This past weekend was made almost entirely of busy and consisted mostly of the following;
-being sat on by my parent's cats
-the round trip of Durham -> Lancashire -> Bangor -> Caernarvon -> Leicestershire -> Durham
-picking which direction to walk down Bangor highstreet purely on the basis of following the Void Lancer who was waling past incase there happened to be any demons
-Jeremy Hardy
-putting grated radish in misterdaniel's drink
-Jelly Number 3
-punching Hayden (he asked for it (no.. really) )

This past weekend did not include;
-sleep

And now the Meme, stolen from Alan

The rules are
Go to IMDB take a memorable quote from a TV series, and repeat 15 times
(Comments screened to allow people to keep guessing etc)

( The quotes. )

Soon as HR get the paperwork sorted, I'll be an offical employee of the University of Durham.

Beer o'clock at t-minus 64 minutes and counting.

Just finished interviewing for the job I've been doing for over six months.

I believe that makes it tea o'clock.

I have to admit that this has been a weird year for it. I missed any kind of organised silence due to being on a plane/in an airport both today and Sunday, and also missed the parade on Sunday that the band marches in. First year that I've been banding and not played at one memorial or another and I have to admit to feeling vaguely guilty about it.

Anyway, I'm back from the land of Foreign, accompanied by a stinking cold as as such, any idea of writing something meaningful have been drowned in Lemsip. So instead I'm going to post two sets of lyrics. The first is a well known folk song by Eric Bogle (also known for 'And the Band played Waltzing Matilda' among others) and the second is a reply set to the same tune.

( No Man's Land )

( Willie McBride's Reply )

There are many others I could post; Vimy or Old Broken Soldier by Tanglefoot, Langemarck by George Papavgeris etc etc, but then this'd just turn into a wall of text so I'll leave it at those two as there's something about the balance between them that I think works.

Played for a wedding at the Prince Bishop's Castle.
Had a few beers at the Prince Bishop's Castle.
Geeked at the hereldry in the Prince Bishop's Castle.
Raised a glass to Hatfield and the rest, while singing Evening Song, in the chapel of the Prince Bishop's Castle.

Today I have;

-booked to crew the Utopia event in November.
-registered on the Dragon's forums in the hope of organising transport so I crew their event at the end of October.
-replied to a PM from a friend that I'd forgotten about for almost a month, and had a throughly pleasant conversation with them as they happened to be online at the time. This rarely happens due to the 8 hour time difference.
-actually checked up the lyrics of a song I could mostly remember so should hopefully have that one down in the next few days.
-introduced my head of department at work to Kate Rusby, after she admitted to quite liking gentle folk music
-put out feelers for lyrics/chords/dots for a song I heard on last.fm and want to learn. Google and Digi-trad failed me on this one so might be tricky, but someone will probably have them somewhere. Within an hour of putting it on Mudcat I have the lyrics and an offer of a copy of the whole album :)
-finally recieved my new bank card, 16 days after my old one ran out.
-got out and oiled my valve trombone, the first step to getting it back into a playable condition.


Still to go;

-last band rehersal before the Proms concert on Saturday. Not that I'm biased or anything, but we've got a large number of truely awesome pieces lined up that we don't usually play so it should be a great night.
-food. Should probably not forget that.
-pub. The pub we decamp to after band does not do real ales, the best it does is Stones on tap and Newcy Brown in the fridge. However, since we go regularly they're going to see if getting a guest on tap for us is ecomonical for us. We knew bringing one of the highups of the local CAMERA group into the concussion section would be wort it for something :)

The University has handbooks for international students to help with their orientation etc. Having 5 minutes spare this afternoon I decided to have a flick through and found these gems in the 'UK Culture' section.

-( Greetings )

-( Queuing #1 )

-( Queuing #2 )

-( Hand gestures )

-( And finally )

From Cheshire Zoo (or so the BBC tells me)

From electrokin
( Rocks, Castle, Gender, Music, T-shirt )



From plucky_lass
( Brass, American Football, LRP Relationships, Fiction, Tea )

Standard disclaimer about probably having forgotten something applies.

High
-Got half of the important conversations in that I wanted. Stuff just kept getting in the way of the others but that just means they can wait for the G.
-There was an issue with my booking. It got sorted without fuss both at the Gate and God.
-New foam shields (and many thanks to Dave for finding a temporary home for them until the G).
-Arriving at the Guilds to be told by Karnak that Hengish was possessed by a vampire and mage bolting people, right as Hengist burst out of the Healers and mage-bolts started flying. The timing was beautiful.
-Word games at breakfast. I do hope we didn't corrupt that poor child too much.
-Catching up with people I haven't seen in ages.
-Watching the diplomatic clusterfu.. err.. issues, at the end of the final fight and wondering just how obvious the shoulder tabs of my tabard were to the Tarantula's standing around.
-The 'you taste like pig' conversation in the Guilds.
-Going out on a suicide rescue mission to grab some guys who'd been left behind on a linear and getting to kill an Akari Lord with out my shiv stick. Honest. That's exactly what happened. Just ask anyone else from the rescue squad. They'll all back me up, even though they were busy killing their own Akari Lords at the same time. All of us. We were big damn heros us. *sage nod*
-Getting hit with crush on the head seven times (while immobilised in my defense) and still being standing at the end is both big and clever.

