Four Good Things and One Not So
Sorry for the appalling lack of postage lately. The holiday time of year is actually a very busy one for both J and I. He's at work at the moment and I'm trying to finish cleaning the house, creating a puppet show, weeding the garden and making Marie's hat all at the same time. So, naturally, I'm blogging.
Argh.
Anyway, I thought I would end the year talking about some of the good things that I have been up to lately, and then one thing that I think we could all do better.
The first good thing was the Hobby Horse Crusade which we attended a few weekends ago in Polit. Karl Faustus ran the event – he has an LJ, but I'm not sure how public it is, so I won't link him here. His household has a very clever concept whereby they match experienced event runners with not-so experienced ones and so pass on skills and ensure that the event will be fine no matter what.
At this event, KF's Beloved, Dame Joan Sutton and Countess Mathilde Adycote worked their kitchen magic, while BJ, better known as the youthful Lord Robert Stoner, ran the heavy tournament, the lovely Gabrielle of the Marshes ran the fencing and a young man named Erik ran the boffer. In addition, there was a quintain, hobby horse racing and general boffering to use up all the energy in the young people.
While he gave full credit to Count Stephen for his organisational help, Robert did a brilliant job with both the heavy biff and in encouraging cross-discipline support. The heavy tourney was won by Duke Cornelius in a nail-biting finish against Count Veniamen; they were enormous fun to watch and very similar in a lot of their Cunning Moves. Also very amusing, which was needed on such a hot and tiring day.
Cornelius accredited Veniamen with the victory, who denied it and claimed it was all Corney. Given that His Grace was hung-over and His Excellency was perspiring like a melting thing, I think they can both claim to be manly men of much mightiness and leave it at that. Well fought, at any rate.
J did not fight as he had begun the day with a pounding headache and then we spent the first hour of our journey travelling about eight miles in awful Sydney traffic; so his decision to leave his armour at home was the best one since taking it would have brought on heatstroke or a fully blown migraine (and I can't drive to get us home from these things.) A shame, though, as he would have enjoyed himself greatly.
The rapier tournament was, I think, won by Owen against Gabrielle, but I could be hideously wrong. Around the time of the finals I was chatting to the very courtly and charming Owen who had just called me Your Grace when a fly flew down my throat, leading to a solid two minutes of coughing, hacking and spitting. While the fly was ejected in all the fuss, I feel that it did my gracious image no good and once again thank the stars that there is Duchess Morwynna for people to look to in terms of dignity.
The boffer was the key part of the the day and it was won by a new young girl named Lauren who belongs to the same homeschooling network as Karl Faustus's elder daughter, Bethany. Now I have a terrible confession to make. I can never remember Bethany's mum's name. Because I am an idiot. Admittedly an idiot who was hit in the head with two tonnes of taxi, but I have a bad feeling I was this useless before that, too. Karl always refers to her as Beloved, which doesn't help. So my exchanges with her go like this: "It's really good to see you! Your daughters are really cool! Gotta go! (Before it becomes obvious I have no idea what your name is and you think I'm rude and/or stupid. Now you just think I'm rude.)"
Anyway, back to the boffer. Lauren is one of those cool young women who are strong and smart, which allowed her to quickly pick up that the way to win in the boffer was to evade your opponent's reach, then lunge in for the tap when they were planning something else. Several of the boys were so focussed on thwacking her in the rounds that they failed to spot her strategy
and she was able to kill them all. She's wearing the olive green frock in these photos. Her young friend, Caitlin (wearing the light blue), was also a quick study at the technique and she won the chivalry prize as she was extremely gracious in her boffering. At the end of the day she gave her prize, a pretty unicorn hobbyhorse, away to Catherine, Joan and Crispin's oldest girl. This was very much appreciated by Catherine, who spent the entire evening and the next morning riding and grooming her steed (prizes courtesy of Their Excellencies Stephen and Mathilde). Caitlin dimissed her generosity saying that she was a bit old and would only have enjoyed the hobby horse a little bit as opposed to Catherine's a lot. All the adults immediately thought she was adorable.
I think that Bethany may have come second in the tournament – my brain had utterly melted in the heat, but since her little sister ended up playing on a hobby horse a great deal, I suspect that this was the case and that her prize, too, was given to a smaller small. She did, however, make it very clear that she will be Lochac Earl Marshall one day, and quite possibly a knight, too. I have never seen anyone who is such a stickler for technique and rules when it comes to boffer; not in the bossy way, but in the instructive and teaching way. It was fabbo! She was very keen that all the kids have fun and no-one get hurt. More generosity in the young!
The Court at which all the prizes were handed out was just lovely. I've mentioned before that there was no bad choice for the new B&B in Polit, but Allesandro and Isobel are doing a wonderful job and have a really good presence, plus good schtick; not too formal, not too jokey, but just right. They also fought on the day, alas, they were smoten.
