not a total disaster since the pockets cannot be seen and the stripes in the T shirt are very thin so I can still wear it, but I did not think die in modern clothing bled so much at 40degC, my mother said I should wash new red or navy cloths in salt first.

I went shopping in Derby's new Westfield centre, but ended up getting everything I needed from local indoor market, I also called in on AndyL & Heather on the way back from Derby, I only nipped in but ended staying 3 hours, discussing characters, looking at Paris photo's and other stuff, so by the time I done most of the day had gone of a weekend I needed to get busy.

Later that evening I went along to Andy's & Heathers they had arranged a baby sitter for a evening for the 1st time in months and I was going to the cinema to see Iron Man with them, on arrival they had just had a poo disaster their youngest girl having got runny diarrhea exploding over a blanket, they had to cancel the cinema and the baby sitter. I trumped she said, to which Daddy replied you did a little more than trump.

I stayed with them and watched a DVD once the kids had retired, the DVD was called Night Watch a kind Russian version of the Matrix, about 1/4 of an hour into the film I was really struggling to follow the plot via subtitles, they did not make sense, then further into the film Andy says I think we are missing 1/2 the conversation so he went back into the menu and took us off hard of hearing mode onto the dubbed English version. The film then started to make more sense or at least the conversation. I was entirely unconvinced by the movie, which to me was weird for weird sake.

Sunday I set out to put some costume bits together, I made a neck tie jabot (sorry don't know if that's the name for it) type thing which did not turn out to plan, but is good enough for now. but having took far longer than planned, spending time updated maps, playing with ribbon, I never made it outside to cut the hedge, I will have to find time one night this week.

I did eventually get to see Iron Man Sunday evening Heather rang, they had re-arranged a baby sitter in the form of Meridian Ariel. Great movie if you like that sort of thing, and I do.

So I only did half of what I planned for this weekend, and the things I did didn't end up quite right, so I now feel ready for day off to catch up.

Lots of driving

I'm not long back from sunny but chilly Edinburgh after a visit for work, a pleasant trip passing thousand of football supporters on the way to Manchester easily identified by numerous scarves and flags covering their cars, it must add ten quid to the petrol cost with extra drag created, and some of the flags where the size of car bonnets.

Anyway Scotland and back in day involves leaving the house at 4am in the morning and eleven hours sitting behind the wheel of the car, I suppose I should stay over and come back the following day, but driving doesn't hurt and like to get home, so provided I don't start yawning I drive it.

Although this is on top of Ascendancy LRP event at the weekend which was tiring, its not the physical activities, but the lack of sleep, driving and getting home at midnight. At least I had the following day off.

The event was good one, I enjoyed it, had nice little part in the event involving calling on my characters abilities to get rid of big bad MrT (JeffRef) as he motivated my character by looming over ProffG (Julies character). I had no idea of what my abilities were but they seemed to do the trick.
While at the event I tried on my costume for a new character and got some advice from Julie and DaveP on how to bling it, both agreed on the hat choice, which was also my favorite so that was settled I just have purchase and make the bling.

We had a bit of fun with my make up that wouldn't dry, which I'm now thinking of replacing since its found its way on to my costume, water based is apparently what I need.

On the way home Julie and DaveP also filled in some missing details on the maps for the Ascendancy game and spotted a error with the position of the Rat Run which I corrected, this unfortunately took about an hour and half at the 1st services when we only stopped for coffee, so it was 9pm before we got to next services to eat.

I have attached a cat picture from Friday before the event, Jasmine was hiding among all the bags I'd packed. Below that is a picture of Izzanbard, my main characters new costume.(not my new character costume)

Food, bikes and haircuts

Saturday started with me getting up late around 8am after a late evening playing cards till midnight, followed by a trip to the barbers which was heaving and saw me sandwiched in the waiting area between a far too chatty grandmother (suspected grandmother, possible great great grandmother) in her miniskirt and 3 kids having their hair cut and a 25 stone man listening and singing (out of tune) to his ipod while exuding a very unpleasant garlicky odour. One of the Grandmothers kid dropped a lollipop on the floor, the grandmother picked it up gave lick clean before handing back to the child, which I must say made me wince a little looking at the state of the very hairy barbers floor, still I remember my own Grandmother doing something similar things and even rescuing a chicken out the dust bin my mother had discarded.


