Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A little calligraphy
Last night was a busy night.
I decided to sit down and do one of the backlog scrolls - in this case an AoA from 2006, anonymised through the magic of Pixelmator:
I was originally going to wait until I received the necessary stuff to do raised gilding, but given that the gilding process is still filed as 'highly experimental' in my skills notebook I decided that I'd just press ahead with one of the scrolls in my usual manner. So that's one down, two to go of the first trio. With a bit of luck I'll get the next one done over the weekend, although the design on that one is a bit more complex as it's a higher-ranking award.
After fencing tonight we'll almost certainly go off to Bláa Kanann for sustenance; the coffee shop happens to be opposite to the town's main stationers. I'm planning to drop in and to pick up some more paper, a couple of gouache paints and maybe even a roll-up holder for pencils, paints and so forth - it would make much more sense to keep all of my scroll-making stuff in one storage item rather than the paints with the rest of the paints and the pens with the rest of the pens. I'll just have to wait and see whether Pennin have anything suitable.
0 comments
I decided to sit down and do one of the backlog scrolls - in this case an AoA from 2006, anonymised through the magic of Pixelmator:
I was originally going to wait until I received the necessary stuff to do raised gilding, but given that the gilding process is still filed as 'highly experimental' in my skills notebook I decided that I'd just press ahead with one of the scrolls in my usual manner. So that's one down, two to go of the first trio. With a bit of luck I'll get the next one done over the weekend, although the design on that one is a bit more complex as it's a higher-ranking award.
After fencing tonight we'll almost certainly go off to Bláa Kanann for sustenance; the coffee shop happens to be opposite to the town's main stationers. I'm planning to drop in and to pick up some more paper, a couple of gouache paints and maybe even a roll-up holder for pencils, paints and so forth - it would make much more sense to keep all of my scroll-making stuff in one storage item rather than the paints with the rest of the paints and the pens with the rest of the pens. I'll just have to wait and see whether Pennin have anything suitable.
0 comments
Monday, September 29, 2008
It's the economy, stupid!
Today my bank collapsed.
Well, maybe not collapsed entirely, but it was certainly nationalised as the Icelandic government bought 75% of its shares. Seemingly if they hadn't done that the bank would have collapsed completely within days.
Of course both the bank and the government are trying to tell me that the whole situation is under control and won't affect me at all. Other Icelandic banks are saying that Iceland's economy has enviable long-term prospects. So why don't I believe that? Maybe it's that 14% inflation rate that does it.
Thinking of which, further to my previous economic post, it seems that there is a legal loophole which would allow Iceland to join the Euro without joining the EU. There's a clause somewhere which allows small non-EU countries to adopt the Euro by means of a bilateral agreement. This was originally written to allow countries like San Marino and Vatican City, who are not members of the EU but used the currency of a Eurozone nation to change over to the Euro without having to sign up to the politics.
This clause might be made to work in Iceland's favour, but of course the economy has to be stabilised first. The general consensus seems to be that the 'right' level for the krona is approximately 105-110 krona to the Euro (as opposed to the current 145).
As I write this the news is coming through that the US Congress has rejected the market bail-out plan. I wonder what the odds are on the exchange rate hitting 200 krona to the pound over the next couple of weeks? Unpleasantly high, I suspect.
2 comments
Well, maybe not collapsed entirely, but it was certainly nationalised as the Icelandic government bought 75% of its shares. Seemingly if they hadn't done that the bank would have collapsed completely within days.
Of course both the bank and the government are trying to tell me that the whole situation is under control and won't affect me at all. Other Icelandic banks are saying that Iceland's economy has enviable long-term prospects. So why don't I believe that? Maybe it's that 14% inflation rate that does it.
Thinking of which, further to my previous economic post, it seems that there is a legal loophole which would allow Iceland to join the Euro without joining the EU. There's a clause somewhere which allows small non-EU countries to adopt the Euro by means of a bilateral agreement. This was originally written to allow countries like San Marino and Vatican City, who are not members of the EU but used the currency of a Eurozone nation to change over to the Euro without having to sign up to the politics.
This clause might be made to work in Iceland's favour, but of course the economy has to be stabilised first. The general consensus seems to be that the 'right' level for the krona is approximately 105-110 krona to the Euro (as opposed to the current 145).
As I write this the news is coming through that the US Congress has rejected the market bail-out plan. I wonder what the odds are on the exchange rate hitting 200 krona to the pound over the next couple of weeks? Unpleasantly high, I suspect.
2 comments
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Ginger and apricot
Work surprisingly well together. it's something that might include the words chocolate, apricot, ginger and maltesers, but I haven't got any further than that yet. It was based upon the tiffinesque recipe I got from F and looks something like this:
Apricot and ginger tiffin
Ingredients:
250g butter
200g chocolate
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp sugar
200g ginger nut biscuits, crushed to small pieces
250g chopped dried apricots
150g Maltesers.
Method
Melt butter, chocolate, syrup and sugar in a pan. Once melted allow to cool for a couple of minutes and then add everything else, mixing well. Pour into a greased baking tray (roughly 30cm by 20cm by 5cm) and put in the fridge to set. Leave there for 3-4 hours to set before turning out of the tin and cutting into chunks about 4cm by 2cm.
This does soften up quite a lot when left sitting in a bowl in a warm room. The best solution to this is to eat it quickly. :) It certainly disappeared quite rapidly while we were gaming last night - I certainly ate more of it than I meant to.
Today has been quieter. I started a raised gold versal as a trial piece, never before having tried to gild anything, but hit a bit of a wall when I realised that the gesso-bole I'd bought needed a top coat of something else to activate it so that the gold leaf would stick to it. Silly me... yes, I know that doing it with period gesso doesn't have that problem but making the gesso is a bit of a pain. I'll eventually try it but to start with I prefer to have something in a bottle that I can just paint on (for those with interests in this area I'm using the Easy-gild system available from Wrights of Lymm). So far I've done two coats of the gesso and it's looking nicely raised. The other necessities should arrive this week so hopefully I'll get to gild and finish it next weekend.
0 comments
Apricot and ginger tiffin
Ingredients:
250g butter
200g chocolate
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp sugar
200g ginger nut biscuits, crushed to small pieces
250g chopped dried apricots
150g Maltesers.
Method
Melt butter, chocolate, syrup and sugar in a pan. Once melted allow to cool for a couple of minutes and then add everything else, mixing well. Pour into a greased baking tray (roughly 30cm by 20cm by 5cm) and put in the fridge to set. Leave there for 3-4 hours to set before turning out of the tin and cutting into chunks about 4cm by 2cm.