Robert and nice young red-gold-haired boy whose name I think might be James or John (argh! no brain!) did some technical instruction with me in the boffer at the end of the day. We showed the midgets the need to bring the boffer in close to power a disarming blow, then just use a gentle rebound to actually hit the opponent, and we reminded them that when it came to knights at festival, they were to rebound with a thwack. Robert revealed the mounted position for boffer cavalry and we were instantly surrounded by kids who wanted to be seen as tall enough to be the horses. Alas, only a handful were, and some of those were too slight. I had one young man pointing out that he was a good two inches taller than me, and I had to confess that I weighed at least three stone more than he did. But he plans to eat a lot between now and Easter.
Robert again mentioned that he thinks we will need helmets if we are to do the mounted thing. I think he is right, this will require thought. There is already a fair bit of expenditure to be made, so I don't want to add to it. We may need to rethink this.
After all the biff there was a lovely relaxed feast which had been billed as 'unchallenging'. While the kidlets were all unafraid, it was all tasty and delicious, nothing bland or boring. Robert Stoner was given a Griffin's Egg at Court, which is the Polit award for people under 16 who have contributed a great deal to Polit or to served as examples to the youth of the barony. It was very well deserved! Then, in a very unexpected moment, I was given a Griffin's Egg, too, despite meeting only one of the categories and then barely. I felt very guilty, since I only inspire the children to violence and silliness, while Robert is a good example all round. But I was touched nonetheless and have been carrying the token around with me ever since.
It was very good to have an opportunity to talk a bit with the kids that night, although the heat was showing badly and I was much less coherent or energetic than I had intended. Still, when young Sophie came bouncing up and 'sang' a song at me that went "Giggle giggle you going giggle giggle fair giggle giggle time!" I was at least enough on the ball to join in with "Remember me to the one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine." Which amazed Crispin and amused Sophie no end. I must get down for another small Polit event so that I can chat properly with people like Bethany and Robert, Caitlin, Lauren and her nice brother; they are all the sorts of kids I liked when I was a kid – a little kooky, but in the interesting and individual way. And ridiculously good looking. Are there no ugly children in the SCA?
The best thing about this event was that all the kids felt quite welcomed, while there were things for the adults that made them feel right at home, too. No one was stuck in the corner, and the newbies felt just as much at ease as the oldtimers. I do hope that the new folk will come again. I even had time to briefly meet an adult I liked, Meredith, who, like all Merediths I have ever known, was smart and funny.
Later that night we stopped by Jeff and Barry's for supper, which was just delightful. I really miss seeing them more regularly, and Jeff and I were reminded of the fact that J and Ewa (Jeff's wife) are identical in many mannerisms. The old joke is that Jeff and I could never run off with each other (because we'd kill each other aside from anything else), but Jeff and J could. Ewa and I once planned that we would have rocking chairs on the verandah if we needed a contingency plan, and she would get to eat the soft ice cream from around the outside of the tub and I would tackle the hard bit in the centre.
The next morning we visited Joan and Crispin at their home and J was able to have a bit of training time with C. Good fun for them. We girls relaxed, with Joan's little girls showing me the fairy garden. Catherine and Sophie have a very good garden with several cubbies and spots to climb as well as a sandpit and some flowers. Catherine turned into the hydrangea fairy and scattered us with flowers and leaves. Excellent! Of course, the funniest moment of all was completely unintentional. Sophie is only three, and she spent the most time with us at Festival where her mum was running our Royal Household and we occasionally gave her a ride in the Royal Wheelbarrow. So she could barely contain her excitement when she leaned across the table and confided in a loud, high whisper, "The King is in my Bathroom!!"
The second good thing was another event, which I actually started to write about a few weeks ago and then was distracted. It was the Feast of the Four Winds in Colles Adorum. My briliant Apprentice Number One invented this event to go with an A&S competition she runs where people are encouraged to submit full outfits.
This year the event was run by Adam and his team, and they did a really good job with the hall and the food. Apparently the tournament was great, too, but we missed it, I think we were both at work through the day. John Dye was there with his very cool lady, and there was a stack of younger folk who all seemed to be having a good time. Zanobia won the A&S comp, with a very good outfit that was intelligently designed and made. Eadie came second, with a beautiful Hollandish, and Bleddynn third with a Roman that would have scored higher marks had he oly thought to provide doco. The most exciting thing was that all the entries incorporated handmade shoes! That young Artemisia is a very good influence!
It was another of those small SCA events that is just seamless. There was a lot of food and cold drink and room to dance or run around like a loon. We stole young Sarah, Adeline's daughter, and J, Maeve, Miles and I took it upon ourselves to wear her out. Which we succeeded in! The clever adult game of Run in a Circle still works on her. I give it a year, max, before she works that one out.
Anyway, for a good event and a great idea, Four Winds (which J will call Beanfest, but let's not encourage him) won two thumbs up from me.
The third good thing was the In Dulci concert we attended. In Dulci are a group of mostly Rowanite singers (a spot of Stowe, too!) who are very talented. They have taken their in-game a capellaness and made it work out of game, too. Although they are still pretty medieval/Baroque in their song choices. So far we've caught two of their gigs and we've got the album. When they release a T-shirt, we'll have the full merch set. Needless to say, they were very good and we enjoyed ourselves a great deal. Bethan did a champion job of conducting, for which she is being rewarded in this shot by flowers. Katherine and Annabel both sing like angels, not that I'm biased towards tuneful sopranos ...
