Locko Park……

…… is where I have spent an inordinate amount of my time over the last 10 or so years. Today was a rare opportunity to see the “posh end” where LRPers are normally not permitted. As part of the National Gardens scheme, Locko opened the gardens to the public for the afternoon. By chance, we were passing and popped in.

This is the side of the house from the gateway to the stables.

The Big House – this looks like the main entrance, where horse-drawn carriages would have come in.

The front of the House.  Directly behind me is the big field and a distant view of the lake.

Decorative wall light thingy by the main door.

Lurking in the rhododendrons. There are two of these – on at either end of the ha-ha at the front of the house.  Both are a bit hidden.

Entrance to the house chapel.

Inside the chapel. This window is “The Passion.” It’s a very small private family chapel, and there was an inscription above the pulpit in Greek.  Sadly, Greek was never my strong point – Latin, yes, but Greek, no.

“Mary”
I’ll upload some of the garden and sculpture photos in another blog entry.  The garden is beautiful, and the Locko Park guys have done a lot of work on restoring areas since I was last in here several years ago.  The long border down the side of the walled garden has been restored, repaved and replanted.  The walled garden itself has been cleared of all the overgrown pines that were there, and the beech hedging trimmed and looked after.  The rose garden on the terrace has been cleared and replanted with new rose shrubs.  All good stuff.  And Bluebell Wood Farm were there doing ice-cream, so that was a good end to the afternoon.

Shiney……

…… is the car. Did the carwash thingy this afternoon. The car no longer looks like an old tractor.  I have been lying low for a while – did a LRP event, which was enjoyable over the Bank Holiday weekend, but then some plague bearer gave me a stinking cold.  I made it into work for about 5 hours on 10th May and then spent the next 4 days lying in bed, shivering, boiling, sneezing and wheezing.  I may as well have bought shares in Kleenex, given how many hankies were used.  You kind of get to the point of wondering how much snot one person can produce in a 24hr period.  Anyway, am feeling slightly better now – less snotters, but a really irritating cough and general tiredness.

New Kit……

…… from the reenactment fair at Coventry.  Lovely afternoon out – lots of nice fabrics, costumes, armour, hats, jewellery and pies!  Got some beautiful pouches, made by Evenlode and some fudge (which has been eaten).  Met a few friends, although not as many as last time.  However, as I hadn’t seen some of them for ages, it was lovely to catch up.  All in all, a good day out.

Meetings……

…… meetings. I seem to have had a week of nothing but meetings. Yesterday’s meeting, however, was interesting and productive. It was the annual (ish) Bears Faction Group Leaders meeting – an opportunity for the various group leaders to get together with the NPCs and talk about how the faction did and where it’s going over the next year. There were fewer groups represented this year, which was a bit disappointing, but those who attended were full of questions, points and issues. It felt very productive. Which makes a change from a lot of my other meetings this week.

Owww……

…… I ache all over. As in, really really ache.  As in – struggled to get up and down stairs, in and out of the car, sitting down, standing up and all activities that involve moving generally.  Yep – I monstered the Bards Guild LRP event.  It was thoroughly enjoyable with good company and lots of running around.  One kind soul (in some random conversation) assumed I was 27/28.  Hahahaha.  I felt about 98 this morning, and things haven’t really improved.  I’m assuming his judgement error was based on the fact that I was wearing armour and made up to look like a zombie.

Although my zombieness did not involve cocktails.  Wish it had. Appletinis……mm. I was mostly holding a sword and falling over (a lot). And getting battered by players.  All good fun.  And whilst having a break and a coffee outside, several of us were standing looking at the beautiful clear night’s sky when we saw the most amazing thing – a huge ball of fire streaking across the sky.  It seemed enormous (and heading for Leicester) and we all assumed it was a sattelite burning up in the atmosphere.  When I looked at the news earlier today, the BBC commented on it: stating that the Met office believe it was a meteorite.  Whatever it was, we all stood around open-mouthed for a while.  it was spectacular.

Another event over……

…… and thank god for that.  I sometimes wonder why I get involved in LRP event organising – it’s such a pain in the ass.  Months of planning, organising, costume and prop making, spending money, getting money in, budgetting, site visiting, player and monster wrangling, stressing, arguing.  The list could go on.  But we’ve finished running Buaireadair aig a’Muileann – Raven’s Shadow.  And it seemed to be a success generally speaking.  There were a few chaotic behind-the-scenes episodes, but the players seemed to enjoy themselves, and the monsters/crew worked their arses off making everything run as smoothly as they could.  All good.

One sentence that summarises each year of your life so far……

……um, gosh:

1974: Born in March, living in Langbank.

1975: Moved to Greenock.

1976: The Joyous One is born.

1977: No idea – who can remember being three?

1978: Big hairy caterpillars on Jura.

1979: Take a dead blue tit in for the nature table: Miss Armstrong was not impressed, but I am glad I am not in Miss Grant’s class because she was a scarey lady.

