Monday 10 January 2011

eventing we will go...


Bridge from Denmark to Denmark >Fyn.
 So... for the first time in what we figured out is roughly two years we set off to an SCA event. The event was in Sweden so we decided to drive all the way ( now that we can) and avoided ferries. We took the huge bridges and were suitably amazed at the architectural feats of wonder of driving over the baltic sea
The drive through Denmark was easy, clear skies all the way and a gorgeous sunset.

le husband not wanting le picture to be taken.
Bridge 1. BIG and impressive.













When we hit Sweden we hit wall oh fog. There was just nothing to see and as it was hovering around the -2 the driving got interesting. As we got closer to the event site the roads got smaller and more snowy, thank goodness we had the exact GPS coordinates for the event especially as there were NO FREAKING SIGNS anywhere. We made a wrong turn and ended going up a very dodgy road...full of snow...managed to get out of that only to be shouted at by a very large doberman. Eventually we arrived at the site alive and in 1 piece. Managed to get checked in swiftly and then made the decidedly treacherous journey down the hill to the house at the end of the world where we were bunked.


Chatting to a new scribe.
 We ended up sharing a room with most excellent friends and this was a welcome thing. A chance not only to catch up but also to relax because they know us so well and vice-versa that we forgive the flaws and welcome the chatter. We had a corner room on a quiet hallway near a bathroom ( so perfect for me who gets up at least 3 x a night to pee ( thank you endo) So we unpacked without the usual rush and hectic, got everything squared away and dressed in our somewhat tired looking garb then went to say hullo to the medieval world at large.
The bling garb and the pointy hats whoo hoo!
 This was the coronation for Vitus and Ele, two incredibly dear friends of ours and it was a momentous event given how long they have been entering crown tourneys and not winning. The stunning bling bling garb was made by Anya and Gottfried and it was truly wonderful. You can see the story of the garb here and it is well worth the read. It was a lovely ceremony though even for me both the step down and the step up courts were a bit long. I guess I am not one for a lot of blah blah ceremony any more but it was very nice to see the pointy hats go on.
One thing annoyed the crap out of me though and that was when it came to reading the name of the scribes who did the scrolls. It was inconsistent and I got the feeling that only the scribes who had created big blingy scrolls were worth acknowledging.  Several scrolls were just handed out without being shown to the populace or having their scribes acknowledged. It was very disheartening to see and experience.  Dear Kings and Queens be consistent when you do this either you do or you don't but the some scribes get acknowledge and some don't thing sucks. It makes those whose names do not get said out loud seem second rate and not worthy or recognition. EVERY SCRIBE should be worthy of recognition. Please please remember this. And scribes WRITE YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFO clearly on the backs of your works. ( okay rant off)

The rest of the day was mostly quiet for me. Since we had been up very late on Friday ( the standard chatting till the wee hours just kills me and I suffer from not able to sleep in a strange bed syndrome so on Saturday I was a gonner. We escaped back down to the house of the banished , braving the absolutely deadly ice hill and I decided that until feast I wasn't risking my neck again and subsequently missed the laurel meeting because I had no idea when it was being held after being pushed away for the fighting and no one actually came down the hill of death ( or used the inter house phones)  to let any one know it was happening. I guess I wasn't missed so no big deal. I am the anti peer anyway ( thanks Maggie for the name it's very funny). What we did do all afternoon was inhale glühwein fumes and chat with very good friends. It was an delightful way to spend a cold afternoon and I am glad we got the chance to relax.
Feast

The feast started after 2nd court which I would have stayed for but the room was so hot it actually made me ill and I had to get out of there which meant I missed getting a coin and candle for judging the A&S competition. Since judging is something I loath and I mean loath to do and I suck at it by the way I was a little sad about missing out on the good part of the whole experience but oh well again if a person is not physically in the room they are not actually there at all. My fault really I aim to be invisible Bridget and it works. *evil grin* I don't mean that to sound petulant though it probably does. But I do find it sad that people tend to get left behind if they are not in the room at the time. It happens to scribes as well, my biggest pet peeve. People get nice scrolls but if the scribe is not at the event, more often than not, the scribe never hears a peep from the recipient about whether or not they liked the scroll etc....there is a big out of sight out of mind thing than happens at events. It's like an SEP field. I do wish that would change a bit.

