Lisa's Journal

10:28pm: Just quickly because I am so tired
So this weekend we saw Arun being king of Albion, and Danny being a prince and a knight.

We're so proud of them both and I can't really express how grateful we are to all involved with the Harts event for their patience, understanding and kindness in making their weekend so amazing. I think there are going to be some wonderful stories going around a little village school playground for many days to come!

7:02pm: Gathering hot and not
So back at work for 2 days, brain is refrazzled, so this may miss a lot out....

Scorchio

Trips there and back both under 3.5 hours
Kids being amazing despite being very tired
Jugga club as always, especially Warlock
Lots of plot to get stuck into, in particular Guardians, Queen's Champion and Black Flame, really like the way a lot of it is going cross faction /guild as well
Crap Assassins and the little accident they had
All of the squires and the minisquires (Evan and Alexander)
Getting to spend quite a lot of time with J
Lizzie becoming a duchess - gobsmacked wasn't the word
Killing J's one day lurgy dead with a mega hot tinned curry
Danny's face when he saw the big dragon outside the ritual circle
Going toe to toe with a lich and Lady Spring in the Akari fight and getting magebolted rather a lot in the process

Frigido

Poor J hurting his leg quite badly whilst only walking
Being a muppet entering the King's Champion tourney when I couldn't take the title even if I won
Lizzie losing Corman, inevitable but very, very gutting

Overall a brilliant Gathering, can't thank Harts command enough as we had a terrific time as a family :)

9:01pm: GEF Hot and Not
Having been refuelled with vast amounts of chinese food, here's the hot and not from one half of the Boyles....

Hot
Boys being fine in their own tent for the first time, we checked them every half hour once they were in bed but not a peep from 10pm to 8am - bliss!
Everyone being so kind to Arun and Danny and lending them spangly things so they could go open a can of whoopass on the Akari
Jugga Club - amazing company and now aching sides from all the laughter
Game of Houses - glad all the swearing and painting and sewing paid off :D
Cricket and Pimms
Jugga - exhausting, hilarious and oh so much fun
J's farewell pressie from the faction...thanks so much everyone he is over the moon!
Entering the sword and shield competition..OK I went out in the first round but at least managed to get a couple of hits in on a very good opponent.
Weather
Traffic being kind both ways
Ice cream
Hookaduck and goldfish in bags
A very kind ref sorting out a willing monster for Arun to cast his first blast spell on
Military meetings
Werewolf courting issues

Not
Freezy cold at night
Losing Edgar :(

8:40pm: Moot 1
Aching stopped, laundry done and kitchen visible again so here's my hot and not :)

Hot
Rachel being amazing and driving me there and back, how 2 of us jammed packed a Zafira with all our stuff beats me though!

Weather - ok it got a bit chilly and a bit rainy but soooo much better than last year

The Camp - minimal traipsing backwards and forwards and great for people watching

The Harts - Small but perfectly formed I felt, everyone getting really stuck in and everyone really friendly

Command - Fantastic as always :)

Guardians and dreams - really nice to have some time with the ladies with some very cool roleplay and discussions, made a change from flinging myself around in fights and reminded Lizzie she is still a lady.

Getting my jugger club membership - the interview was hilarious and the company fantastic :)

Buggeroooo!!

Queen's Champion - really so massively keen about this bit, as has been said by others the law against law roleplay was excellent and Lizzie felt wretched about what she had to do in the end.

Being able to run faster due to being thinner

Managing 3 nights post 3am without breaking myself totally

The Corman's Aliiiiiive ritual even though it went the way of the pear in the end oops, and also being Nurse Lizzie in the mending Solarian ritual :)


Not
Missing J and the boys despite what J says!

Adrenalin shrinking my stomach and then feeling woozy due to not eating enough

Broke a fingernail

Can't think of anything else!

11:02pm: Phew
So we'll have to cough up a bit more cash for events this year, but on the plus side we have a large amount of family time back :)

9:34am: Onions
Another Daniel classic...

