We had a wonderful time at Raglan plenty of fighting and was great to catch up with all my friends who I had missed for two years. Mary was announced for her Pelican and sat her vigil. She will be elevated at Coronation in January
The couple who where sharing a house with Lena have moved out to their own house. so after two weeks of mad decorating we have had the last of my items from Kinghorn back from storage. So now we have our house ready for visitors
We had a couple over from Calontir (St Louis) for two weeks and had fun running around the country giving them a flavor of our life and history
I had my 48th birthday, hired a large house and had 28 people round for a party, hell any excuse to see ladies in corsets, its always good to get drunk on champagne
We had two of our new people in armour and fighting, its a bit odd meeting your own arms on someone else.
after that I hit the US for a couple of weeks managed to get the coronation of a couple of very close friends, I received a Queens Endorsement of Distinction for chivalry which is REALLY cool.
I also managed to get in to see my Knight, an incredible time if short I was only able to stay for 24 hours.
Our house-mates have offered and had accepted on a house so Lena and I are looking forward to getting the house to ourselves
Since my last post I have become Earl Marshal, I could tell you about it but then I would have to kill you :-)
Also Tuesday is our first local fight practice, should be fun
So a week working then a week at Calotirs Local war. It hit 1500 this year even with the recession, not bad. Lena went out on the Tuesday before and helped with set-up, I followed out on the Friday. We then had a week of war.
Loads of fighting, loads of pick ups. I was given a small buckler which I fought all the pick ups / tourneys with then was kindly lent a scutini for the battles. Really had a loads of fun, I could not fight overly long, it hit 98F (37C) with 60% humidity, having only had a week to develop my gills I hit the stage where I had to drop armour to cool down.
It was great to see all the friends we made in the US, and the parties where wonderful.
Had some really good fighting but unfortunately turns out you need a license to use a crossbow so my combat crossbow remained dissembled and tucked away.
The ferry crossing was wonderfully flat, although the cost of everything on the boat was outrageous.
There where several fun battles arranged, the best had to the woods battle, I had forgotten how much fun it was to thrash about in a wood, trying to hit people while staying vaguely vertical
Off to war, back with old friends will allways be one of the main attractions for me in the SCA
Been hitting the Gym 2/3 times a week to try and keep the fitness but not getting the time in armour is going to hurt, dam I wish i was 30 again, hell even 40 would be good
Immediately on our return we then ship armour out to the states for Lillies the Calontir Local war, the change in weather alone should prove interesting
Other things going on
Now have four people interested in SCA fighting and hopefully have located a hall we can use regularly, so once I have DW and Lillies over I will get that arranged
The first round of SCA heavy combat authorization cards got issued a couple of weekends ago, should be good, although could be quite a bit of work as anyone who was not issued a card has to re-authorize
Looks Like I am now the Exchequer for the local SCA group, so if the SCA hits any financial crisis you know who to blame
We are trying to start a new SCA group here in Lancaster, so any suggestions or help will be gratefully accepted, the current priority is to come up with a name.
We are now mobile having invested in a Skoda Octavia Estate so please tell me where the fighters and fighting events are so we can come get hit
Well the Odyssey around the US has drawn to a close and it was painful to leave so many good friends in that lovely country. However on the bright side I get to be back with all my old friends over here and have a whole new set of my wife's to get to know.
Our luggage wanders after us in a DiskWorld way, apparently it will now arrive on Monday. I find it amusing that I left with two boxes and a suitcase and am returning with 1000lbs of stuff, a wife and a new house. So much for pack light move fast.
For those in the SCA I have brought two spare suits of armour so be careful when you say "oh i just need to get X sorted then I can fight" I may hand you a loaner set and ask you to step up.
The unpacking continues hope to get sorted by mid January, also have a new car on the way, went with the Skoda Octavia after the local VW garage let us down.
See you all soon
In preparation for leaving we presented the Barron and Baroness with a fine scroll Lena had produced. We were told later that the local calligrapher's were quite distressed to discover the quality of her work five weeks prior to our leaving.
The Baron and Baroness presented Lena with a gorgeous necklace made from beads from the shop of a 30 year member who passed away before our arrival, plus not only does it have real relevance to the Barony but it also looks really good on her . I was honored by being inducted into the Order of Three Rivers (Gold) which is for bringing high repute to the barony.
