Mud and flies

I spent my weekend crewing a Ascendancy Larp event for Alex, a special one off event to celebrate his birthday and also see off two of his friends emigrating to America.

(Alex wearing his Raven Hat)

The event was at a Shining cliff, a regular site that despite a lovely weekend of weather was more muddy than it gets in the winter due a good month of rain preceding. The damp conditions had brought out the flies and the whole forest buzzed quite loudly with millions of them, at least the forest ants where not as active as usual.

(Me has one of Finalays elite guard)

Julie wrote the event more or less on her own the odd idea was thrown at her but I'd been concentrating on future events and battles, other ref RichS had been ill with zombie plague pig flu and Andy was tied up with future prospects for his store, so it all fell on her to organise so I was glad she at least made one day to see the players and be involved in her hard work.

(Photo below Julie has a villager)

Alex got a few birthday plot surprises, and the players really enjoyed themselves, it was a one off for them so not sure they will be back but I heard at least one say the event had made him want to take up larping again, so it was a great success.

(Julie has the Noodle lady in disguise)

On Saturday I manage to kneel on a sharp stone heavily which not only cut my knee open but made it swell overnight, even though I didn't discover the cut until I showered. Then I had nocturnal leg cramp which made my eyes water and left me limping for the first 30 minutes of my morning. To add to my woes I discovered by time I reached the event around 10am Sunday morning I had begun too fell ill with something, I felt weak, queasy, cold and clammy and started to get a pounding headache, I can only assume I must have looked a little pale or ill since Andy kept asking me if I was alright, however by the time of the last encounter I was feeling much better, and feel fine now apart tired and aching muscles.

Other than that I really enjoyed myself both days, Saturday was lots of fighting, I got to play a dwarf and other combatants, on Sunday I was given the role of player escort since Andy believed I knew the plot and possible I looked ill, well it seemed I did know the plot everything went smoothly and I got to play the evil bad (well at least in the players opinion) Dark Rider or Bringer of Light has he call himself until I got walloped away by a raven staff wielding witch.

(Me has the Dark Rider)

(Below RichS and below that Dave had Nightmare's, Dave has a very good eye for costume and make up.)

(Dave again has our visitor from the dreaming)

The photo above was full of people and blue bags in the background so I re-touched them away

This is the season to be ill, it seems

Tonight I had arranged a evening out with friends Jock, Bridgette and AndyH unfortunately Bridgette who has been off work for 8 days with a virus has now come out in spots so can't go out.

I also rang my friend Ste to make arrangement for Christmas Eve only to find his wife had collapsed last weekend and had been rushed to hospital with suspected food poisoning, this resulted in her staying hospital for several days, meanwhile Ste himself has been off work for 2 weeks with Bronchitis and told not to go back to work until the new year.

Work has also been hit, on Tuesday this week nearly half the staff were either off ill or queasy with a sickness and Diarrhea bug that latest all of 2 days before disappearing from the building, fortunately I missed it. The management meeting was called off because several manager were off with flu, man flu or colds depending on your point of view, since most of the managers seem to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week I suspect they were ill with more than colds and man flu.

Myself I'm just recovering from a cold that left me with a horrible dry cough I can't shift, but after speaking to everyone else I'm beginning to feel lucky.

Cold, it was and I had

I started the run up to Ascendancy event with a cold, Friday morning I woke up and decided I was too ill to be of any use and would catch pneumonia camping outside.

Having volunteered to provide the food for the weekend Julie still needed however to pop round to collect it and by the time she had arrived I felt well enough to risk the event and in a last minute decision motivated enough to pack my kit, and was nearly ready by time Dave and Julie arrived.

Travelling to event was no hassle apart from realising as the journey progressed all the different things my last minute cjoice and cold induced brain failure had caused me to forget, biggest of which was food for me and my glasses, since I was wearing contact lenses at the time.

I was playing a crippled character that evening which my cold actually helped with since my hearing was bunged up and I was not feeling sharp, my character was blind which was fun. It was a event about time travel full of time travel experts so my character took a back seat as I always do at time events since their is always too many cooks that come out the woodwork, so I usually take on different role. The crippled character was a one off which I enjoyed playing this once but won't again for while, it also gave me an excuse to take a few photographs.

Below: Blind me

My crippled character also had been badly burnt so with a tips from Julie I painted my face red with the odd black steak then covered it in PVA glue, this dried and started flake off just like dead skin and I found it a great pleasure to pick off, much to my doctors annoyance.

The nights in the dark age huts where not too bad wrapped in my sleeping with extra blankets, but the mornings in costume were bitter, Sunday was extremely cold with a wind that went straight through my thermal underwear and left me with cold feet, not something I suffer often, but the inactivity of being injured make it worse.

