Wednesday - The last day of laser samples, between 12 - 4 pm we got 6 more samples out of the way. I was amazingly tired after a stressful week and I spent some time shopping for Festival stuff and then a lot of time asleep.
Thursday - I tried to take Thursday as easy as I could. I sauntered into the lab at 9 am, put my stuff in Emma's car at 10 am, and then went to coffee with the girls at 11 am. Bridget had left the sleeping mat so Susan drove us over so I could pick it up. I was supposed to meet Peta at midday, but was running half an hour late. Thankfully she was still there and we had a nice coffee and chats session for an hour until I headed home to wait for the phone call to let me know that they were on their way to pick me up. That didn't come until nearly 4 pm, so in the mean-time I chatted to Allison who had unexpectedly come onto ICQ.
The trip was rather uneventful, we only took one wrong turn and we got to the camp-site after dark at about 7:30 pm. The camp site was at Silverdale in the extreme west of Sydney close to the Blue Mountains. After unpacking my crap into my tiny little tents, unfurling my sleeping bag and other miscellany, we stood around the campfire chatting and then I went down to the Tavern with a few of the others. It was a nice start, I was wearing my "mundane" clothes under my cloak, but it was good to chat and see everyone done up in their finery. People were making good-natured fun of me, because they were saying how my tents were only five foot long and yet I'm six foot. ;) I crashed reasonably early because of the long car trip.
Friday - I was unfortunately camped close to some young children who woke me up at 6 am, and this lack of good sleep was to be a theme throughout the weekend. My tent had collected a lot of dew on the walls, and hence it became unpleasant to sit up in where I would brush the walls and get wet.
I spent much of the early morning around the campfire before wandering over to watch some of the archery competition. I was wearing my simple red dress and a make-shift sun-shade since it was quite incredibly bright and sunny. In the morning was the Heraldic melee where individuals and then teams of heavy fighters battled each other in the lists. It was quite a colorful event.
In the afternoon there was a Woods battle which had both light and heavy fighters which was quite cool to watch as we were reasonably close to the action. Two large shield walls clashing together making quite an impressive sound and spectacle. In between napping, eating and drinking around the campfire, most of the rest of the day was otherwise occupied.
Saturday - Saturday was Market Day, the day where anyone who has stuff to sell sets up their little stand and hawks it for all they're worth. I picked up a necklace with a silver unicorn on it, a leather pouch to carry stuff and a engraved leather book. That just about blew my money out, so I watched a bit of the Royal court and then back for an afternoon snooze as well as doing my day's worth of washing up. In the afternoon some of the girls decided to pool their make-up and go for the "Skanky Ho" look. Therefore Saturday night became "Skanky Ho" night as well as being "Red and Black" night since red and black are the DX colors (the household whom I was hanging out with). I was "Newbie Skank", but we also had "Posh Skank", "Baby Skank" and "Mother Skank". Later that evening was the "Blue Feather" feast and I chatted away to some of the girls down there, most of them were invitees, and it seemed that Blue Feather has mostly gay guys, while DX seems to have cornered the gay girl market. It was also Nachos and Margarita night, so that added to the general sense of fun.
We all headed down to the Tavern after I got back to the DX campsite and we had a really great time hanging out there. Some people from MordenVale (Newcastle) invited us around to their campsite for free cider so we went around there for chats and alcohol. Unfortunately two unpleasant things happened, first I crushed my knee on a low lying stool and then one of the girls called me "Lord". This kind of squashed my mood and I wandered off feeling rather down and sad. I got back to our campsite where Jenni, Emma and Andrew were sitting around the fire. These were the only three who knew about me, so I mentioned what happened to get it off my chest. Andrew offered me a place in his tent where he had a real bed and so I accepted because I did not want to catch another awful flu by sleeping in a cool and wet tent. He knows me and didn't try anything funny (I think he could be gay anyway) and I appreciated his offer and the warmth of his tent.
Sunday - Because I was warm and dry and away from the children I actually had a reasonable nights sleep and got up at about 7:30 am. It was Easter Sunday, and so some people gave out Easter eggs and I made pancakes for my part.
Today was also War Day and DX was fighting for the first time as a unit for the festival. We all got together eventually and wandered over to the large war field at about 10 am. A lot of people were late, so the first two engagements were small but DX was on the winning side for both. After a lot more people arrived, the engagements became very impressive and harder to figure out what was going on, but it was a nice spectacle. After an hour or two I sought shelter from the sun and went back to look around the various things happening elsewhere and then back to more time around the campsite avoiding sun-burn.
That night was the fighter auction where all the fighters are auctioned off to raise money before they battle it out the next day. The joke was that the DX fighters were only worth "two fiddy" or that they would go for "1540" another in-joke which developed over the weekend. A friend of Mary's, Georgina aka, "George" had arrived and she was quite cute and spunky. We headed back after spending some time listening to singing at the "Bardic Circle". More time around the campfire and I crashed with Chrissy who offered me a spot in her tent. Nothing funny happened, and I think people were feeling a bit sorry for me that I had my tiny, cold and wet tent to sleep in.
Monday - Monday was the last full day of Festival for us, so after the usual long breakfast we headed down to the Fighter Auction Tourney. One fighter went for about $350 dollars and though I only stayed to watch the DX fighters, it was interesting to see the action from only a few meters away. The fighters were a mix of experienced and new, sword and shield and other combinations and more tabards then you could poke a stick at. I went to a collegia on Elizabethan hairstyles (interesting to some extent), napped in the afternoon, waited for dinner, spent time around the camp-fire and then exhausted I flopped into another tent which had been offered for sleep.
Tuesday - Tuesday was pack-up day and it was very busy. I started packing my crap up and was very frightened to find that a big spider had crawled into my sleeping tent! I was very, very glad that I accepted other people's offers to sleep in theirs since the idea of being alone in a cold, dewy tent with a large black spider was not comforting. I had a lot of trouble getting the tent pegs out, but eventually by about 10:30 am we were ready to go. We stopped in Goulburn on the way back for some fast food and got back to Canberra at about 2:15 pm. I was very tired but I forced myself to do laundry, get food in town and drop off the film, charge my mobile, shower, make a hair appointment and then after I thought I had most things in order finally crash. I slept for 12 hours straight.
Wednesday - I made it into the lab at about 8:30 am after waking up early to clean and put stuff away. At 10 am I met Peta G for coffee after she had called me and then at 11 am I had a hair appointment at Antics. I had an inch or two cut off to regain some shape and body and a nice shampoo and blow-dry to get rid of the smoky camp-fire smell. I also picked up the black and white film which I had shot at Festival, the turnaround time was quite amazing compared to the previous place I had been to for that. I got back to the lab and Red offered me a spare ticket to Graduation on Friday which I accepted. I worked up some reactions and then came home early.
Overall it was a nice weekend. I got called "Lord" a few times which was unpleasant, but I also got called "My Lady" so I suppose I have to take the good with the bad. My clothes are so plain that I can see how it might be hard to decide what I am, especially in the dark. Next year I'd love to have a nice boned bodice dress where my breasts are out and on display. ;) For once it was the large girls who were the sex symbols, as someone said "Large-breasted girls spend most of their life trying to hide their breasts. At SCA festivals it's the opposite".
I'm sure I'll remember more stuff that happened in the past week, but for the moment I'll post this so that people know I'm back.