Feast was a bit chaotic but we took it all in stride, thank you Hagen for saving us seats. It's always hard for us at feasts because we are quite picky about food especially now with certain food issues having cropped up ( milk intolerance, no cheese etc...) However even though it was fairly lengthy it was nice and the food that was served was by all accounts really good. Something I wish they would do in this kingdom is pre post the event menus with ingredients though. We had two vegetarians seated with us and no one could tell them if there were meat products in the meals. That isn't good. For me the issue now a days is milk products. I have to be super careful. So really I was able to eat the meat stew, the very very gingered carrots, and the pork ( very nice) Everything else was to be avoided. We missed both breakfasts due to the hill of death being a great deterrent and there was no food on Friday. Marcus and I have long ago learned from experience to be very self sufficient when it comes to SCA food and we bring the kitchen with us.  I have a small coffee machine, a small kettle and 2 cool boxes packed with good stuff. We don't starve and we don't have to brave the ice hill of death to get that morning coffee either. In the end it was nice to have breakfast in house and relax the big downer is that we miss out on relaxed chatting with other people. However this was an unusual case because we were all bunked in the house way down the hill from the main site and the route back and forth was just a deadly sheet of ice. Not really a great incentive to get one's ass to breakfast on time. I am sure when the road isn't a vertical ice rink it's much more fun. And I liked our room, the quiet infrequently used bathrooms and the endless hot water so do not take this as a complain, it isn't but there were downsides to being housed quiet far away from the main site.I ate something on saturday evening that made me quite ill so it was nice to have a quiet Sunday morning breakfast in the room with food that was a known quantity. Besides having the wee coffee maker is a great way to make people happy and earn new friends.

road from hell.
 We cleaned up our living space and packed le car said our goodbyes and started the journey home. HOLY ICE ROADS batman. Seriously talk about shit driving conditions. above freezing temps on already hard packed icy roads made for an Olympic style car skating event. We decided to caravan with Leo and his navi had some strange ideas about where to go but eventually we made our way to Malmö to the bridge.
good friends, good times
 Our last stop together was at a small rest stop where we used the facilities, Leo bought a snow shovel, we each obtained a free map book of Sweden and had a coffee to go. Just as we all began to shiver from the cold we said our goodbyes and began the last leg home. We would both be driving over the big bridge together but after that we went separate ways. they were taking a ferry and we were sticking to the road.
le big bridge
 The big bridge from Denmark to Sweden is impressive and I was glad that this time we got to see more of it.
Road to Kopenhagen
 The rest of the drive home was uneventful except for the unintelligible gas station in Denmark. We decided not to top up there and waited till we crossed the border stopping in a place called Skandinavia park where we had the best meal in ages at the Steak-n-more which was the alternative to Mc D's. It's not on the cheap side of food prices but the salad and potato sides are all you can eat and the meat we had was cooked to perfection.
Denmark is full of beautiful sunsets
All in all it was one of the best events I have ever been to though I think a lot of that was due to going with no expectations, no agenda, no volunteering for anything and looking forward to seeing friends. We took an over 2 year break from the SCA but I think that has ended now and the thoughts are for Double Wars in May. So to all who worked at the event to make it fun Thank you. To all the scribes who created beautiful works of art I say well done and thank you and to our friends both new and old I say thank you for being awesome people. Really in the end you are what make it so much fun!

PS. I forgot to mention is was great to get to see Lia and meet her Laurel ( thank you for coming to find me and we need to hang out more often it was so very nice to just sit and chat).
-To the new scribe who came to find me I'm deeply sorry we never got to speak more later on but sadly this is SOP at events. Find me online and I will do what I can for you to get you on the go. I know you have questions and occasionally I have some answers.
- the rather odd glut of panaches and lindquistiringes given out all at once in last court seemed very last minute rush.  Not so many AoAs tho. Is this is sign we need to seriously work on encouraging new blood or is it just winter events so close after Christmas don't really get a lot of semi new people on the AoA list.
-Brutus - enough said.

5 comments:

  1. Not guilty! All scribes names have been writen out at our Court.;-)
    heehee so and now explaine to me why the scripe i ordered to stand up at Court to present himself to the populance that the "Scroll" get a face , was unhappy that i did that and pointed out "i do not like to get heed" because it was only an AOA haahaa :-).So what can we do?
    Ha! Scripes out their stand up for your Queen and tell our beloved Dark site Scripe what kind of regocnition you already got .
    Eleanora Queen of Drachenwald
    not afraid about the Dark site

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  2. Du hast es richtig gemacht. Ich habe über den stepdown court geredet. Es ist nervig zu mir das manche scribes bekommen keine anerkennoung nur weid die scroll nicht schone genug war.

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  3. I was at second court, and close enough to hear HRM tell at least one award recipient that he should contact the scribe with his thanks.

    I get the impression that the reading aloud of the scribe's names had most to do with how easy it was to read in the available light--those which were written in large letters got read, those which were faint or small didn't...

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  4. I was primarily referring to the step down court and I was not the only person who noticed that some scrolls were both shown to the populace and had their scribes recognized and others did not. As someone who is a scribe and who served multiple terms as signet I notice this stuff right away. It's a lot better than it once was but it still irks me. And I happen to know for a fact that the name on at least one of those scrolls was written very clearly so that's not really a viable excuse.

    Vitus and Ele know better anyway mostly because both of them have had to listen to me rant on this topic for nigh on 8 or so years so no wonder the second court was all good.

    The Swedes always seem to recognize their scribes and they have an amazing stable of amazing scribes to draw from as well.

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  5. you are welcome! : )

    love maggie

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