Mar 2013 b

Tue 19 Mar 2013

This morning we flew back to London, and Jen arranged for the Porsche to be taken away and sold on our behalf by the same chap we bought it from.

We caught up with Soph, Kev, Ozbeg and Dan & Elizabeth over dinner at The Dove Pub in Bethnall Green. Merry times over good Ales.

Wed 20 Mar 2013

The BIG DAY has arrived. Tonight we leave this place for another.

After Steve visited the dentist, Jen stopped in for a final farewell at her old (long term) workplace and her colleagues there. Next we dropped into Steve's workplace and picked up his reference letter and said his final farewells. After lunch in Hackney, we ambled back to Dan & Elizabeth's for the final re-packing using weighing scales (thanks Ozbeg!). 

Our pre-arranged cab arrived to take our huge pile of luggage to Heathrow Airport. 

We ambled through the shopping area, had ourselves a leisurely dinner and filed into the plane…. which sat on the tarmac for the next 2.75 hours. There was a problem with one of the fuel pumps, but finally it was sorted and we jet off towards Singapore.

Thu 21 Mar 2013

Once we landed in Singapore, the onward flight was delayed an hour, long enough for us all to run from one plane to the next. Oh well, so much for the 2 hour swim we had planned on having at the hotel in Singapore, but just glad to not miss the connection.

Fri 22 Mar 2013

Hello Brisbane - hello humidity, heat and sunshine!

We were greeted at the airport by Jen's mum, dad and sister Kathy. We arrived at our new temporary home, the house Jen grew up in. Her Dad had been good enough to make her old bedroom available for us. After showers we headed to the equivalent of the DVLA and arranged for our new Queensland drivers licences. After a quick look in the attic, we found our old dome tent. Our minds are now on the next task of preparing to camp over Easter.

Thanks to Gabs for the bits and pieces which meant Steve had a couple of SCA-swords and a working shield etc he could use at Festival. Thanks also to Bain for graciously taking his armour and our tent, airbed and sleeping bags when we had no other way to get the stuff down there. The last thing we wanted to be doing was driving for 12 hours while heinously jet-lagged!

Here's a photo of our home-base for the next little while:

Tue 26 Mar 2013

We dropped Jen's mum & dad off at the domestic airport for Jen's maternal grandmother's funeral in the early morning, and picked them up again in the evening. Jen's only memory of her remaining grandparent is from about 25 years ago after she'd had a stroke and could only really say 2 words: yes and no. It is a very sad day, and it reminds us to cherish our own parents while we have them. 

And happy birthday to Jen's eldest sister Kathy.

Thu 28 Mar 2013

And so we flew off to Sydney airport and onward north to Rowany Festival. Thanks to Drakey for collecting us from the train station. We arrived on-site to find some kind soul had already erected our dome tent. Hurrah! Steve organised inflation of the airbed and we were set-up and ready for a fun long weekend.

Here are a couple of shots around site:

Above: a bird common to Lochac, the kookaburra.
Below: the swimming hole

Fri 29 Mar 2013

This morning's Royal Court included the knighting of Wulfgar from Tasmania. He had stayed with us in London for a few months some years ago, so Alaric spoke for him as a member of the chivalry during the ceremony.

Sat 30 Mar 3012

Some more Rowany Festival photos…..

Above: Alaric having a good play with the Queen
Below: some lovely ladies of St Florian

Sun 31 Mar 2013

Some more Festival photos….

Above: the archery range!
What started out as a misty morning, grew into a hot humid afternoon,
but that didn't stop the combattants getting armoured up and on the battlefield....

In the evening we enjoyed the fighter auction and the buzzing atmosphere in the tavern.

Mon 01 Apr 2013

We watched a few rounds of the fighter auction tournament, but Steve was on cooking duty and Jen took the time to get more embroidering done on his 3rd fighting shirt. 

It was hot again, so some of the encampment's ladies went roman for the day...

Tue 02 Apr 2013

And so Festival is over for another year.

After the pack-down Tina drove us to her place to stay for a couple of days.

Wed 03 Apr 2013

After wandering through a couple of bookshops in Sydney we caught up with Paul and Laj for dinner at their place. As usual the meal was truly excellent, and the company even more so.

Thu 04 Apr 2013

Back home to Brissie, and now on to updating CVs and looking for work in earnest.

Fri 05 Apr 2013

We did consider bringing the Porsche to Australia but it would have cost about £10k and the air-con doesn't work either (not really needed in UK, but Aus is a different matter). The good news is that Jen received a call from the UK tonight, confirming the Porsche has now successfully been sold, boo hiss, but hooray for the extra cash.