This does soften up quite a lot when left sitting in a bowl in a warm room. The best solution to this is to eat it quickly. :) It certainly disappeared quite rapidly while we were gaming last night - I certainly ate more of it than I meant to.
Today has been quieter. I started a raised gold versal as a trial piece, never before having tried to gild anything, but hit a bit of a wall when I realised that the gesso-bole I'd bought needed a top coat of something else to activate it so that the gold leaf would stick to it. Silly me... yes, I know that doing it with period gesso doesn't have that problem but making the gesso is a bit of a pain. I'll eventually try it but to start with I prefer to have something in a bottle that I can just paint on (for those with interests in this area I'm using the Easy-gild system available from Wrights of Lymm). So far I've done two coats of the gesso and it's looking nicely raised. The other necessities should arrive this week so hopefully I'll get to gild and finish it next weekend.
Labels: calligraphy, recipes
0 comments
Friday, September 26, 2008
Economic crisis? What economic crisis?
The economy is getting a lot of news coverage, I've noticed.
The US and the UK are in dire straights, with inflation running at approximately 5.5% and 3% respectively. This is, everyone seems to think, a terrible thing that will bring about the end of the world or, failing that, some big election problems in the next 18 months.
Here in Iceland the inflation rate is currently 14%, down from 14.5% last month.
Over the last 4 years the GBP:ISK exchange rate has dropped from 1:110 to 1:177.
Now although I am no economist, numbers like this make me think that Something Is Wrong. Yet even at the university there are economists who are saying that there's nothing at all wrong with the Icelandic economy, it's just a problem with the world outside, and that we should just ignore the numbers. There are other economists who would like to know what the first group of economists are smoking and where can they get some of it, please?
Okay, so maybe I exaggerate a little on that last point, but there is a definite difference of opinion. There are a lot of other similar disagreements too - such as whether Iceland should join the EU and whether it should adopt the Euro. You may have thought that it was impossible to do the second without the first, and indeed this is what the European Commissioner for Enlargement claims, but an Icelandic team went to Brussels this week to see if there were any legal reasons why a bilateral agreement should not be set up.
Perhaps the xenophilic economists have discovered the xenophobic economists' secret stash after all.
Given the current state of the krona I don't think that I'd object to adopting the Euro here at all... but that's simply because I have no native pride in the krona and regularly escape the Rock to go shopping. It occurs to me that the current economic situation might just be the final push that sends Iceland into the EU in spite of the major issue of fishing rights in Icelandic waters. Recent reports are showing that even the Icelandic fish stocks are becoming seriously depleted, and if the fisheries collapse then it really doesn't matter whether the people who can't find any fish are Icelandic or Spanish.
In the meantime I'm seriously cutting back on my internet shopping and plans for foreign travel. The flip side, though, is that it's a excellent time for anyone in the UK to come over for a visit.
2 comments
The US and the UK are in dire straights, with inflation running at approximately 5.5% and 3% respectively. This is, everyone seems to think, a terrible thing that will bring about the end of the world or, failing that, some big election problems in the next 18 months.
Here in Iceland the inflation rate is currently 14%, down from 14.5% last month.
Over the last 4 years the GBP:ISK exchange rate has dropped from 1:110 to 1:177.
Now although I am no economist, numbers like this make me think that Something Is Wrong. Yet even at the university there are economists who are saying that there's nothing at all wrong with the Icelandic economy, it's just a problem with the world outside, and that we should just ignore the numbers. There are other economists who would like to know what the first group of economists are smoking and where can they get some of it, please?
Okay, so maybe I exaggerate a little on that last point, but there is a definite difference of opinion. There are a lot of other similar disagreements too - such as whether Iceland should join the EU and whether it should adopt the Euro. You may have thought that it was impossible to do the second without the first, and indeed this is what the European Commissioner for Enlargement claims, but an Icelandic team went to Brussels this week to see if there were any legal reasons why a bilateral agreement should not be set up.
Perhaps the xenophilic economists have discovered the xenophobic economists' secret stash after all.
Given the current state of the krona I don't think that I'd object to adopting the Euro here at all... but that's simply because I have no native pride in the krona and regularly escape the Rock to go shopping. It occurs to me that the current economic situation might just be the final push that sends Iceland into the EU in spite of the major issue of fishing rights in Icelandic waters. Recent reports are showing that even the Icelandic fish stocks are becoming seriously depleted, and if the fisheries collapse then it really doesn't matter whether the people who can't find any fish are Icelandic or Spanish.
In the meantime I'm seriously cutting back on my internet shopping and plans for foreign travel. The flip side, though, is that it's a excellent time for anyone in the UK to come over for a visit.
2 comments
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Tortured by Hagkaup
I was evil in Hagkaup today.
Hagkaup often has little covered displays with samples of new foods for you to try. You just walk up to the stand (which is probably sitting by one of the freezers), lift the cover and help yourself. And today I did. Twice.
Yes, I went back for seconds when no-one was looking, and proceeded to be in foodie heaven as I wandered picking up the rest of my shopping. For Hagkaup has, at a price that even my Icelandic friends consider extortionate, Cathedral City Mature Cheddar.
There was no hope for me; I picked up a pack immediately. I'd only gone in there to get some decent baking potatoes for the weekend, but in the face of such temptation I was helpless. I'm now looking forward to a baked potato with tasty, non-rubberised, cheese.
I was also looking for some mini marshmallows so that I could try F's Rocky Mountain Road recipe, but sadly these seem to be unavailable. There was therefore a bit of frantic thought as to what sort of nibbles I should make for tonight's A&S meeting until I finally fixed on lemon and sultana rock cakes - easy, fast, and unknown here. I think I'll rework the RMR recipe into a Tiffin recipe for Saturday's rpg session instead.
At the meeting tonight we had a distinct case of barter going on. I showed K how to make a toile by pinning fabric to a person, and she practiced this new skill on me, providing me with the necessary pattern to make myself a new armoured doublet. Possibly even before Alfadans, assuming that I can gather enough oomph.
0 comments
Hagkaup often has little covered displays with samples of new foods for you to try. You just walk up to the stand (which is probably sitting by one of the freezers), lift the cover and help yourself. And today I did. Twice.
Yes, I went back for seconds when no-one was looking, and proceeded to be in foodie heaven as I wandered picking up the rest of my shopping. For Hagkaup has, at a price that even my Icelandic friends consider extortionate, Cathedral City Mature Cheddar.
There was no hope for me; I picked up a pack immediately. I'd only gone in there to get some decent baking potatoes for the weekend, but in the face of such temptation I was helpless. I'm now looking forward to a baked potato with tasty, non-rubberised, cheese.
