OCT 2009 a

Sat 03 Oct 2009
Steve went to work for a couple of hours, and Jen went to a "Far Isles" event elsewhere in London. The Far Isles is a medieval/renaissance group which split away from the SCA a couple of decades ago. The event was held at the same site the big Coronet tournament will be in February so, not only was it a good opportunity to improve relations with them - it was a chance to see the site in use, and get a feel for how we might use it.

Sun 04 Oct 09
Jen spent some time sewing together more satin fabric, to be staple-gunned into the loft. And then there was time for some more Babylon 5 viewing. We're now up to the fifth season.

Fri 09 Oct 2009
After work Steve kisses Jen bye as she heads up to Stansted airport for a flight to Lubeck, Germany. (Steve spends a few hours at work tomorrow)

Sat 10 Oct 2009
Crown Tournament. It was a drizzly day. The field was in a grassy clearing amongst trees. Below are the entrants of the tournament, and the herald standing in front of the Consorts' viewing pavilion.


Above: A photo of Jen - thanks to Lia de Thornegge for taking it.
Below: The finalists and consorts.


Here is the deciding bout between the finalists, Count Thorvaldr and Sir Vitus:
[ www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1PKyPFD3Co ]



Below: and the winners were: Count Thorvaldr, fighting for Countess Fiona.


Above: the royals held court shortly before the feast.
Below: one item in court was the explanation that a bard was so impressed by the courteous conduct of the Lady Margaret de May, said bard decided to make a "song and dance" of her. And the amusing performance of this, had Margaret unwittingly at the centre of it all.


Above: the populace awaiting serving of the feast.


Sun 11 Oct 2009
After packing and saying final farewells on-site, Jacob drove Jen and several lovely swedish ladies to the Ryanair airport south of Lubeck.
Jen discovered the airport had no 'left luggage' facilities or lockers, but still decided to while away a few hours in Lubeck town centre anyway (caught a 20 minute bus into town) even though this meant dragging a wheeled bag along. Some footpaths were occasionally (and annoyingly) cobble-stoned.
Here are some of the better photos Jen took of this lovely old German town.

Above: The theatre figure museum - what a wonderfully playful sign!
Below: The main landmark in Lubeck: the famous 15th century Holsten Gate (Holstentor).


Above: The town's also famous for Marzipan. So this shopfront window combines the two!
Below: A very fancy stair, just outside the main square.



Above: ..and looking up, further along from the stair is this pretty bay window.
Below: Jen's just entered the square, looking back the way she came.


Above: The Town Hall (Rathaus)
Below: fab architecture


Above: a lovely cobbled street
Below: the Burgtor - a tower/gate elsewhere along the wall of Lubeck town


It was starting to get dark so Jen arrived back at the airport about 6:30pm (beating the rain by 10 minutes), and waited until her 11:30pm flight in the world's most boring airport... (only a restaurant was open) but at least she was warm.
Having rushed through customs at Stansted, Jen caught her coach, arriving at the Stratford (London) bus stop at 12:30am. Steve came and collected her for the 10 minute drive home, hooray.


Mon 12 Oct 2009
Thankkfully Jen has the day off work - and after a sleep in, she did a few hours paperwork, and four hours of gardening.... namely ripping out our Privet clump, separating them out, and finally transferring these into their purpose-bought trencher pots. Plus, digging up loads of weeds, and emptying out the remaining extra compost and bark across the large part of the garden. Backbreaking work, but well worth the effort!

In the evening Steve cooked Jen dinner before she was once more at Oil painting class. Two "practice pieces" worked on but neither yet finished.

Tue 13 Oct 2009
Jen finally unpacked her stuff from the weekend- only to discover the wet hem of her nice red woollen gown had not been contained, and in fact had 'bled' red dye on several other items in the luggage. Gggrrrr.

Fri 16 Oct 2009
This afternoon Jen left work early for a ENT hospital appointment. It's amazing the odd architecture one comes across when journeying through London. Here's the Travelodge near Kings Cross:

Jen's throat is fine, not a problem. Mentioned the deaf right ear (congenital), and was sent immediately to another department, had a hearing test and a CT scan. Will likely be having another appointment in a couple of months' time. The hearing test did tell us - it's the connectivity between the (right ear's) nerve and the outside world that doesn't work. The nerve works fine.

Sat 17 Oct 2009
Today we drove up early to Deb and Clancy's place and helped pack boxes, move furniture, and fill vans and cars - then drove over to their new place (about 1 hour drive) to help unpack boxes and move furniture. They're pretty exhausted having been working on the house move for much of the past week already. Moving from a massive 5 bedroom house (in Willingham) into a 2.5 bed terraced house in Haverhill. It'll take some getting used to for them I think. At least it's now only 5 minutes' drive from Deb's work, that's got to make a big difference. Below: Deb and Clancy at the end of a long day, in one of the bare rooms (old home).


In the evening the four of us enjoyed a late dinner to quietly celebrate their upcoming 9th year wedding anniversary.

Sun 18 Oct 2009
Came home from Haverhill, we both did some housework, and the blog, and this arvy we'll be researching possible holiday destinations for Xmas (since flights "home" to Australia are triple the usual cost over Xmas).