Pot Watcher's Daughter

Old Arnkel

I have just come back from York having just done the 2nd Strangehaven event which was a great event.

Having found our way through the back roads to avoid M1 congestion during the Friday evening nightmare rush hour, we arrived on site around 7ish later than planned but traffic was horrendous not only getting from my house to York, but Julie getting from Coventry in the 1st place.

Friday night's story got underway with a party celebrating to upcoming death of my character Old Arnkel for the 3rd time, unfortunately the happy atmosphere was broken by foul mouthed pirates. After a bit of trouble Julie character Geruuih was kidnapped and brutally beaten as you can see from the photo, so Saturday she arrived back from her ordeal which was far from pleasant and that kicked off a great, well paced day, with plenty of plot and characters, and good feedback and interaction from the players.

I enjoyed myself, and while tirering unlike the 1st event it was not hard work, probably for several reasons, livelier villagers, more rounded plot, npc that delivered info and were not there to provide the solutions for the players, slightly cooler weather, and players that got stuck in and asked questions.

Geruuih................................................ Commander Drusa & Guards

By the end of play on Sunday all the pieces came together and some core plot handed over to both the players and crew to take with them to the next main event.

Packing as always is a pain, but we paced it around a late lunch and left site before 5pm, so it was good to arrive home not long after 6 making it a far pleasanter journey, even if I wasn't driving

I also managed to pin down a way forward with the Shards website, so me and Julie can get it ready for Andy's upcoming change.

New Tent

I spent the weekend gone tweaking the Shards web site and left the house rarely, the web site I promised to get up and running by end of August and failed, not my fault.

Apart from that I went looking for a slightly bigger modern tent something Julie reminded me about, something I said I would look for last year but never did, something I did look for in the spring this year but never found the right beast, so said I would wait for the end of season sales. I went off to try and find a tent suitable for one person, but tall enough to stand in if I need to, even with my neck bent would do, and with area to cook in should I need to, sound easy, but to get tall enough you need 4 person tent, (in tent speak that actually really means 2 people) and one with porch so the footprint tends to be big.

I tried 2 camping shops and the Internet, the shops where rubbish, either small dome tents, one with no height or then they jumped to family sized monsters, the Internet provided clues and couple of option but unless you can see them 1st hand you don't get a sense of proportion.

However having discovered Julie had made her mind up and along the same criteria, since its for use when she is not with Dave, I decided since she was going to the shop again to ask her to get a duplicate of her choice which is this one can't wait to see it up at the next event.

Weeklong Adventure

For the past eleven days I've been camping with my friends in a wood in Wales, the week started off very wet but eventually turned out nice. It was one of those weeks where many things happened but I'm already struggling to remember everything but a few personal highlights, possible because I need a few days to recover.

I shared a camp with Julie and Dave and as far as I know managed to get through the week without irritating them, apart from perhaps the incident where Dave went through a box of matches that would not light, and I managed to light the 1st one I struck, this resulted in me being promoted to storm kettle boiler.

The event was thoroughly enjoyed the first two sections especially, the last being rather slow for many reasons, mainly a guild plot that did not engage me and a dreaming plot that was kept away from all but the Frontier tribes.

I got back and was unloaded for 2am this morning, collected Jasmine who is just running around the house and returning every 5 minutes to jump on me and purr. The Cattery said they found it cute the way she total buries herself under the fleece rather than sleeping on top of it.

I don't feel tired, but I'm sure that will change as the day progresses.

Henry VIII weekend

This weekend I rejoined my old Medieval group Buckinghams retinue to play King Henry VIII at Skipton Castle and enjoyed myself enough I may do another next year.

Friday I travelled with Sam to the event arriving just as it was getting dark waiting outside for someone to answer a phone and let us in through the outer bailey gates. Once there I got severely bitten as we put up our tent, just my arms little black things that where obviously jumping out the grass, although we never saw them again thanks to liberal application of insect repellent.

We had a good sunny weather Saturday and very wet Sunday till mid afternoon, fortunately being a castle in use by its owners we could escape the heat and rain inside.