The fourth good thing was Christmas. I decided to go all-out and make things. So I have a mostly made hat for Marie and a mostly made calendar for several others, but I briefly had a wholly made gingerbread house!
It was inspired by Malin's magnificent gingerbread house of two years ago, but I failed to learn one important lesson. Humdity is the natural enemy of the gingerbread. You would think that a Jasper Fforde fan like me would remember that.
The house itself was sweet. It had a flower garden made of jubes on two sides, and a path and rear deck made of blue and green M&Ms. On the side it had a musk stick entertaining area, where a gingerbread angel had fallen to its doom. Above it there was a shooting star of Bethlehem, or Halley's Comet, depending on your theism.
The path was lined with raspberry licorice, and there were pfeffernusse trees at the front and marshmallow snowmen out the back. On one side there was a large clinker-lined pool. In the pool, jelly penguins swam. It took me hours!!!! And a great deal of royal icing!!!! And I had to stop J from eating the Freckles that were meant to be the roof tiles.
After starting at about 10am, it was mostly ready to go by about 5.30. Dinner was at 7.30. Alas.
For one brief half-hour, things looked pretty good. Tyg and Krin got to see it in its happy phase, and I did think to snap a few shots off so that we could make Malin laugh. The green triffid is a gingerbread tree, BTW. And then, Sydney's cruel and unusual summer weather kicked in. While it may not have been the usual 40°C (100°F), the humidity was still soup like.
And so the roof line began to sag.
And sag some more.
And then crumble under its own weight. In desperation I popped a plastic container inside to try and hold up what remained of the structure. That worked, a little bit. By the time we got to Marie and Manfred's house of Hospitality for dinner, alack, things were looking grim.
As Blayney or Bleddyn would say, there was something of a structural failure taking place. We decided that it was a house in Tamworth, where freak hailstorms two days before Christmas had seem roofs collapse in major buildings. A delicious dinner was eaten, then we turned back to the house.
Which by now resembled nothing so much as Mawson's Hut. Collapsed. Destroyed. Defunct. Still tasty, though.
Everything was not lost. We had a splendiferous dinner with good company, including Manfred's parents, who cheerfully wore silly hats for the occasion, and Marie and Manfred themselves. Very good presents were exchanged, and much duck was guzzled. As with all good festive meals, we sat around for hours afterwards making the urrrr noise.
And to prove that it wasn't just me who was having a bad dessert day, Marie's mousse turned on us and became so chumpy, you could carve it. Tasted bloody good, though.
Christmas Day itself we spent quietly at home, then Spyd and Mendoza came to visit us on Boxing Day with AJ. Who ate dirt, because he is a proper kid. Then he demanded a nice drink to get rid of the dirt taste, because he is also a smart kid.
We still have Gordy's present to get to Spyd and Lily's to get to Mendoza; we weren't really as organised as we meant to be this year. Of course, since I still haven't finished the sodding calendar, it's all a schemozzle.
In terms of our personal loot, J and I gave each other lovely things that we like a lot. But he gave me a jigsaw puzzle! Which is why I haven't finished anything. These things are like crack! I got this far on the first day and then spent the next three getting about a third of the way through the black background. Luckily, Spyd mentioned that there were things called puzzle mats that let you roll your puzzle up and come back to it. So that saved me from losing my whole holiday to my OCD. It will still be there after Festival when I need something brainless to do.
We actually had money for the post-Christmas sales this year and I spent most of it on a new mattress so that we will sleep comfortably. Expect new levels of sanity and attractiveness from the two of us. I am counting down the days till it arrives on the 10th. (Eleven! ha ha ha ...) (Sorry. I really couldn't help myself on that one)
Finally the one bad thing, which I thought I'd illustrate with this amusing photo of my cat hiding under a travel pillow. Don't worry, she's fine. I've realised that we're generally bad with newbies in Rowany. I realised this when I met someone at an event recently who lives here but doesn't come to local events because she was slagged off by some Rowanites at her second event. She was in the toilets when she heard herself being described in specific and unflattering terms.
Funnily enough, I had recently spoken to another very cool woman (Hi Emma!) who had had a similar experience and who had decided to write us off as a pack of wankers. Thinking back, I had a number of oldtimers describe me as an unprincipled social climbing bitch when I joined. Which is, of course, ridiculous. I have plenty of principles and I would spend my energies climbing more useful societies if that was my real goal. At least they got the bitch part right.
I had a chat with Maeve and Miles and they described similar problems when they joined. In fact, it was only that Gui and Bethan and a few others were there when Maeve and I came along, and I already had Mouse and Coco to trust, that we made enough contacts to keep us in. Miles fell in with many of the same lot, and Gawyne and Alfar, too.