Out shopping in Maidstone on Saturday with my parents, we came out of the fabric shop and Dan screwed up his face.
Dan: 'Grandma this street smells of onions'
Grandma: 'I expect it's coming from the sandwich bar, dear'
Dan: 'No I know why it smells of onions, look'

Dan points at the street sign.
The street sign said Union Street.

10:25am: Batman
Finally got round to watching the Dark Knight last night and was very impressed. Was a nice relaxing evening apart an interlude of a sleep walking Daniel. This may have been our fault as we had given him fish and chips for tea, plus a large saveloy and then a generous helping of chocolate cheesecake. Ooops.

2:35pm: Homework
Daniel is doing his homework at last, writing a very small dictionary. In order to make this task more bearable he has been trying to engage me in conversation, which is why I have gone to hide upstairs with the computer for a bit. Latest topic was...

'Mum we need to get the latest Cillit Bang'
'Why? I have washing soda which does just as well'
'No, I really need it'
'Daniel why do you need Cillit Bang?'
'So I can clean all my money'

10:44pm: Domesticity
Tonight has been nice, initially a bit stressful as J went to the wilds of Maidstone to hunt presents for the tabletop group..I was trying to give the kitchen extractor fan its annual clean while the boys were still bouncing off the walls after their school Christmas party. Soon enough J returned, calm descended and the extractor fan was re-assembled minus ick and goo. Then we had jacket potatoes and garlic mushrooms with some proper Spanish alioli mmmm. Would have been absolutely perfect if I didn't smell of bleach, washing soda and handcream.

3:55pm: Nicklemasmasmas
Back home again after a 400 and something mile round trip so here's the hot and not....

Hot
Good trip up including a trip to Toys R Us for some very cool King Arthur megabloks stuff
Boys being good in the back of the car despite Lu winding them up ;)
Being at an event again with my husband - twice in 3 weeks!
Boys behaving brilliantly despite staying up very late and overloading on sugar
Drinks and fun with good friends
People being so kind at letting the boys join in with everything
The presents, especially the boys' stockings from Nicklemasmas - they must have been very nice squires indeed !
Having no IC responsibility and managing to have the conversations I wanted to have without being pulled in 3 different directions.
Could have been a Not...but so funny it's Hot...Dan being given an entire swiss roll to eat and wandering around post 10pm gnawing away at it in a haze of sugar and tiredness.
Wooden puzzles
Lovely blue presents - thanks Peggy! :)

Not
Constant noise outside the Travelodge = No Sleep
Feeling pudgy
Leaving it too late to get ready again and finding a hole in my skirt, which I managed to sew up with my blouse!
Poor J having a stinking rotten cold
Realising Arun had not been downing his 'shots' properly and instead had been placing half full glasses of lime cordial on top of his head - nnngh stickky.


All in all a fab time, great to see everyone as always! :D

9:18pm: Teflon
Today Arun has had another mishap in the playground, he was moaning about his knee aching a bit this evening whilst trying to finish his project. I just thought it was another work avoidance tactic until I saw his knee....two great gouges out of it and not cleaned up very well by the playground assistant. So I felt pretty guilty and cleaned it up for him, brave young man only winced a bit when I put the tea tree water on it as well. What amazed me was his school trousers which are apparently teflon coated - not a scratch!

8:46pm: Weekend
Was really nice, went to see our friends in Sandy and didn't have much to do but sit around and chill out whilst the boys ran around the house playing Halo / Power Rangers / Call of Duty. Went out for an evening walk to see the Christmas lights and then flumped watching loads of Family Guy and Mock the Week once the boys were asleep. Did a little shopping today as well as getting used to those strange things in J's car called a gear stick and a clutch....

Now relaxing with the cat and some mulled cider whilst J blows things up upstairs.

9:57pm: Shopping
Sometimes I question my sanity...