I was also looking for some mini marshmallows so that I could try F's Rocky Mountain Road recipe, but sadly these seem to be unavailable. There was therefore a bit of frantic thought as to what sort of nibbles I should make for tonight's A&S meeting until I finally fixed on lemon and sultana rock cakes - easy, fast, and unknown here. I think I'll rework the RMR recipe into a Tiffin recipe for Saturday's rpg session instead.
At the meeting tonight we had a distinct case of barter going on. I showed K how to make a toile by pinning fabric to a person, and she practiced this new skill on me, providing me with the necessary pattern to make myself a new armoured doublet. Possibly even before Alfadans, assuming that I can gather enough oomph.
0 comments
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sad news
I've just had a phonecall from M - a good friend of hers, who also happens to be one of my former students, has been found dead in the Dominican Republic. Interpol have already been called in and so the assumption is that it is murder.
This news has really brought home to me how small this country is. When I hear about things like this on the news it never occurs to me that I might know the person involved - after all, with nearly 60 million people in the UK the probabilty of me knowing the victim is very, very small. Except I'm no longer in the UK; if anything happens to an Icelander then the chance of me knowing them either directly or through a single connection is very high indeed.
I taught Lilja - Hrafnhildur Lilja, to give her her full name - for a year and have thought of her as a friend ever since. Like me, she found the programming side of computing rather less interesting than the problem-solving side, so we got on very well. I was looking forward to seeing her at Klakavirki events once she returned from her time abroad (she had planned to join us at an earlier event until her work schedule intervened).
M knew her far better than I, so although I'm sad and shocked to hear of Lilja's death I'll just concentrate on being here for M if she needs me.
2 comments
This news has really brought home to me how small this country is. When I hear about things like this on the news it never occurs to me that I might know the person involved - after all, with nearly 60 million people in the UK the probabilty of me knowing the victim is very, very small. Except I'm no longer in the UK; if anything happens to an Icelander then the chance of me knowing them either directly or through a single connection is very high indeed.
I taught Lilja - Hrafnhildur Lilja, to give her her full name - for a year and have thought of her as a friend ever since. Like me, she found the programming side of computing rather less interesting than the problem-solving side, so we got on very well. I was looking forward to seeing her at Klakavirki events once she returned from her time abroad (she had planned to join us at an earlier event until her work schedule intervened).
M knew her far better than I, so although I'm sad and shocked to hear of Lilja's death I'll just concentrate on being here for M if she needs me.
2 comments
Monday, September 22, 2008
Right, left, right, block!
WiiFit is just like SCA fencing.
It is - both of them make severe inroads into your embroidery time. Once upon a time, before T introduced me to the idea that fencing did not have to destroy the knees, I used to go to SCA events and sit in a (normally) nice warm room for most of the day with needle in hand, a goblet of something pleasant nearby and genteel conversation to occupy me. Okay, so occasionally I'd wander out to watch the fencing because it looked such fun and the witty repartee was so amusing, but generally I sat around and got a lot of stitching done.
Then a certain someone put a rapier in my hand, demonstrated to me the upright stance of the Spanish fencing style, and out of the window went all of those embroidery hours.
WiiFit is doing the same thing. I've just done an hour of WiiFit (yoga, aerobics and balance games) and suddenly there it is, the evening has disappeared without me putting a stitch into the current needlework project. I really am going to have to put a bit of work into re-arranging my schedule so that I can both exercise and sew, as I do have a deadline on the current piece.
0 comments
It is - both of them make severe inroads into your embroidery time. Once upon a time, before T introduced me to the idea that fencing did not have to destroy the knees, I used to go to SCA events and sit in a (normally) nice warm room for most of the day with needle in hand, a goblet of something pleasant nearby and genteel conversation to occupy me. Okay, so occasionally I'd wander out to watch the fencing because it looked such fun and the witty repartee was so amusing, but generally I sat around and got a lot of stitching done.
Then a certain someone put a rapier in my hand, demonstrated to me the upright stance of the Spanish fencing style, and out of the window went all of those embroidery hours.
WiiFit is doing the same thing. I've just done an hour of WiiFit (yoga, aerobics and balance games) and suddenly there it is, the evening has disappeared without me putting a stitch into the current needlework project. I really am going to have to put a bit of work into re-arranging my schedule so that I can both exercise and sew, as I do have a deadline on the current piece.
0 comments
Friday, September 19, 2008
GFH completed
The gambeson from hell is now complete.
And it is, without doubt, the ugliest thing I have ever sewn. All I can say in its favour is that a) it will do the job; b) it is nowhere near as bad as visible blue pickle-barrel armour; and c) if I ever lose my mind entirely and decide to take up SCA heavy combat then at least there's a gambeson in the shire big enough to fit me.
Oh yes, I tried it on. I felt like one of those police dog training victims - the ones with the michelin man suits that the dogs can safely bite onto and bring down. It's going to be very, very hot trying to wear it and to do anything. In spite of that, it should protect its wearer from buising rather more effectively than those made with 'normal' local materials.
That's been about it for the day really. I've also finished Wintersmith, mainly because I took the approach of doing a GFH-making task and then rewarding myself with a chapter of Pratchett. Otherwise I'd just have thrown it at the wall in frustration. Now all I have to do it to clear up the assorted bits and pieces and put away the sewing machine. Hurrah!
0 comments
And it is, without doubt, the ugliest thing I have ever sewn. All I can say in its favour is that a) it will do the job; b) it is nowhere near as bad as visible blue pickle-barrel armour; and c) if I ever lose my mind entirely and decide to take up SCA heavy combat then at least there's a gambeson in the shire big enough to fit me.
Oh yes, I tried it on. I felt like one of those police dog training victims - the ones with the michelin man suits that the dogs can safely bite onto and bring down. It's going to be very, very hot trying to wear it and to do anything. In spite of that, it should protect its wearer from buising rather more effectively than those made with 'normal' local materials.
That's been about it for the day really. I've also finished Wintersmith, mainly because I took the approach of doing a GFH-making task and then rewarding myself with a chapter of Pratchett. Otherwise I'd just have thrown it at the wall in frustration. Now all I have to do it to clear up the assorted bits and pieces and put away the sewing machine. Hurrah!
0 comments
The gambeson from hell
I have finally finished the body quilting on the gambeson from hell.
This is a gambeson for a member of the shire whose sewing skills are, shall we say, limited. The GFH is a simple t-tunic-style thing, because I don't actually have measurements for the chap in question but know that my russet t-tunic fits him. So far it has eaten three standard sewing machine needles and a jeans needle, but that's all of the main quilting completed. It is made from light cotton and filled with nylon furniture batting.