So the four of us (Miles, Maeve, J and I) resolved to spend more time helping newbies in future. And to introduce them to loads of people so they can make up their own minds who they play with rather than feeling tied to one group from the beginning. It's not the world's greatest plan, but at least it has the advantage of being easy to remember. If anyone has a more concrete method for making new folk feel included that copes with being managed by four overly busy and slightly distracted people – do tell!
And now for resolutions:
Get authorised
Kill Knights (either due to being authorised or with the Mighty Midget Army, or both ...)
Make new Elizabethan frock
Wear old one again
Make smocks for Canty Faire
Finish bloody calendar before end of January
Grab Lovely Apprentices for frock-making days
Shields for Mighty Midget Army
Don't overcommit
Enjoy more events
Finally write up Hollandish notes before Adele (rightly) kills me
That's enough for one year's blogging. Happy New Year to you all and thank you for your patience.
Argh.
Anyway, I thought I would end the year talking about some of the good things that I have been up to lately, and then one thing that I think we could all do better.
The first good thing was the Hobby Horse Crusade which we attended a few weekends ago in Polit. Karl Faustus ran the event – he has an LJ, but I'm not sure how public it is, so I won't link him here. His household has a very clever concept whereby they match experienced event runners with not-so experienced ones and so pass on skills and ensure that the event will be fine no matter what.
At this event, KF's Beloved, Dame Joan Sutton and Countess Mathilde Adycote worked their kitchen magic, while BJ, better known as the youthful Lord Robert Stoner, ran the heavy tournament, the lovely Gabrielle of the Marshes ran the fencing and a young man named Erik ran the boffer. In addition, there was a quintain, hobby horse racing and general boffering to use up all the energy in the young people.
While he gave full credit to Count Stephen for his organisational help, Robert did a brilliant job with both the heavy biff and in encouraging cross-discipline support. The heavy tourney was won by Duke Cornelius in a nail-biting finish against Count Veniamen; they were enormous fun to watch and very similar in a lot of their Cunning Moves. Also very amusing, which was needed on such a hot and tiring day.Cornelius accredited Veniamen with the victory, who denied it and claimed it was all Corney. Given that His Grace was hung-over and His Excellency was perspiring like a melting thing, I think they can both claim to be manly men of much mightiness and leave it at that. Well fought, at any rate.
J did not fight as he had begun the day with a pounding headache and then we spent the first hour of our journey travelling about eight miles in awful Sydney traffic; so his decision to leave his armour at home was the best one since taking it would have brought on heatstroke or a fully blown migraine (and I can't drive to get us home from these things.) A shame, though, as he would have enjoyed himself greatly.
The rapier tournament was, I think, won by Owen against Gabrielle, but I could be hideously wrong. Around the time of the finals I was chatting to the very courtly and charming Owen who had just called me Your Grace when a fly flew down my throat, leading to a solid two minutes of coughing, hacking and spitting. While the fly was ejected in all the fuss, I feel that it did my gracious image no good and once again thank the stars that there is Duchess Morwynna for people to look to in terms of dignity.
The boffer was the key part of the the day and it was won by a new young girl named Lauren who belongs to the same homeschooling network as Karl Faustus's elder daughter, Bethany. Now I have a terrible confession to make. I can never remember Bethany's mum's name. Because I am an idiot. Admittedly an idiot who was hit in the head with two tonnes of taxi, but I have a bad feeling I was this useless before that, too. Karl always refers to her as Beloved, which doesn't help. So my exchanges with her go like this: "It's really good to see you! Your daughters are really cool! Gotta go! (Before it becomes obvious I have no idea what your name is and you think I'm rude and/or stupid. Now you just think I'm rude.)"Anyway, back to the boffer. Lauren is one of those cool young women who are strong and smart, which allowed her to quickly pick up that the way to win in the boffer was to evade your opponent's reach, then lunge in for the tap when they were planning something else. Several of the boys were so focussed on thwacking her in the rounds that they failed to spot her strategy
and she was able to kill them all. She's wearing the olive green frock in these photos. Her young friend, Caitlin (wearing the light blue), was also a quick study at the technique and she won the chivalry prize as she was extremely gracious in her boffering. At the end of the day she gave her prize, a pretty unicorn hobbyhorse, away to Catherine, Joan and Crispin's oldest girl. This was very much appreciated by Catherine, who spent the entire evening and the next morning riding and grooming her steed (prizes courtesy of Their Excellencies Stephen and Mathilde). Caitlin dimissed her generosity saying that she was a bit old and would only have enjoyed the hobby horse a little bit as opposed to Catherine's a lot. All the adults immediately thought she was adorable.I think that Bethany may have come second in the tournament – my brain had utterly melted in the heat, but since her little sister ended up playing on a hobby horse a great deal, I suspect that this was the case and that her prize, too, was given to a smaller small. She did, however, make it very clear that she will be Lochac Earl Marshall one day, and quite possibly a knight, too. I have never seen anyone who is such a stickler for technique and rules when it comes to boffer; not in the bossy way, but in the instructive and teaching way. It was fabbo! She was very keen that all the kids have fun and no-one get hurt. More generosity in the young!
