Nov 2006 a

Wed 1 Nov 2006
Jen has the day off work. Drive back home and return the car. We went to fight practice nearby (5 minutes drive away).



Thu 2 Nov 2006
Steve goes and submits his driver's license and will wait some weeks before a nice new British one arrives in the post - which, incidentally, is a slot in the front door like in Harry Potter movies.

Sat 4 Nov 2006
Jen holds a "scriptorium" day and we all prepare feather quills together using the hot sand method. We all then have a go at cutting the quills, and then attempting to write with them. Elizabeth/Geneveive enjoys some birthday cake (her special day was the 3rd) and we top off the day with a yummy dinner cooked by Steve, plus several hours of board game playing of "cheap @ss games". Thanks Dan for bringing these!


Wed 8 Nov 2006
Steve goes to a job interview and does really well! He is told he will have a second round interview (which will be on 21st Nov). Go to Fight Practice, this time by train.

Thu 9 Nov 2006
Jen comes home from work and is now on holidays until Tuesday - Hooray! We pack to go to Kingdom University (SCA event).

Fri 10 Nov 2006
Get the coach to Stanstead airport and fly to Lubeck (Northern Germany) - a 1.5 hour flight. There are 7 other scadians with us, and we get taken to the YHA event site. That evening two vigils occur.

Sat 11 Nov 2006
A Laurel and a pelican are created in court. Below is a photo of the splendid coat made for the new Laurel by her friends.

Above: This photo courtesy of Lady Geneveive, Thamesreach Seneschal.
Anyway, we attended several classes throughout the day - some of which were in both German and English. Jen was really pleased to finally meet Diane Calvert after admiring the website all these years. http://scafrance.free.fr/dcalvertversals/biographie_uk.htm

Above: a class on gilding.
Below: Diane Calvert and one of her works.



Sun 12 Nov 2006
Today a bunch of us walked into the old Medieval village of Lubeck. Here we are at the city wall.

Once into the old town of Lubeck, we admired the architecture and the fabulous little museum, as well as poking our heads into a couple of cathedrals (both had slanted floors and crooked walls). Inside the main cathedral, it was interesting to see the WWII memorials, such as a pair of Huge, broken and slightly melted, church bells forever crashed into the stone floor. A reminder of the blitzkreig of WWII that Lubeck went through.

Above: The nice little village square (with markets) where Steve enjoyed some hot German sausage and hot spiced mead.

Mon 13 Nov 2006
Arrive back in London. Unpack and get the laundry going. In the afternoon we visited the Victoria and Albert museum known as the V&A (free entry).

The V&A has many Victorian plaster-casts of richly carved items, including David (below).



Fri 17 Nov 2006
Went and saw the new James Bond movie together - good fun.

Sat 18 Nov 2006
Today we slept in to 9:30am. After a leisurely start, we ambled out of the house at 1pm......


These days the sun is low and there are huge piles of autumnal leaves everywhere.
We headed to the Museum of London (free entry), and got sore feet. Here are a couple of fourteenth century items that interested Jen.

Oct 2006 b

Boyoboy have we got some great photos this fortnight!

Wed 18 Oct 2006
Went to the monthly SCA meeting in the Shakespeare's Head pub. Afterwards, we walked around Saint Paul's Cathedral. Its really really big, and quite impressive. We had previously seen a show about London's blitzkrieg of the Second World War, and how this huge cathedral was saved through the hard work of firemen, and sheer luck in having not been bombed. This artwork should give you some idea of how HUGE this thing is:

Above: "Arrival of Nelson's funeral carriage for interment"

Thurs 19 Oct 2006
Steve applied for some jobs.

Fri 20 Oct 2006
Steve gets no responses to job applications, except one email refusal.
After work, Clare took us to see our first West End show - a play titled 'Blood Brothers' at the Pheonix Theatre. The play was OK. The theatre itself was gorgeous, being exquisitely decorated in the style of the italian renaissance. Arrived home just before midnight.

Sat 21 Oct 2006
Clare, Steve and I all went to Madame Tussard's Wax Museum. It was expensive (£25 pp) but actually pretty good for 3.5 hours of entertainment. Discovered the old lady was ordered to take Wax death masks of the french aristocracy (especially Marie Antoinette) during the Revolution. Interesting fact - the guillotine was abolished in France in 1977, and last used about 6 or 7 years before that. The section also included Serial Killers, but they all seemed to be British. I certainly didn't see any references to Martin Bryant or the Snowtown Murders. Hey, not that I'm proud of Australia's killers but we sure have had some dooseys.

Anyway, here are some photos of us with some well photographed wax.....


Above: he's soooo dreamy!
Below: Separated at birth?

Below: In the gift shop, we couldn't resist and got this 3D portrait taken for £30.

Afterwards, Steve took me to Harrods. We somehow managed to refrain from buying anything (really, we just didn't want to queue or pay the outrageous prices). Harrods is owned by Dodi's father. To refresh your memory, Dodi is the guy who died with Princess Di. Later, Clare and her friend Deb stayed overnight after a long day touristing.

Above: the Egyptian escalator inside Harrods.
Below: a tribute to Di and Dodi's love - its weird what grieving parents will do.


Sun 22 Oct 2006
Steve cooked us all a fab brekky. Clare and Deb headed out, and we waved bye to Deb, but we decided to have a slack day at home.

Mon 23 Oct 2006
Waved bye bye to Clare.

Wed 25 Oct 2006
Hire a car for a week, since the special deal is the same for three days hire. Drive to the very first night of the new fighter practice in east London. The five attendees were: ourselves, Dan and Elizabeth, and Michael from Newcastle, Australia.

Thu 26 Oct 2006
Winter has arrived! Its really really chilly this morning!
After work Jen attends a campaign launch: the Gas Safety Campaign, which she designed posters, ads, fliers and even fridge magnets for. The girl sitting beside Jen won the quiz night and a £100 gift voucher.

Fri 27 Oct 2006
After work, drive up to Little Abington for Viceroy (SCA event) which is most of the way to Cambridge and about a 45 minute drive. It was great to meet people, and also put faces to names.

Sat 28 Oct 2006
Pick up Dan and we drive back to Viceroy. Had a great time. Steve marshalled for the tournament and I assisted at the List Tree. The two finalists for the tourney were both from the hosting group (in Cambridge).

Above: The King and Queen (middle) and the victor plus his consort seated outside them.
Below: At the end of the evening there was much loud music and silliness in the kitchen during clean-up. The knights got in on the act, playing up for the many onlookers. Naughty Knights.


Sun 29 Oct 2006
Drive two suburbs away from home to attend "Residents' Day" - for Jen's work. They even had a spare Branded work shirt for Steve to get in on the volunteering action! We mostly did the "meet and greet" and handed out the goodie bags you can see stacked in the corner here.

Above: Here we are in the reception area at a football ground, welcoming Jen's work's clients to the function.

Mon 30 Oct 2006
On Saturday night the clocks were changed by an hour. It was lovely to wake up an hour later and enjoy sunlight again in the mornings. The downside now is that Jen is walking home at 5pm in the dark, and winter is irrefutably here.
Steve has discovered the joys of hooking his computer up to the projector.

Tue 31 Oct 2006
After work, we had three groups of trick'n'treaters visit by 6:30pm. We didn't have any treats, (not used to connecting Halloween with stocking up on lollies for the neighbourhood kiddies) and were lucky not to get egged like our neighbours footpaths did. We drove up to Cambridge to stay with Deb and Clancy. Here are a few photos of what an All American Halloween Party looks like!