1980: I think Mum is embarrassed by Brian’s arrival as the baby Moses basket is located in a corner behind one of the living room chairs: I later discover this is probably to stop the dog knocking it over.

1981: No idea – a blank.

1982 : Also a blank.

1983: Blank – did I have a 3-year period of amnesia?!

1984: Kitten-heeled shoes

1985: TV!!!!!!

1986: Finish primary school – head for Greenock Academy.

1987: I get straight A-grades in my report card for everything apart from maths – I’m crap at maths.

1988: Arran, sausage sizzles and sea kayaking.

1989: Lots and lots of studying: seemed so important at the time.

1990: Pompeii, Herculaneum and pizza in Sorrento.

1991: Run amok in the Art Department and do nothing else but painting and classics for the whole academic year.

1992: Move to England.

1993: Went out for stamps, came back with tattoo.

1994: Fail Agricultural Biology, spend birthday on the White Horse at Uffington with Rob.

1995: Get pissed on by Apodemus sylvaticus and Clethrionomys glareolus a lot.

1996: Graduate and spend the summer identifying and surveying butterflies – the difference between small skipper and Essex skippers is the colour of the underside of their antennae.

1997: I win a village pub Christmas Eve fancy dress competition: I am not in fancy dress – this is how I normally dress.

1998: New Zealand & Australia – sea snakes and shark feeds off North Horn.

1999: GHP – I am overwhelmed by trees, polytunnels and an amazing team to work with.

2000: LARP.  That is all.

2001: Trees and seeds, lots of them.

2002: Buckingham Palace – the Queen is very small.

2003: The cows break down the fence and ravage the vegetable garden; one gooseberry and some onions are saved.

2004: Left conservation for mental health advocacy.

2005: Mental health advocacy work is both challenging and occasionally hilarious.

2006: New Zealand and Joy’s wedding.

2007: Egypt, lack of sharks, lots of lionfish and blue-spotted stingrays.

2008: Lots of camping.

2009: New Zealand, road trip, whales, albatrosses, and dolphins of the land.

2010: Hard work.

2011: not finished yet, but doing ok so far.

Long week……

…… in which I felt like I spectacularly failed to achieve very much at all on the work front.  There are times when I wonder if what I do actually makes any difference to anyone at all.  We spend hours driving up and down the county, wade through incomprehensible piles of medical and care records, wrangle with recalcitrant care staff, try to make sense of a medical and care system which seems to have been designed purely for the convenience of the people who run it and not the patients, spend hours trying to seek the views of vulnerable and profoundly damaged individuals, have social care professionals believe that “yes, of course I can seek the views of your client where all others have failed*” and then wrangle with the production of a report to cap it all off.  Which the decision maker MAY or MAY NOT bother their arse to read or pay any sort of attention to.  Cos the law says they have to pay “due regard” to it.  Aint life a bitch.  It feels like I’m continually trying to cram a 70hr week in to a 37.5hr one, and we’re all being asked to do twice as much with half the resources.  Meh.  Maybe I’ve just had a crappy week and a glass of wine will take the edge off my meh-ness.

On the other hand, I’ve got next Thursday and Friday off, and a long weekend camping in a field with a load of other loonies (aka larpers).  Bring on the sloe gin

*right about the time my telepathy programme boots up.  Which will be just in time for you to read the note on my desk telling you that a lack of planning on your part does not constitute a crisis on mine.

Another event over……

……thank goodness.  The house is still full of LRP kit, but we’ll be sorting a lot of that tomorrow and carting it off to the lock-up for storage.  We didn’t take any photos of the event, but I’ll have a hunt round facebook and see if anyone has any good ones.  We booked Donington Park Farmhouse for the event and the staff there were fantastic and very helpful.   The hall we used is a 17th Century tithing barn and is very atmospheric for a mediaeval banquet: all we really needed to do was hang lots of Celtic drapes and some new Pictish banners I made and the place looked great.  We used loads of battery powered tea lights, as the venue doesn’t allow proper candles, but in the end they made the place look really atmospheric.  The food was fantastic: vegetable broth with really yum bread to start, a haggis and neeps course, venison stew and jacket potato with roasted veg, and a baked apple with custard to finish.  I was worried that the portions wouldn’t be enough, but everyone was stuffed and the quality of the food was amazing.

On a personal level, this event was an opportunity for the Bears Faction NPC team to announce their newest NPC team member – me! I’m excited, flattered to be asked (and accepted) and frankly, a bit scared.  The news seemed to go down well with all present, and I hope that i can make a good cntribution to the team to enable everyone to continue enjoying their LRP events.

And the chaos begins……

…… as the house fills up with kit and props for our banquet event at the end of January.  Today was spent out and about getting props and stuff to make props with.  Rob’s frantically trying to get to grips with the online booking system and its database.  I’m farting about with paint pens.  Fabric is everywhere.  I am resigned to the house being a complete state until the beginning of February. Then it will all be over and I can have the house and my life back to normal.