Canterbury Faire 2009

[stellar_muddle]

The short version:
cherries
heat (though not too bad)
leaves and some dust
BED :)
Lots of late night singing.


This may be added to later, since I am starting this a little late at night, with work tomorrow morning. The hazards of several naps today... but am waiting for hair to get a little less wet, so doesn't hurt.

Thurs 29 Jan: Late night packing.

Fri 30 Jan: Ferry sailing - Z saw penguins in the Sounds. Slow uneventful womble down south with no plums grabbed and no banana passion fruit found. Collapse and dinner with manus. Talking and sleeeeeep.

Sat 31 Jan: Z had slight panic over trousers. Trouser problem solved on route to realityadmin and neep1's wedding. Cave venue with large thermal mass and air con was a very very good choice, though Z had a few things to say about its general geological stability. Returned trousers and did a little hardware shopping, then after a pause to reload the car, headed out to site. Yay to $4 per kg cherries and $3 per kg apricots - 5 ~kilo bags of cherries. Unloaded and set up tents. Yay to dinner turning up - suspect it calmed rather raw nerves. Grouch to the rain and needing to cover things. Viking a-frame ended up going ok with the white cotton layer suspended under the frame with a rope supporting and with the green fly over the top (Z was a little skeptical there...). alpha_angel and Z played the glowstick arrow game, then there was star gazing (yay to lack of Mong lights, no moon and a clear night).

Sun 1 Feb: Forecast locally was for well above 30 degrees, so we decided escape was a good idea and followed through on the plans to head up to Hanmer Springs. After most of the morning spent going blob, we dragged teffania and A up and away. Decided that was worth heading up towards Lewis Pass for real NZ beech forest and a fault line tour - was norwest and partially drizzly, but gloriously cool compared to site. A bit of a forest walk in on and off drizzle then back to Hamner for the hot pools where we met up with alpha_angel briefly. Had thought that the hot pools might be too much but the swimming pool would be good, but ended up soaking and lounging between various temperature pools. Glorious, especially after the stress of lead up to CF and set up. Worth doing again next year. Got back round dinner, scavanged food and swore slightly over sweeping dust and leaves out from EVERYWHERE in the tent (missed the 1/2 hour BIG wind) - at least the tent stayed up and happy though. Much late night singing, especially of the out of period usually post midnight stuff. Must memorize the Poor old soldier lyrics. Definite late night.

Mon 2 Feb: Start of event. Nice short opening court (I think). Got chores out of the way by doing lunch prep and cleanup, which worked really well as 3 of us were on both and could just clean up as we went. 12th C clothing class by Teffania late afternoon - fun to see various people geeking :). Evening of many people (incl many AU ones) around the table at Northside, with many tall and/or explicit animal stories. Then wombled off (not quite too late but close) to pepperbeast and xanthe_selkie's Pelican "not a vigil". Much talking, which eventually migrated to a Mong Tent. Some gossip catchup and some discussion of "topics that should not be mentioned near certain people" - apparently Z has mellowed as he wasn't up for a full half hour rant with the mention of Braveheartthat movie... Late night.

Tues 3 Feb: Think I worked on waxing wax tablets in the morning. Was a little edgy whenever there was wax dripped on the stove element and she smoked a bit. Done in time for lunch. Early afternoon was sewing (?) and then a nap after (through the de-vest court etc - oops). Dinner, with I think the best of the several singing sessions after. Small group to start which quickly grew. Started with the period stuff, then moved to the less so after midnight (and it was actually after midnight). The ALFs lineup was fun. Definite late night.