Yes, I did say nylon. It's a bugger to sew but at least it's a suitable thickness. We don't seem to be able to get anything thicker than 1cm in terms of normal cotton/polycotton batting in the quilt shop up here. Being nylon it's also going to be incredibly hot, but that's not my problem. This thing is not going to be elegant but it will provide padding, which is its main requirement. It will be sleeveless for now, as there's no way I can do sleeves for it without measurements. The sleeves can always be tied on later. This means that all I have to do now is edge it and put all the ties in place, so with a bit of oomph I might finish it tomorrow.
Last night was also an SCA night. I went over to's place for dinner and to do the SCA Etiquette 101 class. This involved several cardboard coronets (I'm particularly proud of my ducal strawberry leaf coronet), a crown and a couple of medallions. These were handed out at random and most of the folks up here can now at least work out the appropriate form of address for any given pointy hat. One advantage of having a lot of computer geeks is that it is easy to recognise a count - the coronet is clearly in binary (an embattled coronet looks rather like the data signal for 10101010...) and I've already trained them to count in binary. :)
0 comments
This is a gambeson for a member of the shire whose sewing skills are, shall we say, limited. The GFH is a simple t-tunic-style thing, because I don't actually have measurements for the chap in question but know that my russet t-tunic fits him. So far it has eaten three standard sewing machine needles and a jeans needle, but that's all of the main quilting completed. It is made from light cotton and filled with nylon furniture batting.
Yes, I did say nylon. It's a bugger to sew but at least it's a suitable thickness. We don't seem to be able to get anything thicker than 1cm in terms of normal cotton/polycotton batting in the quilt shop up here. Being nylon it's also going to be incredibly hot, but that's not my problem. This thing is not going to be elegant but it will provide padding, which is its main requirement. It will be sleeveless for now, as there's no way I can do sleeves for it without measurements. The sleeves can always be tied on later. This means that all I have to do now is edge it and put all the ties in place, so with a bit of oomph I might finish it tomorrow.
Last night was also an SCA night. I went over to
0 comments
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A little calligraphy
I rather enjoy calligraphy.
It works up faster than embroidery, but still gives me a sense of satisfaction when I complete a scroll that there is something that is both decorative and useful. Now that M has received her Award of Arms I can reveal the calligraphy upon which I was working last week:
It's in gothic quadrata textura with versal inspired by one in the Furness Coucher Book. The heraldic device within the versal is her chosen device, which was the whole reason for taking a photo of the selection of heraldic versals at Furness abbey (they are the devices of benefactors of the abbey). I'm particularly pleased that I managed to pick up a good white ink pen on my last trip to Lancaster, as I've always had problems in the past making the sort of thin white line that's necessary on these illuminations.
In an attempt to keep myself working (and improving!) on the calligraphy I've volunteered to do some scrolls on the Drachenwald backlog. I've got a selection of AoA/Panache/Lindquistring scrolls (which are quite straightforward) and I'm going to have a try at something a little more ambitious with a Court Barony scroll. With a bit of focus on my part I should have them all done to send off to the Signet Clerk before Kingdom University in November.
The reason I think I can get them done is that as they're on the backlog I don't have to keep them secret from the rest of the Shire - which means that I can work on them at A&S meetings. It'll be good to have a non-sewing project, and as several members of the Shire are interested in calligraphy and illumination I can also use them as examples.
2 comments
It works up faster than embroidery, but still gives me a sense of satisfaction when I complete a scroll that there is something that is both decorative and useful. Now that M has received her Award of Arms I can reveal the calligraphy upon which I was working last week:
It's in gothic quadrata textura with versal inspired by one in the Furness Coucher Book. The heraldic device within the versal is her chosen device, which was the whole reason for taking a photo of the selection of heraldic versals at Furness abbey (they are the devices of benefactors of the abbey). I'm particularly pleased that I managed to pick up a good white ink pen on my last trip to Lancaster, as I've always had problems in the past making the sort of thin white line that's necessary on these illuminations.
In an attempt to keep myself working (and improving!) on the calligraphy I've volunteered to do some scrolls on the Drachenwald backlog. I've got a selection of AoA/Panache/Lindquistring scrolls (which are quite straightforward) and I'm going to have a try at something a little more ambitious with a Court Barony scroll. With a bit of focus on my part I should have them all done to send off to the Signet Clerk before Kingdom University in November.
The reason I think I can get them done is that as they're on the backlog I don't have to keep them secret from the rest of the Shire - which means that I can work on them at A&S meetings. It'll be good to have a non-sewing project, and as several members of the Shire are interested in calligraphy and illumination I can also use them as examples.
2 comments
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Back from Raglan
We got back to Iceland late last night.
In many ways Monday was less stressful than Sunday; I didn't feel guilty about not fencing because there was no fencing going on. Of course that was because people were packing up to go home... In spite of the personal stresses Raglan Fair was a very enjoyable event. Okay, so I didn't do too much in the way of fencing, and I didn't manage to catch up with all of the folks I'd hoped to sit and talk to, but I did have time to talk to some of the friends I haven't seen for quite a while.
We left the site at about 11:30 with the intention of doing a bit of sight-seeing on the way back to the airport. After a bit of discussion amongst ourselves and with the Mynydd Gwyn folks we decided to do the Prehistoric Wessex tour - Avebury, Stonehenge and the Uffington white horse. It turned out that we not only managed to do Stonehenge, but our route took us past Woodhenge as well. I'd not visited Woodhenge before, partly because I knew that it was 'just' concrete bollards marking the sites of the original wooden posts, and therefore not as exciting as Stonehenge. I was wrong about that - there's something quite surreal about the concentric rings of short concrete bollards sitting there in the landscape. It helps that while Stonehenge had the normal crowds, we had Woodhenge to ourselves.
One of the things of which I hadn't warned my companions was that the area into which we were heading is the playground of the British Army. The tank crossing roadsigns aroused great interest, and when I noticed the red flag flying - signalling that there was an exercise going on in the area - hopes were raised of seeing something exciting. And exciting it was. As we approached one of these tank crossings a dust cloud appeared on the left horizon, rapidly resolving itself into a troop of (I think) 8 Warrior IFVs. I say I think for two reasons - first, I think it was 8; second, my tank recognition skills are a bit rusty for anything that isn't a Tiger II/T34/Sherman, so my identification of it as a Warrior is based upon ample application of Google-fu.
I'd forgotten how much time it takes to drive around the little country roads in that area, so we were about an hour later arriving at Heathrow than originally planned, on top of which our flight was actually on time so I didn't have a chance to have a good wander around duty-free before they called our flight. It was very strange to arrive back at Keflavík and then drive straight 'home' to M's flat in Reykjavík rather than the 2 hours it takes to get to a hotel using the FlyBus.
