London Continued, Day 6 (19 Aug)

Got up with James for breakfast at 04:00. Yes, 04:00. Saw him off, and then crawled back into bed till 08:00. By 08:00 they've expanded the hot breakfast selection from toast to scrambled eggs, baked beans, and sausage that must have barely made 40% meat. I have forgotten how good baked beans are for breakfast.

Sorted some print outs, had a last cup of "free" hot chocolate, and caught the shuttle to Stansted airport. There I bought myself a couch ticket to Liverpool Street. Quite a nice view of the gherkin from there.



As luck would have it when I've got 4 500ml bottles of leftover beer in my luggage, the bus I wanted wasn't running. So it's only after a variety of tube trips, a bus, and a walk, that I found myself outside the London Eye Hostel.



Couldn't check in yet, but could abandon the heavy bag in the luggage locker. Then picked up lunch as I made my way to Trafalgar Square and St. Martin-in-the-field where I was due to meet Sasha.



After meeting up, I settled in with my selected brass that I wanted a rubbing of, while Sasha took a wander over to that den of geekiness known as Forbidden Planet.



Took a bit of concentration, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and after about 2 and a half hours, Elizabeth Bellingham was complete! I must admit to being quite chuffed with her.



Sasha had joined me again by then, and we did a slow turn on Trafalgar Square. It tends to be a mass of people, but I got a better look at some portions this time round.





Also spotted one of the biggest dogs, never mind Great Dane, that I ever saw!



I then found out that Sasha didn't know what Hamley's, so I dragged her off that way. They still have some of the best soft toys I've ever seen.









Then back to the hostel to cook dinner...

Damit

I just realised 19 August's post never posted. It's disappeared into the digital ether. Will see what I can do about reconstructing it. Groan.

Fightcamp Day 3 (18Aug)

Not that much to tell on the whole. Up late due to the late night, and VERY slow to get going. The air mattress had finally given out on us, so we had spread our gambasons under us for insulation. British soil os very comfortable to sleep on compared to the hard dry South African ground, but with all the damp, the insulation from cold ground becomes rather important.
I seem to have gotten off lightly, but James had some lovely bruises come up, including some on the one knee that had him groaning as he crawled in and out of the tent.



Leisurely breakfast, and I then started sorting and packing up. James then sadly had to withdraw us from the mixed weapons Eggalton Cup becase we realised that we had to get away earlier.

James gave a last class, while I sat and visited with Feya, lunched, packed, and then said some sad good-byes. Then the trip through to Aylesbury, to Matte and Suzy's, to drop all the camping gear they'd so kindly lent us. What's especially great was being able to leave the sword kit with them.

Found the Holiday Inn Express without incident and checked in. We were falling over by 19:00 already, so were in bed early.

By The Way

Thanks for all the warm congratulations James and I received yesterday for our anniversary. And thanks to my readers who have dropped me emails and comments (finally figured out how to access those), it's always much appreciated.

Fightcamp Day 2, part 2

So I did fairly crap in the backsword. After all the build up I managed to practically give away three clean hits, through a combination of lack timing, and messing up the distance.
At least James did quite well, going through to round 2 where he had a fascinating match with Sophie. Really good technical stuff, and James just lost by a hair. However, since they were a person short, James got a chance at the 3rd round being the "loser" with the best score. Think he had managed to use up lots of focus and energy in that second match, because he didn't do quite so well, and lost. :-(



This were running a bit late by this point, so the rapier tournament started late. I managed to deliver a better performance and got a win in the first round, in what was a nice close fight.

Managed to get drawn against Pim for round 2 - for the uninitiated, the reigning champ of a number of international rapier tournaments. Went in with the aim of landing at least one clean hit on him, and was pretty pleased to achieve it! Not 100% sure, but I think I might have been the only person to do so.

On the whole I was very happy with the spirit of the tournament. There was more technical work, and with the knock out format, less suicide attacks. Double hits were strongly discouraged with threats of elimination, and in the higher rounds, push-ups!

By the way, doesn't the scoring software make us look pro?



Tired now, but happy. Good fight, food, and good beer. Sleepy enough that even a problematic air mattress isn't going to stop me from being asleep soon!

Fightcamp Day 2, part 1

Went off to Birmingham this morning to exchange Euros, and pick up some light rain jackets. Beem fairly calm, James took part in Renier's klewang class. I currently sitting here half kitted up for the backsword tourmament in 45 minutes, and seriously feeling the nerves...

Wedding Anniversary

Managed to completely forgot to mention in that last post that James and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday! Might not be a very conventional way to do it, but I suppose it's very "us". Oh, and James bought me some cool fencing gloves.