Dec 2010 a

Fri 03 Dec 2010
Thankfully most main roads have been gritted, so the snow isn't such a problem as it had been earlier this week.
However, Steve had been planning on having a nice relaxing afternoon off work, but due to discovering a flat tyre this morning, he's spent about 6 hours arranging purchase of a new tyre. The problem being that the car is an import and has specific tyres.
Anyway, Dan and Elizabeth arrived in goodly time, and we collected Judith from the local airport. Drove up to the event in Newmarket. Well, we did also have about a half hour's diversion too. Eventually got to site before 10pm. Got dressed quickly, and 5 minutes later there was a short SCA court.
Steve was brought up and sent to vigil to consider elevation to the Order of the Laurel - a big surprise for him and a great honour.

Here's the film showing his surprise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaloCF4F788

 

Sat 04 Dec 2010
Jen says thanks to those who knew and managed to keep the secret.
The ceremony was very touching, with many praising his qualities - Mistress Judith, HRH Sir Vitus, Mistress Kiriel (who's journey to the site was one of great determination), Nerissa as a Rose, and Baroness Ursula as a speaker from the populace. There were also messages read out from Acacia and Drakey, laurels from Alaric's previous Kingdom of Lochac.
The laurel medallion Alaric received continued its young tradition, passing to a new Insulae Draconis laurel, and was presented with a beautiful lineage scroll. Alaric was elevated for his knowledge and skills at the fine art of the Feast, with his specialty being in ancient Roman cookery.

So now here are the laurelling photos:

 

 

 

 And some photos of the evening's dancing. He really did look like something descended from Mount Olympus. Jen was on percussion, accompanying with the fab Mistress Kiriel on recorder and crumhorn, plus one other - Valeria occasionally on recorder.

Dancing - music provided by Mistress Kiriel

 

One very excited little Laurel!

Sun 05 Dec 2010
So we made our way back home, unpacked and rested.

Mon 06 Dec 2010
Steve starts coming down with a headcold as a result of the weekend's festivities....

Wed 08 Dec 2010
Steve's headcold meant he skipped fighter practice tonight.

Thu 09 Dec 2010
Tonight Steve decided to pamper Jen with dinner, foot rub and movie. Sweet.

Fri 10 Dec 2010
Jen started coming down with a headcold this afternoon. So, took the sensible option and stayed in tonight instead of going to a housewarming party.

Sat 11 Dec 2010
Jen is useless today and has a 4 hour 'nap' in the afternoon, which didn't even affect her regular sleep! Together we watched the three extended Lord of the Rings movies back to back.

Sun 12 Dec 2010
After another placid day at home, we headed out before dinner, to enjoy live on stage: Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds at the O2 (millenium dome). It was really great - Jeff Wayne conducted, and Justin Haywood sang his bits! Unfortunately the lady playing Beth was rubbish compared to the CDs, and Jason Donovan (as the young artillery man) sang most of his belted-out notes too sharp! He also failed to do anything about his Aussie accent and speech patterns. He said "reckon" a few times - for shame!!

However, it was overall really great. A fun surprise was this martian tripod puppet which lowered on to the stage and swayed about. It also shot out flame jets onto the front edge of the stage! Pretty cool.