It was another early start this morning for the flight up to Akureyri, then straight into the office before 09:00 ready to give a lecture at 10:00. I survived the office until almost 15:00, but by that point I was shattered and gave up. It didn't help that I've picked up the inevitable flight bug and am now snuffling, sneezing and coughing my way through the day.
In spite of this I have managed to upload some photos from the event and our travels yesterday. Most of them are of A fencing, but there are a few of court and other things.
2 comments
In many ways Monday was less stressful than Sunday; I didn't feel guilty about not fencing because there was no fencing going on. Of course that was because people were packing up to go home... In spite of the personal stresses Raglan Fair was a very enjoyable event. Okay, so I didn't do too much in the way of fencing, and I didn't manage to catch up with all of the folks I'd hoped to sit and talk to, but I did have time to talk to some of the friends I haven't seen for quite a while.
We left the site at about 11:30 with the intention of doing a bit of sight-seeing on the way back to the airport. After a bit of discussion amongst ourselves and with the Mynydd Gwyn folks we decided to do the Prehistoric Wessex tour - Avebury, Stonehenge and the Uffington white horse. It turned out that we not only managed to do Stonehenge, but our route took us past Woodhenge as well. I'd not visited Woodhenge before, partly because I knew that it was 'just' concrete bollards marking the sites of the original wooden posts, and therefore not as exciting as Stonehenge. I was wrong about that - there's something quite surreal about the concentric rings of short concrete bollards sitting there in the landscape. It helps that while Stonehenge had the normal crowds, we had Woodhenge to ourselves.
One of the things of which I hadn't warned my companions was that the area into which we were heading is the playground of the British Army. The tank crossing roadsigns aroused great interest, and when I noticed the red flag flying - signalling that there was an exercise going on in the area - hopes were raised of seeing something exciting. And exciting it was. As we approached one of these tank crossings a dust cloud appeared on the left horizon, rapidly resolving itself into a troop of (I think) 8 Warrior IFVs. I say I think for two reasons - first, I think it was 8; second, my tank recognition skills are a bit rusty for anything that isn't a Tiger II/T34/Sherman, so my identification of it as a Warrior is based upon ample application of Google-fu.
I'd forgotten how much time it takes to drive around the little country roads in that area, so we were about an hour later arriving at Heathrow than originally planned, on top of which our flight was actually on time so I didn't have a chance to have a good wander around duty-free before they called our flight. It was very strange to arrive back at Keflavík and then drive straight 'home' to M's flat in Reykjavík rather than the 2 hours it takes to get to a hotel using the FlyBus.
It was another early start this morning for the flight up to Akureyri, then straight into the office before 09:00 ready to give a lecture at 10:00. I survived the office until almost 15:00, but by that point I was shattered and gave up. It didn't help that I've picked up the inevitable flight bug and am now snuffling, sneezing and coughing my way through the day.
In spite of this I have managed to upload some photos from the event and our travels yesterday. Most of them are of A fencing, but there are a few of court and other things.
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Sunday, September 14, 2008
bruise update
My bruises are behaving as expected and not coming up on my upper chest.
Those belonging to A and M, however, are darkening nicely, wih A's bruises demonstrating nicely the imortance of calibration (the art of striking with enough force to register a hit but not so much as to cause serious injury.
My lack of extra bruises is entirely due to me not fencing today; instead I spent the day chatting to people I hadn't seen for some time. Part of me feels guilty for not doing more fencing (although I both fenced and marshalled yesterday) but I keep telling myself that if I'd fenced both days then I wouldn't have had a chance to talk to non-fencing friends.
When the fencing finally finished and evening fell the remaining gentles gathered together for the Feast of Leftover, where we all brought our remaining food to share over a brazier and Lord Robert created a delicious Egg Mess with cheese from the treasures offered up to the gathered masses. We then set to to talk and laugh together and had a very pleasant evening in good company.
The site closes tomorrow and we plan to be on our way well before lunch. A little sightseeing is planned on the way back to the airport although quite what we're going to see hasn't been decided yet.
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Those belonging to A and M, however, are darkening nicely, wih A's bruises demonstrating nicely the imortance of calibration (the art of striking with enough force to register a hit but not so much as to cause serious injury.
My lack of extra bruises is entirely due to me not fencing today; instead I spent the day chatting to people I hadn't seen for some time. Part of me feels guilty for not doing more fencing (although I both fenced and marshalled yesterday) but I keep telling myself that if I'd fenced both days then I wouldn't have had a chance to talk to non-fencing friends.
When the fencing finally finished and evening fell the remaining gentles gathered together for the Feast of Leftover, where we all brought our remaining food to share over a brazier and Lord Robert created a delicious Egg Mess with cheese from the treasures offered up to the gathered masses. We then set to to talk and laugh together and had a very pleasant evening in good company.
The site closes tomorrow and we plan to be on our way well before lunch. A little sightseeing is planned on the way back to the airport although quite what we're going to see hasn't been decided yet.
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Saturday, September 13, 2008
Potential bruises
I have a number of interesting new bruises.
Well, it's not as if I'd expect anything else, given that I spent the morning fencing. And my bruises will almost certainly be minor compared to A - who does, to be sure, bruise very easily.
A and M, for whom it was their first big fencing event, both acquitted themselves honourably, with A impressing many people with her fencing during the afternoon tournament. I have photos, the best of which I'll post later.
There was court, during which M was given her AoA (the entry level award) and another friend G was made a Companion of the Order of the Pelican (the top service award). That was excellent news, as he certainly deserves it.
By now we were all feeling sufficiently smelly after the fighting to return to the hotel for showers and something to eat. The meals were very good but quite slow, and I was getting worried that we would be late for the dancing. As it happened the was no dancing, just a lot of partying. Still, everyone seems to have enjoyed the evening all the same.
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Well, it's not as if I'd expect anything else, given that I spent the morning fencing. And my bruises will almost certainly be minor compared to A - who does, to be sure, bruise very easily.
A and M, for whom it was their first big fencing event, both acquitted themselves honourably, with A impressing many people with her fencing during the afternoon tournament. I have photos, the best of which I'll post later.
There was court, during which M was given her AoA (the entry level award) and another friend G was made a Companion of the Order of the Pelican (the top service award). That was excellent news, as he certainly deserves it.
By now we were all feeling sufficiently smelly after the fighting to return to the hotel for showers and something to eat. The meals were very good but quite slow, and I was getting worried that we would be late for the dancing. As it happened the was no dancing, just a lot of partying. Still, everyone seems to have enjoyed the evening all the same.