Weds 4 Feb: Earlyish start in the rain (oops given late night prior) in heading to Canterbury Uni to view some of their rare pre-17th C books as organised by dragonermine. Co-bibliophiles were Z, M&M and mmy_me. There were some very nice books including a Nuremburg Bible (was more than just biblical though - more sort of encyclopedia of everything) and one handwritten on vellum. We washed out hands and got to handle them!!! Definitely worth it and many many photos were taken by all involved. Then split up, grabbed food at Student Union, grocery shopped (evil new Church Corner Countdown - just not right), then headed back to site, picking up a 5kg box of cherries along the way. Still mmmm cherries. Z continued working on bed. I had a nap til dinner. Not quite so late a night (though still midnightish) - general conversation, including up in the hall I think.

Thurs 5 Feb: Working on wax tablets and swearing at wax tablets in the morning - I believe I mentioned "clusterfuck central" in connection with putting the blackened wax in. Thank you to Z for calming me down and stopping on bed manufacture to fix the mess. Worked on finishing purple silk tunic in the afternoon, finished it and wore it for the rest of the afternoon. Not bad for the temperature and for something pretty as opposed to the Anglo-Saxon Bob outfit I had been slobbing around it. But changed back into that after dinner and helped Z finish the bed. Yay finished viking Gokstad bed with slats/rope, canvas and straw, and the swag combo on top of that. Comfy bed. While finishing that, missed the court before the Ball, though came up and congratulated people after and checked out the A&S display. Then there was dragonermine's pelican vigil. Much food and discussion. Eventually more singing in the Mong after. Another later night.

Fri 6 Feb: Warm day and just the right temperature for the Roman silk. Sacred Choral music singing prior to lunch. Being able to read music would have helped but was still interesting. Was definitely starting to sound cool. Market after lunch and sold all the wax tablets (appart from the pre-ordered ones) relatively fast, in time for market rambling, though didn't end up buying anything other than lemon sorbet (mmm lemon sorbet and sorry to Z that I ate it all...). Sorta skipped the baronial invest part of curt but definitely made it to dragonermine's pelican ceremony*. Helped realityadmin and neep1 in serving at the feast, along with Z, alpha_angel, not_an_elf and his lady amongst others with realityadmin, with neep1 commanding bendsinister, elen_benet, lacedwaist and B in the kitchen. More fun that way and still much food. Mmm salmon and mmmm eye fillet... and mmm to most of the food. Late night talking as per usual. Don't think there was singing.

Sat 7 Feb: Did something in the morning... Cleaned and tidied tent, avoided film crew and sewed I think. More sewing after lunch and much getting laptops and usb sticks to exchange info :). Think I napped from 4-6pm again in the late afternoon. Did make it to closing court - congrats to alpha_angel on the Lily. Evening we had our tent open with an variable numbers of people in the tent and sprawled over chests, floors and the bed. Much talking til late late late (~3am).

Sun 8 Feb: Take down. Evil early start. Hot day, with temperature building. Sunscreen and water was definitely the order of the day. Think packup went without hiccup - thank you to people who helped. Offsite only very slightly after noon. The set of 3 wombles from hell - I'll let Z rant about them. No banana passion fruit, but a pod of dolphins near Oaro. Brief stop in Kaikoura. Longer stop at Kekerengu with (briefly) dragonermine and S and (longer) sir_asbjorn and argentbear. Unhappy truck pipe. We had to leave leave well befre the AA showed up. We made it to Picton with half an hour to spare before checking, had dinner and met up with alpha_angel and sevenisajourney. Joined the queue with them. There was much cheering when with half an hour before departure and the trucks mostly loaded, sir_asbjorn and argentbear hove into view with the truck. Windy ferry crossing with various games, discussions and various people in and out of the wind at the front of the ship. They all had to come in when the Captain told them to come in off the front due to severe wind gusts near the Wellington harbour entrance... Made it home by ~11:10pm. Shower and sleeeeeep.

Mon 9 Feb: Sleeping and net surfing and unpacking and sleeping and net surfing and posting this. Work tomorrow :(

Think Z turning off the lights is a delicate hint to go to bed. More general commentary may follow in a later post. It is 12:30am...

*I nearly typed "pelicaning", thought about it, then thought again...