The Court at which all the prizes were handed out was just lovely. I've mentioned before that there was no bad choice for the new B&B in Polit, but Allesandro and Isobel are doing a wonderful job and have a really good presence, plus good schtick; not too formal, not too jokey, but just right. They also fought on the day, alas, they were smoten.
Robert and nice young red-gold-haired boy whose name I think might be James or John (argh! no brain!) did some technical instruction with me in the boffer at the end of the day. We showed the midgets the need to bring the boffer in close to power a disarming blow, then just use a gentle rebound to actually hit the opponent, and we reminded them that when it came to knights at festival, they were to rebound with a thwack. Robert revealed the mounted position for boffer cavalry and we were instantly surrounded by kids who wanted to be seen as tall enough to be the horses. Alas, only a handful were, and some of those were too slight. I had one young man pointing out that he was a good two inches taller than me, and I had to confess that I weighed at least three stone more than he did. But he plans to eat a lot between now and Easter.
Robert again mentioned that he thinks we will need helmets if we are to do the mounted thing. I think he is right, this will require thought. There is already a fair bit of expenditure to be made, so I don't want to add to it. We may need to rethink this.
After all the biff there was a lovely relaxed feast which had been billed as 'unchallenging'. While the kidlets were all unafraid, it was all tasty and delicious, nothing bland or boring. Robert Stoner was given a Griffin's Egg at Court, which is the Polit award for people under 16 who have contributed a great deal to Polit or to served as examples to the youth of the barony. It was very well deserved! Then, in a very unexpected moment, I was given a Griffin's Egg, too, despite meeting only one of the categories and then barely. I felt very guilty, since I only inspire the children to violence and silliness, while Robert is a good example all round. But I was touched nonetheless and have been carrying the token around with me ever since.
It was very good to have an opportunity to talk a bit with the kids that night, although the heat was showing badly and I was much less coherent or energetic than I had intended. Still, when young Sophie came bouncing up and 'sang' a song at me that went "Giggle giggle you going giggle giggle fair giggle giggle time!" I was at least enough on the ball to join in with "Remember me to the one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine." Which amazed Crispin and amused Sophie no end. I must get down for another small Polit event so that I can chat properly with people like Bethany and Robert, Caitlin, Lauren and her nice brother; they are all the sorts of kids I liked when I was a kid – a little kooky, but in the interesting and individual way. And ridiculously good looking. Are there no ugly children in the SCA?
The best thing about this event was that all the kids felt quite welcomed, while there were things for the adults that made them feel right at home, too. No one was stuck in the corner, and the newbies felt just as much at ease as the oldtimers. I do hope that the new folk will come again. I even had time to briefly meet an adult I liked, Meredith, who, like all Merediths I have ever known, was smart and funny.
Later that night we stopped by Jeff and Barry's for supper, which was just delightful. I really miss seeing them more regularly, and Jeff and I were reminded of the fact that J and Ewa (Jeff's wife) are identical in many mannerisms. The old joke is that Jeff and I could never run off with each other (because we'd kill each other aside from anything else), but Jeff and J could. Ewa and I once planned that we would have rocking chairs on the verandah if we needed a contingency plan, and she would get to eat the soft ice cream from around the outside of the tub and I would tackle the hard bit in the centre.
The next morning we visited Joan and Crispin at their home and J was able to have a bit of training time with C. Good fun for them. We girls relaxed, with Joan's little girls showing me the fairy garden. Catherine and Sophie have a very good garden with several cubbies and spots to climb as well as a sandpit and some flowers. Catherine turned into the hydrangea fairy and scattered us with flowers and leaves. Excellent! Of course, the funniest moment of all was completely unintentional. Sophie is only three, and she spent the most time with us at Festival where her mum was running our Royal Household and we occasionally gave her a ride in the Royal Wheelbarrow. So she could barely contain her excitement when she leaned across the table and confided in a loud, high whisper, "The King is in my Bathroom!!"The second good thing was another event, which I actually started to write about a few weeks ago and then was distracted. It was the Feast of the Four Winds in Colles Adorum. My briliant Apprentice Number One invented this event to go with an A&S competition she runs where people are encouraged to submit full outfits.
This year the event was run by Adam and his team, and they did a really good job with the hall and the food. Apparently the tournament was great, too, but we missed it, I think we were both at work through the day. John Dye was there with his very cool lady, and there was a stack of younger folk who all seemed to be having a good time. Zanobia won the A&S comp, with a very good outfit that was intelligently designed and made. Eadie came second, with a beautiful Hollandish, and Bleddynn third with a Roman that would have scored higher marks had he oly thought to provide doco. The most exciting thing was that all the entries incorporated handmade shoes! That young Artemisia is a very good influence!
It was another of those small SCA events that is just seamless. There was a lot of food and cold drink and room to dance or run around like a loon. We stole young Sarah, Adeline's daughter, and J, Maeve, Miles and I took it upon ourselves to wear her out. Which we succeeded in! The clever adult game of Run in a Circle still works on her. I give it a year, max, before she works that one out.