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Friday, September 12, 2008
Somewhere in Wales
Somewhere in south Wales, to be exact. The small village of Raglan.
Our flight in was on time, so after a 4am start we were at Heathrow just before noon. A and M needed feeding by that point so we had a snack at Costa's before picking up the car.
The run across to Wales was uneventful, but once we got to Newport my evil twin introduced my companions to Hobbycraft and Tesco Extra. I am happy to report that my shopping basket was the lightest. :) M was particularly taken by the fashions section of Tesco, while A got a bit carried away with the cheap DVDs. I think they now understand why living in a town without a Tesco or its like should be considered a cruel and unusual punishment.
We got to the hotel just before 20:00, got changed and then headed up to the castle. Unfortunately it was all locked up with no-one visible at the gate so we returned to the hotel.
That wasn't such a big deal as I was feeling rather tired and achy anyway. I'm now going to have an early night (yes, I know it's not 22:00 yet) and hope that I feel better tomorrow.
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Our flight in was on time, so after a 4am start we were at Heathrow just before noon. A and M needed feeding by that point so we had a snack at Costa's before picking up the car.
The run across to Wales was uneventful, but once we got to Newport my evil twin introduced my companions to Hobbycraft and Tesco Extra. I am happy to report that my shopping basket was the lightest. :) M was particularly taken by the fashions section of Tesco, while A got a bit carried away with the cheap DVDs. I think they now understand why living in a town without a Tesco or its like should be considered a cruel and unusual punishment.
We got to the hotel just before 20:00, got changed and then headed up to the castle. Unfortunately it was all locked up with no-one visible at the gate so we returned to the hotel.
That wasn't such a big deal as I was feeling rather tired and achy anyway. I'm now going to have an early night (yes, I know it's not 22:00 yet) and hope that I feel better tomorrow.
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Thursday, September 11, 2008
On the way
So far, so good. A and I have made it down to M's place in Reykjavík.
The plan is to get some sleep before the normal insanely early flight tomorrow, but somehow I don't think that M is going to be getting much sleep. I think I may have increased the chances of her getting any sleep by offering to sew her into her cotehardie tomorrow evening but I still expect to see her sleeping on the plane. :)
I've finally managed to line the cap that C knitted for me last year - it looks quite good adorned with some feathers and sitting at a jaunty angle (*tries to come up with Bester joke and fails miserably*). I hear rumours that C might even be at Rhaglen, which would be wonderful as I haven't seen her since I moved to Iceland.
That's all for tomorrow though. For tonight I'm just going to try to grab a few hours sleep.
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The plan is to get some sleep before the normal insanely early flight tomorrow, but somehow I don't think that M is going to be getting much sleep. I think I may have increased the chances of her getting any sleep by offering to sew her into her cotehardie tomorrow evening but I still expect to see her sleeping on the plane. :)
I've finally managed to line the cap that C knitted for me last year - it looks quite good adorned with some feathers and sitting at a jaunty angle (*tries to come up with Bester joke and fails miserably*). I hear rumours that C might even be at Rhaglen, which would be wonderful as I haven't seen her since I moved to Iceland.
That's all for tomorrow though. For tonight I'm just going to try to grab a few hours sleep.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Oomphless
I know, I missed a day again.
That's quite a lot of days this week, but at the weekend I had a severe lack of phone signal to go with a very busy couple of days and a serious lack of oomph. I still have the lack of oomph - plus a chest infection - sufficient that as I had no teaching today I took the day off work.
If I'd had more oomph then I'd have at least finished the gambeson I'm working on. Or tidied the bookshelves. Or packed for Rhaglen. Or any of several other useful things that need doing. Instead I fell asleep between brief phases of catching up on the latest from the LHC.
Thinking of which, I wish that science journalism made a bit more of an effort to get things right. Sky has been telling my all day that the LHC is going to either a) recreate the big bang, or b) recreate the conditions moments after the big bang. Neither of these is, of course, true. It will create energy densities consistent with our current modelling of the conditions several trillionths of a second after the big bang.
In spite of this sloppy reporting it has been quite fun. Now what I'd really have enjoyed would have been, say, a few hours of programming explaining the Standard Model, the case for the Higgs boson and the alternative theories which will are seen as plausible if the Higgs isn't found. Unfortunately I suspect that the potential audience for that isn't particularly large.
Hang on... considering a 'random' sample of people - like my friends - I'm sure that at least 5% of them would be interested in such programming. So... using the rigour that one would expect from a television science journalist I can happily predict an audience of at least 3 million people in the UK alone. That's certainly enough for 'Higgs Night' on BBC2. Or Discovery Science.
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That's quite a lot of days this week, but at the weekend I had a severe lack of phone signal to go with a very busy couple of days and a serious lack of oomph. I still have the lack of oomph - plus a chest infection - sufficient that as I had no teaching today I took the day off work.
If I'd had more oomph then I'd have at least finished the gambeson I'm working on. Or tidied the bookshelves. Or packed for Rhaglen. Or any of several other useful things that need doing. Instead I fell asleep between brief phases of catching up on the latest from the LHC.
Thinking of which, I wish that science journalism made a bit more of an effort to get things right. Sky has been telling my all day that the LHC is going to either a) recreate the big bang, or b) recreate the conditions moments after the big bang. Neither of these is, of course, true. It will create energy densities consistent with our current modelling of the conditions several trillionths of a second after the big bang.
In spite of this sloppy reporting it has been quite fun. Now what I'd really have enjoyed would have been, say, a few hours of programming explaining the Standard Model, the case for the Higgs boson and the alternative theories which will are seen as plausible if the Higgs isn't found. Unfortunately I suspect that the potential audience for that isn't particularly large.
Hang on... considering a 'random' sample of people - like my friends - I'm sure that at least 5% of them would be interested in such programming. So... using the rigour that one would expect from a television science journalist I can happily predict an audience of at least 3 million people in the UK alone. That's certainly enough for 'Higgs Night' on BBC2. Or Discovery Science.
2 comments
Monday, September 08, 2008
Summer again
I noticed this morning that it was summer again here in Iceland.
It has been bright, sunny and warm all day, something I first noticed this morning as I walked to work. My reason for walking wasn't some new health kick - it was because the shire had a bit of a car problem over the weekend, leading to the folks from Reykjavík having to squeeze into one car to come up north rather than two. The second car is parked 'almost legally' somewhere. So when it came to working out how to get all of the people down south who needed to get down south (more than had come north but enough to still have plenty of space in two cars) I ended up driving back here last night and then handing over the keys so that my car could be used to get down south and then return today. Although looking at the time I think it might be tomorrow... This was a bit of a nuisance as I had to go down into town to the bank this morning, but hey, the buses here are now free and go from just outside my apartment block so it could have been far worse.
