May 2012b

What a busy month May has been!

Sat 12 May 2012

This morning we drove to the SCA Coronet event near Southend-on-Sea. The winner of the tourney was Richard fighting for his lady Lena, who we've stayed with a couple of times, at their home in Lancaster. Steve had a many lines to read in court as the Principality seneschal (head admin officer for UK, Ireland and Iceland). Thank you Nicholas for these three photos.

Thu 17 May 2012

Kiriel arrived to stay with us for a few days, and also to get some essential London shopping done of course.

Sat 19 May 2012

Steve and Kiriel got out to the British Museum, while Jen stayed home and created final artwork for her new range of greetings cards - which you can see at www.yeoldcards.com

Sun 20 May 2012

And so Kiriel, having successfully filled her suitcase from the weekend's shopping, hopped on a plane back home to Geneva once again. We'll see her again in a few weeks for a cooking day with Sally Grainger.

Mon 21 May 2012

Meanwhile, back in Brisbane Australia.... Jen's brother-in-law Malcolm, is only a few weeks away from finally being able to drive his shiny new car around. This is something he's been waiting for, for the last 6 years or so. It's a sporty GT40 kit-car with a fiberglass body. Malcolm is now waiting for the final sign-off from a specialist engineer - one of only a handful in Australia who can give the go-ahead for this kind of hand-built car to be officially classed as road-worthy.  Here's a couple of pictures:

Fri 25 May 2012

Alaric's most recently acquired squire, Alexander of Derlington, came for an overnight stay with his two daughters. Here, his eldest, Lily, is reading a book, while little Sophie smiles at the camera.

Sat 26 May 2012

This morning Alex and kids headed out, and our next guest, Eva, arrived from Healthrow (and before that, straight from Australia). Meanwhile, Jen is frantically doing her final preparations for her stand at PG Live - London's annual greetings cards trade fair, across two days next week. Steve is amazing for keeping her fed, watered, and mostly sane.

Sun 27 May 2012

Eva was much recovered from her travel and jet lag, and felt good enough to visit Stonehenge, Avebury, West Kennet longbarrow, the Wayland Smithy and Uffington Castle / chalk horse. Just the sort of thing she'd be interested in, as she's here to enjoy 3 weeks digging in cold damp muddy conditions in far north England (near Berwick) on a 12th century castle site. Well, her part in the dig begins in a week's time from now, as she is a shiny new archaeologist, and this is exactly the kind of thing she needs to do. 

Mon 28 May 2012

And so today we have our next addition to "Hotel Bangor" - our buddy Finnian has been staying with his new lady-friend Mary (near Bristol) for the past few weeks. However, he has begun his new job today (working as the lead Project Manager at DX) just outside of Slough. His commute home to our place does mean about 2 hours in his car, even though it's only 27 miles on the map. Finnian will be staying with us during work days, and staying with Mary on weekends - until late June when his new rented home will become available.

Anyway, here we all are, socially relaxing together after dinner.

Jen got home late tonight, having set up her stand at the trade fair.

Tue 29 May 2012

And here is Jen at her very own stand, open for business, and hoping to get some orders over the next two days. The location of her stand is circled in the photo below.

Wed 30 May 2012

Today was Eva's birthday, so Steve cooked up a gastronomic three course dinner, and Kev was also his usual entertaining self. Happy birthday Eva!