Anyway, for a good event and a great idea, Four Winds (which J will call Beanfest, but let's not encourage him) won two thumbs up from me.
The third good thing was the In Dulci concert we attended. In Dulci are a group of mostly Rowanite singers (a spot of Stowe, too!) who are very talented. They have taken their in-game a capellaness and made it work out of game, too. Although they are still pretty medieval/Baroque in their song choices. So far we've caught two of their gigs and we've got the album. When they release a T-shirt, we'll have the full merch set. Needless to say, they were very good and we enjoyed ourselves a great deal. Bethan did a champion job of conducting, for which she is being rewarded in this shot by flowers. Katherine and Annabel both sing like angels, not that I'm biased towards tuneful sopranos ...
The fourth good thing was Christmas. I decided to go all-out and make things. So I have a mostly made hat for Marie and a mostly made calendar for several others, but I briefly had a wholly made gingerbread house!It was inspired by Malin's magnificent gingerbread house of two years ago, but I failed to learn one important lesson. Humdity is the natural enemy of the gingerbread. You would think that a Jasper Fforde fan like me would remember that.
The house itself was sweet. It had a flower garden made of jubes on two sides, and a path and rear deck made of blue and green M&Ms. On the side it had a musk stick entertaining area, where a gingerbread angel had fallen to its doom. Above it there was a shooting star of Bethlehem, or Halley's Comet, depending on your theism.
The path was lined with raspberry licorice, and there were pfeffernusse trees at the front and marshmallow snowmen out the back. On one side there was a large clinker-lined pool. In the pool, jelly penguins swam. It took me hours!!!! And a great deal of royal icing!!!! And I had to stop J from eating the Freckles that were meant to be the roof tiles.After starting at about 10am, it was mostly ready to go by about 5.30. Dinner was at 7.30. Alas.
For one brief half-hour, things looked pretty good. Tyg and Krin got to see it in its happy phase, and I did think to snap a few shots off so that we could make Malin laugh. The green triffid is a gingerbread tree, BTW. And then, Sydney's cruel and unusual summer weather kicked in. While it may not have been the usual 40°C (100°F), the humidity was still soup like.
And so the roof line began to sag.And sag some more.
And then crumble under its own weight. In desperation I popped a plastic container inside to try and hold up what remained of the structure. That worked, a little bit. By the time we got to Marie and Manfred's house of Hospitality for dinner, alack, things were looking grim.
As Blayney or Bleddyn would say, there was something of a structural failure taking place. We decided that it was a house in Tamworth, where freak hailstorms two days before Christmas had seem roofs collapse in major buildings. A delicious dinner was eaten, then we turned back to the house.Which by now resembled nothing so much as Mawson's Hut. Collapsed. Destroyed. Defunct. Still tasty, though.
Everything was not lost. We had a splendiferous dinner with good company, including Manfred's parents, who cheerfully wore silly hats for the occasion, and Marie and Manfred themselves. Very good presents were exchanged, and much duck was guzzled. As with all good festive meals, we sat around for hours afterwards making the urrrr noise.
And to prove that it wasn't just me who was having a bad dessert day, Marie's mousse turned on us and became so chumpy, you could carve it. Tasted bloody good, though.
Christmas Day itself we spent quietly at home, then Spyd and Mendoza came to visit us on Boxing Day with AJ. Who ate dirt, because he is a proper kid. Then he demanded a nice drink to get rid of the dirt taste, because he is also a smart kid.We still have Gordy's present to get to Spyd and Lily's to get to Mendoza; we weren't really as organised as we meant to be this year. Of course, since I still haven't finished the sodding calendar, it's all a schemozzle.
In terms of our personal loot, J and I gave each other lovely things that we like a lot. But he gave me a jigsaw puzzle! Which is why I haven't finished anything. These things are like crack! I got this far on the first day and then spent the next three getting about a third of the way through the black background. Luckily, Spyd mentioned that there were things called puzzle mats that let you roll your puzzle up and come back to it. So that saved me from losing my whole holiday to my OCD. It will still be there after Festival when I need something brainless to do.We actually had money for the post-Christmas sales this year and I spent most of it on a new mattress so that we will sleep comfortably. Expect new levels of sanity and attractiveness from the two of us. I am counting down the days till it arrives on the 10th. (Eleven! ha ha ha ...) (Sorry. I really couldn't help myself on that one)
Finally the one bad thing, which I thought I'd illustrate with this amusing photo of my cat hiding under a travel pillow. Don't worry, she's fine. I've realised that we're generally bad with newbies in Rowany. I realised this when I met someone at an event recently who lives here but doesn't come to local events because she was slagged off by some Rowanites at her second event. She was in the toilets when she heard herself being described in specific and unflattering terms.Funnily enough, I had recently spoken to another very cool woman (Hi Emma!) who had had a similar experience and who had decided to write us off as a pack of wankers. Thinking back, I had a number of oldtimers describe me as an unprincipled social climbing bitch when I joined. Which is, of course, ridiculous. I have plenty of principles and I would spend my energies climbing more useful societies if that was my real goal. At least they got the bitch part right.
