Life, And Other Natural Disasters...

Remember the face in the crowd from last week?  It happened again today.  This time, I saw him heading through Sneinton Market.  I tried to follow, but he disappeared into the Victoria Swimming Baths.  Had I been taking the advice of The Eyebrows, I would have had my swimming kit with me.  However, I was feeling pretty crap from not sleeping properly and feeling a bit flu-y...

Had a surprise phone call from an old Sealed Knot bud, Mike...

So, this evening, I leave Dugway for what is possibly the last time.  Heading out to SLC; will probably spend tomorrow recovering from having slept on a floor, and going to see "The Wild".  Give me a wise-cracking, British, cross-dressing Koala and I'm interested.  Saturday is the Middle Eastern War out at Provo, then back to Salt Lake on Sunday, and a meet up with redbeardedblond.  Monday - the journey home with a stop over in Minneapolis to visit with perkk and gotmoof.  Then home, and reality.

For those who are interested, cellphone should be back online from 9pm Mountain Time.

...anyone going to be at Harvest War next weekend?

And so.  Here I am in Provo, UT, released footloose and fancy free.  Spent yesterday morning at coffee with various local SCA members, then a tour around the fleshpots of Provo.  0.5 seconds.  So we took a drive through Brigham Young University.  Why did my brain start thinking "Send In The Clones.."?  Honestly, it looks like a replication ground for Stepford Wives.  Lunch at a very good Chinese buffet, a little shopping then home again...  Throat is slowly going down, but still a little painful.  Still, no plans for much yet...

Went to visit Les and Gill who these days live in deepest, darkest Wiltshire. Thirteen years ago, we shared a house in Aylesbury, but we'd been friends for a few years before then - at the time, we were all members of "The Sealed Knot", an English Civil War re-enactment society.
Anyways, I was visiting them as there was a re-enactors fair taking place in Coventry, another 2 hours drive north that Gill and I wanted to go to - Gill because she had some stuff to buy; me because I wanted to touch base with people I hadn't seen in a while. Of course, while I was in there, I had to text Russ (rock_bear) that I was in a room full of hairy men. "Flirt hard" came the reply from Nottingham. At the end of the day, I guess I really only had one major attempt at flirting; someone I'd been aware of in the past, a guy called Dev, a musketeer in one of the Scottish regiments, who looks uncannily like a very blond version of Russ. Anyway, I bumped into a few people from the past, including Alan the Gribbley who is greyer and furrier than ever.
Back to deepest, darkest Wiltshire for dinner with some friends of Les and Gill, a couple of whom I knew from when I was in the Knot. Anyway, Les and one of the others proceeded to get rip-roaring drunk on red wine and port, while the rest of us watched on. The ubiquitous photo album from the past was produced and I was faced with pictures of myself from fourteen years ago and thinking "My god, I was skinny!!!" I've never been a great drinker and I sure as hell don't indulge in that macho "I can sink more than you" bullshit. Needless to say, there were a few sore heads the next day...!
Pottered around Sunday morning , then off to the pub for Sunday Lunch. It all seemed to pass too quickly and there was much catching up to do. Although I have a feeling that Les has difficulty with the happenings in my sexual liberation...!!! But when I walked through their front door on Friday night, it was as if very little time had passed by. And yet so much has changed...

Spent the weekend up in Nottingham with Russ; mainly because I needed to be kept reasonably sane with what's happening today (more of which later). So, I arrived Friday afternoon, and after dinner, we went to the Trip To Jerusalem, and met up with diverse people, including a re-enactor who was down from Tyneside for the Robin Hood Festival that weekend. Of which Russ was unaware - mind you, the city council is apparently notorious for not publicising stuff. Headed off afterwards to Spider's, a local rock club for much drooling over eye-candy (especially Joe the DJ of whom physically I have been compared... one girl asked at one point if Russ and I were Joe's Brothers - I just told her I was his stunt double...!)

Anyway, Saturday, we went to a flea market, and I found another old toy koala, which ended up being hauled around the city in my inside pocket. Wandered around the Robin Hood Festival; both of us bumping into diverse people we know from our respective re-enactment circles... Got back to the flat and prepared dinner; the sausage casserole worked perfectly, alas the same could not be said of my lemon batter pudding. Oh well, never mind... we had ice cream instead.

Sunday - took a wander around the Arboretum and Cemetary. Russ had got a new digital camera and wanted to try it out. The picture taken when he caught me in the shower will not be published though...

And so onto today. This morning, I am sh*t scared. I have my driving test at 10:45. I know damn well I can drive. I know damn well I'm being irrational, but that doesn't seem to be helping at the moment. I really cannot wait for it to be over.

Ick.