Mar 2007 b

Thu 15 Mar 2007
After work, Jen's on holidays for a week! Hurrah!

Fri 16 Mar 2007
Jen gets a flight to Germany with Dan and Elizabeth. Once there, time is spent admiring the cathedral and old city of Frankfurt, and the lovely paintings in the museum. Then, eventually going our separate ways and staying with our respective hosts.

Sat 17 Mar 2007
Steve and Lauren travel up to Cambridge for St Patrick's day fun at Deb and Clancy's place.
Meanwhile, Jen is hanging out with her host, Fiona Wiggins, who has a cow collection to rival Morde's!

Jen attends the Ball in Germany. Here's a very short video of some of the dancing.

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If the above doesn't work, try: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwtUkKgm1Hs

Below: Lady Bridget (who heads the Kingdom's scribes) is sent away on vigil.


Above: A cute photo of Genevieve and Robert (Elizabeth and Dan) at the Ball.
Below: Joan's sweet-heart proposed to her at the event.


Above: some of the fine instruments played at the Ball
Below: the main teacher (Mistress Judith) shows us the steps.


Above: Mistress Bridget, a brand new C&I Laurel. (Jen made the cloak for her)

Sun 18 Mar 2007
Jen goes touring the German countryside with Eufemia and Cadogan. A shame its a rainy cold overcast day. Climb lots and lots of castle stairs....then out again into the driving rain.


Above: Here's a shot of the outside of the tower (the stairs photo is inside this tower) Munzenberg Castle ruins.
Below: Note the painted carving on the corners of these traditional German houses.



Mon 19 Mar 2007
Jen comes down with a chest infection (surprise surprise) and decides to stay warm by staying indoors, with Steve looking after her during her patheticness! Jen works through a half dozen unfinished SCA projects thru the next week.

Fri 23 Mar 2007
Payday! Hurrah!

Sat 24 Mar 2007
Thames Water rip up a square metre of road in front of our house. This would not ordinarily bother us except suddenly we have a heavy dribble of water (when the taps are on "full blast") coming out of our taps, as a result.

Mon 26 Mar 2007
Back to work for Jen.
Before the workmen refill the hole in the road, Steve has a word with them about our poor water pressure. One fellow tells us to turn on and off our water, and open up the taps etc (airbubbles in pipes he says). Then they go ahead and concrete in the road. This doesn't fix our problem!!!

Tue 27 Mar 2007
Steve gets an email inviting him to a job interview on Friday. Fingers Crossed.

Thu 29 Mar 2007
Hmmm - still lousy water pressure. It takes ten minutes for the toilet to refill, during which time there's no water coming out of the other taps. Not good. The landlord had a plumber come in, and say its definately a blockage in the pipe between the house and the road, and therefore Thames Water's problem to fix.

Houseguest Lauren gets a job offer (a 3 month contract). Hurrah! Unfortunately for her, she's also through to the second round for a permanent job with a bigger better company. After much frantic back and forth phone calling, she gets the all clear to work elsewhere for awhile, and still continue interviewing for the preferred job. She starts work on Wednesday next week.
Went to the movies to celebrate - saw "300". Wow - lots of violence but somehow a likeable film.

Fri 30 Mar 2007
Steve goes through an all-day job interview ordeal, and comes out on top - yes he got the job!!!!!
Its at a secondary college, with a high tech approach. All classes have computers that are networked across the whole school. Some new projects will be coming online shortly, using the very latest technology, so lots of cool stuff for Steve to work with! The principal is a real actual Knight (service to education)!

This evening we catch up with friends for a stroll through the British Museum (or rather the few Greek and Egyptian rooms that are open tonight). Steve is thrilled to finally see the Marbles of the Parthenon.



Afterwards all 7 of us enjoyed a leisurely dinner together down the road from the Museum.

Sat 31 Mar 2007
This morning Thames Water come and dig up our footpath. After a couple of hours and some swearing outside our front door, it is discovered the blockage in our pipe is under the house somewhere.... and since they don't have the right equipment to fix that they concrete up the footpath again and say they'll come back another day.

Elizabeth and Dan come over during the day and do SCA projects. Namely: new dress fitting, plastic-armour shaping, and cutting out several shields for new fighters' use.
At around 6pm the first guests show up for our "Beer and Boardgames" Party. Dinner and beer is served during the first of the (new season) Doctor Who episodes (on our excellent projector).
After which, a lovely Vienetta dessert (thanks Terry) is enjoyed by all, and various Boardgame playing ensues until midnight. All in all, a very fun evening!