I started off by waiting at the bus stop on the wrong side of the road. Okay, I managed to cross the road in time as the bus approached and I realised my mistake. Ten minutes later I got off in the town centre and realised that I'd dropped my bookmark somewhere on the way. Drat - I'd only bought it at DWCon. Okay, I can live without the bookmark. Then I managed to select the correct bus to get back up to the university although I did miss the stop. The map showing the bus routes doesn't actually show the bus stops in the right places... but at least it was a downhill walk, not an uphill one. :)
Walking to work, of course, therefore involved an inevitable walk home form work as well. On a day like today it's quite pleasant, with the sound of the rapids under the road bridge and the weir and power station under the foot bridge. Given that it's just over a kilometre of level-ish ground (except for the hill up to the university itself) I really should walk more often, particularly while the weather's still pretty good.
3 comments
It has been bright, sunny and warm all day, something I first noticed this morning as I walked to work. My reason for walking wasn't some new health kick - it was because the shire had a bit of a car problem over the weekend, leading to the folks from Reykjavík having to squeeze into one car to come up north rather than two. The second car is parked 'almost legally' somewhere. So when it came to working out how to get all of the people down south who needed to get down south (more than had come north but enough to still have plenty of space in two cars) I ended up driving back here last night and then handing over the keys so that my car could be used to get down south and then return today. Although looking at the time I think it might be tomorrow... This was a bit of a nuisance as I had to go down into town to the bank this morning, but hey, the buses here are now free and go from just outside my apartment block so it could have been far worse.
I started off by waiting at the bus stop on the wrong side of the road. Okay, I managed to cross the road in time as the bus approached and I realised my mistake. Ten minutes later I got off in the town centre and realised that I'd dropped my bookmark somewhere on the way. Drat - I'd only bought it at DWCon. Okay, I can live without the bookmark. Then I managed to select the correct bus to get back up to the university although I did miss the stop. The map showing the bus routes doesn't actually show the bus stops in the right places... but at least it was a downhill walk, not an uphill one. :)
Walking to work, of course, therefore involved an inevitable walk home form work as well. On a day like today it's quite pleasant, with the sound of the rapids under the road bridge and the weir and power station under the foot bridge. Given that it's just over a kilometre of level-ish ground (except for the hill up to the university itself) I really should walk more often, particularly while the weather's still pretty good.
3 comments
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Armouring weekend
Sorry for the silence - I didn't even have phone access for the weekend.
I'm now back from the shire's armouring weekend, which was most ably led by Ed. It's been a rather busy few days, where most folks made heavy combat armour, M made most of a cotehardie and I did a great deal of cooking. There are lots of photos, so I've put a selection up here. It was great to see Ed plus our two shire members who've decamped to Reykjaví for the duration, and I think that quite a lot of progress was made in kitting out the shire's heavy fighters, together with a fairly major knowledge transfer exercise.
I've now got three days to do what seems to be a very large list of things before flying out to Raglan. Time to closet myself away for a couple of days, I think.
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I'm now back from the shire's armouring weekend, which was most ably led by Ed. It's been a rather busy few days, where most folks made heavy combat armour, M made most of a cotehardie and I did a great deal of cooking. There are lots of photos, so I've put a selection up here. It was great to see Ed plus our two shire members who've decamped to Reykjaví for the duration, and I think that quite a lot of progress was made in kitting out the shire's heavy fighters, together with a fairly major knowledge transfer exercise.
I've now got three days to do what seems to be a very large list of things before flying out to Raglan. Time to closet myself away for a couple of days, I think.
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Thursday, September 04, 2008
Strangely compelling
Today Tower Bridge has opened and closed ten times.
How do I know this? One of the 'people' I follow on Twitter is the Mars Phoenix probe, which is reporting its findings daily through the medium of the tweet. It turns out that this is particularly popular with science geeks and has been nominated for several 'Twitties' - awards for the best Twitter feeds. Well, naturally I had to go along and vote for my favourite probe, and there I found that one of the other 'people' it was up against was London's Tower Bridge.
Yes, I now get a tweet every time the bridge opens or closes. So far today it has opened ten times for four vessels - SB Lady Daphne, MV Dixie Queen (thrice), SB Will (four times - how sad that there isn't an 'ice' for more than three) and SB Gladys (twice). SB and MV are Steam Boat and Motor Vessel respectively - I have this mental image of SB Will being captained by a rather large mouse.
This is indeed a very geekish thing to find of interest. I don't care. I had no idea that Tower Bridge opened and closed so often; maybe a couple of times a year when a yacht went through, but no more than that. The very realisation that it's an active 'working' bridge is quite fascinating. According to the bridge's website it opens about a thousand times a year. Presumeably it opens more often in summer than winter thanks to the tourist trade in river cruises.
I can see that I'm going to have to pay the bridge a visit at some point when I'm in London again. As well as the walkways it appears to have an exhibition on the history and engineering of the bridge. 114 years old and still in daily use - that's good engineering and maintenance for you.
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How do I know this? One of the 'people' I follow on Twitter is the Mars Phoenix probe, which is reporting its findings daily through the medium of the tweet. It turns out that this is particularly popular with science geeks and has been nominated for several 'Twitties' - awards for the best Twitter feeds. Well, naturally I had to go along and vote for my favourite probe, and there I found that one of the other 'people' it was up against was London's Tower Bridge.
Yes, I now get a tweet every time the bridge opens or closes. So far today it has opened ten times for four vessels - SB Lady Daphne, MV Dixie Queen (thrice), SB Will (four times - how sad that there isn't an 'ice' for more than three) and SB Gladys (twice). SB and MV are Steam Boat and Motor Vessel respectively - I have this mental image of SB Will being captained by a rather large mouse.
This is indeed a very geekish thing to find of interest. I don't care. I had no idea that Tower Bridge opened and closed so often; maybe a couple of times a year when a yacht went through, but no more than that. The very realisation that it's an active 'working' bridge is quite fascinating. According to the bridge's website it opens about a thousand times a year. Presumeably it opens more often in summer than winter thanks to the tourist trade in river cruises.
I can see that I'm going to have to pay the bridge a visit at some point when I'm in London again. As well as the walkways it appears to have an exhibition on the history and engineering of the bridge. 114 years old and still in daily use - that's good engineering and maintenance for you.
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Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Smelly again
After another stressful day I came home and worked it off on the WiiFit rhythm boxing.
