Aug 2012 b

Sun 12 Aug 2012

Last day of holiday. Last day of the Olympics. Jen's workplace had been transformed into Kenya House - here's a photo of what it looked like during the Games.

Steve made up a large batch of gourmet raspberry and white choc muffins for Jen to take next day to work, celebrating her birthday on Tuesday (and her line manager's last day tomorrow). Boy are these ever sooo tasty!

We watched the closing ceremony, live on the telly. As the fireworks were going off at about midnight, this is the view we had from the master bedroom upstairs. You can see the top of the Mittal Orbit lit up in red light.

Tue 14 Aug 2012

Jen's 37 today. Thanks Steve for the nice card, and her present was this high quality USB microphone to help her experiment with music. 

Wed 15 Aug 2012

Tonight Steve drove to Finnian's place and stayed the night, since he's outside London and on the west-sid, making it easier for him to be at an SCA meeting in Wales at 9am the next day.

Thu 16 Aug 2012

Steve arrives onsite at Ffair Rhaglan, an excellent SCA medieval event held annually at Raglan Castle in Wales. Jen's at work.

Fri 17 Aug 2012

The weather at Raglan was torrential and squally, with some people finding their tent up a tree! Others had broken poles. Luckily for us we enjoyed staying at the nearby travelodge. Hot showers and clean loos are such a simple pleasure. 

Sat 18 Aug 2012

Throughout the event Steve's got in plenty of training for others and much fighting in different parts of the castle, all good fun. He's also been enjoying cooking on Clancy's new craticula (roman fire stove). Since the weather has fined up a bit, Jen ran about and took some snaps.

Later in the afternoon, Genevieve (Elizabeth) was raised to the Order of the Pelican, and we both spoke on her behalf. All in all a lovely ceremony that seemed to go really well. Further to this, Steve got not one but two awards: The Panache (for cooking skill), and the Order of the Robin - a courtesy award.

Sun 19 Aug 2012

Home once more, and the laundry begins!

Mon 20 Aug 2012

Jen's been on ebay again. This time, she's re-sold a little something (from ebay) for a very nice profit, after having cleaned it up and taking better photos.

Wed 22 Aug 2012

Laundry is almost done. Unfortunately Jen had a little accident with Steve's fighting aketon. The inner padding (wool) has severely shrunk! Oh dear - time for lots and lots of unpicking!

Thu 23 Aug 2012

Finnian came over for a yummy dinner and a spot of SCA fighter practise one-on-one with Steve. He also dropped off another of Jen's ebay purchases (a lovely little carved chair) which he had kindly collected for her a few weeks ago. It's finally here!

Sat 25 Aug 2012

Jen and ebay.... the sale of the little glass ring-box more than covered the purchase of this enormous flemish style brass chandelier. Nice! Oh, and here's some pics of that nice Pugin style chair Finnian dropped off for Jen.

Steve helped Jen disassemble the chandelier for storage and eventual polishing. It is now in a much more manageably sized box!

Sun 26 Aug 2012

Today we headed into west London to see the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Ashmolean. When we got there however there was a sign apologising that the exhibition is closed until Wednesday "due to unforseen circumstances". Oh well, we'll have to visit again later.

So we enjoyed the lovely sunny weather and strolled back through the large public gardens in Holland Park (pictured, left).

We eventually ended up at the Jumbuck Pie shop in Shepherd's Bush, where we picked up some Aussie treats. (Also the first cans of Solo we'd had in a goodly long while).

Mon 27 Aug 2012

As its a long weekend, we'll be enjoying a little quiet time at home. Back to work on Tuesday.