We are undertaking a project to present to the Kingdom before we leave, more of which later once it has been done. But it should make a good story
Looks like we will be back for Christmas for good, more as I find out
Pennsic, the Biggest and Best, well yes and no. Biggest for sure, over 11,000 on site, and 2000 a side surely is biggest, Best well the shopping definitely is, the parties I would say are equal in fun but probably bigger.
I know I am a poor old thing but dam, I have never hit people so hard, and they still came on, the fighting was fun but still tame compared with Estralla. I saw an entire household maybe 20 fighters all wearing matching Nike American Football Boots.
Lena has now hit her second War, and now sports her own Calontir war tabard.
The shopping had everything I could think of, ended up buying very little but saw loads of wonderful stuff. Including one guy who walked, in and bought a complete plastic suit padded it out and went out to fight
Saw Duke Finbarr my Grand Grand Knight and returned his shield I have been using for the last year, also met My Grand Knight Edward Beaujolais so I have now finished my personal quest to meet with my entire lineage :-)
I found a really nice necklace for John, its a pelican with a knights belt around
Saturday was odd, there was no scheduled fighting but several people said there would be pickups at the least, so I get up, kit up and hit the fighting field about 09:30 to discover i am the ONLY fighter on the field. I waited till 10:30 and then gave up, although I did have a good chat with a Knight who's name I forget (Yoshina?) who was one of the princes of Drachenwald, and still has a Squire over in Germany, (Bearbrand?)
So I stomp off back to the tent to only to bump into his Majesty Siridean who is heading out to fight , so I put on the kit again and head out only to discover he is on his own. So I wander up and request a few passes before his invited friends arrive. I had a wonderful if humbling set of passes. He was good enough to give me several good pointers to work on.
then back to uk for early September to empty the house, all I need now is to sell the blessed place.
All the best one and all
Diet pah, i have the way to drop 10 lbs in 10 days, could be a bit extreme for some but hey ho.
Fight all day then drink and party all night, what a way to spend a holiday
must say any heat the UK can throw will now pale into insignificance, 90f plus 90% humidity camping, we must be mad.
The battles where awesome, and the pickup fights where insane, super Dukes, current Kings and Princes, Knights etc.etc. I have been beaten by them all and managed to smile through my humiliation, had a wonderful time but really saw the true extent of the mountain I have chosen to climb.
The tent worked perfectly, a couple of the grommets need tightening up but we can sort that quick enough
Lena had a good time fighting in both a battle and a tournament
This is a local war, so only 2000 people mainly locals but several Knights come in as its in the middle of the country
Lena has just got her first authorization in sword and board, so we will be fighting together at the war,
This will be the first outing for the new round tent, a wonderful combination of medieval look with aluminum poles
Well there I was planning on grabbing my last couple of wars before home for christmas. Looking forward to settign ip home with my new lovely wife. But now the company has asked me to stay till the end of 09, well hey ho if I can sell the house then we are only supporting one house we are not living in, but its an improvement
One day I will have a quiet life and probably be very board, untill then, pass the beer and see you at Lillies or Pennsic
It is a polling award so you have to be accepted and have shown support to the Calontir Army
Well there are some advantages with the weak US Dollar,
I have just ordered a tent to go to SCA events in, its a real cheat, all the poles are aluminium and the main pole is in three parts so I can get it into a standard car easily. see the link below
http://www.revival.us/index.asp?PageActi
Next weekend the plan is to make the rope bed to go inside, I must admit as 50 gets closer the harder it is to sleep on the floor, looks like the whole project will be under $100 (£50) so look to be a good investment.
The guy working on my fingered gauntlets claims to be close to finished, really looking forward to fighting it them. they will look spectacular, give good protection and should allow more movement than the normal Clam shell
Not much else on, plan on heading to crown tourney with Lena which will be fun
Still fighting as often as I can
Well made it back to the US, could not believe it both flights on time, first time in several returns to the States. Looking forward to working on my fighting. More later
well just finishing three days at office, plan to have a quiet day in Lancaster before flying back to the states, the good part being I am taking Lena with me this time.
Some may follow once the jet lag recedes
First a quick summary from Gytha's death to date
Felt shit
Went to Vietnam with company for 3 months
Project closed and moved to St Louis
Joined Local SCA group
http://www.calontir.sca.org/
http://www.threeriver.org/
Hid in St Louis until Lena came and found me
Married Lena
http://picasaweb.google.com/ariel.sarah/R
Wedding rings from
http://www.brendaroy.com/
ok so up to date
bye
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