And yet more ...

Right, now that I have sorted out a few photos, I can upload them. As a quick aside, I have decided that I can't be arsed editing typos in this blog. It's informal communication at the level of email, so typos should stand. I expect this decision to last about a week until I go crazy from the errors.

This is some more of the view from the bunkhouse we were in. Did I mention it had heaters all the way through and clean and capacious toilets and showers? Oh so very pleasant!



This is Sir Ulf, Lord Bernard and Queen Asa early on Sunday afternoon. Ulf is a delightful person and Bernard is so terribly sweet it's just ridiculous. Although little Maria gravely informed me that he smokes and so he smells. In a way I like the fact that kids are being taught that smoking is stinky, not glamorous, but I wonder: what effect this is having on their social graces? Eh, Maria is so cute she can get away with it. Asa is tall and pretty and strikingly slender, so I just love standing beside her because I am not short and dumpy enough. Nah, she's a witty and wonderful woman who I am happy to have met. I do wish bloody Duncan had stayed alive to see the wild and wacky royalty adventures of his peer group, though. He'd have laughed himself silly.


Here is the Draco and Asa shot I was talking about earlier ... Bemedict and Eleyne are the heralds. They did an excellent job with the first Kiwi Coronation and were very sensible in explaining things to the populace beforehand. Contarina is lurking behind in her Finnish gnome costume. It was very well made but unfortunately made her look like a garden ornament. In the large version of this photo her eyes glow so that she is a possessed gnome. I suspect that this particular style of frock would look good on one in 20,000 women and can only assume that Finnish men were all being punished that century for repeated bad behaviour. She did several of the tricky bits on Asa's garb, too, which looked fabulous.



More site. Still scenic. There was a kitchen in every bunkhouse, too, so the organised could have coffee without having to trek down to the main kitchen. Bless Sir Tycho for giving J his coffee pot. Bless J for making L a cuppa while he was at it ...

On the Monday, L and her shiny new apprentice M (who was still yet to say yes at that point, but that would make the intro much too long) wandered around Auckland with me. We were not wholly impressed by the range of fabrics available, but the city itself had some very good bits. This is the interior of the restored Civic Theatre, which was terribly OTT but in all the right ways. A lovely old gent showed us around the Town Hall, too, but I didn't take any shots. As you may well have noted already, I am a very bad photographer.


This is a shot of L waiting at the Britomart for our bus. After the weekend she has walked away with the firm belief that I am a raving football hooligan, but that is not the case. I enjoy watching the game played well and feel that France benefitted from my shouts of instruction. Clearly not enough to actually win, but hey ... L is phenomenally pretty from all angles, and I would be hugely jealous if it wasn't for the fact that she's so bloody personable. And she got my Lady Britomart joke, which was admittedly very bad.

I was astonished to learn that L does not like Austen. I blame schools for scarring young people before they are old enough to appreciate the Janish wisdom. At least she loves Shakespeare, as all right-thinking people should.



This is M, L's new apprentice. More pretty, talented people! Honestly, if I was sensible I'd surround myself with manky fat useless people in a bid to appear young, slim and gifted. But it would be dull. M makes fantastic costumes and has a great singing voice, plus an evil streak of wit that comes flying out when she is looking her most innocent. She is terribly polite, which made L and I wonder why she likes us, but everyone needs pals who can say more appalling things than you can. After all, that's one of J's attractions for me.