Sep 2008 b

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Note: Please take a look at the previous blog entry,
as both these two entries have been posted on the same evening.
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Tue 16 Sep 2008
Jen finally finishes her latest baby - Bridget's Albion scroll.
Hey, its taken 9 months worth of solid procrastination to come to fruition!
Close up shots will come in the next blog entry, once Bridget's finally seen it herself.


Thu 18 Mar 2008
Tonight Steve headed out and saw the 'Skeletons: London's buried bones' exhibition near Kings Cross with Edith, Nick and a bunch of others. It was "interesting".

Fri 19 Mar 2008
Tonight Jen dropped Steve off at the local airport. He arrived on-site in Germany at the Nibelungen SCA event quite late at night.

Sat 20 Mar 2008
Jen and Soph did some window shopping. Steve had a blast in Germany. Here are some photos others took of him - thanks!


Steve did pretty well in the tourney - he came second. :-)

Sun 21 Mar 2008
Steve arrives home safe and happy.

Mon 22 Mar 2008
Shire meeting and dinner in the pub. *glug glug glug*

Tue 23 Mar 2008
Madrigal singing at our place this evening.
We sounded pretty good - performable even.

Wed 24 Mar 2008
Tonight Jen tried out Boxercise, after work.
She felt really sore for the better part of a week afterward!

Fri 26 Mar 2008
After work Jen, Soph, Steve, and a bunch of Jen's work colleagues hung out at the Queen's Head pub in Stratford. Good fun.

Sat 27 Mar 2008
This morning we got up at silly o'clock to get the 6:55am train to Paris. Arrived in Paris at around 10:30am local time, to a gloriously sunshiny day!

Above: Soph and Steve in Paris. (on the whole, Jen took the photos)

The first thing on our minds - food. We found this great little shop selling such mouth-waterly sweet things as this:

Below: Here we all are together at the back end of Notre Dame Cathedral, which had a lovely garden with huge medieval fountain.


Above: Soph and the aforesaid cathedral
Below: we arrived at the amazing Musee de Cluny - the best collection of medieval artifacts and art in Europe and probably the world.


Above: Soph expresses her approval of this statue of Saint Florian.


Above: everyone loves the six 'Lady and the Unicorn' tapestries. This photo gives you some idea of their grandeur.

Afterward we headed back to Notre Dame and had a wander about inside.

We stayed in our friend Margaret's lovely apartment only a 15 minute walk from Notre Dame Cathedral. Thanks Margaret!!!! Here's Soph pondering the lovely Parisian sunset amid the Parisian skyline - ooohh it was all so lovely!

Finally, we ventured out in search of classic French meals in a good restaurant.... and were not disappointed. We recommend the Louis-Phlippe restaurant a short walk from Notre Dame. Cheers!


Sun 28 Mar 2008
We ventured out in search of the Musee d'Orsay and along the way came across the lovely parklands between the Louvre and the Arc de Triumph.


There were plenty of famous 19th - 20th century paintings at the Musee d'Orsay.
In with the colourful Monets, Renoirs, Van Goghs, there was this one:

What was somewhat entertaining was the number of American tourists walking past saying "oh! its here!" (Whistler's Mother)

Above: the view from the top floor terrace.
Below: imagine trying to "hang" a painting larger than your average wall....


Above: so much priceless art in such a short time took its toll....
Below: loads of classic sculpture and pleased tourists in the Musee d'Orsay.



Next, we headed off and enjoyed a stint of window-shopping under the Louvre Musee, ending in yummy crepes and the purchase of a few new posters.

We wandered back to Margaret's apartment, packed, left a gift and note, and got the train home to London. We arrived home safely, and hosted Catelin for an overnight stay. This lady needed one night's rest (after a long-haul flight from USA) before heading to south west England the next day, to relocate herself long-term in the UK.

Mon 29 Mar 2008
Back to work. Jen did 4 hours overtime. Boo hiss.

Tue 30 Sep 2008
Blog night! Kev and Steve watched 'Hawk the Sayer'. As Steve says "that amazingly classic silly film (which I love)".
Here's a shot of the building work that's been going on outside out kitchen window, which will soon be obliterating our views of the Millenium Dome. Notice also the vine is flowering nicely. It wasn't in the garden at all this time last year.

Sep 2008 a

Wed 03 Sept 2008
Jen helps Hannah (a work mate) machine sew together some skirts for a music Festival where Hannah and her friends will be a "school of fish" in fishy-school outfits.


Thu 04 Sept 2008
This evening Soph, Jenni and Jen saw a horror-genre play together, called "The Woman in Black" (www.thewomaninblack.com).
Here Jen takes a photo of her theatre-going companions.


Fri 05 Sept 2008
The Known World Heraldic Symposium (KWHS) is in full swing today. Jen has the day off work so as to be staff at this SCA event in London. Jen got some good work done on Bridget's Albion scroll while she manned the door. Went to the College of Arms in London in the evening, which was hosted by real actual Heralds. Tres cool!



Sat 06 Sept 2008
Steve works today, poor fellow. He's completed 23 hours of OVERtime in 3 days!!!
Steve caught up with Jen on-site at KWHS, and together we did a small "court" on behalf of the Drachenwald K&Q. It felt to us a little bit like usurping! Here are some photos others took of us - thank you!



Sun 07 Sept 2008
In the afternoon Jen ran the British Library tour for about 30 people. It went so well that the LQ of Arms broke down in tears, completely overwhelmed by the experience! After the Brit Lib tour, Edith ran a fab walking tour starting at Farringdon Tube station and walking through bits of Islington. Here are some photos:

Above: Edith telling us about the oldest still-in-use purpose-built Hospital in Britain which she's standing in front of (St Batholomews) on the corner of Little Britain Street. The next shots were down through the tudor gateway you can see here behind Steve.....

Below: inside St Batholomew the Great Church of England - this is one of the churches where the film '4 weddings & a funeral' was shot. Oh, that's our friend Margaret in the picture, who lives in Paris.


Above: that tudor archway from the other side as we leave the St Bart church....
Below: St John's Gate where that famous Order of medieval Knights have their headquarters for several centuries.


Fri 12 Sept 2008
A week has gone by and KWHS was a successful event.

Now however, we catch up again with new friends at the ever-amazing Raglan Castle event...
This evening Steve drove Jen, Soph and Kev to our B&B, where we met up with Gav and Angela.


Sat 13 Sept 2008
The full set of our photos are here: www.flickr.com/photos/raisedgold

However here is also a selection of photos for your enjoyment:

Above: Steve as Alaric with a huge smile of anticipation
Below: Angela and Soph happy to soak up some sunshine


Above: Kev, Gav and Steve were really thrilled to be on the battlefield together.
Below: Yyyeeeaaahhhh take some of that! The bridge battles are adrenalin-pumping fun!


Above: One-to-one combat on the bridge.
Below: It's not every day you look out your pavilion and see this!!! (Ursula and Clancy's view)


Mon 15 Sept 2008
Happy birthday Steve!!! He says it was a great one - and he loved dinner at the French restaurant. :-)