In the afternoon I decided I needed to go look at bikes, it could be one of my the worst investment, but I've decided I needed to give riding to work a go, I've no excuse as my friend Julie says I work close to home and its downhill all the way (uphill all the way back though) and I need to do something other than sit in car, sit at a computer at work or sit at home painting figures or reading books. So inspired by Julie and Dave I will see if I can make it work, but I may in a months time find I have a bicycle shaped trip hazard or bicycle shaped clothes hanger. My friends laughed at me (jokingly) later that evening at the idea of me biking to work and suggested I hang a bike on wall as a trendy decoration...hmmm, I didn't fight back since its likely they may proved right.


I quickly called in to see AndyL after a Ste phone me after a particular comic/magazine he couldn't get. AndyL looked shattered from his 3 late nights in a row and it was free comic day so shop the shop was quite busy.


On Saturday evening I went to my friends AndyT & Linda for tea, (Chris's parents for my LRP friends) with other friends Ste and Deb. The food I hate was far too spicy (I don't mind small amounts of spicy, so long as its not too hot) and combined with the 1st 3 glasses of wine i'd drank in while, meant I ended up waking up in the night with heartburn and could find no form anti acid in the house, so had a bad nights sleep. Apart from the food and drink which didn't agree with me it was a very good evening.


Yesterday morning I went to Halfords to buy a bike, the cheapest one in the shop of the style I wanted, I also purchased a helmet, bike lock and maintenance after asking for advice.
Then a practice run on some quiet roads, well I did half an hour, but on the last very steep hill my legs had turned to jelly and couldn't get started and travel in a straight line at the same time, so pushed the bike until the hill got a little gentler and then finished my ride back home, feeling extremely unfit and nowhere near ready to cycle to work, more practise and a lot more stamina. I went out again today, this time finding a route with no steep hills, a very difficult task in Derbyshire, I travelled around the local council estate doing a couple of figures of eight, still only about half an hour, but that felt plenty. I found I also need to build a little confidence especially at junctions where traffic is behind you or you need to cross traffic, currently I'm either getting off and pushing the bike across the road or waiting for the car to pass me before I attempt the junction.


I also watched The Golden Compass DVD having missed out at the cinema, the film was great really enjoyed it and recommend it.


So what else did I do this weekend, I finished the last 3 of 7 maps of the Ascendancy Continents for the website, a complilation of bits of the maps below and did a bit sewing.

Friday nights are magic

Friday nights can be eventful even if your not a party, pub, nightclub person.

This Friday evening having been asked by Andy I went to his and my 1st Magic The Gathering card competition in the Chimera shop, where you hand over money for sealed packs of cards and then make your own deck there and then to play with.
I have played Magic with friends only, well 2 friends before and like most people acquired 1000's of cards in a fad that lasted about 2 years before I stopped and lost touch, so I did not know what to expect.
Andy started the evening with 7 players, unfortunately a odd number, fortunately for me 6 out of the 7 players me included in that 6 had also not played for a while and like me had never played in tournaments, so apart the one player that travelled around the Midlands playing in tournaments we were all on level playing field.
With a bit of luck like in all games I managed to win enough games to get to the playoff final with unsurprisingly the regular tournament player as my opponent, he trounced me destroying me in record time to win, still I came second so I should be proud of that, and I won even more cards as my prize and enjoyed the evening as well.

Andy is now trying to fix up regular tournaments, I think I may well give them a go for while.

Diet news

All I can says is I don't seem to be on a diet no more, I've stopped weighing myself and instead of reducing portion sizes they seem to have managed to creep back up to where I started.
I need to reinvigorate this diet or start doing more exercise, actually more is perhaps is the wrong word some exercise.

Anyway I found this quote which I've amended slightly

"I've been on a diet for two months and all I've lost is two months."