Low
-Not realising the unit plan for the final battle had changed and thus not taking the field with them.
-Seemed slow to start. Partially (I guess), due to missing a large part of IC time on Friday and the lack of numbers.
-Never did make it to talk to the Wolves.
-Not getting chance to actually spend more than about 30 seconds at/around the Ceilidh.

Other
-Didn't kill Fudge for his impromptu filk on Saturday night. Although Conan nearly did as we were leaving site.
-Forgot there was a ritual of peace a couple of times.
-Choma still not free.

Just a quick question for those who've played this before/know a load of Irish tunes. Whats the 3rd tune in Gaelforce? (embedded below), Rocky Road to Dublin and Minstrel Boy are well enough known, but theres a couple of us who have no idea on the third and are curious.




Edit: I think we have a winner with Toss the Feathers;

Can't really add much to what has already been said in various places in cyberspace other than to restate that I'll miss him. Last time I saw him was the Bards event where we drank and sang together into the early hours. They were good times.

"Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions!"


( Tanglefoot )

I know today was the end of the current launch window, and they'd been a lot of issues with the weather, but is anyone else just ever so slightly disapointed they got Endeavour into orbit yesterday rather than today? It's awesome she's up and safe, especially as this was the 6th attempt, but that big 40 year anniversary would have been beautiful timing.

(As a side geeknote I did just make the mental connection of 'ah, anniversary of the moon landing comin up, must find birthday present for mum' as thats the only way I remember the date)

For Science!

Big Meeting was great. I've never seen it that busy although I suppose being the 125th, the 25th aniversary of the strike as well as having really good weather that numbers were always going to be high. I believe the police were expecting 50,000. It did however make certain bits of marching out quite interesting, it seems that somepeople just can't hear a brass band approaching, not even when they get to less than 5 feet away and thus we got more practice at marching down/straight through the general public (I knew shieldwall fighting would have a real world use -somewhere-).
Pics available here - http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/galleries/minersgala09/ and here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/content/image_galleries/durham_gala_2009_gallery.shtml (and elsewhere too I imagine)

Bards event was good fun although we nearly didn't make it on the grounds of both Fudge and I being exhausted. Thankfully 15 minutes kip, food and caffiene at Scotch Corner did the trick and we kept going. Missed most of the event and most of the plot, but got some good PBs RP done that should lead to an interesting few events.

Oh look, the Wear is getting cleaner. Maybe we can go swimming in it again...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/8122999.stm

...no, wait...

Don't currently have the brainpower for a post about Southsea or Maelstrom, so here's a Meme instead

( Who comments the most on this journal? )

An event of extremes, both temperature and emotion.Glad I decided to go though.

The highlights
-Bard Core and the reactions from the crowd at the awards ceremony. 12 seconds :)
-The wonderfully akward moment of supporting the Morrigan's corpse which was being cried on by a sobbing Cerridwen, all the while surrounded by angry Bears.
-Singing round the campfire.
-Being 8 hits per with 4 iron wills for a large portion of Saturday (although, of course, nothing hit me then)
-Hearing that the issues with the PBs IC group funds had actually been sorted
-An awesome final battle.
-Several conversations, notably the one that started "Cosaint, for reference, who can cure decays?"
-Odin. Having it confirmed by Odin that both Freya and Ruad are free from corruption. Being told by one of Odin's raven's that he'd been keeping an eye on us when we'd been in Norsca before the event.
-The reactions from people after turning up on Friday covered in blood (especially Illyrio's)
-102 power cards for a rite that needed 2. Would apparently have been more if several people hadn't left cards in camp.
-Managing not to say 'told you so' loudly after having a theory (which had been dismissed out of hand) proved mostly correct.
-Invoking in the name of science! (and blaming it all on Iolanthe)
-A couple more interesting realisations
-Kerr's understanding of the cleansing of Avalon being basically 'Lions ancestors getting tainted -> can't fight it off -> more getting tainted -> Odin pitches up and bitch slaps Entropy -> Rhino thanks Odin and gives him beer'


Not so great
-LARPing with a cold. Nearly didn't go because of it, but on balance very glad I did.
-Couple of characters missing so certain things couldn't be worked out properly
-Dear god the heat (and it's rubbish timing. 15 minutes before the Bard Core fight and I start shaking and coughing to the point I thought I might throw up)

[insert usual disclaimer about probably having forgotten things here]

I've just openned an e-mail from a foreign PhD applicant saying simply 'please disregard this message'.

Work has been slow and dull, the highlight of the day was the unannounced arrival of a couple of PAT inspectors. However now, it's 25 minutes until I can go home, I've done pretty much everything I can do and I'm now sat with my headphones plugged in and am listening to the live feed from NASA as they ready Atlantis to launch.

I feel like such a geek :D

I've just realised that I seem to be going through a bit of a change in my reading habits. Generally I read mostly Sci-Fi with a bit of Fantasy thrown in every now and again to keep it varied. However, I haven't read any fiction longer than a short-story in months and do infact seem to have embarked on a history-a-thon.

