Tuesday 22 October 2013

Tuning Up for Spring (Caer Draeth Spring Tune Up and Commissariat Fundraiser, 2002)

Thorfinna gra’feldr
           
I awoke the morning of Spring Tune Up very groggy, and very tired. I had no energy to jump up and get ready. Needless to say, we did not get away on time. This however was not a bad thing, as not too much was happening when we did arrive. The site was great, there was a ton of room inside for merchants and classes and tables to game at and drink at, and a huge field outside for the equestrian stuff, and another for fighting. What wasn’t so great was that the site fee, advertised as $1 off with membership, was not being honored. I don’t care about paying the extra buck, what bothered me was that it was advertised on the website but they knew nothing about it at Troll.
Anyway, no one from the Games Guild was there yet, and though we’d promised to do the early shift at the table, Colyne and I had spent the week desperately getting our wardoors ready so we could get some instruction time in with them. So we asked Eirik to sit in at the Games Guild table for a while so that we could suit up.
            Things didn’t go that great after that. First off, it was freezing! The wind! The wind! That damnable wind! Secondly, the only thing our wardoors were used for were windbreaks!! We stood around in armour forever before any of the classes got going, and the only two that really did seem to start were Master Worgen’s alternative weapons class, and some spear training. No one wanted to teach us wardoors. Those that were asked, laughed. So that was disappointing. Then, Colyne had to go inside because the cold was doing terrible things to his tendonitis. He couldn’t even hold his sword. So the day of fighting was shot for him.
Kenric introduced me to his squire brother Benedict and we had a short bout which I enjoyed a lot, however, my leg armour was acting up again, and I got some serious armour bites from them, so that was a downer.
            After that, I decided to go in and do my time at the Games Guild table. Except when I got in, no one was playing games and none of us really seemed eager to push them on the crowd. A few games were played eventually, mostly among the ‘Creaggers present, but when we finally got a good game of Glic going, we had to move so they could set up feast! Oh well.
Most disappointing was that Master Hector was teaching two classes that I would have loved to have taken, but I missed them while I was standing around hoping to fight and freezing my patootie off. Not only that, I missed the whole Iron Chef competition! Apparently the secret ingredient was Waterloo Dark!! How SCA. Alyce beat out Naga by a mere three points. All in all, they said it went well, and we can look forward to other challenges in the future.
            I did see a friend from Skeldergate, Len, authorize but didn’t get a chance to actually congratulate him. And our own Wulfgang made his first authorization attempt after sparring with His Highness, who told him he was ready. He was good, his only problem was the low knee shots he gave, common enough with new fighters. (Like I’m a big bad fighter who knows what I’m talking about or something, sheesh.) Anyway, Wulfie knows exactly what to work on and I’m sure he’ll breeze through next time! Way to go Wulfgang!
There was a ton of money raised for the Commissariat, about $1000, which is pretty amazing. They had an auction pretty much like our penny raffle at Snowed Inn, and lots of donation jars all over for classes and such. And the Iron Chef competition alone raised over $400! Truly outstanding.
Feast wasn’t bad. There was duck and cheesy bread and venison and sherbet. I was definitely full afterwards. My main complaint about the whole experience is that people started smoking in the room, which was pretty small and enclosed, and it was murder on my allergies. I was already sniffly from our recent heat wave (everything bloomed at once!) and the smoke just about did me in. Four days later and I’m still recovering.

             All in all, it was a pretty laid back event, from my perspective. There were lots of things going on, most of which I missed out on. Next year, hopefully I’ll get a chance to have more fighting lessons, and take some classes too. And lets remember to sacrifice a goat or something to the Weather Gnome so its not so bleepin’ cold!!

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