I can see the Wii being quite useful for venting stress, but I am now feeling rather smelly as a result. :) Still, I have my super-duper shower and I no longer want to kill people so that's okay.
Another escape from the stress was downloading and installing the Google Chrome beta at work - my excuse being, of course, that I have to be up-to-date on new interface stuff. And the verdict? I do like their approach to tabs for two reasons. First an interface reason: the ability to tear a tab off and turn it into its own window is quite nifty. Second, I do like the way that each tab is a process in its own right; this proved useful when I crashed a tab trying to open a pdf document. Still, fixing this just involved closing that tab rather than having to kill and relaunch FF/IE.
It looks as it GC may have some rough edges that need smoothing off (the pdf issue is quite important) but I'll give it a couple of weeks to see if the whole concept works for me. I could get quite used to the start-up page and its thumbnails of regularly- and recently-used pages, and it'll be interesting to investigate some of its other features.
At home, though, I'm still on FF. Hopefully the edges will be smoothed off by the time they release the MacOS version.
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I can see the Wii being quite useful for venting stress, but I am now feeling rather smelly as a result. :) Still, I have my super-duper shower and I no longer want to kill people so that's okay.
Another escape from the stress was downloading and installing the Google Chrome beta at work - my excuse being, of course, that I have to be up-to-date on new interface stuff. And the verdict? I do like their approach to tabs for two reasons. First an interface reason: the ability to tear a tab off and turn it into its own window is quite nifty. Second, I do like the way that each tab is a process in its own right; this proved useful when I crashed a tab trying to open a pdf document. Still, fixing this just involved closing that tab rather than having to kill and relaunch FF/IE.
It looks as it GC may have some rough edges that need smoothing off (the pdf issue is quite important) but I'll give it a couple of weeks to see if the whole concept works for me. I could get quite used to the start-up page and its thumbnails of regularly- and recently-used pages, and it'll be interesting to investigate some of its other features.
At home, though, I'm still on FF. Hopefully the edges will be smoothed off by the time they release the MacOS version.
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Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Nothing is ever that simple
Especially not when you have a deadline to work to.
Admittely the deadline is over a week away, but this scroll is proving to be interesting. As I said yesterday, I started off practising my secretary hand. Which isn't anywhere near as neat as my gothic quadrata miniscule, I must admit. Then I go back and look at the original document again to get the correct rough shape for the illuminated versal.
It turns out that there are two distinct hands in the original document (the Furness Coucher Book, some photographs of which I took while up at Furness Abbey in the summer), one of which is secretary, the other gothic. Drat. The larger text is gothic, the smaller secretary; it's almost as if the gothic is being used for headings and subheadings while the body text is in secretary hand. Unfortunately the scroll I'm doing doesn't lend itself to that sort of duality so I'm going to have to opt for one or the other. Given the time constraints I'll probably end up opting for the gothic.
I suppose what I really need to do is a) put more time into practicing my secretary hand, and b) find more illustrations of illuminated versals to go with it. All of the recent serious calligraphy I've done has been gothic, so I need to stretch myself a little in future.
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Admittely the deadline is over a week away, but this scroll is proving to be interesting. As I said yesterday, I started off practising my secretary hand. Which isn't anywhere near as neat as my gothic quadrata miniscule, I must admit. Then I go back and look at the original document again to get the correct rough shape for the illuminated versal.
It turns out that there are two distinct hands in the original document (the Furness Coucher Book, some photographs of which I took while up at Furness Abbey in the summer), one of which is secretary, the other gothic. Drat. The larger text is gothic, the smaller secretary; it's almost as if the gothic is being used for headings and subheadings while the body text is in secretary hand. Unfortunately the scroll I'm doing doesn't lend itself to that sort of duality so I'm going to have to opt for one or the other. Given the time constraints I'll probably end up opting for the gothic.
I suppose what I really need to do is a) put more time into practicing my secretary hand, and b) find more illustrations of illuminated versals to go with it. All of the recent serious calligraphy I've done has been gothic, so I need to stretch myself a little in future.
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Monday, September 01, 2008
Silver pig
My WiiFit has just awarded me a silver FitPiggy.
That's 20 hours of workout - over, I admit, 79 days, but I was away from the WiiFit for over 40 of those so it averages out to over half an hour a day of which at least two thirds is aerobics, which is considerably more than the governmentally-recommended half an hour of aerobic exercise three times a week. Yay me!
Tonight I got exactly an hour done, mostly of rhythm boxing with a bit of step aerobics. I've become very fond of the boxing, although I've discovered that I do still have to concentrate on what I'm doing - if my mind wanders at all then I end up leading off the wrong foot, which makes everything go horribly wrong.
Other than that I've got started on the calligraphy I have to do before Raglan. So far it's just been practising secretary hand, but once I've done a couple more runs-through of the text then I'll do it up onto the calligraphy paper ready to do the illumination. I've come to the conclusion that it's much better for me to do the calligraphy first and then fit the illumination into the remaining space as I've had more than one instance where I've had to re-do an illumination because I made a mistake in the calligraphy. Assuming I have the time I'm hoping to do a proper gilded illumination... although that may depend on how long it takes to make a gambeson for someone (before Friday). I also wanted to make myself some new garb for the event. Perhaps if I lug my sewing machine along to the armour workshop I can work on my garb between cooking meals.
Or, better still, get someone else to lug my excessively heavy sewing machine for me. :)
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That's 20 hours of workout - over, I admit, 79 days, but I was away from the WiiFit for over 40 of those so it averages out to over half an hour a day of which at least two thirds is aerobics, which is considerably more than the governmentally-recommended half an hour of aerobic exercise three times a week. Yay me!
Tonight I got exactly an hour done, mostly of rhythm boxing with a bit of step aerobics. I've become very fond of the boxing, although I've discovered that I do still have to concentrate on what I'm doing - if my mind wanders at all then I end up leading off the wrong foot, which makes everything go horribly wrong.
Other than that I've got started on the calligraphy I have to do before Raglan. So far it's just been practising secretary hand, but once I've done a couple more runs-through of the text then I'll do it up onto the calligraphy paper ready to do the illumination. I've come to the conclusion that it's much better for me to do the calligraphy first and then fit the illumination into the remaining space as I've had more than one instance where I've had to re-do an illumination because I made a mistake in the calligraphy. Assuming I have the time I'm hoping to do a proper gilded illumination... although that may depend on how long it takes to make a gambeson for someone (before Friday). I also wanted to make myself some new garb for the event. Perhaps if I lug my sewing machine along to the armour workshop I can work on my garb between cooking meals.
Or, better still, get someone else to lug my excessively heavy sewing machine for me. :)
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