It started with Richard Holmes' 'Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius'(interesting and informative,if a little heavy at times) and last week I finished Ian Mortimer's 'The Greatest Traitor: The life of Sir Roger Mortimer, Ruler of ENgland 1327-1330' (interesting if seeming a little biased at times, although doing well despite the clear issues with the lack of primary evidence from the time). Next up is one of the following;

*Ian Mortimer's 'The Perfect King: The life of Edward III. Father of the English Nation' - to follow on from Greatest Traitor and also swot up before Perfect Shadows in the autumn.

*Emma Mason's 'King Rufus: The life and murder of William II of England' - I know very little about him as a King and there was a buy 3 get a discount of somesort offer when I got it and the Mortimer books.

*Robert Hutchinson's 'Thomas Cromwell: The rise and fall of Henry VIII's most notorious minister' - an interesting historical character who I've always felt I should know more about.

*Geoffrey Moorhouse's 'The Last Office: 1539 and the dissolution of a monastery' - a look at the time of the dissolution using records from Durham Cathedral.

They should keep me going for a while, and after that I also have a mssive tome my Dad has lent me which goes through and examines numerous theories about the various different causes and catalysts of the Civil War.

Well, to put it bluntly, last week wasn't the best ever, although the past two days have in someway made up for it.

Yesterday, a couple of friends of mine who have just got into re-enactment invited a few LARPs over to help them erect their circa 17th C ridge tent. This done we then went to the beach for a few hours. Having managed to get sand in our shoes, sacrifice a frisbee to the sea and prove that the Irish* can't catch we decided that we would learn from Kanute's mistake and retreated. Someone then suggested going for a pint, and someone else said 'hey, we're near that one thats carved out of a cliff'. Needless to say, we were sold and off we went. Would have been better if the actual cave bit hadn;t been filled by a children's party, restricting us to the bit outside the cave, but definately a place to go back to sometime.

This morning was band. We have the first concert of the year in baout 2 weeks and thus gearing up for that. However, our 1st trombone is off in the Lake District until the Big Meeting and our 2nd trombone is only a learner and thus doesn't do the Sunday rehearsals. Normally this would leave the two of us on bass as the only trombones however, this morning, we had two trombone playes stop by, -both- basses. I may be bias here, but there's just something glorious about bass solos (particularly in marches), when there's that solid a line going in.

Roll on next weekend.


*well, our pet Irish anyway

Hello

As I know some of you are already aware, in June, myself and a handful of other Durhamites are going to be hiking Hadrian's Wall in aid of leukaemia research. Between us our aim is to raise £1k and thus we're systematically going round mugging as many people as possible for sponsorship.

If you do happen to be feeling generous, we have a website set up at http://www.justgiving.com/footheads_do_hadrians_wall or, if you'd rather do it a more traditional way then either e-mail me or leave a message here and I'll get back to you to sort something out.

Thank you for reading

Edain

I have a job interview in Bristol at 12:30 on the 22nd. Given travel times to and from Durham, I was figuring on heading down on the 21st and overnighting in either a travel lodge or, if I can swing it, one of my Mum's Uni friends who still lives in the area. I was wondering though if anyone has suggestions for what to do that evening/next morning. I've done the suspension bridge and the SS Great Britain before (although not for many years).

Being home with my parents fro a few days before Maelstrom, I figured that it'd be nice to stick my nose in at my old folk club while here. It seems my parents had similar ideas and when I pitched back on Tuesday I was informed that the guest this week was actually a band I've been following since I was knee high to a grasshopper, Strawhead. Great says I, haven't seen the lads since early September, this should be a blast.

Then Mum gets home from work and adds to the mix. Apparently she was down to do the opening set, but has managed to develop a cold and thus doesn't think she can manage five songs. 'Do you think you could run a couple out?' comes the next question. Now normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but I've not been doing all that much singing lately and what I have been doing, has been largely Strawhead stuff. Thankfully though, after a couple of run throughs in my head I'm certain enough that I can remember the Tanglefoot song Secord's Warning as well as a couple of LARP songs (by psysquid and d511kx respectively). Thankfully my Mum is good at picking up choruses so we were set.

The gig itself went well, I didn't mess up and the lads did two decent sets. Got a chance to catch up with a lot of people I haven't seen in months and gets some good singing done. There was however, one final surprise of the night. Those of you who read this and are involved in spiraltower's Southsea project, will have a certain Tudor dance tune ingrained on your brain. Well, it seems it gets about as the band are now using it as an intro tune for on of their songs about Admiral Russel. Hopefully I'll be able to get it out of my head before Maelstrom, but I doubt it somehow, so apologies in advance to anyone I inadvertently faranroll over the weekend.


Edit: Also, before I forget, I'll be heading for Maelstrom tomorrow, aiming to arrive in the area around lunch time. Can anyone get me directions to the carvery at Spondon from the A50 eastbound? Not sure which parent I'm getting a lift off yet but they both seem to approve of the idea of a decent pub lunch before dropping me off on site.