I got to play Henry VIII during the last year of Anne Boleyn before she was executed and while her Lady in waiting Jane Seymour was in court flirting with me, so torn between 2 woman both after my favour I managed to enjoy a bit of roleplay and get to shout, loose my temper and plot Anne's downfall, while working out how to get Jane out to my hunting lodge.

The downside was being dropped in the deep end the 1st day when they asked me talk in front of couple of hundred members of the public about Henry with 5 minutes notice, at least I didn't get chance to get nervous, and managed to bring the rest of the Kings court into the talk after a few minutes to help me pad it out, by the end of the Sunday though I was fairly fine with doing a little talk before the public asked their own questions, such how many trees did it take to build the Mary Rose, I decided not to execute the child.

The event did not finish until 6pm so by the time we had took down our tents and loaded the group kit into the Van it was 8pm so me and Sam called in the pub for food before getting home, well in Sam's case about midnight.

Today I ache the weight of Henry's gear is not light those of you who wear many layers of fabric (Julie) will know how it pulls your shoulders, but unlike armour your in it all day and it offers no support giving me back ache and shoulder pain from holding my shoulders up all day, no slouching for the King.

I've attached a couple of the sillier picture for you to look at, click on them for a slightly larger image.

Anne Admiring the cod piece
Jane & Anne fighting over who will play Tables with me

Megatron

I went to see the movie Transformers last night and really enjoyed, it was an action packed explosion fest, not a short movie the start time was set at 5.55 and we did not get out until 8.45.
You don’t need to know anything about the cartoon the back story is crammed in, not that its that complicated anyway, just switch off brain and enjoy lots of missiles, destruction, car chases, robots being thrown through buildings, and high school humour.

Going to cinema straight from work (since I was going with a mate and 3 kids) did not please Jasmine who made plain her unhappiness by running around crazily thundering up and down stairs trying her best to keep me awake all night, at least the cold I thought I was developing on Monday does not seem to have materialised.

Floods and tears

Tired......

What ever the reason I was tired during weekend and feel shattered now, its probably a combination of tough week at work, a hard drive to the event, a tough event and the dismal weather.

I have today off and actually contemplating going back to bed.

The weather was terrible on Friday, by the time we hit the M5 it was flooded and the odd wave of water hit us every time a truck or car going by far too fast overtook you. By the time we got to M50 my co-pilot Julie was on the look out for hidden lakes and watching the drains pouring out across the road, luckily most lakes where mud orange so easily spotted and driven through very carefully, lots of accidents on the hill side of the road where the water was deepest, however the little extra height and better tires of 4x4 gave me a bit more confidence. Getting to site not far behind schedule we learnt of people phoning stranded on the M5 behind us, some spending all night there, so it appeared we got through just in time. Very sodden tents were erected in appalling conditions and we never really dried out all weekend.

The event went ahead as planned with enough dry weather to make it work, despite some players and crew being stranded including the main man who had to drive via London and arrived at 1.30am Saturday morning. The event was hard because of the emotional style of roleplay & lack of progress unless you count finding dead ends, absolutely no good news only more bad, the light at the end of tunnel is getting dimmer and dimmer.

Just to make matters worse the M1 was down to one lane for repairs combined with a accident meant I did not get home until gone midnight.

Today well dry so far.

People I visited this weekend

On Saturday I went to visit my friends I only called in around 2 for quick natter and ended up staying for long chat, tea and watching a film.

While there, his lad who is 10 managed to break a greenhouse window while playing Basketball, so we got in to when I was a youngster mode, talking about all the opportunities kids seem to have now, basket ball clubs, music lessons, computer games, mountains of other toys, and they still get bored. When I was a lad we had none of these opportunities, yet I don't remember being bored, we had garden, fields, Lego and imagination, its all probably us looking rose tinted glasses since who remembers being bored.

Today I got invited round for cup of tea by another mates wife, to plan what we going to do when he's away on his motorbike trip to Spain, we where going to a music festival but I think with changed our minds, but not sure.

Anyway while there I got to see his new motorbike, hmm well not being into motor bike enthusiast it was silver, and had two wheels which was useful, but other than that I think it was a Yamasukitriumphondaraliegh or something like that.

I then watched Shoalin Soccer, a martial arts football film, by the same people has Kung Fu Hustle which was a laugh.