I have just ordered a USB parrot for Arun which will record and repeat back anything you say to it.

1:42pm: Harts social
Not going to do a hot or not as I had a fab evening despite a couple of little hiccups here and there. Was great to see everyone again, fun to meet some new characters and it made a nice change to wear a posh frock instead of armour and tabard! But best of all was having a lovely night out with my wonderful husband on our 13th wedding anniversary :)

And now it looks like we're doing it all again in less than 2 weeks - better get to work on smart stuff for the boys!

9:27pm: Merlin
Have to admit it, Merlin is one of my guilty pleasures, along with Strictly Come Dancing. Tonight's was particularly cool especially when we spotted the nasty undead knight was sporting some rather lovely gauntlets with falcons on them! Needless to say, Dan has put in a request for some death knight armour with J...

9:53pm: The world according to Daniel aged 7 (again)
Thought I'd write this one down for posterity too...we were watching Ray Mears yesterday and he was showing how the leg tendons from a deer could be used to attach feathers to an arrow. Dan was studying intently and you could almost hear the cogs whirring in his mind until he asked...

"So do they hunt chickens for their legs too then?"

Next time we go for a walk in the woods we will be vewwwy, vewwy quiet...:)

11:26am: Hurrah
Dan has finally decided he wants to sell all his Power Rangers!

7:40pm: Weight
Down to 11 and a half stone...this was a target I'd set myself quite a while ago and I'm pleased on one level, however losing the last 5 pounds so rapidly has not been a barrel of laughs. So no running around the woods as a big beastkin in chain on Sunday or halloween fun tomorrow night for us, especially as J is recovering, Arun had it the same time as me and Daniel is now being treated as a ticking timebomb.

Never mind, at least I can look forward to rebuilding the playmobil castle with Dan tomorrow, then watching Merlin, and hopefully having a meal that isn't a cracker and a cup of lucozade.

8:07pm: Came home from work today and the house was very quiet. Arun and J still in pyjamas, Dan curled up dozing on the sofa. They were watching Krull...and the boys thought it was cool. 2 more days of half term....I wonder what their poor minds will be subjected to next!

12:38pm: Harts Event
I've finally stopped aching and feel vaguely awake so time for a post event post.

I went along to this one purely to hit things, as Lizzie isn't a Hunter follower and has no clue about the feral side of things. So I didn't get that involved in the plot, but found plenty of stuff to hit, as others have said very well statted monsters that were intelligent and a couple in particular that had more energy than our boys after eating spacedust.

Got involved in a couple of legal matters which was a new experience for me! This led to some good roleplay and has potential for repercussions :) Oh and had a little weepy moment with best friend George too :) It was also fun to wheel out the moany dryad queen again and be covered in fake flowers!

Was lovely to see everyone again as always, only downsides for me were the crazy long drive up there with part of Chapel Perilous in my car obscuring the view out the back and the mud in the camping area.

So...hopefully will be at the November social all being good with babysitters. Now I wonder what dark secret Lizzie has...? :D

8:43pm: I am helping J with the event admin, honest I am. I am looking at crew forms but Spaced is on DVD and I have the Next Christmas catalogue sat on the sofa...must carry on as he is busy busy busy in the garage with lots of interesting stuff!

10:37pm: Tonight
Has consisted of painting Nosferatu and being told to listen to the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band.

7:24pm: Fishies
This cheered me up this evening...

Danny was reading his school book to me, a little encyclopedia of fish. It had handy scale drawings of each fish. I was reliably informed by him that one particular fish was 'the size of a fully grown pencil'.

3:52pm: Cake
Having watched Nigella express last night and then today one of the guys at work brought in banana bread he made, I realised that I haven't made a cake in over 20 years. In fact I don't think I've ever made J a cake!

So what cake should I make that is unlikely to end in disaster??

7:53pm: *pop*
so....much...homemade shepherd's pie!