I had a chat with Maeve and Miles and they described similar problems when they joined. In fact, it was only that Gui and Bethan and a few others were there when Maeve and I came along, and I already had Mouse and Coco to trust, that we made enough contacts to keep us in. Miles fell in with many of the same lot, and Gawyne and Alfar, too.
So the four of us (Miles, Maeve, J and I) resolved to spend more time helping newbies in future. And to introduce them to loads of people so they can make up their own minds who they play with rather than feeling tied to one group from the beginning. It's not the world's greatest plan, but at least it has the advantage of being easy to remember. If anyone has a more concrete method for making new folk feel included that copes with being managed by four overly busy and slightly distracted people – do tell!
And now for resolutions:
Get authorised
Kill Knights (either due to being authorised or with the Mighty Midget Army, or both ...)
Make new Elizabethan frock
Wear old one again
Make smocks for Canty Faire
Finish bloody calendar before end of January
Grab Lovely Apprentices for frock-making days
Shields for Mighty Midget Army
Don't overcommit
Enjoy more events
Finally write up Hollandish notes before Adele (rightly) kills me
That's enough for one year's blogging. Happy New Year to you all and thank you for your patience.
posted by Miss D at 4:20 pm
17 Comments:
Thanks for the write-up on the HHC - my LJ is at least as public as yours (more, in fact) so feel free to pass it on: it's pretty easy to guess. We were very glad you came along; there were some moments there when it was all looking like Too Much Effort, but I knew if I didn't pull it off you'd never forgive me. And, like all big boofy blokes, I know better than to disappoint a short, sneaky, retired hippy chick with a penchant for headbutting taxis.
One quick correction: the hobby horses were provided by Lady Mathilde, the constable, who is Gabrielle's girlie and who has the exact same mundane name as the BatPup (same spelling and everything). Oh - except for the one that Lauren won, which was provided by Baron Alessandro; he'd bought it years ago and was just waiting for an excuse to use it somehow.
Regarding the keeping of newbies: when I first joined Politarchopolis, there were a bunch of peer-wannabe wankers who were being approximately as rude to newcomers as you've seen. I formed a household, Clan Womble, to grab as many as possible and encourage them in various directions. Crispin was one of our alumni, as were Portia and various others, some of whom are still around 15 years later. I'll blog about it in my LJ, actually, since this comment will get quite long otherwise.
So the four of us (Miles, Maeve, J and I) resolved to spend more time helping newbies in future. And to introduce them to loads of people so they can make up their own minds who they play with rather than feeling tied to one group from the beginning.
Count me in on that one too!
I have a smock I MUST get back to you! And a drill! I can drop them off one night this week in fact!
While I take full credit for the Four Winds A&S Comp, I didn't invent the Feast itself. I think the event was originally Aelfred's idea and possibly the first event run by CA after we split from Agaricus.
So about this patterning with your lovely apprentices (and their stunt doubles), call me :)
Oh, I also meant to say that the puzzle looks gorgeous. I also get so addicted to those things!
Art - Feast of the Four Winds was an old House Smithfield tradition in Politarchopolis (and possibly in Rowany before that -- Smithfield was so-called because it was originally based in the Sydney suburb of Smithfield). I ran the last one with Bastian as cook, a good ten years ago now. Adam may have picked up the idea via Kiriel, who was always somewhat involved in Smutfjordian activities.
There must have been an outbreak of friendliness when we joined Rowany in 2001-2, we were made welcome whenever we joined in. Maybe I was simply lucky not to over hear any narky comments. Maybe knowing some old schoolers helped (waves to Bat and Silfren)... we got a shocked/puzzled look when we mentioned we were newbies on more than one occasion.
But yes, on the whole I agree that how to be welcoming to newbies (in such a way that they then become oldies) is a widespread issue that needs addressing if we are to grow and prosper as a Society within such a small population. (18 mill people is but a large city or state in some parts of the Known Worlde)
...also with waves to Stil, Giles and Daffyd.... some will see the Innilgardian and AICSA connections here...
Oh Rowany CAN be good at newbies, and 2001 was a very good year since we were full of active young people at that time, it's just that we seem to lose a lot between the cracks who don't have pre-existing relationships to help them through the minefield, or who don't get quickly 'in' with a group.
Households are a good idea in many cases, but I do worry in Rowany that it would be seen as "Don't joinn Attica or Drakkar because you feel you have to. Join us, because you feel you have to!"
And sorry for mistaking Mathilde for Mathilde. D'OH! Younger Mathilde is lovely! But I always think of her as Cat, so I failed to make the connection. She's a generous soul!
Also, sorry for the Four Winds confusion. I like the way comments function as errata. I wish I had a brain ...
Puzzle is by Castorland, it is very nice, especiialy now that it is rolled up and not sucking out my brain remnants.
Yeah, make more stuff. That's my plan. So we should do making of more stuff together. Seriously thinking about starting a sewing night at my joint for those that wanna learn. Beginners to intermediate (ie if you already know everything, sod off) but if you need a pretty frock and you need some pointers or even a great many pointers, rock on over.
