04:23 pm: 7th Sea
Just back from a fab long weekend of 7th Sea with friends Jason, Richard, Jo and god daughter Hermione who I met for the first time on Thursday night. She is about 10 weeks old and very cute!
I caught the train down to Bristol on Thursday after work and Richard picked me up and took me back to there home. Jason was already there and we planned and caught up.
Friday morning we set off for the event site (St Michaels School, Tawstock, Devon) just before 9am and with a stop for elevensies we were there by 1pm, dropped off enough stuff to make some room in the cars (which were packed to the gunnels) and zoomed off again, Jason and I to shop for food and Jo, Richard and Hermone to pick up some extra props.
Back at the school again about 4pm but there were still a lot of children around so we couldn't do much in the way of setting up until they had all gone (about 5.30 pm). The first half of the evening I helped with a bit of set up and then retreated to our crew quarters, which are actually the staffrooms (2 connecting rooms) which now have a private loo in a converted walk in cupboard, and a corner with a kitchen sink, birco, fridge and a dining table and 4 chairs as well as 3 sofa's and 2 arm chairs! I made myself comfy on a sofa and baby sat Hermione and read my book until about midnight when Jo came up and then we chatted for a while before we both turned in about 1.30am.
In the morning I managed to get cooked breakfast for 50 ready on time and then did a little prep before getting a lift off one of the crew members (in his 30 year old brown Triumph Spitfire) to get a few little bits that I had forgotten the day before. Lunch was the usual bread, cold meat, cheese etc affair and then I started on the main work of the weekend, dinner.
Beef stew and dumplings so lots of peeling and chopping of veg and meat, and rhubarb (from Richard and Jo's garden) crumble. I had everything under control and managed to get an hour break and finish my book before the last 2 hours of actual cooking. I had a helper for the last hour as one of the players kindly came to give me a hand. I got him chopping corgettes and then making chocolate sponge for those who didn't like rhubarb crumble. It all went smoothly and tasted great but in hind-sight I should have made a bit more stew and more or bigger dumplings.
I got to bed a bit earlier but my mind was racing so I didn't fall asleep for a little while.
Sunday morning breakfast went more smoothly than the day before and I managed to use less cooking trays which really pleased the two crew who very kindly did a lot of the washing up.
Clearing the site took longer than I expected and it became clear that getting a train home would not really be practical so I sent a text to my boss asking if I could take Monday off. No reply. We stopped for carvery on the way home and finally made it to Colne about 9pm. When we got back to Richard and Jo's I emailed my boss in the admin section, my boss in the Environmental Protection team and my colleague Beverley. We stayed up until midnight discussing the event, what went right, what went wrong and what to do next time.... We also had pink champaigne to celebrate the fact that 2 of Hermione's 3 God parents were present.
Again it took me a while to get to sleep, thinking everything over and hoping that I wouldn't be in trouble at work.
In for morning I woke about 8:30 and at 9 I called my boss's number to check and see if she had got my message. It turns out she is off today and I discovered that I had sent my texts to the land line not my boss's mobile, Doh! I was tired. Still I left a message and then sent a text to Ed asking if he could pick me up on his way home from London. He spent the weekend with SCA friends in London taking part in a demo on Sat and then going to the American Football at Wembley on Sunday.
Back at home we have now seen both cats and I have checked my email. Nothing from either boss but Bev emailed me back:)
Now for a restful evening (we hope).
Current Mood: 
sleepy