Below: Julie talking to Paddy.

The event overall hit the mark with everyone, AndyL was running around since he played nearly all the major npc and so was constantly changing costume, well done to him since he was very ill the week before.

Below: Andy as Sabrejaw, Stiltskin Ribbons, Indech, he also played many others including Levi Tempest and Capt.Dove.

After the event we drove back through the motorway spray went back to my house for Pizza and warm before Julie and Dave left just after eight to drive back home through the heavy rain.

Below: Dave wrapping up warm, I like this photo for the colours.

Kit Kat Thieves

Possibly the last Ascendancy weekend at Candleston due to price increases although I hope not and the October weather was at its best, putting the damp summer months to shame in fact by midday it was lovely tee shirt weather.

I camped at this event with Dave only since Julie was cat sitting although from reading her blog, more like cat fighting. I also learned today Jock and Bridgettes cat Monty had died, probably of old age, apart from this last few months looked he quite young for age possible because he was a small furry ball of a cat, he will be missed.

I decided to cater this event and brought a big pack of donuts, upon arriving at Dave's he produced a big pack of donuts, so catering sorted we ate donuts the whole weekend, although Dave did scoff 10 out the 12 packets of crisps, not complaining since don't eat crisps. A squirrel also ate a half used packet of bread roles while I nipped the loo and a packet of kit-kats bars went missing, could have been crack squirrel team, they left no evidence, the alternative is they will turn in years time next time I use the tent or rolled up in a jumper.

Talking of tents, as I was taking down my tent a tent pole broke at the metal joint tube for no could reason, Dave said it looked like fatigue, I do use the tent a lot, but its still only just a year old, lucky no more camping events this year.

The event was bitty, I mean that in good way though, lots of plot bits resolved or created, but no single plot thread running through the whole event, it was in a way a pleasant change from too much world saving. I had my enjoyable little bit of political gaming and business dealing, but found knowing stuff and not being able to pass it on a little frustrating, I must have heard at least half a dozen times a player say, Izzanbard would know, and he did, Alfonso didn't.

I got home about a hour earlier than usual, since travelling with Dave we only stopped for a quick burger and fries, although we intended to meet up with Sam and Jak, but somehow overtook them and thought we where late and had missed them.

Today I seem to have pain in right shoulder which hurts for no apparent reason, it even made driving difficult and is certainly going to make it hard to sleep.

Diet so far

I started my diet after Christmas and appear to have lost about 3-5lbs since then, I'm not entire sure, because it seems to fluctuate, perhaps water loss or something, or I need to weigh myself at specific times, anyway on average I'm weighing less.

My Diet plan such that it is, is to to cut down a little on everything and cut out snacks totally except events.

To achieve this no biscuits, cakes, crisps, crackers, wafer exist in my house and none are bought. On the general cut down thing I take 2 cobs in lieu of 3 to work, buy a loaf of bread half the size, and put out smaller portions on my plate. I've supplemented one whole meal for a baked potato with a bit of cheese & swapped oven chips for boiled potatoes.

My nibbles now are only fruit, 2 or 3 apples a day when peckish, plus orange, grapes, I've no fruit juice or fizzy drinks in the house, so its fruit tea or water.

The other area I've cut out is visit to sandwich van which visits where I work, where I regularly purchased pasties, cakes and cheese and bacon melts, which as I've typed this have made me drool.

I'm no diet expert, but it seem to be working, I need to increase my activity, which the spring and summer I hope will do.

Then just need to keep it up loose another 4-6 lbs and by the summer I may be back to where I was in summer 2006 (or better), which was 1 1/2 stone lighter than I was in summer 2004.

Shopping, painting, eating

On Saturday evening I went out for meal with friends for my mate Steve's birthday, we had to stay close to there home because of his wife Deb being on call to hospital where her friend is in the hospice since a cancer she has fought for several years is now reaching a conclusion. Deb is very close to her friend and cared for her, she as been in tears many times over the last 3 or 4 years with the ups and down of her friends illness, but enjoyed the distraction of night out.

Unfortunately the theme of this post is hospitals, since another of my friends Linda, young Chris's mother for those who know him, she went to the hospital for barium meal the day before, this apparently is very heavy liquid that leaves you very loose and with stools the weight of lead. After the meal we went back to Ste & Deb's, Linda needed to go and disappeared, 30 minutes later she had not returned, because as we found out her poo was stuck in the loo, so much to her embarrassment and sorry to say our amusement she was equipped with plastic bags to remove the item.

The rest of my weekend was spent shopping and at home painting toy soldiers, I purchased a large figure case like the one Julie bought Dave, a few figures and paints from Chimera shop, high tech thermal leggings and top for winter camping, and tea strainer thing for steeping loose tea in mug.