Whaddaya think?
Also acknowledge this probably doesn't go to well with you not over committing thing.
Whaddya think?
Recovering Snarkee here too. Paranoia is barred so no speculation on hints given of words spoken to others.
I think it's part and parcel of a social group and perhaps moreso where there is hierachy built in.
It's hard enough watching newbies be put off but I have put off inviting friends to join because I don't want them to go through the same. I do now have someone who is interested (she wants to go to Coronation in a big French or German number.. mwahahahahahaha..) so we've talked about things including how to read people in the group so it's not so daunting to talk to other people.
G, I was going to ring you and say "Good plan!" but I fell asleep and woke up after your bedtime. Work is tiring ...
Good plan. I'll stalk you by phone.
Myna, in the immortal words of Gabrielle, there will always be someone who is pissed off because your arse is better than hers or you don't find him attractive. And we should go through our lives thankful that we didn't meet these people when we were young enough to be pushed into eating disorders or unfortunate sexual choices by their evil.
As things work out in the SCA and in life, bitter meanies tend to make their own lives ghastly, but you are very right that we need strategies to distract innocents from manky people. And there's nothing better than a great big frock! But realising that behaving badly to newbies is usually a sign of personal disappointments is a good idea, too.
I do stress that there's a difference between oldtimers behaving badly and ignoring people, though. Sometimes newbies get ignored for perfectly innocent reasons ranging from a crisis over there to everyone thought said newbie was with someone else. Those are the sort of falling between the crack stuff-ups that we seem most likely to be able to catch. And then we have this new plan to clothe them ...
re: newbies, it's by no means a Rowany-only issue. There's the two major kinds of errors:
type A -- ignore them or fail to link them up usefully. They may drift away this time, but there's a reasonable chance they'll have another stab later and get luckier.
type B -- slag them off or do something explicit which serves to drive them away (including seeing some of us on a bad-hair day). They're unlikely to return, but it can happen; usually requires an obvious/public change in group structure or dynamics first.
Type A is what our systems try to defend us against. Having Chatelaines, B&Bs etc. whose brief is to snag newcomers, having exhortations to the wider populace to do the same. When we're alert and have good officers, it generally works. And when we fail, the consequences usually aren't too awful.
Type B is what we hope the SCA's chivalry and courtesy ethos will defend us against. Sometimes it do, and sometimes it don't. Exhortations help here, too; little else will, if your group has a high register of prats or snarks.
I guess the most useful thing is to have a good newbie radar. Not just in the "they are standing over there and looking unfamiliar" sense, but also in the sense of "our current group trajectory, promotional activities and the nature of THIS event means we'll likely have quite a few newcomers, therefore let's remind each other to be on the ball".
The rest of the year, we can slack off and chuck mud 'til the cows come home.
Laughed uproariously at your difficulties remembering the Beloved's name. It's not difficult to remember. Zoom your eyes over the initial letter of each sentence in this paragraph to get the mundane name.
And do you need her SCA name? Don't be afraid to ask. Everyone else has trouble with that sort of thing at times. Look around! It's the reason we call each other "My Lord" and "My Lady". Nobody can remember everyone's name. Don't even need the excuse of a taxi to the head! I have an excellent memory, and even I forget. So cast your eyes over this paragraph for the answer to that question for my Beloved.
Oh yes:) After a bit of a mutter and pondering the eternal question webalised as "WTF??" it always is best to set the default reaction to "they were having a bad hair day and are not complete bastards with the sensitivity of a frozen rhino. And if they are then I am not qualified to defrost rhinos so it's tough biccies, I want to be here."
The problem is in working out which of my friends would enjoy the group enough to get through it the same way;)
Right! Time to work on getting spiffy for some speccy garb!
Hey, it took me a long time to crack Rowany, but I don't blame anyone a bit. On the flip side of the coin, I have tried to be friendly and welcoming to relative newbies on a few occasions, and found myself lumbered with the World's Most Boring Drip more often than I would have liked. I would tend towards the "play dead until they eventually stop talking and go away" approach, rather than being mean in the hopes of actively driving people away. With a bit of luck, they will find a group that they connect with and everyone will be happy.
I really hope I haven't made myself out to be a huge poo-head. D, you'll stick up for me, won't you?
Oooh, too sleepy to be philosophical. Good night!
Miss Hunny is neither huge nor a poo-head.
The being lumbered with the boring is another reason that I think we need some more formal sort of focus. What happens at the moment is that a nice person who picks up a newbie so they don't feel all lost and alone is often then trapped for the rest of teh event, which is an utter bugger since most of us have very good friends we only get to see every few months and rely on events to catch up at.
If we had a set idea that there would be three or four people who would rotate through and introduce newbies to other people at any given event, not only would the newbies feel as though they met quite a few folk, it wouldn't be overly painful to the introducers. At least, that's the theory ...
Stowe went from 5 to 55 players in a year. That's a hell of a lot of newbies we were nice to.
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