May 2011 b

Hey Bart, good to see you're enjoying the blog! Yep, British Library should be everyone's list of things to see in London. Well, on with the blog....

Tues 17
Jen got wobbly legs cycling to and from work for the 1st time in many months.

Wed 18 May 2011
Steve has finished edging his new shield and transferred the straps on the back, ready for action. Can you spot which one is which?  :-)

Fri 20 May 2011
Steve and Finn come collect Jen from work at 4pm and we immediately fight our way from east to west across London. We arrived in Tretower, in Wales, at about 9:30pm and checked into our B&B (a timbered house built in the 1750's). We walked across the road and into the field right up to the SCA campsite which was being put up in the dark, and helped out where we could.

Sat 21 May 2011
Tretower Castle and 15th century manor-house, Wales!
Steve got a sore back bent over the spit roast pig in the kitchen all day. ALthough he wasn't the head cook, he had an absolutely excellent time using this lovely tudor kitchen. Jen ran about taking loads of photos and introducing people to Finnian. A court was held with many various awards given, the most notable being to Gonz/Duarte who received the equivalent to White Scarf. During feast, Steve carved for and served the high table. Jen played harp for a short time.
We were all on display for the public much of the day, with the site closed to the public at 5pm, and our lot had to be off-site about 30 mins after that. We all enjoyed some civilised drinking by the fire in the SCA encampment (in the field behind the castle) well into the evening.

Click on the images to enlarge them:

Above: The SCA encampment - yonder behind ye olde Welsh castle

Above: Jen especially LOVED this pretty garden and its fountain!

Above: Steve watching the spit pig, Edith ablur at the bench.

What a kitchen! No electricity, just firewood.

A lovely feasting hall.

The perfect SCA photo - but our
cook's too busy to give us a smile!

Duarte gets a special
award from the King.

Not a bad place for a spot of lunch, wot wot?

Sun 22 May 2011
This morning after a fine breakfast, we headed off for some sight-seeing for Finnian. We stopped in at Raglan Castle, traipsing all about the castle including the newly re-opened and renovated grand staircase, then we set off to Tinctern Abbey. (for pictures of Raglan, search in the top left searchfield). We'll be back for Ffair Rhaglan in August.

Above: Love the view of the forest through the windows of this magnificent ruined Abbey.

Above: Finnian enjoys a spot of sunshine, but hates the fact it's from the lack of roof (ruins).

Steve drove us home and after unpacking we were exhausted and ordered pizza. A pretty full weekend!

Mon 23 May 2011
Early afternoon, after work, Jen and Finnian were chatting downstairs when there was a massive THUD which shook the whole house. Looking out the front window we saw a neighbour quickly get out of the truck/ute he'd parked and run into his house. He had backed into our brick front fence and broken it, and hoped ho-one was home to notice (cheeky b*gger)! Anyway, luckily for him his brother or housemate is a bricklayer and they agreed to demolish and completely rebuild it, supplying the bricks as well as the labour.

Tues 24 May 2011
This afternoon Jen flexed off work to wander about a trade show about greeting cards. Picked up some tips and ideas, considering whether to have a go at topping up the income this way.

Tonight we had Kev over for dinner and lots of ales, hurrah! 

Wed 25 May 2011
Finnian met up with Jen for lunch, and in the afternoon Steve dropped him off at the local tube station to make his way back to Heathrow and onward homebound to Brisbane Australia. Finn farewelled us with his plans of moving over to the UK, obviously quite taken with the country.

Fri 27 May 2011
Jen woke up and found the world spinning nauseatingly. Steve went off to work, Jen went back to bed to snooze it off. Ate breakfast cereal in bed, horizontally, not as easy as it sounds. By 8:45am she was still not well and called in sick. Steve came to the rescue at 4.15pm with lunch as Jen wasn't able to stay vertical long enough to do this. Jen was finally past the dizzy spell at 9am the next day.... that's 32 hours in bed, not fun.

Sat 28 May 2011
This morning we awoke (at 9am) to the sound of mallets pounding the front of our house. Or rather, the front fence being demolished. They'd finished the fence and cleared the debris away before 5pm. They refused offers of coke / lunch during the day, but accepted the keg of good dark ale that Steve had mistakenly thought he'd bought for himself.  :-)

So here's the before and after for our new fence. Once it's properly dry we'll paint it

We booked flights to France. Yes we're going to spend our 10 year wedding anniversary (that's 18 years since we started dating!) in a nice little chateau in France.

Sun 29 May 2011
First thing in the morning Steve manfully went to the gym. Jen Tubed it to the other side of town to buy fabric, only to find the shops were closed. So instead she spent a few hours wandering about the big Westfield shopping centre to satisfy the need for some retail therapy. We stopped in at friends' place to top up their pet cat's food and water dish... and while in the area stopped into a local favourite pub for some excellent roast dinner. We watched some Blakes Seven episodes before bed.

Mon 30 May 2011
Today's a bank (public) holiday here in the UK. Steve had a nice relaxing day and an afternoon workout. Jen seized the day and did some exercise and housework as well as a bit of clothes mending. Back to work tomorrow.