I also started a phys-rep for use at a future AscendancyLRP event, which involved destroying a broken pocket watch.

Painting figures and building props at the moment involves a space on a table the size of computer keyboard, (because I move my PC keyboard out the way) that combined with Jasmine my cat insisting on sitting on my knee and nudging my elbow while I paint is making it all more difficult than it should be. AndyL has the right technique on my second visit of the weekend he had engaged kid's visiting the shop in undercoating his figures for him.

New Year

I have a New Years resolution and that's to loose weight, after loosing 1 1/2 stone in 2005/2006 I put 3/4 stone back on in 2007, I want to loose weight again, so that means reducing comfort foods like those cakes I love, I've already cut out crisps, biscuits, & ice cream, sweets I can do with out anyway, so my next target is bread, currently I consume a loaf and 12 bread rolls a week, I want to halve that by buying a smaller loaf of bread or freezing half and buying less rolls, then I need to replace the pizza in my diet with something more healthy (suggestion welcome).

That's my New Years resolution, I actually spent my New Eve at Tom & Esther's with Julie and Dave, the only other person I knew there was Niki, it was a quiet party the kind I like, perhaps a little too much Maelstrom but I should not complain I was in the majority of Ascendancy players at Sam's party and perhaps we went on bit much there in front of other guest.

The other thing I did at the party was sniff Esther scents from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab something I been fascinated by since Esther, Helen and few others started collecting all these scents with wonderful names like Mad Sweeney, Burial, Cheshire Cat, I tried on Neil Gaiman's Agnus Nutter which smells of Gun Powder and the one that made me interested in smelling them in the 1st place. They were great by the way one day I will order some, not sure what I will do with them if I get them, gifts perhaps who knows.

So Happy New Year everyone.

Angry Men

I’m struggling to concentrate since I have a cold, which is at the dribbley, sneezey stage, so I’m writing this which I hope will make sense when I read it back.

This week I’ve had a driving nightmare on the way home from work possibly due to dark nights and snarled up traffic.
On Tuesday I was queuing on a main road and driving slowly so I was not stop starting all the way up the hill, when the car behind jumped the queue and made up a place, swerving past me into the small space I had left for no good reason. I hooted him (I admit several times) for the very cheeky manoeuvre and he objected to this. He showed his bad mood by stopping in the middle of the road putting on his hazard lights then when I tried pass him he shot forward then proceeded to slam his anchors on several times, which you can imagine did not go down well, not wishing to escalate the situation I however did nothing more. However at the next bend he pulled over, letting me pass, shot out between me and the car behind me and followed me home, I decided not go home not wishing to meet a road raged maniac outside my house so drove around the housing estate until he gave up. Not pleasant, next time I will keep my displeasure at being overtaken to myself.

Then Thursday I watched in disbelief when after letting someone out of a side road, I moved forward, but someone else decided they wanted out this side road as well and could not wait their turn, spun their wheels shot out causing me to brake, did a u turn around me and then had stop for traffic coming the other way blocking me until someone on the other side of the road let him out as well.

Its now Friday and I’m still not sure I’ve recovered from Tuesday, I’m still expecting a car to turn up behind me and a man with shotgun blow me away for daring to express my displeasure.

Sunday, feeling better

Its Sunday morning after a illness which started Wednesday and while I feel better, I'm eating again just, but have no real appetite and no energy, just walking up the stairs leaves me drained, possibly the lack of food and spending 3 days curled up on the sofa.

Jasmine in all this time as had to make her own entertainment since I have not had the energy for her, I tried throwing a toy in game of fetch and couldn't throw.
Her own entertainment does involve me mainly as either a trampoline or some imagined small creature as I move a hand or foot under the blanket.
What she does seem to like his using me as heat source, cats sleep ninety percent of the day so having me at home has giving her an ideal bed, which works for me as well, its very comforting having your cat there.
She has also developed a new habit of licking the hair my head (moving on from licking the beard) which fine untill she decide to move on and wash me behind the ears with her sandpaper tongue, which is not pleasant.

I have caught something

Yesterday afternoon I felt unwell, by the time I got home from work my teeth were chattering and I couldn't get warm. Taking a tablet helped for a few hours but by the time I went to bed even with a further pill, I was shivering from head to toe, I switched the heating back on, put another quilt and blanket on the bed and managed to stop shivering.
This morning I woke aching all over and slightly dizzy so have rang in work to say I won't be in. Currently do not know what to do with myself, since no matter where I sit or lie I still ache and the TV is not distracting enough.
Jasmine is trying to help by keeping warm, but she is more concerned that I won't play with her.